A Carol Service For Woking

Welcome Church Carol Services — A Truly Historic Sunday

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

What a Sunday! What a celebration! What a moment in the life of our church!

I hope you loved the Carol Services as much as I did. It was an unforgettable day, filled with joy, worship, generosity, and the unmistakable sense that God was at work among us.

Our best estimate is that 2,762 people joined us across both the adult Carol Services and the children’s Christmas parties that ran alongside them. That makes this the largest single Sunday in Welcome Church’s 146-year history — something truly worth celebrating and thanking God for.

The 11am, 4:30pm, and 7pm services were completely full, with only the 2pm service having any remaining space. We’re already praying, dreaming, and planning about how we can increase our capacity for next year 🙂

Thank You

Moments like this don’t happen by accident — they happen because of people.

A huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who served so generously to make the day possible: the band and singers, meeting hosts, readers, production team, brew crew, welcome team, busking band, caterers, kids teams, tots teams, decorations teams, set-up and clear-up teams, car park team, and everyone involved in planning and preparing.

There are so many moving parts to an event like this, and while listing roles always risks missing someone, please know this: if you served in any way, your contribution mattered, and we are deeply grateful. Thank you for giving your time, energy, and hearts so freely.

Well done, church!

We are especially proud of how our church family stepped out boldly to invite others. So many friends, neighbours, colleagues, and family members joined us — and we were also honoured to welcome special guests including the Mayor of Woking, several local councillors, and representatives from organisations we are privileged to partner with.

This is what church looks like: open doors, open hearts, and a shared desire to help people encounter the hope of Jesus. I’m especially proud of the way our church stepped out en masse to invite so many people to join us this year. In addition to the many friends, neighbours, colleagues and family members who attended, our special guests also included the Mayor of Woking and several local councillors, along with other guests from some of the various organisations who we partner with.

IIf you missed the Carol Services, you can catch up by clicking this link here, and don’t forget to join us on Christmas Day at 10am for Welcome Church Online too.

Below are a few photos capturing some of the joy and fun from the weekend — a small glimpse of a very big day:

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Christmas At Welcome Church

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

Christmas is just over a month away now, and bookings for our “Carol Service For Woking” opened last Sunday morning. The tickets (which are free!) are going very fast— even faster than last year—so please don’t leave it too long to book, or you may miss out on your first choice of when to attend.

Here’s a summary of our plans as a church over Christmas and New Year 2025/26:

Sundays 23rd & 30th November and 7th December: Our Christmas Preaching Series

Our Christmas Preaching Series starts this Sunday at our 9am and 11am meetings. I’ll be kicking the series off myself. I won’t be giving any spoilers here, but we’re going to have some fun together, so make sure you don’t miss what will be this year’s number-one series!

Sunday 14th December: A Carol Service For Woking

We’re holding four services across the day at 11am, 2pm, 4.30pm, and 7pm. Come and enjoy singing your favourite carols, followed by free mulled wine and mince pies.

Children up to school year 4 are invited to join our free Kids’ Christmas Parties, which will run alongside the 11am, 2pm, and 4.30pm services.

Booking is essential for all adults’ and children’s tickets, and be warned that we are likely to be sold out again this year. Don’t delay— – Click here to book

Remember: this is a great opportunity to invite your friends, family, neighbours, and colleagues—there is no easier invitation to church than to our Carol Services.

Sunday 21st December: An All Age Christmas Celebration

We’ll be meeting at 9am and 11am for an all-age celebration of Christmas. Instead of our usual Welcome Kids and Welcome Youth groups, we’ll all be meeting together for a whole lot of noisy fun and games as we celebrate Christmas as a church family and worship Jesus together.

Each meeting will be roughly one hour long, and we’ll start and finish with refreshments as usual.

Thursday 25th December: Christmas Day Online

This year, to make sure there’s room for everyone who wants to attend, we’ll be taking Christmas Day online. (Don’t forget, the 21st December is our in person all age celebration)

Join us on Christmas Day at 10am, at WelcomeChurch.Online, for a short time together with Christmas carols and an accessible Christmas message. It will be a great way to mark Jesus’ birthday together as a church, and we’ll all be able to join in and connect via the online chat feature.

Sunday 28th December: No Meeting!

There is no meeting planned for Sunday 28th December, but instead…

Wednesday 31st December: Crossover ’26

After an amazing Crossover Night from 2024 into 2025, we are coming together again on 31st December to celebrate all that God has done and all He’s going to do in 2026.

Join us as we celebrate God’s faithfulness over the last year and ask for God’s favour as we Crossover into 2026! Together we will praise, pray, and party! It’s a lot of fun—so don’t miss it.

We’ll be joined by a brilliant guest speaker this year, Pastor Chris Kimbangi from Hope Church, Guildford. (I knew him back when he was just a student in Chichester…)

This event is likely to fill up fast, so please book your FREE ticket to reserve your place, and let’s welcome in the New Year in faith and in style! Click here to book

Anything Else?

A few other things you may want to be aware of:

  • The church offices will be closed from Wednesday 24th December through to Thursday 1st January
  • Welcome Youth have their final meeting before Christmas on Friday 12th December, returning on Friday 16th January
  • Our Welcome Tots groups finish on Wednesday 10th and Friday 12th December, returning on 7th and 9th January respectively
  • Welcome Café will open for the last time this year on Monday 15th December, returning on Monday 5th January
  • Our Sunday meetings will return to their usual pattern from Sunday 4th January, and we have a great new series lined up for the New Year too
  • 21 Days of Prayer kicks off on Monday 5th January—more details will follow in a separate blog nearer the time

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Carol Services and Christmas Plans

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

I hope you enjoyed our Carol Services as much as I did. I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped them go so well!

Here are a few pics to give a feel for what went on:

The following is just a sample of all that I’m grateful for:

  • Both buildings were beautifully decorated inside and out
  • The ‘busking’ band who entertained us outside as we arrived did an awesome job
  • The Welcome Team were on the ball and looked after everyone well
  • Our worship band sounded the best I’ve ever heard them – they were SERIOUSLY good
  • We had a great range of people involved with the Bible readings, including a reading in BSL (British Sign Language) at each service. Each service also had live BSL signing that was appreciated by the deaf community
  • The sound and lighting team were in great form and served us superbly with sound, videos, visuals and a surprise ‘firework’ display for the finale
  • The Brew Crew delivered top notch refreshments flawlessly, on time, every time
  • The Welcome Kids and Tots teams went above and beyond the call of duty and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves
  • We were able to raise money for a local charity, Your Sanctuary, who work with victims of domestic violence ( I haven’t heard a total yet, but it’s not too late for you to give to that offering)
  • As a church, between us we invited hundreds of friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to attend

Roughly 2000 people attended in total, adding together the three services and the children’s parties. The Mayor of Woking joined us at 2pm, and we had the Leader or the Council with us at 4.30pm. Those who are especially eagle eyed may have spotted our local MP in attendance too. In addition to these we were joined by representatives of the York Road Project (a local homelessness charity), Woking Borough Council Family Services and the CEO of Your Sanctuary. It really was A CAROL SERVICE FOR WOKING.

If you missed the services or you just want to experience it again, you can follow this link to watch what went on for yourself. I’m looking forward to next year already 🙂

Welcome Church Christmas Plans

Now that the Carol Services are done, I also want to let you know about our plans for the following Sundays, which are as follows:

Sunday 17th December: we will meet as normal at 9am and 11am. This will be the last week of our ‘Faithful’ preaching series. We will also take communion together

Sunday 24th December: we will meet at 9am and 11am for a short, all age, family service to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas together. Welcome Tots will be running as usual for the smallest children

Monday 25th December, Christmas Day: we will not be meeting on Christmas Day this year as we are focusing us on Sunday 24th instead (next year may be different)

Sunday 31st December: we will meet at 9am and 11am and will hear from people sharing testimonies of what God has done in their lives over the last year. Come expectant to be blessed and encouraged, and let’s also be ready to support and cheer people on

Sunday 7th January: we will meet at 9am and 11am and kick off our new year preaching series, ‘Reset Your Life’. This is a four week series to start the New Year, and we’re encouraging you to invite people along to hear it.

We will also kick off 2024 with a week of prayer, starting on Tuesday 2nd Jan. I’ll post details about that next week.

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So Many Reasons To Celebrate ðŸ™‚

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

We have a lot to be thankful to God for as a church right now! I want to highlight two things in particular: our Gift Days and our Carol Services.

1. Gift Days

Over three Sundays in November we held Gift Days towards buying Church Gate, the three storey building next door to us (click here for info).

Church Gate will be key to the work we want to do to serve the poor, including starting a community grocery to bridge the gap between the FoodBank and a supermarket for the most needy in our town. It will also provide extra space we need for our children’s work and youth work, which are both essential ingredients for our church’s future.

The owners of Church Gate agreed to sell it to us for £3m, which is a fair price. I’ve discussed the size of the financial challenge in a previous blog post (click here), but in summary we plan to buy Church Gate with a mixture of both cash and a mortgage. We needed to raise the first £1m as soon as possible – ideally in this first set of Gift Days.

It’s worth bearing in mind that we faced a BIG challenge going into these Gift Days:

  • We only had 5 weeks notice before the first Gift Sunday
  • The UK is in a cost of living crisis
  • Our town has been declared ‘bankrupt’ (section 114 notice)
  • We are in the run up to Christmas
  • As a church, we already gave sacrificially in 2019 to build our current building.

We knew we were up against a big challenge!

The result

After the three Sundays, adding together the money received, some outstanding pledges and the gift aid on that giving, together we have given just over …

… £1.25 million!

That’s an incredible result and one we should celebrate. We have so much to be thankful to God for in the way this has come together.

On behalf of the whole team I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s given sacrificially to make this happen. It’s a joy to be a part of such a generous church.

It’s still not too late to give to these Gift Days, remembering that it’s not the amount that matters, but the heart of worship it’s given with. If you want to do that you can visit our giving page by clicking here.

2. Carol Services

This Sunday, 10th December, we are holding our “Carol Service For Woking” at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm (NB: there are no morning meetings that day!)

More than 1900 people have now booked to attend on Sunday, and those numbers are growing every day. That figure doesn’t include the many people who are serving in various ways at each service and who don’t need a seat.

It’s still not too late to book a seat for yourself and your friends, and you can do that by using this link. Remember, this is the easiest church invitation you get to make all year; people love to come and sing Christmas carols.

Please do pray for this Sunday’s Carol Services. We want to see many people encounter Jesus and start their journey towards a relationship with Him. Your prayers really do matter!

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday but, if you’re ill or housebound, or you live too far away and just can’t make it to a service in person, the 7pm Carol Service will also be live streamed at welcomechurch.online. I hope you can join us.

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‘Carol Service For Woking’: An Update and Some Requests

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Our Welcome Church Carol Services are going to be fantastic. At the time of writing (Thursday am), a total of 1741 tickets have been booked across all three services. In addition to these bookings, many people will be serving in various ways. Of course, there’s still room for more people to book. We’re excited to announce that the Mayor of Woking, Councillor M Ilyas Raja, will be joining us for the 2pm service this year.

Each Carol Service will include Christmas Carols that everyone knows, sung to the tunes everyone knows, along with videos, readings and a short Christmas themed message. We will finish with free mulled wine, mince pies and other refreshments. Children’s parties will be taking place alongside the 2pm and 4.30pm services, so you and your friends can relax and enjoy the service.

Seven Simple Requests

We have some simples request to put in front of you all, so please have a read:

1. Please invite people

There are now just 10 days to go, so this is the perfect moment to invite friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to join you. There is no easier church invitation to make than to a Carol Service, so let’s go for it together. To book tickets for yourself or your guests please click on this link or on the picture below.

2. Please arrive on time

We will open the doors at least 20 minutes before each service starts, but it will take time to drop children off and get everyone seated. It would really help the services go well, if people could arrive in good time. We are able to provide free parking in the Town Centre ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ Car Parks as usual, using the car park machines in our Front Building, but please remember that car parks may be busier than normal due to Christmas shopping, especially at 2pm, so do allow a little extra time. There is no parking available in our own Car Park except for those with a blue badge who have pre-booked a disability parking space.

3. Please allow yourself to be seated

This one is really important. The Welcome Team will be showing people to their seats again this year, so please allow them to do that and please fill every seat. On a normal Sunday you may like to sit in a certain place, or to leave a gap between you and the next person, or to save a seat for your friend. Numbers at the Carol Services mean that none of these things are possible. Please allow the welcome team to show you to the next available seat(s). If you want to sit with someone specific, please arrive together. Please remember that the Welcome Team are all volunteers, so lets make their job easy for them this year …

4. If you can’t attend, please cancel your tickets

If you’ve booked to attend and can’t now make it, or you booked more tickets than you need, please amend or cancel your booking. This is especially true of the children’s parties, some of which are now completely full. If you know you can’t make it, please release your tickets so someone else can attend.

5. Please don’t come for a 9am or 11am meeting 🙂

It happens every year: precious, faithful people turn up in the morning for church as usual. Please remember that the Carol Services are the only meetings we are holding that day. Our normal 9am and 11am services are not happening on the 10th, although we will be there to set up and to rehearse. The Carol services are at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm.

6. Please attend one service and serve at another

We have three serving teams that could do with a little extra help this year:

  • Brew Crew
  • Welcome Team
  • Kids work (for those who have a current valid Welcome Church DBS check)

If you are able to help in any of these areas, please let us know. Ideally we would encourage people to attend one service, and to serve at another one.

Why not step up to help as part of the Brew Crew or the Welcome Team, even if it’s not something you normally do? If you have a current Welcome Church DBS, why not help with one of the kids parties? If you can help in these areas please contact the church office or let us know in person on Sunday morning.

Finally, and most importantly:

7. Please pray

Let’s pray for the Carol Services. We can all do that during the week ahead, but let’s also gather together to pray.

This Sunday, 3rd December, we will gather to pray for one hour from 7pm to 8pm at Welcome Church. The Carol Services are the greatest evangelistic moment of our year, and our biggest meetings by far. Let’s ask God to pour out His blessing on it all, and for many guests to start a journey towards seeing Life Transformed Through Jesus.

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