Welcome Church

Some Items For Prayer – July 2024

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

We would love you all to be praying for our church in the weeks ahead. Here are a few key items to pray for this summer:

Church Gate

The Gift Sundays have been great and it was wonderful to celebrate together in worship last week as we drew them to a close. It was a joy to see so many people taking part: people of all ages, and from so many of the different nationalities that make up our church; people who’ve been with us for many years and others who have just arrived. I loved it!

This Sunday we’ll announce the Gift Day results and, without saying too much, they are excellent once again. Don’t forget that it’s not too late to add your gift if you haven’t given yet – you can do that here. Why not step out in faith?

Please pray:

  • For great results from our Gift Days and for all the finance we need to deliver this project well to be released
  • For wisdom and insight during our meetings with the architect as he draws up the plans and helps to bring life and vision to the eventual layout of Church Gate, both inside and out. We’re working with the same company who designed the chapel – Plan A UK – and we’re excited to work with them once again.
  • For the grocery team as they look at the various requirements to fully deliver the Community Grocery and the new Welcome Cafe. There is a lot to consider, including legal issues, charity issues, finance issues and more, including some grant applications that we would love to come through

Welcome Youth

Welcome Youth will be off to the New Day Festival on July 29th, and this year they are taking around 90 young people with them. This is always a great event where our youth can connect with God and grow in their faith.

Please Pray:

  • For our youth team: they will be working very hard and usually come back both encouraged and exhausted
  • For the serving teams: they will be cooking food and helping with various practical issues to help free up the youth team to lead well
  • For the youth: that they meet with God and find a fresh sense of calling and that they grow in their identity in Christ
  • For the event itself: they have great speakers lined up this year and the worship is always high quality, but there’s lots more at Newday besides the main meetings. Please pray for the whole event to be safe, for the sun to shine and for the young people to meet with Jesus

Commission Festival

We’ll be off to the Commission Festival as a church over the bank Holiday weekend at the end of August (so no Sunday meetings at Welcome Church on August 25th!) If you haven’t booked in yet it’s not too late and you can do that here. Day tickets will also be available so do check them out if you can’t make the whole thing.

We’re taking a big group from Welcome Church again this year, and we’ll be camping together, eating together (food provided) and no doubt having a lot of fun in our marquee in the evenings (please bring ear plugs if like to go to bed early 🙂)

Please Pray

  • For Dub: he’s running a stream of seminars this year and will be speaking twice, with Christopher covering one of the slots too
  • For Jo: not only does she lead our worship team here, she’s leading the worship for the whole event. Reuben, Owen, Sophie and Paul from our team are also involved in worship this year, alongside people from various other Commission churches
  • For me: I’ll be anchoring all of the main meetings which is all about getting the right people in the right place at the right time and making sure they know what they are doing and stick to the programme! It’s an ‘invisible job’ so you won’t see me. If I get it right no one will notice anything I do; if I get wrong everyone will!
  • For Darren: he’s helping to organise the whole Festival, supporting Tom who is the Ops Manager for Commission. It’s a big responsibility and another invisible job.
  • For our team of chefs who are sorting out the food (too many names to mention)
  • For the weather: sunshine please
  • For each of us to encounter Jesus and grow in our faith
  • For our church to grow deeper in love and friendship with one another
  • For our children and young people to encounter Jesus
  • For all who are serving in various ways (another list too long to mention)
  • For the whole event to be fun, safe and successful

Thanks

Thanks in advance for your prayers. Don’t forget that Welcome Church is meeting every Sunday across the summer at 9am and 11am, except for the 25th August. This Sunday we’ll be back to our series on Exodus. Christopher is speaking and I’m looking forward to it.

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Church Gate: A Big Encouragement

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

The Sunday will be the second of two Gift Sundays towards our Church Gate building project. I wrote in a blog that I posted last week about our goal for all of us to participate; please do read it if you missed it. This week I want to share an encouragement:

Whilst preparing for last Sunday’s meetings I was searching for a certain document on my desktop. As I was searching I came across a forgotten document that I’d saved at some point in the past. It wasn’t what I was looking for and the title – ‘151017.doc’ – gave little away as to what it actually contained. I opened it to see what it was and it stopped me in my tracks.

The document contained the transcript of a prophetic word given to our church by Guy Miller (the leader of our Commission family of churches) on Sunday 15th October 2017, the day I was appointed as Lead Elder at Welcome Church. Viewing it now in light of our plans for Church Gate, a building to the east side of our current site where we will open the community grocery, the Welcome Cafe and more, I can only say “WOW!” This is what it said …

“I saw a house, a big old house. Some of the windows had been blocked in. Some of the rooms had not been used for a while.  The kitchen table had been covered over…

“I saw the builders coming and some of the old doors being knocked down. I could see … a sledge hammer knocking out a few doors. Suddenly light is pouring in, people are pouring in … around the kitchen table there weren’t 5 people, there was something like 100 around the kitchen table. I think food is going to be a big thing for the Church, feeding people, whether that is the word of God or actual physical food, I don’t know.

“I see a great big conservatory being built on the East side. It is where the sun is going to shine. It’s where it is going to bring people in and they are going to enjoy the sunshine of this group of people, knowing the love of God.

“The basement needs to be opened up. It’s all full of cobwebs and dusty things. There are things that are in your history and heritage that need to be brought into the light … things that God has spoken; promises; things you have seen before. God says, ‘I want you to bring them up and start using them for this day’.  

“There are many rooms. There are many people God is going to save; the poor, the needy, the nations are going to come. God says this house will be full. At the moment, you don’t have a full house … there are many, many people; well over a 1000 people; this church is going to grow to.

“This is just as a starter and you need to be reaching out saying its faith, not our effort. It’s not ‘our best shot’, its grace.“

I hope that like me you’re encouraged! I believe it confirms again that God is at work through this project and will provide all we need; He knew about it long before we did, and the timing is all in His hands – even the ‘completely by chance’ timing of me finding the document again. Be blessed!

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Church Gate: Gift Days

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This Sunday will be the first of two Gift Sundays for Church Gate, our new building. Church Gate is an amazing resource we’ve been entrusted with by God, and now we need to step up and fulfil our responsibility: we need to get it ready to serve our children, our youth and the many people who are in need across our town.

We talked all about this last Sunday, so if you missed what was said (or want to hear it again 🙂) please click below to listen:

I won’t talk in this blog about numbers and how much we’re looking to raise this time, instead I simply want to encourage participation by us all. Let’s each take some time to pray and ask God what he wants us to do, and then let’s step out in FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.

A Hand Up

By the way, if you don’t yet understand why the Foodbank in Woking is so busy and why what we are doing with Church Gate is so necessary for people in our town, check out this BBC news article. This is Woking. This is part of our town, and it’s not the only area with problems.

Let’s get the grocery and cafe done and let’s crack on with all the social action we’ll be building around them. God’s heart is for the poor, and I believe Jesus has lots of people he wants to reach through us as we give them “a hand up, not a hand out”.

Of course Church Gate is also going to be key for our children and our young people too. Let’s go for this together. When we look back in years to come it will be so good to be able to say, “I played my part in making that happen”. What a great investment in God’s kingdom!

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It’s Election Time: Help Needed Please!

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On Thursday July 4th the UK General Election is being held. We are a polling station for our local area, which means no one is allowed to enter the chapel that day except to vote. (We will be running week 2 of our scheduled “Belong, Believe, Become” course that evening as normal, and will talk to attendees about arrangements)

Help Needed!

The polling station is open from 7am ’til 10pm, and lots of people will come through our doors that day, many for the first time. These people are also our closest neighbours. We would love to live up to our name, Welcome Church, so we’d like to serve free tea, coffee and cakes in the front hall for anyone who turns up to vote.

This means we’re looking for some friendly, chatty, welcoming people, who have time available that day, to help us serve people and chat to them – what a great chance to connect with our neighbours! If you have a free hour or two and are happy to help, you can sign up for one hour time slots using this link here – and do feel free to sign up for more than one slot if that works for you. It would be great if we could cover the whole day between us 🙂

(One small point of clarity: we are not political as a church, and this is not a chance to lobby people on how they vote. This is about making friends and showing a true Welcome Church welcome)

Three Useful Election Resources

I mentioned the engaGE24 website a few weeks ago, a Christian website which has information about policies, video interviews with Christian MPs and more. They even have an ‘election quiz’, where you can find out which party’s policies you most align with by answering a series of questions.

If you’re still unsure who to vote for, here are links to two more great Christian resources. Like us, none of these resources will tell you which way to vote, but they are designed to help you think.

Firstly: in May, Jubilee Plus launched “Voting Like Jesus”. Jubilee Plus approach this from the point of view of caring for the poor, and base what they say around the call of Micah 6v8 to, “Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly” before God. The link above will take you to their website, where you can read it all through online or download a copy. We have a few hard copies available, but only a few, so do start with the website.

Secondly: the Christian Institute have launched Election Briefing 2024. This is an interactive website where you can view information by party or by issue, and see where the parties stand on whatever matters most to you. The Christian Institute’s focus is almost entirely on ethical and moral issues, viewed from a Biblical perspective. We have a few copies of their booklet available too, but you can download a PDF copy here.

Enjoy!

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Your Last Chance To View Church Gate

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The tours of our new building, Church Gate, have been very popular this last week, and it’s been great hearing all the feedback. Here’s a tiny selection of just a few of the comments made so far (we’ve been giving out feedback forms):

“The building is so much bigger than I expected – it just keeps on going!”

“I feel a real sense of peace looking round Church Gate, despite the work that now needs to be done. Having more room for age appropriate activities is something my kids will really enjoy.”

“It really is right next to our current church building! I feel like it’s an extension of our church. Parents can feel safe to drop the kids next door. All the plans are good but my favourite part is the Grocery and Welcome Cafe for the poor. We have God’s blessings and we know what to do. Church Gate will be a hope for many people!”

“As part of Welcome Youth the fact there will be loads of space for us is so great”

“I’m excited by the opportunity to really grow the social action aspect of what we do as a church – to go to the next level of caring for our community”

“As a parent I’m excited at the potential of a custom space for our children’s work”

“It excites me that there is such a clear, big vision for Church Gate.”

“The outdoor space will be a blessing for our youth“

“This is a key enabler for our growth as a church“

“I feel deeply emotional because I know that I will not be alive to see all that comes from this; future generations will be blessed and I get to sow into them today as others in the past have done for us. It does my heart and soul good.”

“The vision for this is great; a lot of lives will be blessed”

Wow! And that’s just a tiny selection of the comments made so far. If you haven’t booked a tour yet please be aware that this Saturday (15th) is your last chance because work will start as soon as possible. You can book onto a tour by clicking here.

By the way, we now have power inside Church Gate and the lights are on!

A Very Special Guest

I’m delighted that our friend Vinu Paul is over from India this coming week. Vinu leads the team that oversees the Commission Churches in India, and he also gives input to our team here at Welcome Church. He won’t be speaking for us on a Sunday during this trip because he’s mainly here for meetings with the Commission UK Team and will be needed elsewhere.

Whilst he’s here though, he will be meeting with our eldership team and will also be joining us for the 12pm Church Gate tour on Saturday. I reckon he’ll have travelled further than anyone else to see the new building … 🙂

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Welcome Youth Weekend Away – an update

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Last weekend, our amazing Youth team took 84 of our Welcome Youth to Runways End in Aldershot for a non-stop weekend of outdoor activities, teaching, craft, food, games, and worshipping God together.

Year 7–9 slept in dormitories in the main building (including the occasional vertigo-inducing triple bunk!) while Year 10–13 took the heated “camping pods” (more glamorous than they sound).

James, who heads up the youth team, says:

“Our memory verse for the weekend was,

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)

“In the talks, we looked at the catastrophic results of The Fall, and how the whole of creation has come under a curse, facing guilt and shame, death, and separation from God; but then we saw the wonder of what Jesus did for us on the cross, reversing the curse by taking it on himself, taking our guilt and shame, taking our death sentence, and being separated from his Father, so that the curse could be lifted from us. Finally we looked ahead to the new creation still to come, where guilt and shame are gone, there will be no more death, and we will be in God’s presence for ever.

“That gave us plenty to thank God for, so we spent time together worshipping him for his goodness, and praising him for reversing the curse by sending Jesus!

“Also we got big spiky hats and threw sausages at them.“

Here are some pics to capture a few highlights from the time away

We love our Youth!

We love seeing them each Friday evening and Sunday morning, but the weekend away is a rare opportunity to spend an extended period of time together, forging deeper relationships, and going deeper in our walk with Jesus.

Highlights from the team

We asked the youth team to give us their individual highlights from the weekend. This is what came back:

  • Ruby: “Cassie squeezing into a tiny wooden box to explain the Temple”
  • David: “Youth who initially didn’t want to get their clothes muddy literally rolling around in the mud to steal a beanbag”
  • Ben: “Michael telling Euan to turn his alarm off”
  • Zac: “Going round bashing pots and pans to wake them all up”
  • Lucy: “Watching one of the Youth praying for another”
  • Chioma: “Arielle reciting the memory verse by heart, and then carrying on and reciting the bit we hadn’t even learnt”
  • Crispy: “Half of the youth not knowing how to put a new bin bag in a bin”

Thanks & Prayer

I want to say a big THANK YOU to our youth leaders for putting this event on, and for all the time and effort they put in to it. Parents, please do say your own thank you’s too

Let’s all be praying for good fruit to come from this time away together

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Christians Against Poverty PR Day

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On Monday 29th January, Christians Against Poverty (CAP) joined us at our Welcome Cafe to hold a ‘PR day’ for the excellent work that CAP do to help release people from debt. The day was a great chance for them to promote what they do, working with churches across the country – including ours.

As a church we love to work with CAP and currently provide Debt Counselling, the Money Course, the Life Skills course, and a Job Club, and of course there is our Welcome Cafe each Monday. If you want to read more about what we do to serve our town, including our CAP services, please follow this link here. If you want to get involved or access a service for yourself please drop an email to connect@welcomechurch.uk

The output from the day is now starting to appear in the media, so I wanted to share a couple of links where you can see some of what went on or read about it. Welcome Church features quite strongly. Enjoy:

Here’s a link to an article from The Church Times

Here’s an article from Woking News and Mail

Here’s a link to a great video on Facebook

Here are some pics from the day:

I want to take this chance to say “thank you” to everyone who’s involved in delivering these ministries at Welcome Church. Why not get involved yourself?

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Some Welcome Church Updates – Jan 2024

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Here are a few updates about what’s been going on at Welcome Church recently:

Solar Panels

Solar Panels have now been installed across the roof of the Chapel and have been up and running since Wednesday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon we could see that they were powering the whole of the chapel (although it was a ‘low demand’ time) as well as powering all of the heating in the front building and the offices. They were also selling power back to the grid.

Darren (our Ops Director) tells me he’s had a greater number of questions from people about the solar panels than about anything else we’ve done since the pandemic so, if you have any more questions, I just know he’ll be really glad to hear from you 😉

Before
After

Big thanks to Pierre for the before and after photos taken from his flat in The Marches.

Sundays

Sunday numbers have grown again this term with a significant increase over January 2023. Our 11am meeting is feeling quite full, so we’re looking at what steps we can take to seat people more efficiently and maximise the room that we have available – watch this space. The 9am meeting is also growing in size, but does still have a bit more space than 11am so, if you want a slightly less crowded environment, easier parking, the best selection of pastries and an earlier finish, do consider moving to the 9am meeting – no pressure, but perhaps a good option for some people.

Elders Week Away

Our Elders week away went really well, and we appreciate all who prayed for us during that time.

We covered a lot of ground together and came away encouraged, and with a plan for seven specific areas of church life that we want to focus on over the next two years. I won’t list those here today because we will now take time to reflect, pray and refine things a little first, but I may come back to this in a subsequent blog.

Church Gate

Last week CAF Bank did their valuation on our site for the new mortgage, which brought us another step closer to getting the keys to Church Gate. We expect that we will soon be in a position for our solicitor to proceed to exchange and completion.

Alpha & Alpha Plus

Our Alpha course has been underway since the start of January, with more than 20 guests in regular attendance. This week we also launched Alpha Plus, which is for people who have completed Alpha and want to explore things further. This launched on Wednesday with more than 30 guests. Please pray for both of these courses: that people have a great time, that they keep coming along and that they encounter Jesus for themselves.

COMING SOON: The Commission Leadership Conference

One last thing I want to mention is the Commission Leadership Conference, which is coming up at the end of February (Wed 28th Feb to Fri 1st Mar).

This event (not to be confused with The Commission Festival in August) is for anyone in a Commission church who holds a leadership position of any kind, inside or outside the church – if you lead anything at all you’re invited!

The theme this year is ‘Leading Like Jesus’. We’ll be learning from the characteristics of Jesus’ ministry and in particular his example of serving and shepherding. The conference will be about inspiring us to lead with humility and courage, remembering that Jesus came to serve, not to be served. Speakers this year include Rico Tice and Michael Reeves(two of my personal favourites). I’ll be leading a seminar at some point myself too, as will Darren.

This event runs during term time on a Wednesday to a Friday, and it’s in Bournemouth, so I appreciate it won’t be accessible to everyone, but we wanted to highlight it for anyone who is interested and available. It costs £65 to book for the three days, and day tickets and an online option are also available. You would also need to factor in travel, meals and perhaps a hotel.

The Welcome Church Office Team will be in attendance, along with some from our Eldership Team, and if you want to be there too then you can book using this link. Do please let us know if you book so that we can look out for you at the event. We will aim to have dinner together on one of the evenings too.

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Welcome Church is going Solar Powered!

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Last year as a church we received an Eco Church Award which we were really pleased to get. Christopher also preached about the importance of being Faithful With Our Planet during our autumn preaching series.

We’re now delighted to announce that next week we’re having Solar Panels fitted across the south facing roof of the chapel. Scaffolding will be up from Monday 15th to Friday 19th for this to be done, so if you see it and wonder what’s going on, now you know. If all the work goes according to schedule, the scaffolding will be gone before the following Sunday meeting.

Your Fund Surrey

One really exciting piece of news about these solar panels is that, not only will they save us money and burn less fossil fuels, but we haven’t even had to pay for them. The entire installation has been funded by Your Fund Surrey.

Big thanks go to Uti from our Office Team for making this happen and also to Lance Spencer, who sits on Surrey County Council, for his guidance, his drive and his assistance.

Week away

One last thing: please pray for us next week as we have our Eldership Team week away. We’ll be away together from Sunday afternoon until Thursday evening to pray for the church and seek God for his direction for the future. These times, which we’ve often done at the start of a year, have always been very significant for where we go as a church. Do please pray for us all.

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Happy New Year

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I hope you had a relaxing Christmas season and that 2024 has started off well.

It’s been great to kick off this year as a church with a week of prayer. If you haven’t made it to any of the meetings so far it’s not too late to join in – details are all in the image below. The week of prayer is for anyone who says that Welcome Church is their church, so do count yourself IN and get involved – even if you don’t really know how to pray! This is a great place to start and learn.

The meetings have been excellent so far with a real sense of God speaking to us. I’m especially looking forward to Sunday evening:

Reset Your Life

Our New Year preaching series starts this Sunday (7th Jan) so make sure you don’t miss it! It’s called Reset Your Life and is based in The Lord’s Prayer. It’s a great opportunity to invite friends to church, especially people who came to the Carol Service. See you there.

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