Welcome Church

Christmas At Welcome Church

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

Christmas is just over a month away now, and bookings for our “Carol Service For Woking” opened last Sunday morning. The tickets (which are free!) are going very fast— even faster than last year—so please don’t leave it too long to book, or you may miss out on your first choice of when to attend.

Here’s a summary of our plans as a church over Christmas and New Year 2025/26:

Sundays 23rd & 30th November and 7th December: Our Christmas Preaching Series

Our Christmas Preaching Series starts this Sunday at our 9am and 11am meetings. I’ll be kicking the series off myself. I won’t be giving any spoilers here, but we’re going to have some fun together, so make sure you don’t miss what will be this year’s number-one series!

Sunday 14th December: A Carol Service For Woking

We’re holding four services across the day at 11am, 2pm, 4.30pm, and 7pm. Come and enjoy singing your favourite carols, followed by free mulled wine and mince pies.

Children up to school year 4 are invited to join our free Kids’ Christmas Parties, which will run alongside the 11am, 2pm, and 4.30pm services.

Booking is essential for all adults’ and children’s tickets, and be warned that we are likely to be sold out again this year. Don’t delay— – Click here to book

Remember: this is a great opportunity to invite your friends, family, neighbours, and colleagues—there is no easier invitation to church than to our Carol Services.

Sunday 21st December: An All Age Christmas Celebration

We’ll be meeting at 9am and 11am for an all-age celebration of Christmas. Instead of our usual Welcome Kids and Welcome Youth groups, we’ll all be meeting together for a whole lot of noisy fun and games as we celebrate Christmas as a church family and worship Jesus together.

Each meeting will be roughly one hour long, and we’ll start and finish with refreshments as usual.

Thursday 25th December: Christmas Day Online

This year, to make sure there’s room for everyone who wants to attend, we’ll be taking Christmas Day online. (Don’t forget, the 21st December is our in person all age celebration)

Join us on Christmas Day at 10am, at WelcomeChurch.Online, for a short time together with Christmas carols and an accessible Christmas message. It will be a great way to mark Jesus’ birthday together as a church, and we’ll all be able to join in and connect via the online chat feature.

Sunday 28th December: No Meeting!

There is no meeting planned for Sunday 28th December, but instead…

Wednesday 31st December: Crossover ’26

After an amazing Crossover Night from 2024 into 2025, we are coming together again on 31st December to celebrate all that God has done and all He’s going to do in 2026.

Join us as we celebrate God’s faithfulness over the last year and ask for God’s favour as we Crossover into 2026! Together we will praise, pray, and party! It’s a lot of fun—so don’t miss it.

We’ll be joined by a brilliant guest speaker this year, Pastor Chris Kimbangi from Hope Church, Guildford. (I knew him back when he was just a student in Chichester…)

This event is likely to fill up fast, so please book your FREE ticket to reserve your place, and let’s welcome in the New Year in faith and in style! Click here to book

Anything Else?

A few other things you may want to be aware of:

  • The church offices will be closed from Wednesday 24th December through to Thursday 1st January
  • Welcome Youth have their final meeting before Christmas on Friday 12th December, returning on Friday 16th January
  • Our Welcome Tots groups finish on Wednesday 10th and Friday 12th December, returning on 7th and 9th January respectively
  • Welcome Café will open for the last time this year on Monday 15th December, returning on Monday 5th January
  • Our Sunday meetings will return to their usual pattern from Sunday 4th January, and we have a great new series lined up for the New Year too
  • 21 Days of Prayer kicks off on Monday 5th January—more details will follow in a separate blog nearer the time

Stay connected with everything happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog for weekly updates sent straight to your inbox

Church Gate – a progress update

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Here’s a brief update about our progress with the redevelopment of Church Gate.

The work has now begun, and we’re looking forward to seeing the Community Grocery take shape on the ground floor, alongside space for our Welcome Kids and Welcome Youth on the upper floors.

Progress report

At 9am on Monday, 8th September, we handed over the keys to Church Gate to O&D (the contractor undertaking the work, who also built The Chapel for us), and the refurbishment officially began. The building is now a construction site, and no one should attempt to enter it!

The first week was mainly taken up with site preparation, the most visible sign being the fencing that appeared around the site. We did have a memorable moment when someone (not from our church!) moved the fencing overnight to park their car… the builders were less than impressed! That won’t be happening again now that the fencing is fully secured.

Here’s a rough outline of the works timeline for the first few weeks:

  • w/c 8th September: Set up the site; secure the site with fencing and signage; decommission and make safe the existing external ‘condenser’ units (part of the old heating system)
  • w/c 15th September: Erect timber hoardings and gates at the front of the site; commence scaffolding works – you can see from the pic that this has now been done
  • w/c 22nd September: Complete scaffolding works up to roof level
  • w/c 29th September: Begin roofing works
  • w/c 13th October: Start internal strip out
  • w/c 28th November: Scaffolding comes down

Further updates will follow as we have them, but for now the planned completion date is Monday, 23rd February. This is, of course, subject to the usual range of potential complexities and delays—so watch this space for more news in the weeks ahead.

Stay connected with everything happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog for weekly updates sent straight to your inbox

September Updates

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Here are a few Welcome Church updates for September:

The work on Church Gate has begun!

It’s taken a little longer than we hoped to get started (due to a range of circumstances, mostly beyond our control), but the builders are now here and the redevelopment of Church Gate is underway!

Yesterday and today we’ve seen fences go up around the site, and I’ve heard plenty of crashing and banging, so something is definitely happening. We expect the work to be finished around February.

A couple of key things to remember:

  • Church Gate is now a building site. No one should enter the building without both a hard hat and permission from the developers.
  • No parking at the front of Church Gate. Access is needed by the builders at all times, and cars may be towed if they’re in the way.

Church Life Is Back in Full Swing

Life Groups are meeting again, Welcome Youth is restarting, and on Sunday evening we’ll gather for our first Prayer Meeting of the semester. Alpha will be starting soon, and both Welcome Café and Welcome Tots are back too.

Last Sunday, Terry Virgo joined us as a guest speaker. If you missed it, you can listen to his excellent talk (please click here for the video; a podcast is available too)

Our Sunday morning attendance has grown compared to last September as well, and if you find the 11am service a little too full, there’s usually more space at 9am.

A New Preaching Series

This Sunday we begin our new preaching series: “True Religion.” Together we’ll explore God’s call to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8).

The title is inspired by James 1:27:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

I’m looking forward to Chris kicking the series off this Sunday. I’ll be speaking in week two, and along the way we’ll also hear from a variety of voices, including two excellent guest speakers:

  • Andy Hawthorne (The Message Trust) – 28th September
  • Howard Satterthwaite (Open Doors) – 2nd November

It’s shaping up to be an excellent series – don’t miss it!

Staff Team

The Church Office team is back in full swing this week, and we’re delighted to welcome Stephen Dawson, who has now started his role with us as Associate Pastor. He’s been a delight to have so far, and is already making a huge difference in what we can do together as a church.

Do look out for Stephen and Emma on Sundays, and please make them feel welcome!

Stay connected with everything happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog for weekly updates sent straight to your inbox

Introducing… Stephen and Emma Dawson

/ Steve Petch / 2 Comments

A while ago we began the search for a new ‘Pastoral Care Lead’ for Welcome Church, and I’m delighted to announce that we’ve filled the position… and then some!

We had a lot of interest, but in the end one person stood out from the others: Stephen Dawson.

Stephen has spent the last 17 years on staff at Emmanuel Church Brighton, who are part of our wider Newfrontiers family of churches. In his time at Emmanuel Church he’s led youth and kids work, planted and led different sites (they are a multi-site church), and has been part of their church eldership team. He also led the whole church for a season during a leadership transition.

Stephen is passionate about pastoral care, building authentic community, and equipping people to grow in their faith and calling. Until recently, he was part of the Newday Festival team, leading the 12-14’s age group for several years. Apparently he’s also a fan of motorcycles, honest conversation, and a good plate of chicken wings.

Emma is also going to be a huge blessing to our church – she has so many gifts of her own to contribute and I know we’ll be delighted to have her here. Among other things, Emma loves creating a home where people feel truly welcome and supported. She’s supported many mums through early parenting, and has been running groups, writing, and blogging at One Pink Toothbrush. She also helps run a family landscaping business, and is known for her colourful shoes, bold earrings, and generous heart.

Stephen and Emma have both lived in Brighton for 25 years. They got married 22 years ago and have six children: one got married last year, another is getting married soon, and a third is about to embark on a year elsewhere, so only three of the six children will be coming with them to Woking initially.

Stephen and Emma are a genuinely lovely couple, and I know they’ll bring us a lot of warmth and faith. They carry a deep love for people and have chosen to live missionally, in a council estate community in Brighton, impacting many lives there and elsewhere. They’re now very excited to be part of what God is doing here at Welcome Church as we move into the future.

What’s next?

Stephen and Emma, plus three kids, will be joining us for the Welcome Church Big Weekend Away at the end of August (do book in if you haven’t already). Stephen’s also going to be preaching for us on Sunday 27th July as part of our Romans series – don’t miss it!

Stephen will join our staff team from the start of September. He comes with a lot of skill and experience suited to a large, growing church, and his role here will be a lot more than just pastoral care. He’ll be leading the Pastoral Care Team, but he’ll also be picking up Life Groups, mid-week church life, and almost certainly the oversight of Welcome Kids and Welcome Youth at the right moment too – and maybe a whole lot more. We’ve decided on the job title of ‘Associate Pastor’ – for now – we may change that at some point down the line.

In the meantime they have a house for sale in Brighton and are looking to buy one here in Woking. Please pray this all moves forward quickly, and also that the relocation goes smoothly, and they find all the school places they need for September. And please pray for the whole family at this time of huge change and transition for them all.

Stay connected with everything happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog for weekly updates sent straight to your inbox

Creation Groans – And So Do We

/ Steve Petch / 2 Comments

Last Sunday, we looked together at the rich and deeply challenging words of Romans 8 (if you missed it you can click here to watch or listen). My focus was on suffering, and the amazing hope we have as children of God, but as I studied the passage I was struck again by something else woven through Paul’s words: creation itself is caught up in this great drama of redemption.

Paul writes that “creation was subjected to frustration…in hope that it will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20–21).

Creation is groaning. Waiting. Longing. Just like us.

Romans 8 includes a powerful reminder that the gospel is not only about our personal salvation; God’s plan is to redeem all things. He made the world and called it very good (Genesis 1:31). Psalm 104 is a beautiful song of praise that lingers over the wonder and detail of God’s handiwork in nature. And yet, because of human sin, creation too has been broken, frustrated, and subjected to decay.

We see this brokenness all around us – in news of droughts, floods, pollution, species loss, or even just in the exhaustion of land and sea. And sadly, the people who suffer most from environmental damage are often the poorest and most vulnerable.

This isn’t just a political or scientific issue; it’s a gospel one. This is about loving what God loves, caring for our neighbour, and longing for the full redemption of all things.

This is really a worship issue.

So what can we do as a church?

One simple step is to pray! Here are a few ideas you could use personally or in your Life Group:

  • Praise God for His amazing creation – maybe take a moment to read Psalm 104 and thank Him
  • Pray for those most vulnerable to environmental damage, especially in parts of the world where many in our church family have their roots
  • If you sponsor a child through Compassion UK or another charity, pray for their country. For example, in Togo where I know many of us sponsor children, climate-related issues regularly disrupt lives. Here’s a link with specific information about the positive impact we’re having as a church by partnering with Compassion – please do check it out
  • Pray for governments and leaders making key decisions about the environment – for wisdom, courage, and justice. This includes policies here in the UK, as well as global agreements like the UN Biodiversity Convention (supported by The World Evangelical Alliance and also by Tearfund)
  • Thank God that one day, creation itself will be set free and made new; it means that we live in hope of the future restoration and renewal of all things

An Eco Church

As a church, we’re taking some small but deliberate steps to live this out too. Thanks to the hard work of Helen and others, we’ve already received a Bronze Eco Church Award—and we’re now well on the way towards Silver. If you’d like to be part of this or just want to learn bit more, please do get in touch with Helen directly.

Romans 8 reminds us that creation groans, but it also reminds us that this groaning is not the end of the story. One day, the whole world will be renewed. It will be liberated into the glory of God’s coming kingdom. Until then, we wait, we pray, and we care – for creation, for one another, and for the world around us.

Stay connected with everything happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog for weekly updates sent straight to your inbox

Welcome Church Kids Weekend Away – Update

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At the beginning of May, children from School Years 4, 5 and 6 gathered at Walton Firs for our annual Welcome Kids Weekend Away.

Harriet wrote an encouraging update for us:

“The weekend away is always a wonderful occasion, where children spend time getting to know each other, getting to know the leaders and, most importantly, getting to know God. All the children left on Sunday very tired, but excited to share with their families the wonderful time they’d had.

“This year our learning focused on Psalm 23, and the characteristics of God. Inspired by these words, the children were encouraged to write their own Psalms which not only moved the leaders but also encouraged other children. Many of these Psalms were shared during our worship time which was truly wonderful.

“As well as our meetings, we also had a time each morning where we would gather as a group and delve into God’s Word. Our ‘Start the Day with Jesus’ session is one way we try to encourage our children to learn about spending time with God, equipping them for their own walk with Jesus.

Activities

“At Walton Firs, we are incredibly lucky to have a wide range of activities that the children can take part in. This year, we saw them climbing high ropes, stacking crates, completing obstacle courses (blindfolded!) and for the first time ever competing against each other to build structures that can withstand the weight of their team. On our first evening, we had a campfire, sang songs and toasted marshmallows. On our second evening the children danced the night away at our silent disco.

“As always, the children behaved brilliantly, and fully immersed themselves in all the different activities on offer. One of the best things for me was seeing them fully engaging in worship and coming up to share their own prayers.

It Takes a Team

“The Kids Weekend Away wouldn’t happen without an amazing team of servers who volunteer their time and encourage the children in developing friendships, sleeping away from home, pushing themselves in activities, and worshipping God & reading His Word. As a church we’re blessed to have such a wonderful group of servers who give up their time for this annual weekend. (And by the way, if you’d like to get involved in serving Welcome Kids, do let us know!)

“Finally, a huge thank you to all the parents and carers who brought delicious cakes for us to share across the weekend—these are definitely a highlight, not just for the children but for the leaders as well!“

A Big Thank You

On behalf of the whole Welcome Church team I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who put in their time and effort to make the event happen. What a blessing to have this event available for our kids.

I’ve added some photos of the event to give you a feel for what went on:

Save the date

Our Kids Weekend Away happens every year, so if your child will be in School Years 4, 5 or 6 in September 2025, make sure you save the date. Next year’s dates are: 22nd–24th May 2026. Booking details will be available nearer the time.

Feel Like You Missed Out?

If you feel like you missed out, or just wish you were young enough (or old enough) to go yourself, don’t forget that our Welcome Church Big Weekend Away takes place in August this year, at Braggers Wood in the New Forest, and that’s an event for all ages. All the details you need for booking can be found by clicking here. We still have a few places left, but don’t leave it too late to book!

Stay connected with everything happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog for weekly updates sent straight to your inbox

For Your Prayers – April 2025

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Hello Welcome Church!

Here are a few key things we would love you to be praying for this month. They are all key to the life of our church:

Go 9

We’ve talked several times about our Go 9 initiative, so I won’t repeat the details here – if you don’t know what Go 9 is, or are looking for more information please click here.

The deadline for people to let us know they’ll be moving to the 9am service is Easter Sunday, 20th April. Remember: this is all about our mission to Woking, and about making room for future growth

Please be praying for God to speak to people clearly about this move, maybe even to yourself!

Pastoral Lead Job

As you’ll be aware, we’re recruiting a new Pastoral Lead for Welcome Church – if you missed the information click here for details.

The deadline for applications was last Friday, and we’re now in a process of working through to the next stage. We’ll share more information when we’re ready to do that, but please be reassured that the process is ongoing.

Please be praying for wisdom and for God’s guidance for all who are involved in the process, and for all who have applied – we want to find God’s person for this role.

Church Gate

Our Church Gate project (click here for information) is continuing to move forward, and over the last two weeks a number of contractors have been on site as part of preparing their quotes for the work to be done. These quotes will be coming in over the month ahead.

Please be praying that we get some great quotes, and for wisdom to pick the best possible contractor so that the work is done well and delivered on/ahead of time and on/under budget.

Community Grocery Grants

The grant team are continuing to apply for various grants to help fund the Community Grocery set up, and also some to help with the ongoing running costs. There is a lot of excellent work being done by this team.

Please be praying for successful applications, and for the release of lots of finance.

Guest Speaker

This Sunday Natalie Williams, who leads Jubilee+, will be preaching for us. Jubilee+ is a UK-based Christian charity, dedicated to equipping churches to effectively support and transform the lives of those experiencing poverty in their local community. They provide resources and training to empower churches to integrate mercy, justice and community renewal into their outreach plans.

Natalie is a gifted speaker and author, and we’re blessed to have her with us – especially as we work towards the launch of our Community Grocery in the autumn.

Please be praying for a great meeting on Sunday and for God to speak to us powerfully as a church and as individuals, laying in a great foundation for the future of all we do.

Easter Services

We have two big moments over the Easter weekend:

Good Friday, 6pm to 7.30pm: We’ll have an evening of extended worship, with a short talk, and we’ll also take communion together. Kids are welcome, though please be aware that there won’t be any separate groups for them, so we’ll be worshipping together as families.

Easter Sunday, 9am and 11am: Easter is one of those great moments in the year: it’s joyful, meaningful, and accessible, and it’s a brilliant time to invite someone to church. I want to encourage you to think especially about people who perhaps used to be part of church life and have drifted away, although this is definitely an invitation suitable for everyone.

This coming week is a natural moment to extend that invitation – gently, thoughtfully – and we’ve got invitation cards available to help with that, if you’d like them – you can pick them up on Sunday.

Please be praying for many guests to join us on Easter Sunday and for God’s wisdom about who YOU could invite. Please also pray that the presence of God is all over everything we do.

Please Pray For All Of These Things!

We believe in a God who answers prayer, so please bring these requests before God. And lastly, here’s a quick reminder that we’ll be gathering in person to pray on Sunday 11th May at Welcome Church from 6pm to 7pm – please put that in your diary now.

Stay connected with everything happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog for weekly updates sent straight to your inbox

Church Gate – latest updates and prayer requests

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Our plans for Church Gate are continuing to move forward. In case anyone is unsure, Church Gate is the three storey office block next door to our current site. We’ve bought it and are in process of redeveloping it for use as a Social Action Hub with a Community Grocery on the ground floor, and also to serve our Children’s and Youth work each week too.

This week an inspection of the roof was carried out, so I took the opportunity to take a closer look myself – courtesy of the cherry picker. Well… why not?

For clarity, I don’t know much about roofing but I enjoyed the ride despite an innate fear of heights. I also took note of how much higher the cherry picker at the Hilton Hotel behind me was – I don’t think that’s a job for me!

Progress Update

In terms of a progress update, things continue to move forward on track:

  • Various building surveys have been carried out (such as the one on the roof)
  • Some grant applications have been submitted. Benefact Trust came back very quickly with a grant of £80,000, and we are now waiting to hear back from some others, including our biggest application which is to Your Fund Surrey
  • The floor layouts have been finalised
  • The architects drawings are in
  • Planning Permission for a new entrance has been submitted, and we expect to hear back during April (we are not expecting this to be a problem)
  • A thorough refurbishment of the lift has been commissioned
  • Various other quotes are coming in
  • The main part of the project is going out to tender next week, with quotes expected during April, and building work expected to begin over the summer for completion during the autumn
  • The Grocery team are in process of finalising an agreement with The Message Trust who we will be working with for the grocery
  • Outstanding Gift Day pledges continue to be fulfilled, alongside a few extra gifts too – so a big thank you for that. By the way, it’s still not too late to give to this amazing project!

In summary, things are moving ahead well and I’m looking forward to seeing the hoardings go up and the building work begin.

Prayer requests

Please be praying about this project as it goes ahead. Here are some specific prayer requests:

  • For a simple ‘YES’ to our planning application. As I said above, we’re not expecting any issues, but let’s not be complacent
  • For the release of significant grant funding, especially from Your Fund Surrey
  • For good quotes for the work to be done, with prices we are happy to pay
  • For wisdom as we pick the best main contractor to work with
  • For a great relationship to be formed with The Message Trust
  • For the whole Grocery Team – especially Helen who will be leading a lot of this through in the months ahead
  • For God to release all the finance we need to do this well
  • For no unexpected surprises – talking of which…

What about the state of the roof?

We knew there were a couple of leaks from the roof when we bought the building, and this week was the moment the situation was assessed properly. The outcome was not as positive as our best hopes, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been either.

In summary, repairs are needed to the flashing around the gutters, and some of the metal panels you can see from below need to be replaced or overlaid too. It’s a bit more work than we’d hoped for, but not outside our range of expectations, and with what we’d seen inside it could have been a whole lot worse.

We can’t call this an unexpected surprise, since we knew this was a real possibility from the start, but please be praying that there are no unexpected extras across the rest of the project as the work goes forward.

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Time To Have Your Say

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Hello! It’s Dub Everitt here, Outreach Pastor at Welcome Church, and I’m excited to be guest-writing Steve’s blog this week!

I want to update you on the renovation of our new building – the ‘Church Gate’ office block – and invite you to take action today to help make a huge difference in our community.

An Incredible Journey So Far

Many of you played a vital role in our gift days in November 2023 and June 2024, helping us raise an incredible £2 million toward the £3 million purchase of Church Gate, which we completed (with the help of a mortgage!) in May 2024. Of the money given so far, £400,000 has been set aside towards the renovation costs.

One of the key ways we’ll use this space is to launch a Community Grocery – a project that will provide affordable food and essential support services to those who need it most.

What Is A Community Grocery?

A Community Grocery is a ‘social supermarket’ designed to help families struggling with the cost of living. It’s an initiative founded by The Message Trust in Manchester, offering deeply discounted food while preserving dignity and choice for members, who can select the items they need to best support themselves.

For just £5 per year, people can sign up for membership, and then they can shop for between £5 and £12.50 a week, saving up to £50 per week—that’s £2,500 a year!

But it’s more than just groceries. Members can also connect to our other initiatives such as debt advice, money coaching, cooking courses, mental health & wellbeing groups, job clubs, and more. In 2024, we helped 169 individuals through these services, and this new space will allow us to expand our impact to reach 1,000 grocery members in our first year.

This is a project that will change lives in our community.

Where Are We Now?

We’ve been working closely with our architects, Plan A – the same team who were behind the design of our chapel, which we opened in 2020. The renovation plans for Church Gate are now complete, and the costs for redevelopment and for fitting out the building have been estimated at £1.2 million.

We have the first £400,000, and we’re now working hard to secure the remaining £800,000 through grants. If all goes to plan, we’ll start construction in June or July and open the doors before the end of the year.

It’s Time To Ask For Your Support!

We recently submitted our first grant application to a Christian Grant Funder, and the feedback was amazing:

“Hi Dub, just to let you know I’ve read your draft and it’s EXCELLENT! Honestly, brilliant. I have no doubt our trustees will want to make a contribution. I wanted to congratulate you on such a well-planned project that is clearly going to change (and probably save) lives.”

This funder will confirm their decision by mid-February, so let’s be praying for a positive outcome!

The largest grant we’re applying for is £497,000 from Your Fund Surrey, part of Surrey County Council. We’ve had great conversations with their team, and we’re preparing our application ahead of the February 28th deadline.

But we now need your help to get it across the line.

Here’s Your Call To Action!

To help our application to succeed, we need to show strong local support – and that’s where YOU come in. We are now looking to gain at least 1,000 comments on Surrey County Council’s “Have Your Say” webpage to demonstrate how much our community supports this project.

At the time of writing, we have 692 comments, which means we still need 308 more.

Can you take 2 minutes to help?

If so, it’s very quick and easy to do, and fairly self-explanatory. Here are the four steps:

1. Click on this link to go through to the Have Your Say webpage

2. Hit the big smiley face on the page.

3. Leave a short comment about why you support the Community Grocery and any other comments you may want to make, and then add your email address when prompted to do so

4. Check your e-mails for a link to click on to confirm that the comments you made are yours. If the link doesn’t arrive do check your junk box too

That’s it—you’ll be done before your kettle boils!

Your endorsement, along with others, could help to secure nearly £500,000 to support people in need across our town.

One Last Thing: Please Spread the Word!

Once you’ve shared your comment, please pass the link to the Have Your Say webpage on to others: to your friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, or anyone who cares about making a difference in our community. Please feel free to share it on your social media feeds too.

The more people we can get behind this, the greater the impact we can have together.

Thanks in advance for all your help

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Welcome Church Staff Team Updates

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

Happy New Year!

I know it’s a bit late to say it, but this is my first Welcome Church blog post of 2025! Thanks for reading this far 🙂

We had a great Christmas and New Year season at Welcome Church. I talked about our Carol Services in a previous post, and this year we also introduced a Watchnight Celebration as a brand new event on New Year’s Eve. It was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to next year already. Put it in your diary now!

New Year’s Eve at Welcome Church

Staff Team Updates

We have some important changes happening within our church staff team this year.

As the church grows, so do the demands on our team, and we’ve certainly felt the strain of being understaffed in 2024. If you haven’t worked for a church I know it’s hard to imagine what people do all day, but believe me: we are incredibly busy.

For clarity, Welcome Church has more than doubled in size since I arrived 7 years ago, but the employed team is smaller now than it was back then. Everyone is running flat out, and we’ve only survived thanks to some very kind and committed office volunteers who we appreciate so much.

I’d like to share four updates:

First: Jonathan and Sabrina – Leadership Trainees

Jonathan and Sabrina’s time with us will come to an end in June this year, giving us roughly five more months to enjoy and appreciate their contribution. They’re currently praying about their next steps, which are complicated by some VISA challenges. Let’s support them in prayer as they seek God’s will for the future.

Second: Dean – Pastoral Care

Dean, one of our elders, has been working full-time on staff for more than 10 years now. Starting from January 20th, he’ll reduce his hours to three days a week, returning to his passion for architecture on the other two days. In time, he may step out of his staff role entirely. This creates a gap in pastoral care that we’ll need to address.

These first two changes further stretch an already understaffed team. Recruitment will be essential this year, and details on that will follow at the right time. Watch this space 😮

Third: Organisational Leadership

To help the church thrive into the future, we need to strengthen our organisational leadership, which is all about how we steward and align all of our resources to fulfil our vision effectively. This will require some big-picture thinking and also some adjustments to some of our policies, procedures, and ways of working.

To address this, after discussions with the Eldership Team and Trustees, I’ve invited Robin W to step into a new role on an interim basis. Starting immediately, Robin will work two days a week over the next year, focusing on reshaping our organisational leadership. His work will also help us define the future shape of the staff team and help to refine how we operate as a growing church. Part of Robin’s success will be that he replaces himself at the right time and steps back out of the role.

This is an unexpected but exciting step for Robin, and he feels God has been leading him to this role for a while now. I’m eager to make the most of this opportunity to prepare us for the future. It also means he’s stepping back from being a Trustee for the next season. In a business this role might get called Chief Administrative Office, but as a church we’re giving it the title ‘Executive Pastor’ – which leads into the fourth update…

Fourth: Christopher Hawes – New Job Title

Christopher has held the title Executive Pastor for a couple of years, although his role was very different from the one Robin will be taking on and we used the title in a completely different way. To better reflect his actual responsibilities, Christopher’s new job title will now be Teaching Pastor. While his job role remains unchanged, we feel this title better captures his primary focus, and he’s fully supportive of the change.

More changes to come

These are the first four changes for 2025, and several more will follow as we seek to grow and strengthen the staff team. Let’s all show our love and support to each of these individuals as they step into what God has both for them and for our church in this new season.

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