2024-12-31-accounts - Full Gospel Church

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Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

From: 1[st] of Jan 2024 Period start date. To: 31[st] of Dec 2024 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
Cristiana Chika Obiechefu	Leadership Team
Garry Richards	Leadership Team
Thein Richards	Leadership Team

This report has been prepared by the trustees to set out the achievements of the Full Gospel Church in 2024 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

2024 has been a good year, with a focus on being church family, strengthening our prayer life, and getting closer to Jesus together. Some of our achievements include,

A. RFGC is a church of 40+ 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 2024.
D. We held a baptism and baby dedications in 2024.
E. We’ve maintained a regular children’s ministry, providing teaching and activities alongside our main Sunday Service for children aged 3-10.
F. We continue to provide deeper pastoral care to those who require it and have seen multiple people make positive changes in their lives in 2024.
G. We’ve renewed our focus on prayer, providing teaching and opportunity for our church members to get closer to God through their prayer lives.
H. We continued our programme of summer events, running our church services throughout August in new ways that focus on community, prayer and uniting our church together.
I. We continue to maintain volunteer teams with church members getting involved during Sunday Services and during refurbishment projects around the building.
J. We continue to provide financial support to our missionaries including Mark and Marie Lees, and Sophie Lees in their overseas work. Missionary spending accounted for 10% of total expenditure in 2024.

Overall through the year, we have maintained a period of general stability throughout the church. We’ve seen new members join the church, and we’ve also said goodbye to some members who had felt called elsewhere and parted on good terms.

We began 2024 by continuing the path we had started in the previous year, focusing on prayer and getting closer to God through prayer. We initially began this with our new regular monthly prayer meeting called Encounter, and also continued to bring teaching on hearing God’s voice on Sunday mornings.

Whilst throughout the year we saw some attendance, we never saw the growth for the Encounter meetings that we had hoped. However, during our summer events in 2024, we decided to do a special ‘Encounter Sunday’, bringing the prayer meeting as an alternative main Sunday Service. This was a much greater success, with a lot of positive feedback. We have since stopped doing the specific Encounter meetings with the aim to bring more regular Encounter Sundays instead.

Our Summer Events continued to be a success for their second year in a row, giving us opportunities to do church differently throughout the month of August. Running events like our picnic in the park, family activity service, and our summer BBQ remained popular, bringing us closer together as a church.

We’ve seen multiple occasions throughout the year where we’ve been able to stand alongside our members through major life events. Notably, we baptised someone, hearing of their testimony of how Jesus has impacted their life, and we’ve dedicated multiple babies who have been born in our community in 2024. We continue to provide deeper pastoral and prayer support for those who need it.

Whilst our congregation and activities continued to be stable, our financial situation also remains a cause for concern. We have seen some aspects of our finances grow, (our offerings were 24% higher than 2023, bolstered by a large one-off donation), but our costs also continue to remain high, most notably our utilities and insurance.

We have been working with an energy broker in the hopes of reducing our costs, and we have fixed our energy rates until 2029. We’ve also seen that our insurance is projected to be lower throughout the year 2025. However, we have now reached a point where we can no longer realistically cut costs without making significant changes to how we operate, and consequently we continued to run at a loss of -£4,802 for the year.

We held a meeting with our congregation in November, highlighting this situation and encouraging them to consider their regular giving in the hopes of continuing to reduce this loss. We have seen some improvements since, with some growth in giving at the end of the year, and beyond into 2025.

However, we recognise that our current finances don’t take into account areas where we need to invest but can’t due to lack of funds, such as making major improvements/ renovations to our building, launching and running external ministries, or increasing the salary of the pastor to a competitive level. We also know that our congregation is aging, with around 40% of our offerings given by members who are over the age of 78, therefore we will naturally begin to lose this large portion of our income over the coming years.

Whilst we are managing to maintain operations as we are, we recognise that major financial challenges are on our doorstep. We are actively monitoring this situation closely, and discussing broad options for our future. We aim to make sure that the course of action we take will best serve to steward the resources given by multiple generations in our church’s history, and enable it to be used to further our objectives and ultimately the wider church, both in our locality and wider.

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 2024 - Final Accounts Agreed on 20/10/2025

INCOME Previous Current EXPENDITURE Previous Current 2023 2024 2023 2024	INCOME Previous Current EXPENDITURE Previous Current 2023 2024 2023 2024
Voluntary Income: Governance Offerings 25,890 32,277 Utilities 6,348 Other grants/donations 0 0 Building/Repairs 3,543 Use of facilities 4,200 1,200 Insurance 3,623 Green Pastures 1632 0 AoG affiliation 770 Audit/Legal/Membership 0 Administration 1,875 Training/Development 0 Sub Total 31,722 33,477 Sub Total 16,159*
	6,109 715 4,130 720 0 1,459 0 13,133

Minister's Costs Salaries/NI/Travel/Pension 22,353 AoG Conferences 642 Sub Total 22,995
	22,321 0 22,321

Income from Charitable activities Ministry Costs Missions Fund 3,202 1,800 Missions/Mission trips 4,552 Other Ministries 1,233
	4,075 550

Sub Total 3,202 1,800 Sub Total 5,785	4,625

Church Sub Total 34,924 35277 Church Sub Total 44,939 Proft/Loss for Period Account Balance as of 31st December 2024	40,079 -4802 £11,276
Total Assets

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

*A further £1,200 was received in January 2025 for use of building in 2024 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.

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)	Joseph Sherwin	Deborah Bull

Full name(s)	Joseph Sherwin	Deborah Bull

Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)	Chair/ Senior Leader	Trustee/ Leadership Team

Date	27/10/2025

| CHARITY CHARITY COMMISSION COMMISSION | Independent Independent examiner's examiner's report report on on the the FOR FOR ENGLAND ENGLAND AND AND WALES WALES accounts accounts

SectionA Section A Independent Independent Examiner’s Examiner's Report Report
Report to the trustees Charity Na Fll
Report to the trustees Fill Gospel Chunh Gos De4 C l,WitI On On accounts accounts for for the the year year Charity Charity no no ended ended 2024 LO24 (if (if any) any) |[I054425] 0 bu G)5
Set out on pages (remernber to include the page nunbers of additional sheets)
I | report report to to the the trustees trustees on on my my examination examination of of the the accounts accounts of of the the above above charity("theTrust") forthe yearendedDD / charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended MM/YYYY. ;
Responsibilities Responsibilities and and As As the the charity's charity's trustees, trustees, you you are are responsible responsible for for the the preparation preparation of of the the basis of basis of report report accounts accounts in in accordance with accordance with the the requirements of the requirements of the Charities Charities Act Act 2011 2011 ("theAct"). (“the Act’). I | report report in in respect respect of of my my examination examination of of the the Trust’s Trust's accounts accounts carried carried out out under under section section 145 145 of of the the 2011 2011 Act Act and and in in carrying carrying out out my my examination, examination, I | have have followed followed all all the the applicable applicable Directions Directions given given by by the the Charity Charity Commission Commission under under section section 145(5)(b) 145(5)(b) of of the the Act. Act.
Independent Independent [The [The charity's charity's gross gross income inçome exceeded exceeded £250,000 £250,000 and andl | am am qualified qualified to to
examiner's examiner's statement statement undertake undertake the the examination examination by by being being a a qualified qualified member member of of [insert [insert name name of of applicablelistedbody]].Delete (]if applicable listed body]]. Delete [ ] if not notapplicable. applicable. I | have have completed completed my my examination. examination. I | confirm confirm that that no no material material matters matters have have come come to to my my attention attention in in connection connection with with the the examination examination (other (other than than that that disclosed disclosed below below ") *) which which gives gives me me cause cause to to believe believe that that in, in, any any material material respect: respect: e the the accounting accounting records records were were not not kept kept in in accordance accordance with with section section 130 130 of of the the Charities Charities Act; Act; or or
e the the accounts accounts did did not not accord accord with with the the accounting accounting records; records; or or e the the accounts accounts did did not not comply comply with with the the applicable applicable requirements requirements concerning concerning the the form form and and content content of of accounts accounts set set out out in in the the Charities Charities (Accounts (Accounts and and Reports) Repots) Regulations Regulations 2008 2008 other other than than any any requirement requirement that that the the accounts accounts give give a a ‘true 'true and and fair fair' view view which which is is not not a a matter matter considered considered as as part part of of an an independent independent examination. examination.
I | have have no no concerns concens and and have have come come across across no no other other matters matters in in connection connection with with the the examination examination to to which which attention attention should should be be drawn drawn in in this this report report in in order order to to enable enable a a proper proper understanding understanding of of the the accounts accounts to to be be reached. reached.
- - Please Please ae delefe H| ©c fife lje words words in in the the brackets brackets if if they do not apply. they do not apply.
Signed: Date:2-10-24 nn 2|
Name:CRLSHE [ |
Relevant Relevant professional professional oe
qualification(s) or body MtAT 1 1 Oct Oct 2018 2018

IER IER

(if any): Address: HAPEZ CLSE LUSHIEN | S—SC~isdANP OFH FH. Section Section B B Disclosure Disclosure Onlycompleteiftheexaminerneedstohighlightmaterialmattersofconcern Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see (see CC32, CC32, Independent Independent examination examination of of charity charity accounts: accounts: directions directions and and guidance guidance for for examiners). examiners). Give Give here here brief brief details details of of any items any items that that the the examiner examiner wishes wishes to to disclose. disclose. r ,

IER IER 2 2 Oct Oct 2018 2018