2022-12-31-accounts - Full Gospel Church

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Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

From: 1[st] of Jan 2022 Period start date. To: 31[st] of Dec 2022 Period end date.

Charity name: Full Gospel Church

Charity registration number: 1054425

Charity’s principle address:

Full Gospel Church 60, High Street South Rushden NN10 0QX

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity.

Rev Joseph Sherwin (Minister of Religion)	Senior Leader
Deborah Bull	Leadership Team
David Rutt	Leadership Team
Cristiana Chika Obiechefu	Leadership Team

This report has been prepared by the trustees to set out the achievements of the Full Gospel Church in 2022 through the activities of its members.

The activities took place towards the fulfilment of its agreed objectives outlined within the model trust deed, church constitution, the purpose statement of the church and our united faith as set out within our conditions for church membership and the underpinning statement of faith document for Assemblies of God GB Incorporated.

Trustee Selection Methods:

Appointed by the Trustees/Leadership Team

How is the Charity Constituted?

Trust

Governing Document:

Model Constitution with Trust Deed for Local Assemblies of God

Objectives and Activities

Rushden Full Gospel Church (RFGC) is an Assemblies of God, Pentecostal church based in Rushden, Northamptonshire. The church has been active since the mid 1930’s is well known within the town.

We are a Christian church committed to working with others, operating a community use building and being a key player in our local community – reaching out with God’s love to all.

We strive to be a church living life to the full, restoring our hurts, becoming all we can be, with Christ at the centre.

THE OBJECTS OF THE CHURCH ARE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC:

A) TO ADVANCE THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE STATEMENT IN SUCH WAYS AND IN SUCH PARTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OR THE WORLD AS THE CHURCH COUNCIL FROM TIME TO TIME MAY THINK FIT;

B) TO RELIEVE SICKNESS AND FINANCIAL HARDSHIP AND TO PROMOTE AND PRESERVE GOOD HEALTH BY THE PROVISION OF FUNDS, GOODS OR SERVICES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING THROUGH THE PROVISION OF COUNSELLING AND SUPPORT IN SUCH PARTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OR THE WORLD AS THE CHURCH COUNCIL FROM TIME TO TIME THINK FIT;

C) TO ADVANCE EDUCATION IN SUCH WAYS AND IN SUCH PARTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OR THE WORLD AS THE CHURCH COUNCIL FROM TIME TO TIME MAY THINK FIT.

For the main activities undertaken to further the charity's purposes for public benefit, the trustees have regards to Charities Commission Guidance on public benefit.

Achievements and Performance

2022 has been a good year of growth and stability. Having come through the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve sought to sustainably grow and establish our church. Some of our achievements include,

A) RFGC is a church of 50+ people with diverse age, gender, income, culture and ethnicity.
B) We provide regular opportunity for the public to worship, pray, receive biblical teaching, take communion, and have fellowship time within our Christian community.
C) We have seen new members join the Church in 2022, particularly families with children.
D) We’ve seen the number of children attending our children’s work on Sunday mornings increase consistently.
E) We continue to provide deeper pastoral care to those who require it and have seen multiple people make positive changes in their lives in 2022.
F) We have continued to make improvements to our Main Hall facility, along with our Children's areas.
G) We have established greater volunteer teams with more church members continually getting involved during Sunday Services and during refurbishment projects around the building.

H) We have seen our finances become increasingly more stable, with a greatly reduced loss of -£4257 compared with -£13,996 in 2021.
I) We continue to provide financial support to our missionaries including Mark and Marie Lees, Sophie Lees, and Jiwon Jung in their overseas work. Missionary spending accounted for 16.8% of total expenditure in 2022.

Throughout the year, we’ve focused on running our church with a focus on financial and operating stability. This comes in light of the loss of rental income from Encompass (formerly ENCS) who had previously been operating within our premises.

We have been successful in keeping many of our operating costs low, particularly in regards to reduced utilities usage and energy costs. We have worked with an energy broker to find better pricing, and made the best use of government support where needed.

We continued to invest in our building where appropriate, particularly refurbishing and recarpeting our children’s work facilities. We’ve done this whilst keeping our goals of sustainability in mind, so as to keep costs low.

We have seen the church grow throughout the year, with new members joining and staying with us as a fellowship. Much of this has come from our online livestream. Many members who have joined recently first saw our Sunday services online through our livestream which we’ve maintained since the pandemic.

With the increased church growth, we are seeing greater voluntary involvement. Likewise, we’ve seen our general offerings increase from £28,251 in 2021 to £29,628 in 2022. Along with an increased income from the use of our facilities, we are consistently seeing our income trending upwards.

One area we haven’t reduced expenditure is in external mission. We are proud to support our missionaries including Mark and Marie Lees, Sophie Lees, and Jiwon Jung. Our missional giving became a greater proportion of our spending, now at 16.8%.

All of these efforts have meant that our church has continued to flourish in it’s operations, whilst reducing the financial deficit by 70% from a -£13,996 loss in 2021 down to a -£4257 in 2022.

Overall, we are very pleased with our church performance in 2022, and with it’s outlook into 2023 and beyond. We are moving towards sustainability, and continuing our trend of growth.

Financial Review

The Financial Statement below is drawn from the accounts & bank statements for the end of the year.

Rushden Full Gospel Church – Statement of Financial Activity & Summary

Barclays Bank Current (Daily transactions) Account No. 10290238 – All figures in Pounds Sterling Figures for 1st January – 31st December 2022

INCOME	Budget	Actual	Budget	EXPENDITURE	Budget	Actual	Budget
	2022	2022	2023		2022	2022	2023
Voluntary Income:				Governance
Offerings	27000	29628	30000	Utilities	8,000	4273	8,000
Other grants/donations	4000	0	0	Building/Repairs	1500	1382	1500
Use of facilities	2500	3600	4000	Insurance	2400	0*	2400
Sub Total	33500	33228	34000	AoG affiliation	800	770	800
				Audit/Legal/Membership	250	0	250
				Administration	2000	1558	2000
				Training/Development	2000	0	2000
				Sub Total	16950	7983	16950
				Minister's Costs
				Salaries/NI/Travel/Pension	23000	24519	27000
				AoG Conferences	500	490	500
				Sub Total	23500	25009	27500
Income from Charitable activities				Ministry Costs
Missions Fund	2500	3060	3000	Missions/Mission trips	1000	6801	1000
				Local Outreach/Visitors	6000	0	6000
				Other Ministries	1000	751	1000
				Youth Work	600	0	600
Sub Total		3060		Sub Total	8600	7552	8600
Church Sub Total		36287		Church Sub Total		40544
Profit/Loss for Period						-4257
Account Balance as of 31st December 2022						6030
Reserve (Green Pastures CBS Ltd)						20,000
				Total Assets		26030

The church fully owns the 60 High Street South property: Insurance cover of £1.5M (re-sale value £0.5M)

Figures prepared for Trustees by Rev. Joseph Sherwin – Senior Leader for Full Gospel Church Please find the Independent Examiner’s Report attached at the end of this document as Appendix 1. *Insurance for 2022 has been paid at a later date, at the beginning of 2023.

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Joseph Sherwin	Debbie Bull	Dave Rutt	Cristiana Chika Obiechefu
Joseph Sherwin	Debbie Bull	Dave Rutt	Cristiana Chika Obiechefu
Chair/ Senior Leader	Trustee/ Leadership Team	Trustee/ Leadership Team	Trustee/ Leadership Team
31/10/22
31/10/22

Report to the trustees	Report to the trustees	CharityNam Gosel Chucn
On accounts for the year ended		20)2 Charity no (if any)
Set out on pages
		(remember to include the page numbers of additional	sheets)
		I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
		charity("theTrust")fortheyearendedDD / MA/ YYYY.
Responsibilities	and	As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the
basis of report		accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011
		("the Act").
		I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out
		under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination,	I
		have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission
		under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent		[The charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualifed to
examiner's statement		undertake the examination by being a qualifed member of [insert name of
		applicablelistedbody]].Delete [] if notapplicable.
		I have completed my examination. I confrm that no material matters have
		come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that
		disclosed below ") which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
		respect:
		• the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section	130
		of the Charities Act; or
		the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
		the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements
		concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities
		(Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement
		that the accounts give a true and fair' view which is not a matter
		considered as part of an independent examination.