Summer

Welcome Back

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

September is here and a new church year has begun – WELCOME BACK!

Despite it being a quieter time overall, lots of fun things happened over the summer including Newday (for the youth) and Commission Festival (for us all), and of course the final parts of our preaching series on the book of Exodus. I also heard about Life Groups having fun with BBQ’s and various trip to beaches and parks. Whatever you got up to I hope you had some time to relax.

Most of what’s coming up at church this term can be found in the new purple book that you can pick up on a Sunday morning, and it’s also all in the online diary on the website and in the ChurchSuite app, but I wanted to highlight three things as the new term begins:

1. Commission Festival

We had a fantastic time as a church this summer at Commission Festival. The weather was kind to us overall, and it was great chance to hang out together and spend time with people we often only see in passing on a Sunday. We cooked and ate together as a church this year, and the food was truly amazing, so I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who helped to make it happen. I loved the Karaoke and the Silent Disco and, although my team didn’t win this year, the Quiz Night was a lot of fun too.

On the more ‘spiritual’ side of things there were several helpful messages preached at the Festival, most especially by Ranjit from India, but for me the outstanding element of it all was the worship times, led in large part by our very own Jo and featuring a few other familiar faces too.

I want to say thank you to everyone who was there and, for those who couldn’t attend in person, I hope the live stream was useful.

At the end of the Festival we discovered that it won’t now be back until 2026 so, with that in mind, in 2025 we will be holding our very own…

… Welcome Church Big Weekend Away!

It will be held over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August so do put that weekend in your diary now. We’ve already booked a venue for this event, in The New Forest, and details on how to book your place will follow soon – watch this space.

2. Prayer Week

Next week will be our prayer week to kick off the new term, and all the details for getting involved with that are in the pictures below. Do join us for as much as you can – there’s no better way to start the new church year.

The week will culminate in a Prayer and Vision evening at 7pm next Sunday (15th September) so do join us if you can. We’ll be talking about all that’s coming up in the year ahead and sharing our hopes and aspirations for Welcome Church, all in a context of worship and prayer.

3. Loving People Towards Jesus

Our new preaching series is now also underway, and I’m looking forward to preaching part 2 this coming Sunday. To tie in with our prayer week I’ll be talking about The Power Of Prayer – so make sure you don’t miss it.

Outreach and evangelism is going to be a focus this term as we run up towards our Carol Services on Dec 15th. Let’s all get on board with what God is doing at Welcome Church – I’m looking forward to another great year together.

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Thankful For Another Year Of God’s Blessings

/ Steve Petch / 2 Comments

Most of the local schools finish on Thursday or Friday this week and the Summer Holidays begin. For those who are going away over the summer, I hope you have a great time and get to enjoy some sunshine and relaxation.

Church life seems to follow the school calendar, so in many ways July marks the end of the church year for us, although we do have both Newday and Commission Festival to come in August 🙂

We have so much to be grateful to God for as a church over the last year; so many reasons to be thankful. We also have a lot to look forward to in September and the year to come.

A Date For Your Diary

On Sunday 17th September at 7pm, we will have a ‘Prayer and Vision’ evening to kick off the new church year. This should help to bring everyone up to speed with what’s ahead as we share the plans, dreams and aspirations we have for the coming year, including any building news there is to share by then. Please put the date in your diary now, so you can be there.

Some thanks and some changes

You may have been with us recently when we marked changes in the leadership of some of our ministries. In case you missed it:

  • Nigel and Bren have finished leading our Sunday Welcome Teams, and Tony L has taken on the role going forwards
  • Marcus and Sharon have finished leading Brew Crew, which will now be led by Tarn and Cindy
  • Tanya E has finished leading Welcome Kids Juniors, with Jo M now taking on the mantle
  • Darren has now handed the leadership of Welcome Kids over to Harriet
  • Ben and Becca C have finished a very faithful season leading Welcome Youth into incredible growth and fruitfulness over several years. A new team has emerged for the future of Welcome Youth, with James H, Noah and Lucy, Ben and Lila, Lauren and Crispy all taking it forward together.

There are some changes in our Church Office team too:

  • Bruno (originally from Brazil) is about to finish his internship year and is off to university (in Oxford)
  • Juliet B (who used to live in Oxford) has finished her role as Comms Manager and is off to join Luke at Casa Cruzeira (in Brazil)

To all of these people we want to say a huge THANK YOU. All of them are greatly appreciated.

Life moves in seasons so it really is okay to change the areas we serve or lead in when the right time comes along, and don’t forget we’re looking to recruit for the vacant ‘comms’ position, so please feel free to get in touch about that.

Summer Socials

I enjoyed our Welcome Church summer social recently, with over 600 of us gathering for the summer picnic at West End. The sun shine and the ice cream van was certainly kept busy. Personally I enjoyed chatting with a number of people I haven’t had a chance to chat with before.

Additionally, on Tuesday evening this week, we gathered with our Eldership Team, Office Team (staff and volunteers), Strategic Leadership Team and Trustee Team for a Summer Social to say thanks for all they’ve done over the last year. James and Helen Heather hosted us really well, and it was great to be in a room of such faithful people (and for those who couldn’t make it, we missed you)

I hope you would want to join me in saying a big thank you to them all as well.

Summer Blogging

Thanks to all who take the time to read my blog week by week; I hope you find it helpful and informative about life in Welcome Church. Please do keep on praying for all we do as a church and for those who lead.

I’ll take a break from blogging over the summer now until Commission Festival at the end of August. Hope to see you there.