Church

The following are a few updates about life at Welcome Church:

Church Gate

I’m please to announce that this afternoon – Friday May 17th – we have completed on our purchase of Church Gate (for details about Church Gate please click here!) We are now the owners of this building. The real work now begins to make it useable!

Please do book a slot to visit Church Gate during one of our upcoming Open Days – (to do that please click here). Places are going fast so don’t delay. Visits will be by guided tour only at this stage and you will need to book to attend – don’t miss out.

We’ll give out more information on Church Gate on Sunday mornings in the weeks ahead, so do be there to find out more.

Compassion

We had a great Sunday with Tim Robertson from Compassion UK last week and it was good to find out about the impact that our sponsorship of children in Togo has been having. (I know that some also sponsor children in other countries – that’s great too). Tim preached brilliantly so do listen to the download if you missed it.

On Sunday another 42 children were sponsored between us, and it’s not too late to join in. If you want to know more please do get in touch with the church office. You can find out more about our connection with Togo by following this link.

I’ve also attached some of the slides we showed on Sunday, including one with pictures of all the children we sponsor – see if you can spot yours. Please don’t forget about the importance of writing letters too.

Dr Amy Orr-Ewing – speaking this Sunday

We have a great guest speaker this Sunday: Dr Amy Orr-Ewing.

Amy is passionate about Christian apologetics – presenting and defending the Christian faith in a way that engages with culture. Over the last twenty years, Amy has given talks and answered hundreds of questions on university campuses around the world. She has also addressed Parliamentarians in the Speakers Rooms and Chapel at the UK Parliament, and staffers on Capitol Hill and at the West Wing of the White House. You find out more about Amy by clicking here.

This Sunday she will be speaking about “Where is God in all the suffering?” This is a great chance to invite friends to join you at church. Let’s be on the front foot to invite people.

Faith At Work – a new learn group

Both Freedom In Christ and The Bible Course are up and running now, and I know people are enjoying them. We have one more ‘Learn Group’ starting this term: the Faith At Work course. This is a new course and it’s for anyone who’s working. It doesn’t matter what your job is, if you are at work then this is for you.

Faith at Work you will be filled with hope and faith for God’s purposes in your workplace. It’ll include really practical teaching and reflection in small groups, on subjects such as: Our work is God’s work, How can I make a difference? How can I share my faith at work? and Work/Life balance.

It’s taking place over 3 consecutive Monday evenings – the 10th, 17th and 24th June – from 7:30-9:30pm – and there will be a follow up meal on 15th July to celebrate what God has been doing at our places of work!

For more details or to book a place please click here

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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.