Welcome Works

Welcome Church Community Grocery – Latest News!

/ Steve Petch / 3 Comments

Hi, I’m Dub Everitt, Outreach Pastor at Welcome Church, guest-writing Steve’s blog this week to share an exciting update on a project that’s very close to our hearts: the opening of the Woking Community Grocery — a social supermarket designed to serve and strengthen some of the most vulnerable families in our town.

This will be a place where hungry families find food, dignity, and hope. That’s the vision behind Welcome Church’s upcoming Community Grocery, and we believe it will genuinely change lives.

The Community Grocery – a Big Vision with a Big Impact

We are launching the Woking Community Grocery in partnership with The Message Trust, an incredible, passionate Christian organisation based in Manchester. Across the UK, they have already opened 33 Community Groceries, serving over 70,000 members with low-cost, reliable food and wrap-around support.

Our Grocery will be open to everyone in Woking — of all faiths and none. Membership will be just £5 per year, and families can choose a weekly shop costing between £5 and £12.50, saving up to £50 per week (that’s £2,500 a year!) on their shopping bills.

We forecast that 1,000 families from across Woking will use the Grocery in the first year alone. Every member will also be able to access our Welcome Works services—debt support, money coaching, mental health & wellbeing help, job clubs and more. It’s a powerful, dignifying “hand up, not handout” model that helps people take real steps forward in life.

Building Work Update

Following our purchase of Church Gate, the office block next door to our church, renovation work is now full steam ahead. The scaffolding is up, the roof is repaired, the rooms have been stripped back, and we’re on track for completion in March 2026.

After a meeting with our architect yesterday, I came away buzzing. The designs for the Grocery, the community spaces, and the upstairs rooms are looking amazing, and here are a couple of images to whet your appetite at this stage.

First an aerial view of the grocery lay out:

Second, a view of the Meet & Greet area:

The doorway shown is the new entrance we are adding to Church Gate, which will open onto our front area, linking it all our buildings as one campus. Please continue to pray for the renovation and planning work over the coming months!

And now for the date we’ve all been waiting for… (drumroll please!):

Our planned launch date is: Thursday 16th April 2026!

We’ll share more details closer to the time, but it’s going to be a huge celebration as we cut the ribbon and welcome our first customers.

And Now, Introducing Our Grocery Manager: Darren Green

On Sunday 16th November, we were thrilled to announce Darren Green as our new Community Grocery Manager — and the church’s response said it all.

The cheering, the applause, the warmth… it was a beautiful moment that showed how much this project means to our church family.

We also loved officially giving Darren his new double-barrelled surname: 

Darren Green-Grocer (A prophetic sign? We think so!)

Darren will begin his role on 1st February 2026, giving plenty of time to prepare for the launch.

Over 250 People Saying, “Count Me In!”

Over two Sundays, we invited people to fill in a “Count me in!” card to get involved in all things Grocery and Welcome Works. We were hoping for 75 sign-ups… instead, we’ve seen over 250 people step forward!

We’re genuinely blown away! God is clearly stirring us as a church not only to give sacrificially – over £2 million so far – but also to give our time, skills, and hearts to serve our town. What a response. What a church. What a God.

Workshops for everyone who signed up will be held across five different days over the next few weeks to help each person find the right place to serve. If you signed up, we will be in touch with you about that soon.

Do You Want Us to “Count You In” Too?

I know many people at Welcome Church may still want to get involved but, for various reasons, haven’t yet filled out a “Count me in” card.

It’s not too late! Here’s how you can register your interest:

  1. Fill in the digital “Count me in” card via this link: Count Me In
  2. Or if you prefer you can E-mail Helen, our Grocery Project Manager

Through our powerful autumn preaching series, “True Religion,” we’ve been stirred by God’s heart for the poor — and by His call for His people to step into the gap with hope, compassion, and practical love. That’s exactly what the Community Grocery is all about.

What a calling!
What a privilege!
And what a joy to step into it together!

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

Going Into Prison

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As a church, for over 15 years now, we’ve had a team going into Coldingley Men’s Prison. Coldingley is a men’s “category C training and resettlement prison”, holding mostly long-term prisoners, including some with life sentences.

The team, led by Neil Willis, hold Sunday morning services in the prison several times a year. This ministry is one of our ‘Welcome Works’ (the various social action ministries we do to serve people in need, both within and beyond our own church family).

As Jesus said in Matthew 25v36, “I was in prison and you came to visit me”

Another World

Neil says: “Coldingley Prison is like another world just up the road in Bisley, requiring rigorous security to get in (and out!) We go through an ‘airlock’ and multiple locked gates before we arrive in the chapel with its decorative bars at the windows. Usually around 30 prisoners attend, and often a couple of them will join the band that we take in ourselves, playing on the violin and guitar. We praise God with what sounds a bit like a Welsh male voice choir of baritones and basses, and we always feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in that place; it’s very special!

“As a church we’ve been going in for over 15 years, and sadly some of the regular attendees have been coming to our services all of that time; it’s hard to imagine what it must be like to be in there for so long. We do not discuss people’s offences, and do not judge in any way. Many are there because of a combination of appalling circumstances, and let’s be reminded that many of the Apostles knew what it was like to be imprisoned.

“Recently we’ve felt challenged to better serve the residents, to build on relationships, and to see more of God at work in the prison. We are having more requests for prayer after the service, and the men are really opening up to us in different ways. I recently prayed with a guy who was wracked with guilt at having let his mother down. Another very young man had just arrived too, and was obviously struggling, but he agreed to attend the Alpha Course that they run.

“The 30 or so men that come to the chapel each Sunday are God’s church in that place of over 500 men, and we try to encourage them to be a light to the others, which is no mean task as you might imagine. The prison Chaplin and his team seem to love it when we come in and we’re now talking about increasing our visit frequency to 8 or more times a year.

Running the prison services is both a privilege and a great opportunity, and it also blesses us as a team, although there’s always a sense of relief when we get out into the fresh air again – we appreciate our freedom that little bit more. It’s great to be doing God’s work in such a place, and it is very real!“

Why not get involved?

Beyond the Sunday Prison Services, there are several other aspects to what we do with our prisons work, and you can read about that on our Welcome Works web page by clicking here. If you want to get involved in these, or any of our other Welcome Works, do please let us know. You can do that by dropping us an email our by speaking to Neil or to Dub or to any of us in the offices. And, if it’s not for you, please pray for the work that’s going on, and please encourage the teams that go in.

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.

Things To Pray About – June 2023

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Here are some important items of Welcome Church news that we’d love you to know and to pray about – including a trip to Italy 🇮🇹.

Alpha

We currently have 30 guests attending Alpha on Wednesday evenings, and a further 6 guests attending a daytime Welcome Tots mums’ Alpha course. The topic this week is “How Can I Have Faith?”

The Holy Spirit Day, which we run as part of the Alpha course, will take place on Saturday 1st July. Please pray for every guest to encounter Jesus and start a journey of faith

Newcomers Lunch

Our Newcomers Lunch is on this Sunday, and currently more than 40 guests have signed up to attend. Big thanks go to Hazel and her team who will be cooking the meal. Please pray for Dub as he leads this event and for our guests to grow in their sense of connection to Welcome Church and to start to feel like ‘Welcome Church is their church’.

The Big Summer Picnic

Plans for the Welcome Church Big Summer Picnic on Sunday 9th July are coming together well (click here to sign up). Please pray for good weather on the day and that we have a lot of fun. Everyone is welcome to attend, but do please sign up on the link above so we know you’re coming.

Welcome Works

Welcome Works are the various ministries that we run as a church, to help people in need in all sorts of different ways. Three of these to particularly pray for this month are:

  1. JOB CLUB: Our Job Club team is led by Neil Willis. Those in attendance are taught the key skills they need to handle job interviews and job applications so they can find and keep employment, often for the first time. The current course has 16 guests
  2. FRESH START: Our Fresh Start team is led by Dawn Wallace. It helps people overcome low level addiction and make a fresh start. The current course has 4 guests
  3. GET ONLINE: This is a brand new service for us, and starts this month. The team will be led by Steve Barter. Get Online helps people to learn basic computer skills, and learn how to access the internet safely, including such things as shopping and paying bills online – something many of us take for granted and rely on every day

Please pray for each of these courses, including all those who are in attendance and the teams who are running them. The goal of all of our Welcome Works is not only to help people in need – which is a great reflection of Jesus’ heart as revealed to us in Luke 4v16-21 – but also for them to encounter Jesus through us.

Office Team Wellbeing

We have had a couple of challenging incidents over recent weeks with members of the public acting in unhelpful ways towards our office team. I won’t go into details, and we do have sensible procedures in place, but please do pray for God’s loving protection over our office team day by day.

Italy: Insieme 2023

On Thursday this week (the day this blog comes out) I will be flying off to Ladispoli in Italy to speak at a conference called ‘Insieme’ (which is Italian for ‘Together’). The conference is for some Italian churches who are in the process of getting to know and perhaps join our Commission family of churches.

The theme of the conference is ‘Enjoying The Grace Of God’. I will also get to enjoy the company of Norman and Jane Bave, formerly of Welcome Church, who now live in Italy and will be in attendance at Insieme.

Please pray for me while I’m away, and also for Jo who is speaking at a Conference at Kings Church Epsom on Saturday. Please pray for Chris Kilby from Life Church Southampton who is leading the Insieme conference, and also pray that we would all be able to discern together what the future might look like in terms of these churches and their growing link to Commission.

I’ll be flying back on Monday, and remember, you can 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.

Showing God’s Heart Of Compassion

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

Proverbs 19v7: “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his deed.” 

I hope you enjoyed our Welcome Church Carol Service with Compassion UK.

As a church we love partnering with Compassion UK to see children lifted out of poverty in Jesus’ name. So far as a church we’ve sponsored over 140 children in a part of Togo in Africa. You can read a bit more about what we do by clicking here. People from Welcome Church have also sponsored children in other parts of the world too. You can see many of their pictures here:

If you would like to sponsor a child all you need to do is follow this link here. The link will take you to a specific page where you can view the children who are available to sponsor right now today, and how are all based in the project in Togo we’re already connected with. For £28 a month you can completely change a life; what a great gift to give this Christmas!

Togo is one probably the least developed country in Africa, and that’s against some tough competition. Sponsorship is one of the best kingdom investments you will ever make.

Please, in Jesus name, go for it!

Isaiah 58v10: If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

An Amazing Result

/ Steve Petch / 1 Comment

This weekend saw the launch of Welcome Church’s partnership with Compassion UK – sponsoring children in the African country of Togo (click here for more info ). This launch is the latest addition to our Welcome Works initiative.

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It was great to hear from Tim Robertson about how Compassion are:

  • Jesus centred
  • Child focussed, and
  • Church based

You can find out more about this excellent ‘three cord’ approach to ministry here

Or you can hear more of what Tim said by clicking here

The result was fantastic:

On Sunday Welcome Church stepped up to sponsor 111 children in poverty

And that number is already going up. This is really something to celebrate; lives will be changed as a result. Jo and I now sponsor a 7 year old girl in Togo. We’re looking forward to sending her a letter soon.

So what do I do now?

If you sponsored a child:

In the next few days you should hear from Compassion with some introductory information and confirming your bank details etc.

Once that is all in place I would recommend doing the following:

  1. Set up a My Compassion account with Compassion UK online – this gives you all the info you need, and will link you to information about the child you sponsor, the community they are in and how you can write to them
  2. Download the Compassion UK App onto your phone/pad. You can put your account info into it and it makes everything even more accessible. You can use the app to do everything, including viewing and writing letters; you can even do it on the way to work on the train.
  3. Write to your child. Try to do it a few times a year, and don’t forget a birthday card and gift when that comes around (Compassion will remind you). If you can, why not try to write at least once a term, after all you are looking to build a relationship with them? Remember you can include photos too. If you’re unsure what to write, the Compassion website will give you some great pointers. It doesn’t need to be long, just enough to show you care. If your child is very small, it may be the parents/carers who communicate with you at first, but that will change over time.
  4. Pray for them and their family, and for the church who are running the project. Remember, this is spiritual ministry and they need your prayers.
  5. If you have kids of your own, involve them. Let them write a letter or send a photo – it’s great way for them to grasp something of God’s heart for the poor.

If you have not yet sponsored a child:

You will get another chance to step up this Sunday and next Sunday at church, so in the meantime you could listen to Tim’s talk, check out the various links above, and see if it’s something you want to do.

For £25 a month you can genuinely change a life, and help to release someone from poverty in Jesus’ name. And that’s what our church is all about: seeing lives changed and communities impacted for good by God’s grace in action.

Exciting times!

Welcome Works – caring for the poor

/ Steve Petch / 4 Comments

We launched a new initiative at Welcome Church on Sunday. We’re calling it Welcome Works.

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When Jesus started his ministry he described what he had come to do like this:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Luke 4v18-19

The poor includes those who are “spiritually poor” – people who do not know God – and it also includes those who are physically poor in all sorts of ways – people who are in need, or are sick, or in prison, or oppressed, or in debt, or stuck in addiction – they all matter.

God cares about the poor and those in need.

The Bible is full of verses describing our call to remember the poor. Here are just a few sample verses, picked from among many:

  • “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” – Psalm 82v3-4
  • “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done” – Proverbs 19v17
  • “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern” – Proverbs 29v7
  • “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” – James 1v27  … an interesting verse in which God seems to give as much weight to caring for the poor as he does to personal holiness

Every Christian and every church has a part to play in caring for the poor …

… so as a church we’re launching a new approach to this area of our church life and we’re calling it Welcome Works. To support this initiative a whole new section of our website has now gone live and you can access it by clicking here.

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Welcome Church is involved in many different projects that aim to bring help to those in need in our community and further afield. Welcome Works is the unifying banner that pulls all of these together.

There are some amazing things going on among us! Check out the website to see what they are. Some of these things we do as a church, some we do in partnership with other churches or agencies and some are done by individuals as part of their personal calling.

There is a lot going on and each of these things matter.

There are too many things being done to list them all, but we’ve brought a number of them together under the title ‘Welcome Works’. We are doing this to create a context where we can give greater profile to them. We want to create a context where we’re making it easier for people to get involved or to seek help from them.

We want to create a more coordinated approach to those we help, for example some people may need help from more than one ministry. We want to enable the sharing of resources – people, skills, facilities, courses. We want to work more smoothly alongside other agencies or churches. This will also help us to give better oversight and support to the people who serve in these different ministries.

These areas of our ministry are central to the heart of Jesus so they must not be on the sidelines of our church life.

We want to talk about them, embrace them, give profile to them and encourage everybody to get involved in them. Our launch of this initiative also coincides with a whole preaching series about God’s heart for the poor. You can hear the first one by clicking here.

During the series we’ll also hear from some of the Welcome Works we are involved in as a church. This week we heard about some of the work we do in two local prisons. Is that where God wants you to get involved?

As we go through this series, let God speak to you. Keep listening to him carefully each week. He may lead you in a direction that could surprise you and set you on an adventure!

 “Spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” 

Isaiah 58v10-11