Welcome Church‘s very own George Varney has deservingly won a fantastic award, and we could not be prouder of him.
The award has been given by Christian Nightlife Initiatives Network (CNI), who are an umbrella organisation for around 130 local projects working predominantly to serve people within the night-time economy, and this include Woking Street Angels.
Because of George’s outstanding work as a Street Angel, where he is both a trustee and team leader, along with his most recent venture, The Useful Wood Company, George has been chosen as a community hero by CNI.
This is a Nation Wide Contest so George has done really well. You can read all about his award by clicking here – you may spot a few other familiar faces in the photos too.
Alice Potter, a Trustee from Woking Street Angels said,
“George has always been the person to step in the gap when we have had holes in our Duty Rota. He would be out until 4am in the morning and still turn up for an early start at church a few hours later. He has always gone the extra mile. He stands out in our Team and I am proud that he is part of our Church.”
Serving the poor and those in need is a key aspect of the Christian faith in action, so it is also central to us as a church. You can see lots more of what we do in these areas by checking out our Welcome Works initiative.
The aim is to travel 24,901 miles (the circumference of the globe) in 6-weeks, and we’re AHEAD OF SCHEDULE – 13,704 miles travelled in the first 3 weeks! We’ve now reached Magadan on the eastern border of Russia.
Check out our update video here with Ellianora from Magadan giving us a personal encouragement:
We’re aiming to raise £1 per mile, a total of £24,901 for Your Sanctuary. We’ve reached over £8,000 so far, which is amazing, but would love to see this figure grow and grow so we can raise as much as possible to support the work Your Sanctuary are doing in supporting survivors of domestic abuse.
So … we would love you to Become a Team Member & ask friends & family to personally sponsor you!
When you join the team, you can share a direct link for people to click on and invite friends, family and colleagues to personally sponsor you!
If 100 of us were team members and each raised £100, we could add £10,000 to our fundraising this week!
If 100 of us raised £200 each, we would add £20,000 and beat our target!
So, please do join the team and then invite others to sponsor you.
One more thing:
“SPONSOR DUB’S HAIR BEING CUT BY A 7-YEAR-OLD FOR YOUR SANCTUARY!”
Mike Reid & Eugene Engelbrecht (two of elders here at Welcome Church) have both offered to give £100 to our Your Sanctuary appeal if Dub allows his 7-year-old Will to cut his hair! Others have quickly joined in and pledges have already reached £500!
Our Fund Raiser is off to a good start with around £1,500 being raised already and a distance of over 1000 miles being covered so far (which takes us across Holland and Germany and to the far side of Poland …)
We will post distance updates and photos on our Welcome Church social media accounts each weekend, so do look out for those.
You can check out the details of our ambitious plan by clicking here or reading this recent blog. People have been joining in by running, walking, cycling, scooting and even roller skating. However you get about, as long as it’s under your own steam, you’re welcome to join in.
We’ve started a Strava Club too – (“Welcome Church Goes Around The World”). You’re welcome to join that and help us rack up the miles. Why not see if you can top the leader board?
However long or short your daily exercise, every distance counts. We want everyone to join in, whatever their age or fitness level. Don’t forget to submit your distances by emailing them to aroundtheworld@allwelcome.uk. We don’t mind if it’s in miles, kilometres, yards, centimetres, cubits, stadia, furlongs, fathoms or leagues – we will convert it and add it all up.
Let’s have fun doing this together and let’s give generously to make a real difference. This fun video will tell you more:
At Welcome Church, we love people and want to respond to Jesus’ call to support and help others, even at this difficult time.
During the Coronavirus Lockdown, incidences of Domestic Violence have risen.At the same time charitable giving has fallen. Domestic violence destroys lives and families, and we want to do something to make a difference, so we are going to raise money for Your Sanctuary, a Woking based charity who help victims of domestic violence and their families. It’s a real privilege to get alongside them and raise money for the amazing work they do.
We have an ambitious plan
Let’s use our daily exercise over the next the next 6 weeks to see if we can go far enough to have circled the globe together – a distance of 24, 901 miles – and let’s do it to raise £24,901 for this amazing cause.
We want everyone who is part of Welcome Church to join together to do two things:
First, let’s measure and log our dailyexercise distance each day
Walking, running, cycling, roller skating, scooting or an exercise machine – however you do it – measure your distance each day and maybe take a picture of yourself doing it. Add up every member of your household, and then send it in each day, with any pictures you may have, to aroundtheworld@allwelcome.uk
This data will get added together, and over 6 weeks we’re aiming to cover a distance that would have taken us right around the world. Everyone’s exercise counts, from the youngest to the oldest, from the longest to the shortest distance. This is a team effort where our church community, together within anyone else who wants to get involved, can combine together to complete this challenge.
Second, let’s invite the people we know to sponsor us as a church for doing it, to raise money for Your Sanctuary:
Let’s get as many people as possible to support us with this, giving anything from £1 upwards. Any amount, however small or large, will be appreciated.
People can be invited to give through our Go Fund me page, and don’t forget to share it to social media as well. Invite your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to sponsor us all, and let’s raise some money!
In the weeks ahead people will be able to follow our progress around the globe and see updates and photos of people completing their daily exercise on our Facebook Page or Instagram
A target to go for
We’ve set a target to raise £24,901. This amounts to £1 per mile and, although we are not asking people to sponsor us ‘per mile’, it’s great to have something to aim for … and let’s all give generously ourselves too.
Whether we achieve the financial target or not, any amount raised will be amazing, and we can have some fun doing it
I am delighted to announce that the building work at Welcome Church is now complete, bringing to an end an important chapter in our church’s history and opening up a whole new one. I’m looking forward to the time when Lockdown measures are over and we’re able to start using it properly.
We had expected the current crisis to delay completion, but government guidance permits building work to continue as long as appropriate hygiene and social distancing measures are in place, and our contractor made the call to continue. They were inspected regularly along the way by Woking Borough Council for compliance.
Yesterday I had to go over to the building to collect the keys. Sadly we were unable to have a proper ‘handover ceremony’ because of the times we are in, but I was handed the keys by Simon Powell, contracts manager for O&D Construction, on the end of a 2m pole!
The new offices are looking good, as is the whole site, and hopefully these pictures give an idea of the finished result. Let’s pray it’s not too long before we all get to see it in real life and enjoy meeting together in person.
If you’ve never visited us at Welcome Church, we’d love to see you when we’re open again. In the meantime, you can join us each Sunday online for our meetings at 9am, 11am and 6pm.
There are of course some small jobs outstanding on the building which social distancing or availability of raw materials at this time have made impossible, and there will undoubtedly be snagging issues to resolve once we get in; we will deal with these along the way.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this project. Please let me encourage you, as far as you are able (and I recognise that some are facing huge challenges right now) to keep giving generously so that we can meet our monthly mortgage payments, and perhaps clear the mortgage altogether.
God has given us this building for a reason and we have not been called to stand still. We are here to be a blessing to our town and further afield, and we have a big vision that we want to fulfil. I can’t wait to be back in our building again and I look forward to seeing you there!
This Sunday morning, 1st March, we are honoured to have an excellent and much sought after guest speaker at Welcome Church for our 9am and 11am meetings: DrJohn Kirkby, the founder of CAP (Christians Against Poverty).
Everyone is welcome to join us for this special occasion.
About CAP
John started Christians Against Poverty in 1996, when God called him to sacrifice his career in finance and use his knowledge of the industry to help the poor. Since then John has seen CAP develop into an organisation serving tens of thousands of individuals every year, helping those struggling with debt, unemployment and life controlling habits, and equipping people to live well on a low income.
CAP has now helped thousands of people all across the UK to get out of life destroying debt. Our own CAP debt advice centre, which is one of our Welcome Works initiatives, opened in 2019, and is already making a difference to people’s lives. This adds to the work already being done with CAP in Woking by our friends at Christ Church and New Life Church too. You can see the full range of CAP services on offer at Welcome Church by clicking here.
CAP was featured last year in a BBC Two documentary The Debt Saviours, which followed the lives of some CAP clients and frontline workers in the middle of the current UK poverty epidemic. It showed how CAP is committed to transforming lives in partnership with local churches across the UK. CAP has also won many different awards, and John Kirkby himself recently received a CBE. CAP is also recommended by Martin Lewis, Founder and Chair of Money Saving Expert.
Come and join us for the morning
If you would like to hear John, please join us for either our 9am or 11am meeting. There will be great coffee, and tasty pastries and doughnuts available before and after each meeting – all free of charge. As for all our Sunday meetings there will also be kids and youth work taking place.
It’s an absolute privilege to have John with us, so make sure not to miss it.
On Sunday (19th Jan 2020) Welcome Church marked the official launch of our brand new building in the heart of Woking. We were delighted to see so many people there to celebrate with us.
Just over 1,200 people attended across the two meetings, and this represents a new ‘high water mark’ for the church. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who was there including friends old and new and, whether you were there or not, everyone is warmly invited to come and join us next Sunday at 9am or 11am.
So much to pack in
It was a fast paced morning:
Our worship team kicked us off in brilliant style with some vibrant worship
We then remembered some of our 140 year history of buildings, looking back at our journey so far and forward to our future vision
We heard from Paul Ginever, the architect who designed the new building
The Mayor of Woking, Councillor Beryl Hunwicks, spoke about the importance of community and working together
At the 11am meeting Jonathan Lord MP, Member of Parliament for Woking, was present to share some very kind words of encouragement
Then Steve Blow, the Finance Director for Compassion UK, presented Welcome Church with a display board to mark the support given to mothers and babies in Togo through our partnership with them
This week also marked the start of our six week ‘Welcome Stories’ series. Many of us were deeply moved watching Mike’s Story, which showed the difference that Jesus has made to his life, helping him to get free from depression and more. You can watch his powerful story here:
This video should play, but if not please click here to view it via our church website
Towards the end of the meeting I talked about a question, the answer to which profoundly shapes our lives and daily actions:
“What do you think God is like?”
This talk was based on Jesus’ story of The Prodigal Son, and you can hear it by clicking here. For me, it was a morning to remember.
Please come again
I want to invite everyone who reads this to come and join us at Welcome Church over the next five weeks. We will be continuing our Welcome Stories series, and there will be another powerful Welcome Story video each Sunday.
Consider some fascinating facts about how, on average, we spend our lives…
We sleep for over 20 years of our lives
We watch TV for over 10 years of our lives
We spend 5 years 9 months in some form of transportation
We spend 7 ½ years eating and drinking
Why not spend 7 ½ hours over these next five weeks joining us for this Welcome Stories series? It will be a great way to brighten up these gloomy January and February Sunday mornings!
Finally, here are some photos from Sunday morning to enjoy:
This Sunday is the launch of our new Welcome Church building, and what an exciting day it will be. We’ve had a couple of practice runs over the last two Sundays, and I’m anticipating a great weekend.
Let me say up front, if you are reading this blog and you don’t usually come to Welcome Church, please do join us on Sunday at 9am or 11am. There will be free coffee and pastries and we promise a warm welcome for all. Just come as you are; everyone is welcome.
If you need somewhere to park then please head to Philips Court where we have free parking spaces available. The entrance to Philips Court is to the left of the Fire Station on Goldsworth Road (Postcode: GU21 6LE). Stewards will cheerfully direct you on arrival.
Here is a short video with all the details, please do give it a watch:
The video should be visible above, if it’s not then please click here to view it.
Ahead of Sunday, here are a few pointers and encouragements from me …
Let’s look out for every guest:
It can be nerve racking for anyone turning up at church for the first time, so let’s help everyone feel welcome. There will great coffee and warm pastries available before and after both meetings – let’s make sure that guests get to them first, or that we offer to bring something over for them. Some guests may be looking for the children’s work or the toilets – let’s be ready to show them the way. Perhaps you might offer to sit with someone who looks new.
In addition to those you will be bringing yourself, we have a number of ‘VIP’ guests coming including Borough Councillors, the Mayor, our Local MP, the architect, some of the building Contractors, local media and more. Please do speak to them and please help to make everyone feel at home.
Let’s invite people:
Dub wrote about how to do that on this blog last week. You can read that here. Remember, people are very interested in the new building and want to see it. Many will come along if asked. Let’s go for it in faith.
Let’s fill up from the front and fill up the rows:
We have a lovely big building and it’s going to be fairly full on Sunday. One way to serve people well is to fill up from the front and to fill up the rows, not leaving big gaps. It’s a simple thing that we can all do to show love for others.
Let’s pray:
Whilst the building is beautiful and (in my opinion) impressive, we really want people to be impressed with Jesus. Let’s be praying through this week for God’s presence in everything and his protection over everything.
One more thing: another word about parking
As there will be many guests this week, if you belong to Welcome Church and are not bringing or arriving with a guest then perhaps for this one week, if you are physically able, you might consider parking in Victoria Way Car Park and walking across. We can validate your ticket so you get free parking. This will leave the nearby spaces free for our guests.
If you are serving at both meetings then please do park at Pulse on Cherry Street (GU21 6EE) as usual.
We had our first Sunday meetings in our new Welcome Church building in the heart of Woking this week, and what a great day it was!
Around 750 people attended across the two morning meetings, and some of the highlights for me included:
The sense of joy and excitement after so long waiting for a new building
Seeing so many people from our church gathered across the two meetings
The excellent coffee and refreshments (thank you Marcus, Sharon and team)
The top notch parking arrangements that came together and worked so well (thank you Richard and team)
Embarrassing the awesome Mike Deavin by getting him to sit on the stage in an armchair with a blanket whilst I preached (thank you Mike)
The amazing worship times … our musicians and sound team were absolutely ON IT! (Thank you team)
I also enjoyed gathering in the evening to pray around the whole site.
An extra special thank you goes to Charles C for the huge amount of time he put in to make sure that everything worked in terms of sound, lights and visuals.
Next Sunday we will back again at 9am and 11am
You will see some changes to the building that have taken place this week as the builders have continued towards finishing the job.
And in terms of parking please do head to Philips Court again (left hand side of the Fire Station) and you will be directed from there.
Here are a few photos from the day for you to enjoy in case you missed them:
As we launch these stories week by week we want to encourage people to share them to their friends via social media. Liking them is kind of you, but sharing them is actually useful for the gospel!
Please don’t use religious language when you share them, but do perhaps use the hashtag #WelcomeStories.
You can share them on Facebook and Instagram easily by sharing the posts we’ve already made on our Welcome Church pages. You can also share them from You Tube or from the Welcome Stories website onto Twitter and other media.
Why do it?
These videos are about helping people connect to Jesus … and that is already happening. We are already seeing fruit from these stories.
So far over 28,000 people have viewed one of our Welcome Stories. Just imagine the impact we could have in Woking if everyone in our church shared these?
And of course, this is all part of the run up to the launch of our new building on January 19th. It’s part of the invitation process. We will even kick off our new year with a preaching series called “Welcome Stories”.
So let’s get sharing, let’s get praying, and let’s expect God to do big things!
I’ve put a link to one of the stories here – Enjoy!
The video should be visible above, if it’s not then please click here to view it.
Because of George’s outstanding work as a Street Angel, where he is both a trustee and team leader, along with his most recent venture, The Useful Wood Company, George has been chosen as a community hero by CNI.
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