Invitation

Riding the waves

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

It’s an interesting season at Welcome Church right now with our new building up and running for Sundays; it’s like we’re riding a big wave.

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The Launch Sunday was certainly a day to remember with huge numbers of guests. After our Launch Sunday I really wondered what would happen next.

Would any guests actually come back? 

Would the tide go back out?

In fact we’ve actually seen lots of new people with us every week since then.

Our first baptism meeting was a great Sunday too, with seventeen people being baptised across the two meetings, each wanting to publicly show that they’ve committed their life to Jesus! There were many extra guests with us that week too.

God is impacting lives through Welcome Church, and it’s such a privilege to witness it. Some have come to faith in Jesus, others are at various stages on their journey. I would love us to keep riding this wave together.

The key part that Alpha plays

Whatever place people have reached in their journey of faith, Alpha is an exciting place for them to be. Each week great food is served, good friendships are built and personal faith grows.

Here are some eye opening statistics to consider: nine of the seventeen people baptised last week were on our Alpha+ course which finished last week, and a further five Alpha+ guests are booked in to be baptised on Easter Sunday.

Those statistics tell a compelling story!

Try Alpha

Our TRY ALPHA evening on Wednesday 26th February is really important for us all. We each have the opportunity to invite friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to come along to this evening to give Alpha a try. Your guests will have a brilliant time, so let’s go for it in faith.

Let me really encourage you, in this season of seeing lots of people coming to faith, to do three simple yet crucial things:

  1. PRAY: pray for courage and for opportunity, and pray for God to move as you take a step of faith
  2. SHARE: share the TRY ALPHA video on Social Media. Here is a link to it on Facebook, and here is one for Instagram.
  3. INVITE: invite people personally to come to TRY ALPHA with you. Do aim to bring them along; don’t just expect people to go without you.

When you hear that “Yes” to your invitation, don’t forget to book your place here at www.allwelcome.uk/alpha – it’s easy to do.

Who knows what God may do as we all take these three steps to invite the people God has placed in our lives? Let’s ride this wave together.

New Building Launch – It’s Time To Invite!

/ Steve Petch / 2 Comments

Hi everyone. This is Dub Everitt here, hijacking Steve’s blog to talk to you about our Welcome Church new building launch.

We’ve just had our first Sunday in the new building, and what an amazing time we had! I’m sure we’re all now thinking that if our friends joined us for the launch on 19th January they’d LOVE IT!

A warm welcome with delicious pastries and great coffee. Amazing worship, an inspiring preach and friendly people. And don’t forget: one of the most incredible Welcome Stories ever!

But here’s the thing, the thought of coming to church at all may raise lots of questions or nerves for people. But what if those fears were addressed so that many of our friends could say “YES!” to coming along?

So, what are these areas of uncertainty that they may be feeling, and what can we do to help?

As someone who has never been to a synagogue or a mosque before, here are the TOP 5 fears I would have if someone I know invited me to attend one:

  1. Where is it? / How will I get there?
  2. When I arrive, where do I go? / Where do I sit? / When do I stand?
  3. What will it be like?
  4. What should I wear?
  5. If I don’t enjoy it, will my friend be expecting me to go again?
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Feel the fear …

These fears are very real and understandable but a well considered invite can alleviate them all.

So here are the things YOU would be able to do to help ME to say “YES!” if you were asking me to come:

1. SHOW ME THE INVITE VIDEO: this would help me VISUALISE what it will be like. In the video I can SEE THE BUILDING, see the coffee & pastries, see the chapel, and I can see how amazing it all looks!

So I might say (or send) something like this: “Our Church has a new Building which looks AMAZING! Check out this 30 second fly-through video of what it looks like on a Sunday…”
Alongside you sharing this video on Social Media or messaging it to me, personally show it to me!

2. BE CLEAR: “It’s Sunday 19th January, there’s a service at 9am and again 11am and they’ll both begin and end with coffee and pastries!”

 3. BE HELPFUL: “I’ll pick you up”. This will alleviate the fear of “How will I get there?” / “where will I park?” / “What if I don’t spot my friend?” / “Where will I sit?”

If you’re inviting lots of people, great! Come in convoy together!

4. BE REASSURING: “Come and give it a try. I think you’ll really enjoy it – but there’s no pressure to come again if you don’t enjoy it!”

5. BE POSITIVE: If I see that you think it’ll be enjoyable (which it is) it’ll help me feel confident about coming.

6. BE HOSPITABLE … “Come back to ours for lunch afterwards!” / “We’ll head to the pub to watch the game afterwards” etc is the sort of thing that would clinch it for me! This extra act of kindness makes such a difference.

In summary, you could try something like this:

“Hey, why don’t you come to our church Building Launch on 19th Jan? It’ll be fun. I won’t be offended if you don’t fancy it, but I think you’ll really enjoy it! It’s 11am till 12.30. If we get there just before we can grab a coffee and pastry. I’ll pick you up on the way … oh, and we’ll head out to Nando’s for lunch afterwards, my treat!”

One final thing to say

81890862_10157620052203046_8693150692006690816_oOur Building Launch is something that would interest LOADS of people who are in our lives, our families, our offices and our streets. This is an invitation to a brilliant and inspiring morning!

EVERYONE IS WELCOME, so let’s spread our invitations wide so that lots of our friends can come and enjoy it!