Church Gate Gift Day Results

July 18, 2024July 18, 2024 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

On Sunday we announced the results of our latest Gift Days for our Church Gate project. It was an incredible result, and in case you missed it here’s the figure as it stood on Sunday morning:

Since Sunday morning I believe it has gone up a little higher, but I’m still waiting for the full details on that.

Thanks

The main thing I want to do in this blog is say a very big THANK YOU, on behalf of the whole Eldership Team, to everyone who gave a gift, large or small. It was a joy to see people of all ages taking part, from across the many different nationalities that make up our church. I also loved seeing people who’ve been part of the church for many years joyfully giving alongside others who’ve only just joined us. Wow!

100% of the money given will go towards the purchase (now completed) and the delivery of Church Gate, and when we add this to the money raised during the Gift Days that we held in November, it means that what has been given and pledged now reaches our initial target: to raise £2m in 2 years – except we’ve done it in just 8 months 😮

Moving forward

On Sunday September 15th we will hold a Prayer and Vision evening to kick off the new term (details to follow). We’ll give a full update on that evening about where we’ve got to and how we plan to go forward. For now though, let’s give glory to God for all He’s done for us. It’s a joy to be part of such a generous church and to be on this great mission together.

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Church Gate: A Big Encouragement

July 4, 2024July 3, 2024 / Steve Petch / 1 Comment

The Sunday will be the second of two Gift Sundays towards our Church Gate building project. I wrote in a blog that I posted last week about our goal for all of us to participate; please do read it if you missed it. This week I want to share an encouragement:

Whilst preparing for last Sunday’s meetings I was searching for a certain document on my desktop. As I was searching I came across a forgotten document that I’d saved at some point in the past. It wasn’t what I was looking for and the title – ‘151017.doc’ – gave little away as to what it actually contained. I opened it to see what it was and it stopped me in my tracks.

The document contained the transcript of a prophetic word given to our church by Guy Miller (the leader of our Commission family of churches) on Sunday 15th October 2017, the day I was appointed as Lead Elder at Welcome Church. Viewing it now in light of our plans for Church Gate, a building to the east side of our current site where we will open the community grocery, the Welcome Cafe and more, I can only say “WOW!” This is what it said …

“I saw a house, a big old house. Some of the windows had been blocked in. Some of the rooms had not been used for a while. The kitchen table had been covered over…

“I saw the builders coming and some of the old doors being knocked down. I could see … a sledge hammer knocking out a few doors. Suddenly light is pouring in, people are pouring in … around the kitchen table there weren’t 5 people, there was something like 100 around the kitchen table. I think food is going to be a big thing for the Church, feeding people, whether that is the word of God or actual physical food, I don’t know.

“I see a great big conservatory being built on the East side. It is where the sun is going to shine. It’s where it is going to bring people in and they are going to enjoy the sunshine of this group of people, knowing the love of God.

“The basement needs to be opened up. It’s all full of cobwebs and dusty things. There are things that are in your history and heritage that need to be brought into the light … things that God has spoken; promises; things you have seen before. God says, ‘I want you to bring them up and start using them for this day’.

“There are many rooms. There are many people God is going to save; the poor, the needy, the nations are going to come. God says this house will be full. At the moment, you don’t have a full house … there are many, many people; well over a 1000 people; this church is going to grow to.

“This is just as a starter and you need to be reaching out saying its faith, not our effort. It’s not ‘our best shot’, its grace.“

I hope that like me you’re encouraged! I believe it confirms again that God is at work through this project and will provide all we need; He knew about it long before we did, and the timing is all in His hands – even the ‘completely by chance’ timing of me finding the document again. Be blessed!

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Church Gate: The Size Of The Challenge

October 26, 2023October 26, 2023 / Steve Petch / 6 Comments

Last week I blogged about Church Gate, the next big adventure we believe God has for us as a church (click here to read about it).

This is a big deal for us and, of course, we wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think it was ‘mission critical’ for our calling as a church together:

Church Gate will be key for the work we want to do to serve the poor, including our desire to start a community grocery to bridge the gap between the FoodBank and a supermarket for the most needy in our town
Church Gate will provide the facilities and space we need to disciple our children and young people well. Remember, we are not baby sitting them week by week; we are equipping them to be the men and women of God He is calling them to be, so they can lead the way into the future in all areas of life and follow His call on their life.
Church Gate will also provide lots of space for our meetings and ministries all week long, and even has a few extra parking spaces, which is always handy to have.

Gift Days

Obviously we need to pay for Church Gate! As I said last week, we’ll be looking at mortgages, but we also all need to do our part individually so, in November, we will be holding some gift Sundays. I want to fill in a few details on that.

We will hold our gift Sundays over three weeks, on Sundays 12th, 19th and 26th of November. In case you’ve not been at Welcome Church when we’ve done this before (and the last time was a few years ago) it will be a normal Sunday meeting – with worship, kids work, teaching etc – but there’ll be a chance at the end of the morning to come forward and give, or pledge to give, to this big adventure. With that in mind we recognise that more information needs to be shared.

Next Sunday, and in the weeks to come, we’ll be giving out a printed booklet with all the information you need. It will explain:

WHAT we are doing
WHY we are doing it
Why we are doing it NOW (very important!)
HOW MUCH it will cost and
What we are asking YOU to do

The size of the financial challenge

People have been asking what Church Gate will cost, so here are the details:

The owners have agreed to sell Church Gate to us for three million pounds.

That may sound like a lot of money (and in many ways it is) but it’s a price our professional valuer agrees is fair for us to pay, and a lot less than where we started from. We also have to budget for additional fees and refurbishment costs, so the total cost for the project is likely be in the region of £3.5 million pounds – hopefully a bit less.

We anticipate that some of this cost will be funded through our existing savings as a church, and through a new mortgage. We’re also in faith to raise £2 million pounds over the next two years through our sacrificial giving as a church to this adventure.

The big challenge is that we need to raise the first £1 million in the next few months, in order to complete on Church Gate in early 2024, so we need to step out in big faith this November.

Time is tighter than we’d like for this project, but the opportunity really is now or never. The sellers of Church Gate have received Planning Permission to redevelop the site into flats. Were they to go ahead, the opportunity will be closed to us for good, so we need to go for it in faith now to invest in our future as a church.

What can I do today?

At this point we would ask you to do one thing: please pray. Pray that the sale moves ahead smoothly. Pray that finance comes together quickly.

Mainly though, please pray for God to speak to YOU about what he wants YOU to give.

We wouldn’t want anyone to give more than God is asking them to give, but we wouldn’t want anyone to give less than He is asking them to give either!

And remember: it’s not that we HAVE to give; it’s that we GET to give. It’s a privilege to invest in the Kingdom of God, knowing that we cannot out-give God.

Between us we have a significant amount of money to raise, but I believe we can do this as we step out in faith, so let’s go for it together. I’ll share more info in the weeks ahead.

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October 2023 News Updates

October 12, 2023October 12, 2023 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

This week I want to share a few Welcome Church news updates, in case you missed them

A New Website

We’ve just launched our brand new Welcome Church website and we’re really pleased with it! You can find it at www.welcomechurch.uk. The website is not only new in terms of its content, it also has a brand new website address. If you do accidentally try to access the old website it will forward you to the new one automatically, at least for a while.

Our church email addresses have also changed, so if you previously e-mailed someone on name@allwelcome.uk, you now need to use name@welcomechurch.uk. Again, if you use the wrong e-mail address it will be forwarded for a short while, but not forever.

A lot of work went into getting the new website up and running, and we’re really pleased with the result. Huge thanks go to everyone involved. The site been checked quite extensively, but if you do find any errors, bad links, typos or other problems, please let us know – there are bound to be some!

Kids Work

From the end of Half Term (Sunday 29th October) Welcome Tots, Welcome Kids Juniors and Welcome Kids will be starting earlier each Sunday, so your kids can go there straight away if you want them to. You can drop them off from 10 minutes before each meeting starts (no earlier please!)

These changes will help us serve our kids well, and also allow more room for adults to join us without feeling that the meetings are full, especially at the 11am meeting. It will also allow the worship times to flow uninterrupted. Welcome Kids Seniors and Welcome Youth will be with us for the whole of the worship time for now, and will go out to their own meetings after that.

Because the kids will now be in their groups a bit longer each week, we want to encourage parents to collect them promptly when the meeting has finished. Thank you in advance for this, and also a very big thank you to all our kids and youth workers – you are fantastic and massively appreciated. 🙂

The Alpha Course

Our Alpha Course is now up and running with 28 guests in attendance on week one, and some others expected to join from week 2. Please pray for the success of the course and for people to grow in faith as they explore the big questions of life together.

Baptisms

On Sunday 5th November we’ll be baptising several people at each of our Sunday meetings. It’s still not too late to join them and be baptised if you’re a Christian and have not yet been baptised since you came to faith in Jesus – please just chat to us.

Please also pray for those who are being baptised on the 5th, and let’s be on the front foot to welcome the many guests who will be there and to serve them well.

Car Parking

You may have spotted that, due to new tenants moving in, Phillips Court is no longer available for us to use for parking on a Sunday morning. Instead the Red, Yellow and Blue shoppers car parks are available. These are just a short distance away, and the walk is largely under cover.

If you put your number plate into the relevant ‘pad’ in our building (the pads are very clearly marked) then you will get your parking for free 🙂. We recommend putting your number plate in on arrival rather than waiting until the meeting has ended.

Buildings

Thanks to all who have prayed about our plan to buy Church Gate, the building next door to us. We want to use it to create more space for kids and youth each Sunday, as well as to provide meeting rooms and office space to serve all that we do all week long. We would also like it as a space to start a community grocery that will serve those in need in our town, and it could perhaps house some of our other social action ministries too. The alternative is to extend on our own site, and we’ve been developing plans for this in case Church Gate doesn’t come our way.

Lots of people have been asking for updates on this issue, and this coming Sunday (15th Oct) at Welcome Church I will be sharing the latest news. Please make sure you’re there at our 9am or 11am meeting to hear what’s been happening!

God can do amazing things

Eph 3v20-21: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Let’s be in faith for all God wants to do in and through us as a church, and let’s be praying for Jesus to be glorified in our town. He can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine.

Thanks for reading.

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Some Important Things To Pray About – July 2023

July 6, 2023October 3, 2023 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Hello lovely Welcome Church people! We would value your prayers this month for the following key things:

1. Buildings

We’re keen to work out how to create more space for our growing kids and youth work. On Sunday mornings we’re currently relying on The Annex (THE CUBE!) for extra space. The Annex is great, but we don’t own it and it will be redeveloped at some point, so we need to either build or buy a more permanent solution.

Mike Deavin and I met with the architect of our current building recently, and he’s looking at what’s possible on our site. We want to find a solution that will serve the needs of our young people, and also serve the church and the wider community all week long.

We love and value our young people and want to serve them well, so please be praying for wisdom and a clear way forward. I’m excited to see what doors God will open for us.

2. Newday

At the end of July our youth will be heading off to the annual ‘Newday Youth Festival’ at the Norfolk Showground in Norwich 🎪. This year it runs from Monday 31st July to Friday 4th August. So far we have around 80 young people booked to attend. Each year Newday helps our youth to grow in their faith, building solid foundations for the future.

Please pray:

That our youth stay safe and have a great time
That they encounter God and grow in their faith
For the leaders and the many helpers who are taking them and serving them during the event (they need our prayers! 🙂)
For the practical arrangements (For example, just this week the coach company we booked announced that they’ve gone bankrupt … 🚌 … we’ve got time to solve that problem, but we’d love to avoid any more last minute headaches or unforeseen problems)

3. Commission Festival

Commission Festival is on the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August ⛺️⛺️⛺️

We’ll be joining with Commission churches from around the UK for times of worship and teaching, and a whole lot of other fun and games too. This event helps build our togetherness as a church and as family of churches. It connects us to our Apostolic mission around the world, and it also serves our children and young people well.

We currently have around 370 people from Welcome Church booked in, which is more than we’ve ever taken to an event like this before. For us it’s a bit like we’re running a festival within the festival!

It’s still not too late to book in and join us (click here for details) and don’t forget you can get a 40% discount if you sign up to serve.

A LOT of people from Welcome Church are either serving at the Festival, or serving our church site at the Festival in a range of different ways. I can’t possibly name them all, but each one is greatly appreciated.

Please pray:

For the event to go really well and for God to move powerfully
For the weather – we’d like lots of sunshine please ☀️
For Darren, our Ops Director, who is leading the delivery of this brand new Festival for Commission, working with their staff team and an event management company. It’s been a massive undertaking and he’s gone above and beyond to get this done
For Richard who, along with an awesome team from our church, is leading the operational delivery of our Welcome Church site at the Festival
For Jo, who leads four worship team and is also leading the worship for the event (alongside Sean from City Gate Church, Bournemouth)
For Harriet who is co-leading ‘Unique’, a ministry for children at the Festival who have additional needs
For Dub, Meg, and Robin and Anna who are all responsible for various seminars
For myself – I’m responsible for anchoring the adult meetings and I’m also preaching on the Saturday evening

If you have any questions about the festival, please do ask. One more thing:

Do you want to go to the Festival for free?

If so, Compassion UK are looking for some outgoing, faith filled and friendly volunteers to help on the Compassion stand at the Festival. In return they will provide a free ticket for the event along with your food and any travel expenses. All you need to bring is yourself, your camping equipment, and faith in what God can do.

If you want to know more about this opportunity please let us know in the church office and we will put you in touch, but please don’t leave it too late!

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Launch Sunday … Welcome Church, We Have Lift Off!

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 / Steve Petch / 2 Comments

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

My Favourite Thing From Sunday 🙂

You can listen to that part of our meeting by clicking here.

Welcome Stories

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:

A Day To Remember

January 8, 2020January 9, 2020 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

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.