Welcome Church

Carol Services and Christmas Plans

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

I hope you enjoyed our Carol Services as much as I did. I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped them go so well!

Here are a few pics to give a feel for what went on:

The following is just a sample of all that I’m grateful for:

  • Both buildings were beautifully decorated inside and out
  • The ‘busking’ band who entertained us outside as we arrived did an awesome job
  • The Welcome Team were on the ball and looked after everyone well
  • Our worship band sounded the best I’ve ever heard them – they were SERIOUSLY good
  • We had a great range of people involved with the Bible readings, including a reading in BSL (British Sign Language) at each service. Each service also had live BSL signing that was appreciated by the deaf community
  • The sound and lighting team were in great form and served us superbly with sound, videos, visuals and a surprise ‘firework’ display for the finale
  • The Brew Crew delivered top notch refreshments flawlessly, on time, every time
  • The Welcome Kids and Tots teams went above and beyond the call of duty and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves
  • We were able to raise money for a local charity, Your Sanctuary, who work with victims of domestic violence ( I haven’t heard a total yet, but it’s not too late for you to give to that offering)
  • As a church, between us we invited hundreds of friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to attend

Roughly 2000 people attended in total, adding together the three services and the children’s parties. The Mayor of Woking joined us at 2pm, and we had the Leader or the Council with us at 4.30pm. Those who are especially eagle eyed may have spotted our local MP in attendance too. In addition to these we were joined by representatives of the York Road Project (a local homelessness charity), Woking Borough Council Family Services and the CEO of Your Sanctuary. It really was A CAROL SERVICE FOR WOKING.

If you missed the services or you just want to experience it again, you can follow this link to watch what went on for yourself. I’m looking forward to next year already 🙂

Welcome Church Christmas Plans

Now that the Carol Services are done, I also want to let you know about our plans for the following Sundays, which are as follows:

Sunday 17th December: we will meet as normal at 9am and 11am. This will be the last week of our ‘Faithful’ preaching series. We will also take communion together

Sunday 24th December: we will meet at 9am and 11am for a short, all age, family service to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas together. Welcome Tots will be running as usual for the smallest children

Monday 25th December, Christmas Day: we will not be meeting on Christmas Day this year as we are focusing us on Sunday 24th instead (next year may be different)

Sunday 31st December: we will meet at 9am and 11am and will hear from people sharing testimonies of what God has done in their lives over the last year. Come expectant to be blessed and encouraged, and let’s also be ready to support and cheer people on

Sunday 7th January: we will meet at 9am and 11am and kick off our new year preaching series, ‘Reset Your Life’. This is a four week series to start the New Year, and we’re encouraging you to invite people along to hear it.

We will also kick off 2024 with a week of prayer, starting on Tuesday 2nd Jan. I’ll post details about that next week.

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So Many Reasons To Celebrate 🙂

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

We have a lot to be thankful to God for as a church right now! I want to highlight two things in particular: our Gift Days and our Carol Services.

1. Gift Days

Over three Sundays in November we held Gift Days towards buying Church Gate, the three storey building next door to us (click here for info).

Church Gate will be key to the work we want to do to serve the poor, including starting a community grocery to bridge the gap between the FoodBank and a supermarket for the most needy in our town. It will also provide extra space we need for our children’s work and youth work, which are both essential ingredients for our church’s future.

The owners of Church Gate agreed to sell it to us for £3m, which is a fair price. I’ve discussed the size of the financial challenge in a previous blog post (click here), but in summary we plan to buy Church Gate with a mixture of both cash and a mortgage. We needed to raise the first £1m as soon as possible – ideally in this first set of Gift Days.

It’s worth bearing in mind that we faced a BIG challenge going into these Gift Days:

  • We only had 5 weeks notice before the first Gift Sunday
  • The UK is in a cost of living crisis
  • Our town has been declared ‘bankrupt’ (section 114 notice)
  • We are in the run up to Christmas
  • As a church, we already gave sacrificially in 2019 to build our current building.

We knew we were up against a big challenge!

The result

After the three Sundays, adding together the money received, some outstanding pledges and the gift aid on that giving, together we have given just over …

… £1.25 million!

That’s an incredible result and one we should celebrate. We have so much to be thankful to God for in the way this has come together.

On behalf of the whole team I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s given sacrificially to make this happen. It’s a joy to be a part of such a generous church.

It’s still not too late to give to these Gift Days, remembering that it’s not the amount that matters, but the heart of worship it’s given with. If you want to do that you can visit our giving page by clicking here.

2. Carol Services

This Sunday, 10th December, we are holding our “Carol Service For Woking” at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm (NB: there are no morning meetings that day!)

More than 1900 people have now booked to attend on Sunday, and those numbers are growing every day. That figure doesn’t include the many people who are serving in various ways at each service and who don’t need a seat.

It’s still not too late to book a seat for yourself and your friends, and you can do that by using this link. Remember, this is the easiest church invitation you get to make all year; people love to come and sing Christmas carols.

Please do pray for this Sunday’s Carol Services. We want to see many people encounter Jesus and start their journey towards a relationship with Him. Your prayers really do matter!

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday but, if you’re ill or housebound, or you live too far away and just can’t make it to a service in person, the 7pm Carol Service will also be live streamed at welcomechurch.online. I hope you can join us.

Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.

‘Carol Service For Woking’: An Update and Some Requests

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

Our Welcome Church Carol Services are going to be fantastic. At the time of writing (Thursday am), a total of 1741 tickets have been booked across all three services. In addition to these bookings, many people will be serving in various ways. Of course, there’s still room for more people to book. We’re excited to announce that the Mayor of Woking, Councillor M Ilyas Raja, will be joining us for the 2pm service this year.

Each Carol Service will include Christmas Carols that everyone knows, sung to the tunes everyone knows, along with videos, readings and a short Christmas themed message. We will finish with free mulled wine, mince pies and other refreshments. Children’s parties will be taking place alongside the 2pm and 4.30pm services, so you and your friends can relax and enjoy the service.

Seven Simple Requests

We have some simples request to put in front of you all, so please have a read:

1. Please invite people

There are now just 10 days to go, so this is the perfect moment to invite friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to join you. There is no easier church invitation to make than to a Carol Service, so let’s go for it together. To book tickets for yourself or your guests please click on this link or on the picture below.

2. Please arrive on time

We will open the doors at least 20 minutes before each service starts, but it will take time to drop children off and get everyone seated. It would really help the services go well, if people could arrive in good time. We are able to provide free parking in the Town Centre ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ Car Parks as usual, using the car park machines in our Front Building, but please remember that car parks may be busier than normal due to Christmas shopping, especially at 2pm, so do allow a little extra time. There is no parking available in our own Car Park except for those with a blue badge who have pre-booked a disability parking space.

3. Please allow yourself to be seated

This one is really important. The Welcome Team will be showing people to their seats again this year, so please allow them to do that and please fill every seat. On a normal Sunday you may like to sit in a certain place, or to leave a gap between you and the next person, or to save a seat for your friend. Numbers at the Carol Services mean that none of these things are possible. Please allow the welcome team to show you to the next available seat(s). If you want to sit with someone specific, please arrive together. Please remember that the Welcome Team are all volunteers, so lets make their job easy for them this year …

4. If you can’t attend, please cancel your tickets

If you’ve booked to attend and can’t now make it, or you booked more tickets than you need, please amend or cancel your booking. This is especially true of the children’s parties, some of which are now completely full. If you know you can’t make it, please release your tickets so someone else can attend.

5. Please don’t come for a 9am or 11am meeting 🙂

It happens every year: precious, faithful people turn up in the morning for church as usual. Please remember that the Carol Services are the only meetings we are holding that day. Our normal 9am and 11am services are not happening on the 10th, although we will be there to set up and to rehearse. The Carol services are at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm.

6. Please attend one service and serve at another

We have three serving teams that could do with a little extra help this year:

  • Brew Crew
  • Welcome Team
  • Kids work (for those who have a current valid Welcome Church DBS check)

If you are able to help in any of these areas, please let us know. Ideally we would encourage people to attend one service, and to serve at another one.

Why not step up to help as part of the Brew Crew or the Welcome Team, even if it’s not something you normally do? If you have a current Welcome Church DBS, why not help with one of the kids parties? If you can help in these areas please contact the church office or let us know in person on Sunday morning.

Finally, and most importantly:

7. Please pray

Let’s pray for the Carol Services. We can all do that during the week ahead, but let’s also gather together to pray.

This Sunday, 3rd December, we will gather to pray for one hour from 7pm to 8pm at Welcome Church. The Carol Services are the greatest evangelistic moment of our year, and our biggest meetings by far. Let’s ask God to pour out His blessing on it all, and for many guests to start a journey towards seeing Life Transformed Through Jesus.

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This Sunday: Preparing for our last Gift Day

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

This coming Sunday (26th Nov) will be the last of our three Welcome Church Gift Sundays for buying Church Gate (click here for more info). We’ve made great progress with our giving for this so far, but we do have a bit further to go to hit our target. I’m looking forward to Sunday 🙂

‘All In’

These Gift Days are an ‘All In’ moment for our church. We’d love everyone who’s part of Welcome Church to participate in proportion to their faith and their ability. Because of this, at the end of the meeting this week our Kids and Youth will be joining us for the ‘giving moment’. We’ll get to worship God together and to give as we do that, thanking Him for all He provides for us.

As a team we’ve felt from the start that giving towards Church Gate should be a ‘church family’ moment. Our goal has been for everyone to participate in some way, including our children and young people. That moment will come on Sunday morning, and parents will have an opportunity to enable their kids or youth to come to the front and joyously give to this project. 

We wanted parents to know about this in advance for two key reasons:

1) Because this is a great discipleship opportunity

Gift Days don’t come around very often, and buying a building comes along perhaps once in a generation. We want all our young people to be able to say they participated in buying Church Gate, and that they gave to God from their hearts, regardless of the amount.

As they participate, our children and young people will learn about the practice of giving to God, and, even more importantly, they will learn about God’s provision for us – that he gives us what we need and is a generous Father. The world will teach our kids that money should be held onto, that it will bring us security and happiness, but Jesus came to free us from slavery to money, and release us into the cheerful generosity that characterises our Heavenly Father.

We believe this will be as good an opportunity as we ever get to teach our kids about how we can worship God through our generosity. Given that children tend to learn more by what we do than by what we say, let’s not miss this moment; let’s enable our children and young people to participate in what God is doing though us as a church. Whether we have kids or not, let’s all model something together as a family as we step out in faith together.

2) So you can be ready to help your children join in

If you’re a parent we would encourage you to plan a moment during this week where you talk about Church Gate to your kids and ask them to think and pray about what God would like them to give. These conversations can be so encouraging, especially as children are so often much quicker to get excited about giving than we are.

You’ll probably need to remind them (and yourself!) to bring their money on Sunday, or if you’d prefer, you can give them some of your own money to put in, enabling them to participate in the offering that way. Doing that is actually a great picture of how God enables us to give, by providing us with all that we have. You may also need to actually get some cash out for them – so much of our spending these day is done through contactless payments that we rarely have cash in the house!

Remember: don’t worry about the amount. We talked last week about the widow who gave two small coins (see Mark 12v41-44). In Jesus’ Kingdom, it’s not about the amount, it’s about developing a generous heart that loves Jesus. Whatever your kids sincerely give will be lovingly and joyfully received by Jesus; He loves a cheerful giver, no matter their age! 

A last thought

The Bible teaches parents to “bring (children) up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6v4), and to “Start children off in the way they should go” (Proverbs 22v6). This Sunday is a great opportunity for some family discipleship, so go for it parents, and let’s go for it as a whole church family together too. See you on Sunday!

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Our New ‘Giving Points’

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This Sunday (19th Nov) will be the second of three Gift Sundays towards buying Church Gate (for more information about that please click here).

Some people have asked how the giving went on week 1 … but no one should see a job half done (or 1/3 done as it is in this case!) We’ll give the full results on Sunday Dec 3rd. At this stage I’ll just say this: we made a great start, and we still have a way to go, so let’s step out in faith together. I’m looking forward to Sunday 🙂

Giving Points

Aside from the Gift Days, as a church we are funded only by people’s generous giving (plus a small amount of building rental income). We don’t get money from a ‘Head Office’ or from anywhere else. As a charity, all that we do as a church, all that we do for our town and all that we give away comes from what people give.

In the past, like most churches, we used to pass an ‘offering basket’ on a Sunday morning, and people would give as part of their worship. We stopped doing that when Covid began (we had to!) and we never started again. The reason for not re-starting came down to a significant cultural change: almost all of the giving had moved online.

Well before Covid struck we’d already reached a point where passing the basket had become slightly embarrassing! Person after person passed the basket on, but put nothing into it because they’d already given online by standing order. People were giving very faithfully, but it didn’t look wonderful, especially to guests!

With this in mind, we’re not going to start passing the baskets again in the foreseeable future, but we do want to make giving as easy as possible for all who want to take part. We recognise that not everyone is able to give online, and that some people simply prefer to give by cash or by cheque, and that’s 100% fine. Our goal is to make giving as accessible as possible for everyone, and let’s not forget that regular giving is part of our worship as Christians. To help with this …

We have installed three giving points

The giving points can be found next to each of the ‘pads’ that are used for the church car park: two are in The Chapel and one is in the front building. Here’s a photo of each of them, with a close up of the one by the rear Car Park doors. If you Zoom in close on one of them you’ll see Deano in the background pretending to do some work:

In The Chapel by the Welcome Lounge
In The Chapel by the rear car park doors
A close up
In the front building – see if you can spot Deano

Each giving point has three parts to it:

  • A small, electronic giving pad that you can use to give by card and by phone. If the screen is blank just push the little button on to top get it started
  • A sign with instructions for using the giving pad. It’s very easy and you can even add your name and details so we can claim Gift Aid if appropriate
  • A black metal ‘post box’ where you can post cash or cheques or envelopes – these are emptied regularly!

Whilst it’s a bit easier for us administratively when people give online, however you choose to give and whatever the size of your gift, we hugely appreciate it. Let’s all just go for it in faith in whatever way works best for us.

On behalf of the whole team, let me say a big THANK YOU for all your faithful giving.

2 Corinthians 9v6-7 says:

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Why does God love a cheerful giver? Because God is a cheerful giver!

He is a generous and compassionate Father, and He promises to provide for us as His children. He has given us all we need for life and godliness. It’s impossible for us to out-give Him, so let’s give faithfully, as part of our worship, trusting Him to meet all of our needs.

If you have any questions about using a Giving Point, please just ask us, we’ll be happy to help, and if you want to find out about giving online then please just follow this link. Thanks!

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It’s A Big Week At Welcome Church

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

This Sunday (12th Nov) is a big one for Welcome Church for two reasons:

1. It’s a Gift Day

This will be the first of three Gift Sundays for us to buy Church Gate (the building next door to us). You can find out more about why we want to buy Church Gate by clicking here, and the details of what it will cost by clicking here.

This week I was at “Commission Prayer and Fasting”, an event that pretty much does what it says on the tin: we get together as teams from our UK churches to seek God and pray. At the event I was lovingly ‘pounced on’ by a leader from another church who felt God wanted him to share something with me:

“I see a brick wall in front of you, filling your vision. God says not to worry about it. He’ll get you past the wall. He has it all in hand …”

I always find these sorts of moments encouraging, but this one really made me smile because here’s the view from my office window, a view of Church Gate:

“I see a brick wall in front of you”

Ahead of Sunday please be praying about what God is calling you to give personally. We have a big challenge in front of us, but we have an even bigger God who is our provider. Let’s be in faith for what He will do through us over the next three weeks as obstacle after obstacle is cleared out of the way.

“Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The Lord Almighty – he is the King of glory”
(Psalm 24v9-10)

2. On Sunday we have our next Encounter Evening

We’ve done several of these now, but this one is a bit different; it’s a big one! On the evening we will be served by a guest band from Kings Church Epsom. Jo and Meg recently spoke at a women’s conference at Kings Church. They were really impressed by the whole worship experience, and wanted us to experience it too.

Kings Church is unusual amongst our Commission family at the moment: it’s our only majority black church in the UK so far. They have a different style of worship than we’re used to, and I know we’re going to be blessed. Please come ready and expectant to encounter God, and please feel free to invite people from other churches to join us too, or anyone else you think will be blessed.

All welcome. Come as you are!

A Big Goodbye ☹️

This week we also said a sad goodbye to Kimberley and Luqman who fly back to India tomorrow (Friday 10th). They have been a real gift to us this year and we will miss them a lot.

The office team had a shared lunch with them on their last day with us (and 1 or 2 others popped in to join us too). We took time on the day to talk about what we love and appreciate about them both, and to share some memories and pray for them. There were tears, but I think that this mix of joy and sadness is all part of being part of the family of God.

I had my final goodbye with them both in the office today (Thursday). They even returned some of my missing books 😃. Do pray for them as they head home, not least because, at the last check, their luggage was 13kg overweight …

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Prayer Requests – Nov 2023

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Here are some things we would love you to be praying about this month:

Gift Sundays

Our Gift Days to raise the finance we need for Church Gate are on Sundays 12th, 19th and 26th November. We would love everyone to be praying for this – for God to supply all we need as a church, and for Him to speak to each of us personally about what He is calling us to give.

A booklet is available with all the info you need to know, so do pick one up on Sunday morning or get in touch with the office to ask for a copy. It will tell you WHAT we are doing, WHY we are doing it, why we are doing it NOW (which is key to the whole thing), HOW MUCH it will cost and what we are asking YOU to do.

Baptisms

This Sunday we have baptisms at both morning meetings. Please pray for all those getting baptised.

There is a special need for prayer for 2 of those being baptised at 9am. They have come to us from a nation where to convert to Christianity could cost them their liberty and perhaps their life. Both came to faith in their own country. Both are fleeing persecution.

For this reason these two baptisms and testimonies, will not be live-streamed – we will switch the live-stream off at this point. We are also asking that no photos are taken or posted anywhere. The testimonies are well worth hearing, but you will have to be there in person at the 9am meeting to hear them.

If you are planning to be at the 11am meeting that day there might be room for some to stand at the back from about 10.15am if you want to arrive early and catch this part of the 9am meeting.

CST

CST is the “Commission Students to Thirties” event taking place on Saturday Nov 18th at Hope Church, Winchester. This year the theme of CST is about being ‘All In for Jesus‘. There will be great worship, great talks, time to connect with God and some good food too.

I would appreciate your prayers because I’m preaching the opening message at CST this year. Please pray that it connects well with people and helps to grow and stretch their faith.

If anyone isn’t booked in to CST and wants to know more, then do follow this link here for more information and a link to the booking page.

Luqman and Kimberley

Luqman and Kimberley, our two leadership trainees from India, finish their year with us next week, and will then head home to Goa. They are going to be greatly missed and will leave a hole in both our Office Team and our hearts ☹️. They have been a joy to have around and we’re sad to see them go.

Please pray for them as they return to India, that God will direct their steps into whatever He has next for them, and please do give them big hugs and lots of appreciation this weekend. Sunday 5th November will be their last Sunday with us.

Carol Services

Bookings for our Carol Services open this weekend. They will be held on Sunday 10th December this year, at 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm. On Sunday we will give out all the information you need, and I’ll post it in my blog too, but please do be praying already about who you could be inviting and for all the preparations to go well. Please also pray for lots of people to sign up to attend.

A few other bits for prayer

In case that lot’s not enough to keep you busy praying, here are a few more things:

  • Reuben and Lucy get married this Saturday: pray for them as they start married life together
  • I’m leading the Commission ‘TLM’ training day on Saturday 11th Nov: the topic is ‘Grace for Ministry’
  • Our Alpha Course have their ‘Holy Spirit Day’ on Sat 25th Nov: pray for people to encounter the Holy Spirit and give their lives to Jesus

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Church Gate: The Size Of The Challenge

/ Steve Petch / 6 Comments

Last week I blogged about Church Gate, the next big adventure we believe God has for us as a church (click here to read about it).

This is a big deal for us and, of course, we wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think it was ‘mission critical’ for our calling as a church together:

  • Church Gate will be key for the work we want to do to serve the poor, including our desire to start a community grocery to bridge the gap between the FoodBank and a supermarket for the most needy in our town
  • Church Gate will provide the facilities and space we need to disciple our children and young people well. Remember, we are not baby sitting them week by week; we are equipping them to be the men and women of God He is calling them to be, so they can lead the way into the future in all areas of life and follow His call on their life.
  • Church Gate will also provide lots of space for our meetings and ministries all week long, and even has a few extra parking spaces, which is always handy to have.

Gift Days

Obviously we need to pay for Church Gate! As I said last week, we’ll be looking at mortgages, but we also all need to do our part individually so, in November, we will be holding some gift Sundays. I want to fill in a few details on that.

We will hold our gift Sundays over three weeks, on Sundays 12th, 19th and 26th of November. In case you’ve not been at Welcome Church when we’ve done this before (and the last time was a few years ago) it will be a normal Sunday meeting – with worship, kids work, teaching etc – but there’ll be a chance at the end of the morning to come forward and give, or pledge to give, to this big adventure. With that in mind we recognise that more information needs to be shared.

Next Sunday, and in the weeks to come, we’ll be giving out a printed booklet with all the information you need. It will explain:

  • WHAT we are doing
  • WHY we are doing it
  • Why we are doing it NOW (very important!)
  • HOW MUCH it will cost and
  • What we are asking YOU to do

The size of the financial challenge

People have been asking what Church Gate will cost, so here are the details:

The owners have agreed to sell Church Gate to us for three million pounds.

That may sound like a lot of money (and in many ways it is) but it’s a price our professional valuer agrees is fair for us to pay, and a lot less than where we started from. We also have to budget for additional fees and refurbishment costs, so the total cost for the project is likely be in the region of £3.5 million pounds – hopefully a bit less.

We anticipate that some of this cost will be funded through our existing savings as a church, and through a new mortgage. We’re also in faith to raise £2 million pounds over the next two years through our sacrificial giving as a church to this adventure.

The big challenge is that we need to raise the first £1 million in the next few months, in order to complete on Church Gate in early 2024, so we need to step out in big faith this November.

Time is tighter than we’d like for this project, but the opportunity really is now or never. The sellers of Church Gate have received Planning Permission to redevelop the site into flats. Were they to go ahead, the opportunity will be closed to us for good, so we need to go for it in faith now to invest in our future as a church.

What can I do today?

At this point we would ask you to do one thing: please pray. Pray that the sale moves ahead smoothly. Pray that finance comes together quickly.

Mainly though, please pray for God to speak to YOU about what he wants YOU to give.

We wouldn’t want anyone to give more than God is asking them to give, but we wouldn’t want anyone to give less than He is asking them to give either!

And remember: it’s not that we HAVE to give; it’s that we GET to give. It’s a privilege to invest in the Kingdom of God, knowing that we cannot out-give God.

Between us we have a significant amount of money to raise, but I believe we can do this as we step out in faith, so let’s go for it together. I’ll share more info in the weeks ahead.

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Church Gate – Our Next Big Adventure

/ Steve Petch / 7 Comments

Over the last few months we’ve prayed several times about Church Gate, which is the building next door to ours. I believe this is now our next big adventure as a church!

The Story So Far

In January 2020 we opened our brand new Chapel building and, at the same time, we redeveloped our old Church building (often now referred to as ‘the front building’) to serve our various ministries, including our children’s and youth work, and to provide new offices, kitchens and more.

Unforeseen Challenges

Coming out of the pandemic, Welcome Church has grown significantly – much faster than any of us anticipated. One unforeseen problem this has caused is that, as a church with many families in it, the number of children and youth who attend each Sunday are more than the front building can accommodate.

At the moment Welcome Kids Seniors and Welcome Youth cross the road each Sunday morning to meet in ‘The Cube’ (above Useful Wood). This is a good solution for now, but we do not own that space and in time it will be redeveloped for housing.

Alongside our growth in numbers, we also have a growing focus on social action in response to Jesus’ call on us to be “good news to the poor”. One ministry we would like to start is a community grocery, bridging the gap between the food bank and a supermarket for the poorest families in our town. For many this could be a lifeline and a great way for people to connect with our church and with Jesus.

In conversation with Woking Borough Council we’ve looked at various premises in Woking, but nothing has yet been found that provides the space we need, in a venue that works for us in terms of accessibility, cost and location.

The Church Gate Solution

Church Gate, a three storey open plan office building, is next door to us, and has been empty for more than 6 years. The owners have recently received planning permission to add two extra stories to it and to develop it as residential accommodation, but we decided to contact them anyway, and they agreed to meet with us and let us look around the building.

On viewing Church Gate it quickly became apparent that it could meet our needs as a church. It could provide us with:

  • Space to serve our children’s and youth work
  • Space for a community grocery and for other social action projects in the future
  • More space for meetings and ministries all week long – both for us as a church and as a facility to serve our town
  • A few more parking spaces (always handy to have!)

In short, we believe Church Gate offers the right space for our needs, so with this in mind we shared with the owners our heart and our vision to serve the community and do good for our town. We asked them not to develop it into flats but to sell it to us instead, and they agreed to come back to us with a price.

Negotiations

Negotiations started off with a gap of several million pounds but, following a professional valuation, lots of discussion and a whole lot of prayer, last week we were able to agree on a fair price in line with the valuation, so …

… WE ARE GOING TO BUY CHURCH GATE

What’s next?

In November we will hold Gift Days as a church, and we’ll all have a chance to give financially to this exciting new adventure. Next week I’ll share more information about that.

We recognise we’re on a short time scale, but we’re also aware that this is a unique opportunity and we need to respond to it in a timely way, whilst the door is open.

These Gift Days are our big opportunity to step up and give sacrificially. Let’s give as an act of worship. Let’s give to build a better future. Let’s give to take part in what God is doing with our church at this time.

Our giving to this adventure is a chance to invest in our church, our children, our youth, the gospel, our work among the poor in our town, and the Kingdom of God, and let’s not forget it’s also an investment in our future together. Generations of this church before us have given sacrificially to get us to where we are today; now it’s our turn to step out in faith and to sow financially into the future.

In the weeks ahead I’ll share more information about the price we’ve agreed, and about what we now need to do – and there are lots of practical steps we will need to take – but at this point we only want to ask you to do one thing: to pray.

Please pray that the sale moves ahead smoothly and that the finance comes together quickly. And please pray for God to speak to YOU about what he wants YOU to give. Between us we have a significant amount of money to raise, but I believe we can do this together.

Listening to God

During the negotiations, looking at Church Gate out of my office window and praying and dreaming about what God might do, I felt God remind me of a parable Jesus told:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13v45-46)

That parable is not really about buildings, but I felt a whisper in my heart that, to us, Church Gate would be like that pearl of great value. I believe this is a great opportunity that God has put in front of us, and that we need to be prepared to sacrifice to get in on this adventure; it will be costly but it’s worth it, so lets go for it together. More information will follow in the weeks ahead.

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October 2023 News Updates

/ Steve Petch / Leave a comment

This week I want to share a few Welcome Church news updates, in case you missed them

A New Website

We’ve just launched our brand new Welcome Church website and we’re really pleased with it! You can find it at www.welcomechurch.uk. The website is not only new in terms of its content, it also has a brand new website address. If you do accidentally try to access the old website it will forward you to the new one automatically, at least for a while.

Our church email addresses have also changed, so if you previously e-mailed someone on name@allwelcome.uk, you now need to use name@welcomechurch.uk. Again, if you use the wrong e-mail address it will be forwarded for a short while, but not forever.

A lot of work went into getting the new website up and running, and we’re really pleased with the result. Huge thanks go to everyone involved. The site been checked quite extensively, but if you do find any errors, bad links, typos or other problems, please let us know – there are bound to be some!

Kids Work

From the end of Half Term (Sunday 29th October) Welcome Tots, Welcome Kids Juniors and Welcome Kids will be starting earlier each Sunday, so your kids can go there straight away if you want them to. You can drop them off from 10 minutes before each meeting starts (no earlier please!)

These changes will help us serve our kids well, and also allow more room for adults to join us without feeling that the meetings are full, especially at the 11am meeting. It will also allow the worship times to flow uninterrupted. Welcome Kids Seniors and Welcome Youth will be with us for the whole of the worship time for now, and will go out to their own meetings after that.

Because the kids will now be in their groups a bit longer each week, we want to encourage parents to collect them promptly when the meeting has finished. Thank you in advance for this, and also a very big thank you to all our kids and youth workers – you are fantastic and massively appreciated. 🙂

The Alpha Course

Our Alpha Course is now up and running with 28 guests in attendance on week one, and some others expected to join from week 2. Please pray for the success of the course and for people to grow in faith as they explore the big questions of life together.

Baptisms

On Sunday 5th November we’ll be baptising several people at each of our Sunday meetings. It’s still not too late to join them and be baptised if you’re a Christian and have not yet been baptised since you came to faith in Jesus – please just chat to us.

Please also pray for those who are being baptised on the 5th, and let’s be on the front foot to welcome the many guests who will be there and to serve them well.

Car Parking

You may have spotted that, due to new tenants moving in, Phillips Court is no longer available for us to use for parking on a Sunday morning. Instead the Red, Yellow and Blue shoppers car parks are available. These are just a short distance away, and the walk is largely under cover.

If you put your number plate into the relevant ‘pad’ in our building (the pads are very clearly marked) then you will get your parking for free 🙂. We recommend putting your number plate in on arrival rather than waiting until the meeting has ended.

Buildings

Thanks to all who have prayed about our plan to buy Church Gate, the building next door to us. We want to use it to create more space for kids and youth each Sunday, as well as to provide meeting rooms and office space to serve all that we do all week long. We would also like it as a space to start a community grocery that will serve those in need in our town, and it could perhaps house some of our other social action ministries too. The alternative is to extend on our own site, and we’ve been developing plans for this in case Church Gate doesn’t come our way.

Lots of people have been asking for updates on this issue, and this coming Sunday (15th Oct) at Welcome Church I will be sharing the latest news. Please make sure you’re there at our 9am or 11am meeting to hear what’s been happening!

God can do amazing things

Eph 3v20-21: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Let’s be in faith for all God wants to do in and through us as a church, and let’s be praying for Jesus to be glorified in our town. He can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine.

Thanks for reading.

Stay up to date with what’s happening at Welcome Church by subscribing to this blog to get it straight to your inbox each week.