Some Sad News

November 29, 2020November 30, 2020 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

I’m very sorry to report that Alan Hunwicks died in hospital late on Saturday evening after a long battle with Covid-19.

Although many of us have lost friends to this disease and others amongst us have suffered with it, Alan is the first person within Welcome Church who’s died from it. He will be greatly missed.

Alan was an amazingly faithful man with a strong Christian faith. He was a part of Welcome Church for 36 years, and for 17 of those he served as an Elder. He was also a Trustee for many years.

Alan was kind, gentle, diligent and loving, and he never sought the limelight; in many ways he was an unsung hero. He was only 77 when he died and the hospital reported that his fight was a long one because, apart from the Covid, he was strong.

Beryl and Alan had been married for 50 years, and celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary this summer.

Alan Hunwicks (20.8.1943 – 28.11.2020) & Beryl Hunwicks

Please keep Beryl and the family in your prayers in the weeks ahead. Beryl has an important role in the public eye as Mayor of Woking, and carries a lot of responsibility. She will need our support and prayers more than ever, and I know we will be there for her.

Although this is sad news let’s remember that Alan had a deep faith in Jesus which shaped his whole life. All through this illness he was at peace, remaining steadfastly confident in his faith and in God’s loving care for him in both life and death. He is now with Jesus.

Lockdown Returns 😮

November 1, 2020November 1, 2020 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

From Thursday onwards we will be back in Lockdown for 4 weeks. After that, who knows? We will each face many challenges in the weeks ahead, and we need to support one another.

As we go through this season let’s remember: God is still on his throne. He’s at work in our lives, our church, our nation and the nations of the world. Let’s pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done.

As this season begins, I want to point us all to three things:

1. Stay Connected

We need to stay connected to each other and to God during this time. We are God’s church and we need each other more than ever right now.

Today (Sunday 1st Nov) at 6.30pm we have our next Welcome Church online communion. PLEASE JOIN US! WE NEED YOU!

Join us to pray. Join us to worship. Join us for fellowship. Join us as we meet with Jesus together. Join us to hear the latest updates and information.

Let’s all stay connected in the weeks ahead as we pray online, as we meet online each Sunday, and as we gather online in Life Groups and in other ways. We will continue to put information and updates out in this blog, in our Facebook group and in our emails. If you need help connecting, just ask.

We need each other more than ever in these times.

2. Keep A Godly Attitude

As Christians we’re called to pray for those in authority (1 Tim 2v1-3) and to submit to them (Romans 13v1-7). Are you praying for our government regularly during this season?

Why not listen again to the start of our latest preaching series when I spoke on “LOVE … and why it wears a mask”? It will do you good!

Some of us will agree with how we’re being led; others will disagree. Either way, as Christians, let’s respond in prayer and with loving words and actions, and not in complaining, political ranting and self righteousness.

As Christians – and being a Christian is a 24/7 ‘all of life’ thing that applies even to what we post online – let’s be careful and diligent to shine brightly for Jesus right now; He wants to reach people through us.

3. Show Love To People

All around us right now people need support in different ways. This is true of people in the church, in our families, and in the wider community.

1 John 4v10-11 says:

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.“

Jesus laid down his life for us and we’re called to live as Jesus lived. Let’s all be on the front foot to show love to others in every way we can: helping, encouraging, calling, messaging, caring, assisting, serving, giving, building one another up … and in so many other ways too

As we show love to others we find that not only do we do them good, but our own sense of helplessness, anger or frustration is lifted as we see Jesus at work through us.

The Big Welcome Church Survey

October 1, 2020October 6, 2020 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

We absolutely do not lead our church by surveys or set our direction in response to popular opinion, but it’s very helpful to know what’s going on in people’s lives … especially in this season when we’ve been distanced from one another. Because of this, we’re doing a survey.

The survey is aimed at anyone who would say,

“Welcome Church is my church”

If that’s you, we would love to hear from you. It will take less than five minutes to complete, and here’s the link: click to access survey here

The results will help us improve how we serve and care for people going forwards, and will also provide fuel for our prayers. If you want your answers to be included the deadline is Sunday 11th October.

Sickness, Healing and Death

September 15, 2020 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

This Sunday at Welcome Church we’re starting a brand new preaching series called, ‘Sickness, Healing and Death’. This might not sound like the most encouraging topic to kick off the new season with, so why do it?

Firstly I would say it should actually be very encouraging since the gospel is good news for all of life, but beyond that there are three main reasons:

1. We have a number of people in the church who are ill right now, some critically

It’s vital we understand what the Bible teaches about sickness, healing and death so we can handle each situation well, respond with faith, and be ready to help one another and pray for one another.

2. We’re in the midst of a health pandemic as a nation

Coronavirus is still with us. From Monday the new ‘rule of 6’ began. Statistically it’s likely that some more of us will catch the virus, and some may become ill or die from it. We’ve been relatively unscathed as a church so far, and I pray it stays that way, but there are no guarantees. Either way, 100% of us WILL die at some point. Death and sickness are a fact of life, so we need to view these issues Biblically.

3. Most importantly: we need to move forward again as a church

We need to come ‘Back To Life’, as I preached on Sunday (click here to listen). Before too long we’ll start some ‘in person’ Sunday meetings. We’re legally allowed to do them (with some Covid restrictions) and it will mean stepping out in faith for some of us; in person meetings will challenge us to overcome fear and apathy. A Biblical view on sickness, healing and death will help us overcome fear, and release us into faith.

Let’s embrace this new season

I believe God has great things ahead for us as a church. As we step up and step out again, let’s do it with our eyes wide open and our hearts encouraged by what the Bible teaches on these hugely relevant issues.

‘In Person’ Sunday Meetings – an update for Welcome Church

September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 / Steve Petch / 1 Comment

In my last blog I introduced our plans to trial some Sunday morning ‘in person’ meetings again at Welcome Church.

This week changes to lockdown restrictions were announced by the government, introducing the new “rule of 6”. We’ve been told that Covid is increasing across the country, and people have been asked to use additional caution and reduce interaction with others. From Monday (14th) it will be illegal to meet in any group greater than 6, indoors or outdoors, apart from some specific situations. Life Groups: please don’t miss this change and get fined!

In less than a week we’ve moved from a situation where restrictions were easing, to one with more restrictions and more Covid cases. In the next few weeks trials had been planned for some concert venues and conference centres – something we’ve been keeping a close eye on – but this is now subject to review as well.

With this in mind we’ve reviewed our plans

The announcement was very clear that places of worship are allowed to hold meetings, as long as it’s done in a Covid-secure way. This means WE ARE LEGALLY ALLOWED to go ahead. However, we also need to ask ourselves a number of other questions to determine if it’s the right thing at this moment, including:

Is this the right timing?
How might it affect our reputation as a church?
Will people want to attend?
Will it be beneficial?
Will the trial succeed?

Having reviewed the situation late on Wednesday, including taking some honest soundings from some who were booked to attend, we’ve reluctantly made a call to delay the trial meetings, perhaps until Sunday 18th October. We will keep this under review week by week.

We are disappointed by this, but after wide discussions we concluded that the 20th September, 6 days after new restrictions come in, is not the right moment for us to begin. I’ve made a video to explain it all. I even managed to smile. Please watch it for more information:

Moving forwards together

As the weeks unfold we DO need to begin meeting together. We mustn’t hide away in fear or apathy as our faith dims, our commitment to God’s church fades and our passion for Jesus cools.

We need one another, and meetings online can’t truly replace the sense of God’s presence as we gather in community as God’s people; the dynamic of being together in person seems impossible for us to truly reproduce online.

Over the summer some regulations concerning church meetings were eased and, although masks must now be worn and congregational singing is still not allowed, more than one person is now allowed sing from the front and full immersion baptism is permissible too. I believe we can make this work.

We will be starting in person meetings at some point soon. Let’s aim to be there if we possibly can.

In the time of waiting please stay connected to welcomechurch.online each week, at 9am or 11am. Please stay connected to your Life Group. Please join us to pray. Please join us for online communion and also for our Encounter Evening on September 20th (8pm on Zoom). Please don’t be passive in your love and commitment to the one who came from heaven to earth to die for you and win you back to the Father.

As a team we’ll be using the delay to keep planning and preparing so that when we do start meeting it’s even better than we’d hoped. We’re also looking closely at what’s possible for us to do with youth and children.

Welcome Church: God is going to bring us back to life again.

Don’t miss it.

Welcome Church ‘in person’ Sunday morning meetings

September 7, 2020September 10, 2020 / Steve Petch / 1 Comment

This post has been updated in light of news this week. For more info cl i ck here

Because of Coronavirus and the restrictions of Lockdown we’ve been unable to hold Sunday meetings in person for a while now. When Lockdown began, such meetings were not legally allowed; more recently they’ve been allowed, but with lots of restrictions.

Because of the restrictions we’ve held off re-starting ‘in person’ meetings so far, and our reasoning was detailed in a previous blog post (click here to read). In summary it came down to a matter of what was legal, what was safe, how we can serve children, how we can engage in worship and ultimately whether the quality of what we’re allowed to do is at least as good as the online experience.

We now believe the time has come to test out a different approach: we are going to trial some in person Sunday meetings to see if what is now permissible can also be beneficial.

Why do this?

When Lockdown began it felt a bit like a fire drill: it was an unavoidable, surprising interruption to life, and we waited for someone to give the all clear so we could carry on ‘as we were’. It’s now clear that any return to ‘normality’ will be gradual. In the meantime we have to live in the world as it is, not how we wish it was.

We could keep on waiting, and many churches are doing that. What’s allowable is still very restricted, so to wait for further easing is a very reasonable and understandable approach. In reality some churches that have held ‘in person’ meetings have actually found that they haven’t ‘scratched the itch’ people feel for meaningful worship and genuine fellowship, two things that are hard to reproduce online. We may well reach the same conclusion ourselves, but we feel it’s right to try.

Ultimately, as an eldership team, we believe God is calling us to come back to life again as a church in every way we can; to start living at the limits of what is safe and legally allowable, rather than holding back. We want to do this wherever there is genuine benefit to be found – and some of that will need to be tested by real life experience.

So what’s the plan?

On Sundays 20th and 27th September, at 10am, we will be trialling an in person Sunday meeting at our building.

*** Update: this will be delayed until probably Sunday 18th and 25th October ***

The meetings will be conducted fully in line with the Covid-19 guidance for churches.

Just to be clear: online church will continue on those Sundays at 9am and 11am, with kids work at 10am; nothing is changing about that (and thanks to everyone who makes that possible). For those two weeks though, we will then also hold an ‘in person’ meeting as an extra. It will include the same preached message as the online meeting, only it will be done live.

To comply with government guidance, the in person meetings are restricted in terms of numbers, length and content. People will have to book a place in advance to attend, and face masks will be compulsory.

People will have to remain seated all the way through, distanced from any other household, unless they’re in a bubble together. There can be no hugging or handshakes. Worship will be performed by the band, although congregational singing is sadly not yet allowed. There will also be no children’s work or youth work yet, and no refreshments will be served.

By the way, if you’re over 70 or medically vulnerable we’re required to encourage you not to attend. Of course, if you have any possible coronavirus symptoms or are isolating then you absolutely must not attend.

But let’s see what’s possible together

Despite all the restrictions, we want to see how good we can make it. We want to see if we can start to move towards normality. Most of all we want to see if we can find ways for us to meet with God together and encounter the reality of his presence, and I know people have been missing that.

So I’m inviting you to join us. There’s no pressure: if you’re not ready to try an in person meeting yet, we totally understand. I know there are many who will want to be part of it.

Parents: if you have older kids who want to attend, who will cope with listening to a preach and who can sit quietly for the whole meeting, please do book them in with yourselves. Remember that there is no kids or youth work, and they are required to stay in their seat next to you all the way through.

All the details you need to know, including everything we are doing to keep people safe and a link to booking a place, can be found by clicking here. Do please read all the details through.

Let’s do this in faith together

Let’s see if what is permissible can also be beneficial with some creative thinking applied. Let’s see if we can create an environment where we can meet with God and experience his presence together … so why not come and give it a go? Afterwards we’ll review it all to see if it’s worth pursuing these meetings further, or if we need to wait for further easing of restrictions first.

I look forward to seeing some of you in person at these two trial meetings. Our worship team are preparing to lead some worship. I’ll be there to preach and lead. I’ll also be preaching the same message online too, so either way we can be together and meet with God, who’s promises never fail.

An Update On Unlocking

July 6, 2020July 9, 2020 / Steve Petch / 1 Comment

On Sunday evening we had online communion together, followed by some time sharing news and updates. One of the things we talked about was our progress towards starting Sunday meetings in person again. In case you missed it, here are some of the key points.

What are we looking for?

Before we start meetings there are five key factors we are taking into account:

Legality – are we legally allowed to meet?
Safety – can we follow the Covid-19 secure guidelines and make our meetings (reasonably) safe?
Quality – is the sort of meeting we are allowed to hold actually worth holding, and is it at least as good as the online experience?
Children – can we give children an experience they will enjoy?
Worship – can we genuinely worship God together and encounter him?

In addition we want to serve everyone, so this means we need enough capacity for all who want to attend in person, and still be able to serve those who are not able or willing to come to meetings in person yet by continuing online in some way.

We will no doubt hear of some churches starting meetings soon, and I know that Anglican churches are under particular pressure to do this. Churches are bound by many regulations at this time.

Here are some headlines from the guidance

Top of the list: we need to ensure social distancing at 2 meters. This seriously reduces our capacity, and would require us to hold a lot of meetings or for a lot of people to miss out. One church I know whose building has a capacity of 350 people have worked out that they can only fit 30 in under this guidance.

In addition to this:

One-way routes would need to be laid out
We would have to ensure people did not interact with each other
Meetings would need to be concluded in the shortest reasonable time,
We would have to stagger arrivals and departures
There would be no food or drink served
There would be no singing allowed except by one person from the front, ideally from behind a screen
The volume would need to be kept so low that people could talk without raising their voices to avoid droplet spread
People would need to stay seated throughout
People in at risk groups, including people who are aged 70 or older (regardless of medical conditions), would advised not to attend
Children would have to be fully supervised by their parents
Once the meeting was finished people would have to leave promptly and not socialise

Additionally we would need to keep a log of every person who attends and keep it for 3 weeks. It only takes one person to develop a fever or cough following that meeting and everyone present is likely to be locked down at home for 14 days … which makes you think through how much you really want to be there.

For us this isn’t church

$hands-with-latex-gloves-holding-a-globe-with-a-face-mask-4167544$ Church is built around our fellowship with Christ and with one another. The idea that we come alone, register our arrival, follow arrows on the floor to our seat, sit silently at least 2m away from others, hold onto our kids, not interact with others (since raised voices create droplets), listen to someone sing from behind a screen, hear someone else preach from behind a screen and then go home as fast as possible without interacting again … that’s not for us.

In summary, this doesn’t pass our tests.

Moving forwards

We will watch to see how things develop and keep everything under review. For July and August we will stay online, and will review again for September. I want us to be together as soon as possible, and the meetings have to be worthwhile when we are. We’ll also be looking at other ministries to bring them back as soon as we can.

In reality I wonder if we may still be some way off holding Sunday meetings in person, but we will watch closely as things change. In the meantime we haven’t given up meeting together; we’re meeting online and in other ways too. The Holy Spirit is not confused by the internet, even if we are sometimes.

What CAN we do?

Under current guidance six people from different households are allowed to meet up outside, and two households can meet together inside. Let’s make use of that as friends, as Lifegroups and on Sundays; let’s meet together in all the ways we can.

A final thought

The church is the body of Christ. Is it possible that in this time Jesus is developing different parts of it? With our excellent Sunday meetings we could become like a big torso with skinny legs and tiny arms. If so, this time is perhaps strengthening some other parts of the body.

So let’s keep loving one another, let’s keep on listening to God and let’s keep on encouraging one another; this situation won’t last forever.

Leading Through This Crisis

March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Calling all leaders in Welcome Church!

This crisis we are living through is having a huge impact on us all in so many ways: emotional, relational, physical, financial and more.

One of the key areas of impact is actually psychological, but it’s perfectly possible that we can be impacted in significant ways and not even realise it; we can be like fish swimming around in water who don’t even know they are wet!

This Thursday evening (2nd April) we are inviting everyone in Welcome Church who has any level of leadership responsibility to join us for a Zoom seminar and hangout.

We are going to talk about the impact of this current crisis on both ourselves and the people we’re leading, with a special focus on the psychological impact this is having and how we can respond to that well.

We will talk from a Biblical perspective about how we can first help ourselves, and then help those around us to thrive during this time. You won’t want to miss it!

Join us online from 7.30pm for a catch up time, followed by teaching content from 8pm with Q&A afterwards. We will finish by 9.30pm.

Leaders: please bookmark this time in your diary now and let us know that you would like to be included by emailing info@allwelcome.uk. We will send out the Zoom code by e-mail nearer the time.

If you are part of Welcome Church and not sure if you should be included, count yourself in – we would be glad to have you there.

In case you missed it, here is our latest Daily Encouragement video, starting to talk about Emotional Wellbeing

Covid-19: Facing Our Fear and Our Disappointment

March 22, 2020March 24, 2020 / Steve Petch / 2 Comments

At Welcome Church we’ve just had our first online Sunday. What a different experience it was!

The message I spoke was about handling our fear at this time. I looked at David and Goliath and what we can learn from that story about our need for a saviour to stand in our place.

You can watch it here:

We hosted the video as a watch party on our Facebook page so people could all watch it together at one time. Don’t forget to join us for that at 10am next week on the Facebook page.

Kids

Welcome Kids was also on line. They will go live at 9am again next Sunday. Be online and ready to go if you want to enjoy the full experience.

Here is a link to the talk that formed part of their time together:

And here is the craft they did:

Some Encouragement

Each day at 4pm, Monday to Saturday, we are posting Daily Encouragement videos. You can find all of them by clicking here.

Yesterday’s was about dealing with our disappointments. I’ve posted that here in case you missed it:

Finally if you want to know how to stay connected with us throughout this unusual time in our lives, here’s a link that will tell you all that you need to know

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Staying Connected

March 21, 2020March 21, 2020 / Steve Petch / 5 Comments

During this unusual time when we can’t meet together in person, there are a number of ways we plan to stay connected with each other as a church. I want to encourage you to make the most of these opportunities, so no one ends up feeling lonely or cut off. Let’s also be on the front foot to invite other’s to connect with us too.

For some people this may mean learning to use technology that’s completely new to you, but go for it anyway! 🙂

Daily Encouragement

Every day at 4pm (Mon to Sat) we are posting a video to help encourage us all during this crisis. It can be found on our church website, and will also be posted to our Welcome Church Facebook page (not the group!) I may blog some of these posts as well, but it would be best not to rely on that. Please be proactive and look on line at 4pm each day, and do let us know of it’s helpful to you.

Life Groups

Over the next few weeks we were due to refresh our Life Groups, with the chance to start new groups or sign up again for existing ones. In order to provide the best connection and care for us all during this crisis, that process has been postponed and current groups will continue for the time being. We’re encouraging people who are not already in a group to connect to one, and if you need help to do that, please contact Dean Guy.

We’re also encouraging all Life Groups to set up a What’s App group chat so people can easily keep in touch. We know that some groups have also started having virtual meetings using Zoom too – what a great idea (more info on that below).

Welcome Youth

Welcome Youth had their first online experience yesterday evening. Despite one or two technical glitches games were played and encouragement was given. Look out for more on that as the weeks progress.

Alpha

Alpha will be going on line via Zoom. They already had a planning meeting online this week. More details will follow in the days ahead.

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The Alpha Planning Meeting on Zoom

Sundays

Sunday meetings cannot take place in the usual way at the moment. This Sunday at 10am there will be a Sunday preach available on the church website, and also on our Facebook page (not the group!) It will also be available as a podcast.

To make this more interactive I will set up a WATCH PARTY starting a few moments after 10am that anyone can join. To access this on the day, be on the Facebook page and ready to go at 10am! The beauty of a watch party is that people can comment and interact together as we go along. (Can I hear an Amen?) I hope lots of us will join in.

Welcome Kids

This Sunday at 9am our first Welcome Kids online experience will be available on the Welcome Church website for you to enjoy with them at home. They have a great plan including craft, worship, games and teaching. This will also be accessible through the Facebook page.

Prayer

As of Monday morning we will be hosting prayer meetings online through Zoom. The plan is to pray from 7.30am – 8.00am, and then again from 1pm -1.45pm. For each prayer meeting we will post an access code in the Facebook group (not the page!)

Please use these codes to join us and pray. We did one on Friday as an experiment and it went really well.

Pastoral Care

If you have a pastoral need during this time, please do communicate with your Life Group. We also want to pray for people as a whole church when needs come up, so please use the email care@allwelcome.uk to keep us informed. These needs will be prayed for during the Zoom prayer meetings, so get your requests in.

In terms of practical care for those required to stay at home (shopping, getting a prescription, walking a dog etc) we need to use real wisdom! Life Groups and other contacts across the church can do a certain amount, but as this crisis grows we are unlikely to be able to meet every need. Additionally this is a moment to connect well with our community. On this basis there are some things to consider:

Let’s remember to connect well with our own families and neighbours; they may also need our help.
Let’s get involved with the many local volunteer groups that are springing up. Jo and I are involved with our local one in Send, which is being expertly organised by a woman called Ruth. I am now a ‘volunteer coordinator’, and leaflets are going out across our area today. This creates a great opportunity to meet new people and show them love and care.
Practically speaking, most help given in this season is going to need to be done locally, especially as travel becomes restricted.

An increasing number of Welcome Church people, of all ages, are being confined at home. We now have confirmed cases of Coronavirus amongst the church, and we have others who have symptoms that are as yet unconfirmed. Our first serious hospitalised case is in a relatively young person with young children and no pre-existing conditions.

If you’re helping someone else, or you’re receiving help, please don’t take unnecessary risks or ignore the need for social distancing. To use an example, this would mean leaving shopping on the door step and not going inside.

Using technology

Technology is a wonderful gift from God. Let’s be grateful for it and embrace it at this time. You may have noticed that there are some specific technologies we are using at this time to help people connect, so please let’s all consider doing the following:

Sign up for our regular emails – you can do that by clicking this link.
Keep an eye on our website. Information and updates will be posted there
Install What’s App on your mobile phone. This is a free messaging service that allows you to set up group chats with people. It also allows you to make totally free audio or video calls to friends who have the app, even to people in other nations.
Sign up to Facebook (Yes! Seriously!) Even if you’ve never done this before and swore you never would, now is the time. Once you’ve joined send me a friend request. Also like & follow our Welcome Church page, and join our Welcome Church group. You may have resisted doing this all your life, or you may just prefer Instagram or Twitter or other social media. In simple practical terms, Facebook offers the level of flexibility and interaction that we need right now, so our focus will be there. You can always quit when this crisis is over.
Sign up to Zoom. This is a free app that you install on your laptop, phone or tablet. Sign up for a free account and you can join in everything we do on Zoom. A free account lets you set up meetings of up to 40 minutes length (though you can join ones that last any length of time). If you want to set up long meetings of your own, you can upgrade to a paid account as I’ve done. Zoom offer lots of online videos and tutorials to teach you how to use it, so why not use some of your time to learn? We used it for our elders and admin meetings this week and it was great.
Follow this blog. This is your one stop shop for staying up to date with the church during this crisis. You can click a button to subscribe to it.

Staying together as a church

Please be encouraged to embrace these specific technologies to help you stay part of the church community during this time. They are a gift from God for us right now and I thank God for them all.

Even if these things are new to you, or you’re someone who thinks “Facebook is so last year”, please join in. Simply put: let’s all be in the same place.

Including everyone

There are always a few people who are unable to connect in the ways I describe above. Perhaps they have no laptop, email or internet (there are a few people in this position), or the internet where they live is just too slow to stream things.

If you have friends in this position, please do phone them and check in with them regularly. In fact, why not do that with lots of people regularly? If we all made just 1 or 2 phone calls a day just to check in with how people are, what a blessing that could be.