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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On Sunday (May 8th) we had our WelcomeChurch Vision Evening looking at ‘Where we’ve been, where are now and, most importantly, where we’re heading in the future‘. This week I’ll be blogging about some of the key items we covered. This is part 1 of 5.
The pandemic created some big challenges for us all, both personally and as a church, yet we’ve known God’s blessing all the way through; He has done great things for us!
In the run up to the pandemic a lot had changed for us as a church in a short space of time, including a new name and logo, a new website, a new vision and mission statement, a new culture being outworked, a new approach to outreach, a new approach to belonging AND the launch of our brand new purpose built building in the heart of Woking. In some ways the pandemic could not have come at a worse time for us with Lockdown closing our building just a few weeks after it opened!
Despite this God has blessed our church beyond all expectation
We’re now back meeting together in person across two meetings each Sunday morning with kids work and youth work, and we’re seeing new people come and join us regularly. To encourage you, here are some Welcome Church statistics from the last couple of years:
4 people have joined our staff team: Christopher Hawes (Preaching and Discipleship), Uti Anyaegbunam (Ops. Manager), Hannah Oliver (Ops. Assistant) and Juliet Bauermeister (Comms. Manager)
147 have attended an Alpha Course
123 have attended our new Learn Groups (Bible Course, Prayer Course, etc)
457 signed up to attend Life Groups in the January refresh (plus there are a whole load more who we know attend but didn’t actually sign up … so cheeky!!!)
104 have attended our various CAP courses (Fresh Start, Job Club, Life Skills, Money Course)
79 people have been baptised
46 children attended the Welcome Kids Weekend Away
192 people attended our last 2 Newcomers Lunches (both since Lockdown ended)
96 people have attended our ‘Belong, Believe, Become’ course in 2022 alone
Additionally your generous giving as a church has beaten all expectations throughout the pandemic. We beat our budget in both 2020/21 and 2021/22, so on behalf of the Eldership Team and the Trustees let me say a huge THANK YOU!
We’ve also given lots away to some key causes over the last two years:
£19,000 was given in 2020 to help feed people in need through our Commission churches in India
£33,000 was given just recently to help our churches in Ukraine serve their communities during the ongoing conflict there
£19,000 was given to provide buildings for some of our Commission churches in Bangladesh and to support some of our other works in that part of the world too
In fact, as well as financing what we do as a church, we gave away over £158,000 last year alone, including to support both the work of our Commission church family and some other excellent local causes including Woking Food Bank and Woking Street Angels.
These are all good signs that God is at work in and through our church. We have a lot to be thankful for, so let’s be on the front foot to give God the glory for all he’s doing, even as we face some sadnesses, some sicknesses and some losses amongst our church family too.
“The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” Psalm 126v3
This Sunday morning, 1st March, we are honoured to have an excellent and much sought after guest speaker at Welcome Church for our 9am and 11am meetings: DrJohn Kirkby, the founder of CAP (Christians Against Poverty).
Everyone is welcome to join us for this special occasion.
About CAP
John started Christians Against Poverty in 1996, when God called him to sacrifice his career in finance and use his knowledge of the industry to help the poor. Since then John has seen CAP develop into an organisation serving tens of thousands of individuals every year, helping those struggling with debt, unemployment and life controlling habits, and equipping people to live well on a low income.
CAP has now helped thousands of people all across the UK to get out of life destroying debt. Our own CAP debt advice centre, which is one of our Welcome Works initiatives, opened in 2019, and is already making a difference to people’s lives. This adds to the work already being done with CAP in Woking by our friends at Christ Church and New Life Church too. You can see the full range of CAP services on offer at Welcome Church by clicking here.
CAP was featured last year in a BBC Two documentary The Debt Saviours, which followed the lives of some CAP clients and frontline workers in the middle of the current UK poverty epidemic. It showed how CAP is committed to transforming lives in partnership with local churches across the UK. CAP has also won many different awards, and John Kirkby himself recently received a CBE. CAP is also recommended by Martin Lewis, Founder and Chair of Money Saving Expert.
Come and join us for the morning
If you would like to hear John, please join us for either our 9am or 11am meeting. There will be great coffee, and tasty pastries and doughnuts available before and after each meeting – all free of charge. As for all our Sunday meetings there will also be kids and youth work taking place.
It’s an absolute privilege to have John with us, so make sure not to miss it.
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