evangelism

Getting A Taste Of Alpha

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

As part of our Autumn programme this year, we’re inviting everyone in Welcome Church to attend one of our ‘Taste Of Alpha’ evenings.

I attended the first one last night 🙂

These evenings are a chance for us all to experience what the first evening of an Alpha course is like, building our confidence to make invitations to our Autumn Alpha course which starts with ‘Try Alpha’ on October 16th. (In case anyone is unsure, Alpha is an 8 week course that we run, and is intended for people who want to explore what the Christian faith is all about)

What I experienced

On arrival the front hall was packed with people from Welcome Church who’d signed up for the first Taste of Alpha experience. We were greeted with ‘Mocktails’, before being seated on pre-arranged tables, finding our name on a wedding style seating plan. Dub then welcomed us all and introduced Nnamdi, who led us through the full experience of the first night of an Alpha course.

The evening consisted of:

  • A excellent two course meal, with every table hosted by friendly table leaders who quickly got us chatting (my thanks to Edward and NG on my table)
  • A game of ‘Kahoot!’ – an interactive quiz, which our table sadly didn’t win
  • Some contemporary live music from Steve B on guitar and vocals
  • A screening of the new style week 1 Alpha video
  • Some table discussions built around two thought provoking questions

We then finished with a short chat from Dub about what we’d just experienced, and the chance to pray together on our tables and to provide feedback on the evening.

My observations

As someone who’s been very familiar with Alpha over a number of years, and who’s even spoken on several past courses, I wondered if I really needed to be there – after all, I already know all about Alpha, right???

Wrong!

I came away with three key observations:

First: I’m incredibly proud of our team. The evening was well run and brilliantly organised in every aspect. There was high quality food, the seating had been well thought through and the whole ‘production’ was great. Everything was designed to put you at ease. I want to say well done to everyone involved in making it happen. If you’d brought a friend along, you really would be proud to say that this was your church.

Second: The Alpha videos have changed A LOT, and all for the better. They were always good, but no longer is it Nicky Gumble preaching at you for 30 minutes. The videos are bright, clear and well put together with a variety of people (including Nicky) communicating the message in different ways, with regular pauses for discussion on key questions. I found myself quickly drawn in and would have been comfortable for any friend I’d invited to watch them. This change of the style to the Alpha course’s content is the biggest thing I spotted, and it’s very positive change.

Third: It actually made we want to do Alpha again! It made me feel like, if I wasn’t a Christian already, I’d definitely have wanted to book in for the actual course. I even found the questions and discussion times to be personally thought provoking again, and I went home with a few things to think about – I really didn’t expect that!

In summary, any friends that we bring along to the ‘Try Alpha’ evening on October 16th are almost certainly going to want to sign up for the whole course. In fact, the biggest takeaway for me was this:

we can safely invite people to our church’s Alpha Course with confidence that they will have a positive experience and we won’t regret bringing them

To be honest, I think I knew that anyway, but now I’ve seen it and experienced it for myself.

What’s next?

There are 3 more chances to experience A Taste Of Alpha, on each of the next three Wednesdays. If you haven’t signed up yet, please follow this link to do so. One quick warning, the final evening is almost full.

And let’s keep on praying for our friends so that we’re ready to make lots of invitations to the actual Alpha course which starts with ‘Try Alpha’ on Wednesday 16th October.

Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.

    An Update On Luke Simone: on mission in a Favela in Brazil

    / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

    Luke Simone has been part of our Welcome Church family for over 30 years, although you may not have seen him around very much recently! Why? He was a finance lawyer in London and New York before God called him to work among the least and the lost in Brazil.

    Casa Cruzeiro

    The work Luke started in a Favela (a slum) in Rio has steadily progressed from the first act of simply opening the doors of his living room almost a decade ago. When the neighbour’s rooftop could no longer support the number of people who were coming for prayer and to hear a simple Bible story, he and a friend established “Casa Cruzeiro” – a community centre and school grounded in the gospel and located at the highest point of the Rio slum that has become his home. 

    Luke and the small team now serve up to 200 children and teenagers (and their wider families) each week, offering a safe and welcoming space for vulnerable, marginalised and disenfranchised youth in a neighbourhood fractured by gang violence and poverty.

    Why is this needed?

    Many of the young people in the Favela leave school illiterate or struggle with even the most basic principles of maths and Portuguese. The school they’ve established in the heart of the community now has over 70 students (aged 5 to 75) providing essential tuition to the poorest, who are often failed by the school system. The teachers also provide counseling to the younger children who frequently show signs of trauma through abuse in their homes or the loss of family members due to gang violence.

    As the young people leave school, the team gives additional support and career counseling for the next steps, together with an opportunity to offer places on pre-vocational courses, providing simple and practical steps that enable those they work with to be able to eventually provide for themselves and their families. 

    Alongside all this is the gospel, and they’ve had the incredible joy of seeing young people give their lives to Christ, get baptised and be discipled – no small thing in the Favela.

    What does it look like to be on mission far from home?

    Living in the Favela is not without risks. Gun violence and drugs are among the many day to day issues, alongside poverty, abuse and neglect. Despite all this, as Christopher shared in his preach last Sunday (quoting Paul from 1 Thessalonians):

    “We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thess 2v8)

    Luke and the team’s overriding goal is to love and serve their neighbours, without an agenda, by sharing their everyday lives. They are aiming to live out the call of Christ day by day and to shine the light of Jesus in the darkness that is all around.

    The work in this slum is very much a marathon rather than a sprint, but they are seeing lives impacted by the power of God with a goal of community-wide transformation – a break in the cycle of violence and brokenness faced by those on the margins. What Luke and the others have established is a “community within a community,” where disciples are made, relationships are strengthened and dignity is restored.  

    Welcome Church is on this mission too

    Welcome Church takes mission (both at home and abroad!) very seriously. Luke doesn’t do this work alone!

    As a church we have been, and we remain, very much part of Luke’s sending, with groups praying and raising financial support for the ongoing needs.

    How YOU can get involved:

    If you want to know more about this, or you’d like to to support Luke in this mission to Brazil there are several ways to do that:

    1. Get the newsletter: If you want to receive a regular newsletter from Luke, please use this link to send an e-mail to let him know – he will add you to the list.

    2. Join the prayer group: There is a prayer group from Welcome Church who meet to pray for Luke and Casa Cruzeiro regularly. If you want to join them, please also use this link to send an e-mail and let him know – details will then be sent.

    3. Give Financially: as a church we give to Luke each month out of our regular giving, HOWEVER there are a number of people who have wanted to give directly (in addition to their normal giving to Welcome Church) – and this has made all the difference. If you’d like to give directly to this work (either a one off gift or a regular monthly amount) you can do that by giving it to Welcome Church, and letting us know it’s for Luke Simone. We can then claim Gift Aid on your gift (if applicable) and pass both the gift and any Gift Aid on to Luke.

    If you want to ask more about any of these things, please drop an email to Darren in the Church Office using this link.

    Find out more

    You can see more of Luke’s story by clicking here for a great video, but if you’d like to meet the man in person, he will be around this Sunday, at both the 9am and 11am meetings. I’ll be interviewing him briefly about his experiences in Rio and he’ll also be around to chat in person.

    Here are some great photos from Casa Cruzeiro too:

    Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.

    Welcome Church Internship – an opportunity

    / Steve Petch / Leave a comment

    From September 2022 (VISA’s permitting!) we will be joined as a church by two Interns from our wider church family in India who will be with us for a year. We now want to expand this opportunity by creating one more place, so from September 2022 …

    We are looking for an Outreach and Social Action Intern

    We have big plans for reaching out to our community and serving our town’s needs, so we’re looking for a motivated, passionate and diligent intern to join our outreach team to support in planning, administrating, and delivering this exciting programme.

    As part of this internship, the candidate will gain experience in:

    • Event planning and delivery
    • Vision and strategy of social action ministries
    • Understanding of partnerships between the charitable sector and local government
    • A ‘relational momentum’ approach to evangelism

    This internship will be run as part of the Commission Internship programme, which provides the candidate with enrolment in residential training in theology and spiritual formation, to continue their own spiritual growth. This is a great opportunity to LEARN about yourself and God’s plan for your life, SERVE the church and our local community, GROW in your faith and your gifting.

    Interested to find out more?

    Get in touch with our Outreach pastor Dub Everitt by dropping an email to dub.everitt@allwelcome.uk

    Ready to Apply? Simply send a formal expression of interest to darren.forsdyke@allwelcome.uk and we’ll guide you through the process.

    Finances & Accommodation:

    This is a one year, unpaid internship and the candidate will participate as a voluntary worker, based in our church offices at Welcome Church. However we are keen to ensure that candidate’s expenses are covered, therefore Welcome Church will cover training costs, and provide accommodation and food, should the candidate require it, as well as reasonable expenses.

    We also recognise that internship candidates value the opportunity to earn money and save, and so there is also the option for the right candidate to find part-time employment as a means of supporting their own financial needs. We will work with the candidate to give guidance around the exact details of this balance between the internship, study, work and (importantly) rest.

    For this role we would expect the candidate to be a Christian, and to become an active part of Welcome Church, including regular attendance at our Sunday meetings and in the midweek life of our church. We will also require the candidate to have a full DBS check (completed by Welcome Church)