An Evening with Rob Parsons at Welcome Church

One thing I love about leading a church like Welcome Church, is seeing our building being used for so many great things. On any given week, all sorts of events and ministries take place—serving our local community, hosting various groups, and providing a space where people can find connection, support, and encouragement.

Next week, we are delighted to be hosting an external event in our building. On Thursday, 15th October, the national charity Care for the Family is coming to Woking as part of a UK wide tour, and they are using our main chapel for “An Evening with Rob Parsons”.

Who is Rob Parsons?

For those who might not know him, Rob Parsons, OBE, is the founder of Care for the Family. He’s a former legal partner turned international speaker who has spoken to over a million people and written nearly 30 books.

If you’ve ever heard Rob speak, you’ll know he is a fantastic storyteller. He speaks straight from the heart with a lot of warmth, brilliant humour, and real honesty.

The night is built around him sharing untold stories from his own life—growing up with people telling him what he couldn’t achieve, letting go of labels, and overcoming obstacles. It’s less of a formal seminar and much more of a poignant, uplifting night of storytelling.

Is it for me?

This isn’t a church-run event or a Sunday service; it’s simply a well-crafted, encouraging evening designed for anyone aged 16 to 90+. Rob will be reflecting on universal life lessons that apply to all of us—touching on relationships, navigating shattered dreams, mental well-being, and finding hope for the future.

And there is absolutely no audience participation or pressure. It’s simply a space to pull up a chair, listen, laugh, and reflect.

Booking Details

Whilst there is zero expectation or pressure for anyone from Welcome Church to attend, we are a host venue for the tour, and it’s already drawing plenty of people from the wider region. And because of who Rob is, I know there may be many in our church family for whom an evening like this will really appeal, or it might be something you’d love to invite a friend or neighbour along to.

If you do fancy attending, here are the details:

  • When: Thursday, 15th October at 7.30pm (Doors open at 7.00pm).
  • Where: Right here at Welcome Church.
  • Tickets: Standard tickets are £11, with group discounts available at £8 each for 3 or more people.

They are also doing a special ‘flash-deal’ at the moment where you can bring a friend for free – see the booking page for details.

You can check out availability and secure your seats directly via the Eventbrite Booking Page.

Whether you decide to book a ticket or simply enjoy a quiet Thursday evening at home, please do join me in praying that everyone who walks through our doors next week leaves our building feeling deeply encouraged!

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Updates and Encouragements

This week I want to share some updates and encouragements from life at Welcome Church:

1. Giving for Turkey: a fantastic result

Sadly the recent earthquake in Turkey & Syria killed more than 50,000 people. We talked on Sunday 12th February about how you can give, through Welcome Church, to help churches in our wider church family who have been affected by this. Despite being severely affected themselves, they are serving those in need through the provision of food, clean water, blankets, tents and more, and we can give to help fund this work.

As a church we’ve given over £21,000 so far!

This is a fantastic result and a huge encouragement. Thanks to everyone who has given so far. It’s not too late for you to add to this amount. You can access our online giving portal by clicking here. Do make it clear that it’s for Turkey.

2. Mark Caldeira: confirmed start date

It was great to introduce Mark, Alverna and Skye in person on Sunday morning. Mark joins our staff team this month (find out more about him here) as a full time Operations Manager, and we’re excited for him to start.

They move to Woking on March 20th, and we’ve confirmed Mark will start work with us on Monday 27th March. It’s a big adventure to move to a new country and I’m sure they will face many challenges. Let me encourage us all to be on the front foot to welcome this family as they arrive and to show them our love and support.

3. Preaching: an old series ends and a new one begins

Our Transformed Through Jesus preaching series sadly came to an end on Sunday. I loved watching a brand new Welcome Story each week; they were all excellent. You can watch them all again now by following this link. Let me encourage you to catch up on any stories you missed, and also to share them with people you know, especially via social media.

This Sunday we start our exciting new series on John’s gospel. It will run all the way through to the end of August and cover chapters 1 to 12 of this excellent book of the Bible. Next week I’ll post links to some resources to accompany the new series.

4. Rob Parsons: speaking at Welcome Church

Many of us will be familiar with the well known Christian author and speaker Rob Parsons, who is also the founder of Care For The Family. Following publication of his most recent book, The Heart Of Communication, Rob is doing a UK speaking tour and we’re honoured that one of these dates will be at Welcome Church on Tuesday 21st March.

Rob has written more than twenty books and sold over a million copies in multiple languages. His latest book is aimed at helping people who do public speaking to do it better 😃. I know that many of us do this in a church context and also in our various work places, so this will be useful to lots of us.

Although not strictly a ‘Welcome Church event’, we wanted to let you know about it. You can find out more and book tickets (£10 each) by following this link.

Thanks for reading this blog. Don’t forget you can subscribe to get it straight to your inbox. I hope you’re having a great week.