## **New Life Christian Centre** **Annual Report / Vision Sundays September 2023** New Life Christian Centre, Colne, West Street, Lancashire BB8 0HP Registered Charity No. 1051832 Contents: ##  The Year that was ##  Going Forward ##  General Information This year marks the 10 year anniversary of my pastorate here at New Life, Colne and what an incredible 10 years it has been. However, 2023 has seen some significant changes, perhaps the highlight of which has been the ability of the church to employ a part time Youth and Children's worker. After a successful year of volunteering, Miss Chloe Nawab started her role as Youth and Children's worker in April and is employed for 20 hrs a week. We are looking forward to seeing what God does in and through her work and the increased community engagement with local families and young people. As you read this report, you will see that God continues to bless us here at New Life and we look forward to what is to come. ## The Year That Was This year we continued to aim to fulfil the vision for our church which is to: Love God, Love People, to Reach people with the love of God, Raise disciples and Release people to serve in the family of the church and beyond. ## **Reach** ## **Cafe Connect:** In October 2022 we launched 'Cafe Connect'. 'Cafe Connect' was opened after the success of Breakfast bags during the summer holidays. The cafe took place weekly on Wednesday mornings 10am -12noon and offered a safe place, free tea and coffee, toast, crumpets and other refreshments. Unfortunately, the cafe didn't really take off and so we decided after May ½ term to close this service for the time being. It might be something we revisit in the future. ## **Breakfast Bags and Kids Crafts:** During the school holidays, New Life offers free breakfast bags and kids crafts to anyone from the community. Families are invited to come on a Wednesday morning 10-12noon and take breakfast items to help feed their families during the holidays. They can simply take food or stay for free tea, coffee, toast and kids crafts. This outreach has been very effective and continues to grow and help the wider community. The Summer holidays especially see a greater engagement of families and uptake of breakfast bags. We have been greatly helped with the kindness of One Stop Local shop who have donated money and items to this great facility. ## **Schools Work:** It's been a great privilege this year to continue to deliver assemblies in local primary schools: West Street and Park Primary. These assemblies are always well received by children and staff. We were also asked to teach a lesson on the meaning of Christmas to 2 classes in West Street. Pastor Pauline continues to be on the Governing Board at West Street. ## **Christmas and Easter Events:** Christmas and Easter are always great opportunities to show God's love to the wider community. At Christmas the church made up 25 food hampers which were given to the local school to help those who are particularly struggling at this time. We also held Christmas events and parties which were well attended. At Easter we promoted the local churches with a display in the glass house outside of Colne market. Children were invited to enter a colouring competition to win eggs. Eggs were kindly donated by One Stop Store. Over the Easter holidays, we held an Easter fun afternoon which was well attended by those in the community. ## **Messy Church:** Messy Church takes place on the last Sunday of every month. Families are invited to join us in the church building for crafts, songs, games, a short story and then share pizza. This is a great environment which sees between 10 – 15 families take part. The children really engage with the activities and are growing in confidence. Volunteers are also growing in their confidence and interaction with people coming in. ## **Rise Girls Event:** This event was launched in April and is a quarterly event for girls aged 8yrs and above. Rise is led by Chloe Nawab and is aimed at improving girls confidence and self esteem. The evenings have different crafts, nail bar, facemasks and food. However, the main part is that the girls engage with each other and with talks which encourage them to be themselves, know who they are in God and love others. Numbers have continued to grow and we see between 30 and 40 girls at these events. ## **Coronation Party:** In May, along with many other organisations, we celebrated the King's Coronation. A Coronation Party was open to the community and the Coronation shown on big screen. ## **Mission Support** The church has continued to support our missionaries Steven and Deborah Jenkins in the work they do overseas. After being unable to travel due to Covid, this year has seen them do work in Iraq and also Albania. The church helps with costs and finances aid which they take with them. Alongside this individual church members support a number of children in Rwanda through the organisation Compassion. New Life Kids also sponsor a child through this scheme. ## **New Life 2 U:** Our New Life 2 U fund was set up to benefit the community. This year the funds helped provide 25 Christmas hampers which were donated to the local schools. This fund also provided the breakfast items which feed up to 15 families a week during regular school holidays, increasing to 20 families during the summer holidays. ## **Sunday Services** Our Sunday services take place weekly at 11am where people of all ages and backgrounds are invited to attend. We encourage people to engage in their faith through worship, times of prayer, sharing testimonies and hearing from the word of God. It's been great this year to see new people attend. We are thankful to our leaders and those playing an active role in Sunday services. Alongside the service we have creche facilities and a kids programme for children aged 5-11. ## **Online Engagement** Our Sunday services continue to be streamed online to YouTube. This has been great for those who can't always attend, and many people watch back to hear the teaching again. We also have a Facebook page which is sometimes used for prayer times. We are grateful to Brian Hopwood and Jimmy Nawab for making our online presence possible ## **Raise** As well as reaching people, we aim to see people grow in their love of Jesus and raise disciples who follow him wholeheartedly. ## **Prayer and Connect Groups** The year began with 21 days of prayer and fasting in January. This is always a great time and gives us time to focus on God and what he wants for us as a church in the year ahead. Prayer meetings were made accessible by holding a combination of in person meetings as well as Facebook prayer and Zoom meetings. People were encouraged in their faith and expectant of God for the year ahead. Alongside this time of prayer, prayer meetings are held weekly before Sunday services and once a month on a Thursday evening. Alongside prayer we have fortnightly Connect groups. These are smaller groups where people connect with others, grow in their faith, study the Bible and encourage one another. We currently have 4 connect groups with approx 38 people in attendance. Our desire is that every person who attends church have other people they can connect with, and so we are continuing to try and engage more people in connect groups. ## **Bible Courses** In October this year we stopped connect groups to meet together for a 6 week course: Don't give the enemy a seat at your table. This course was well attended, and people appreciated the content. ## **Training** It's been great this year to see 3 of our leaders attend the Assemblies of God conference: Pauline Street, Carol Fredlund, Chloe Nawab. At this conference they were greatly encouraged and further trained in various aspects of ministry. As well as going to conference, other leaders have attended area days at Doncaster. ## **Volunteers and Leaders Meetings** Over the course of the year leaders have met together on a monthly basis to pray and discuss future plans for the church. Volunteers have also had meetings in their teams to support and encourage one another going forward. ## **Release** At New Life we believe that everybody has a part to play and endeavour to release people to serve. ## **Youth and Children's Worker:** As already discussed, it has been great this year to be able to employ a part time youth and children's worker. This has meant that there have been new members coming onto teams that serve and greater opportunity for engagement with children and young people in the community. ## **Volunteers:** As with many organisations this year has seen fluctuations in the number of people who volunteer. A number of older people have stepped down, but we have also seen new people stepping in. ## **Courses:** We endeavour to make sure that people are trained appropriately to serve and this year we have seen people attend Safeguarding training and have booked First Aid courses and food hygiene courses for next year. We have many people who serve as volunteers across a wide range of activities ranging from maintaining the premises to investing in people through various programmes and outreach. ## **Going Forward** We continue to be excited by all that God has in store for New Life in the future. We want to continue to be an outward looking church as well as having structures in place to support the growth of the organisation and individuals. ## **Reach** Next year we hope to relaunch our youth and children's outreach ministry so that children in our current kids club, Explosion, have a club to move up to as they reach secondary school age. Toddlers – Our Parent and toddler group ended with Covid, but we want to start up another toddler group to engage with families in the wider community Community Engagement – We want to continue to engage with the community and seek to pursue news ways of doing so. Website – Our website has been inactive for quite a while now, so we want to redesign and relaunch our website. ## **Raise** As well as whole church engagement we recognise the need for more diverse ways to engage with different groups of people. We will endeavour to hold quarterly men's and women's meetings and discuss their specific needs. We plan a baptism in November where people can take the next step of faith in their relationship with God. ## **Release** As we release people to serve, we want to continue to identify people's areas of gifting and help them to serve in ways that bring the best out of them. We hope to train people both practically and spiritually and equip them to serve in the church and wider community. ## **General Information** ## **Trustees of New Life Christian Centre for 2023** Pastor Pauline Street Mr Barry Dingle (Treasurer) Mrs Charlotte Hindle Mr Jimmy Nawab Miss Alice Mann Mr Glen Threlfall Mrs June Wick We would like to thank Peter and Joan Eaves for their contributions to the Church Council and accepted their resignation in February 2023. New Life Christian Centre is a church with an organisational and decision making structure as follows:- 1. The Church Council are the management trustees of the church, responsible for all legal and financial decisions on behalf of the church. The Senior Minister leads this council and has the casting vote in split decisions. 2. The Oversight of the Church – usually the Senior Minister and the leadership team is responsible for the spiritual leadership of the church and reports to the church council. 3. All other departments are responsible to the Oversight and ultimately to the church council. ## **Legal and Administrative Information** 1. The name of the charity is 'New Life Christian Centre'. Charity Number 1051832 Address: West Street, Colne, Lancs, BB8 0HP 2. The governing document is the 'Model Constitution with Trust Deed for Local Assemblies of God'. 3. Trustees are appointed by the Church Council. New Life Chrtstian Centre Recelpts and payments SeWed perfjod: 01 January 2023 to 31 Docember 2023 01 Ja{M￿ry 2023 To 31 Dpcember2023 01 January 2022 31 Oec8mt*r 2022 G8neral. Ger￿131 Iunrestrictrdl Fund 1.150 Youih WorkerFuTrl 455 2.770 23.5T4 2U.615 16,057 18,71S 470 Ofterirg5 & Gdb. IGdtA Ythjth 150 336 LrfB 2 U Fwbj 1.041 1.321 37.070 7?12 5.790 73 Bank IrrtWe5t Floom Hire 381 125 8.678 fj.211 Totsi 56.621 46.051 8.485 Yr¥Jth Worker 8,819 245 163 YoLth Exp Gi￿P Exp 175 25 TTainiNJ Outseath 47 475 1.140 618 1,156 782 25 Jur*2024 Paye 1 From 01 January 2023 To 31 December 2023 01 January 2022 31 DÈcemb¢r 2022 516 1.295 ¥2 367 1.391 yi 2r2 2,335 P4ewLrfe2 U Fur41 18.573 14124 Salqws 20.417 S.631 S347 21.640 433 200 c￿an1￿ &JpfvWesl &r88t 49,9f 74A27 128.3751 .138 63.763 63.763 25 JunB 2LW Paw 2 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner s Report Report to the trustees1 members of NJaK) LJ É ctrtQI￿￿fv) ceA)Ttie 81-11-2023 1051332 On accounts forthe year (rf any) I rep(¥t to the truste6s on my examination of th8 accounts of the ab rtharity fthe Tru￿} for the year wrfted Responsibilhles and the tharity ITUStees of the Trus(5A)u are forthe preparati basis of report of the aoxmjrrts in acccydarv *ilh the rwuirements of the Ch*ities Act 2011 fthe A(f). I report in respect of my examina11c￿ of the Tnjsvs accounts carried out under sec*on 145 ofthe 2011 Act and in ￿￿￿ing tjjt my examinat"on. I have followed the appficable DIT￿tionS gt¥en by the Charity Commission under secti(m 145151{bl of the Art. Independent I have fXffiF4eted my examination. I C•JnfKm tt￿1 matsrfal matt￿S hale examinerfs staterne￿ come to my attention (other than that disdosed below") in uJnnecttron with the examination ￿lch glves me cause lo bel￿￿6 thai ￿, any mtsial accountiThJ recrxds were r￿t ke0 bn a¢)x*danc* Secti￿ 130 the Act or I have no cI￿lEmS and have come a(r)ss no other mattets in connection wFth the examination to vthich attenti￿ 5h(MJld be drawn in to enable a proper understsnding of the a¢￿Unts to be reached. . Please delete the wollls in brnck8ts MI1￿Y do not appty. Signed: Iqtrh June 202¥ Name: $4i5AN Wi4rre£ Relevant professional quallfication(s) or body {rf any): AddrESS: 11, CLOC¥HOLSÉ La￿0$￿[fl IER October 2018