2023-12-31-accounts - Headley Heath New Life Church Trust

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Headley Heath New Life Church Trust ee

REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1059123

Trustees’ Financial Report For The Year Ended 31st December 2023

New Life Church Centre, Middle Lane, Headley Heath, Birmingham, B38 0DG

The Trustees have the pleasure in submitting the Report and Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2023.

Charity Details:

Names: The Charity is formally Registered as Headley Heath New Life Church Trust, but is commonly known as New Life Church Centre

Registered Charity Number : 1059123

Address: New Life Church Centre, Middle Lane, Headley Heath, Birmingham B38 0DG

Names of the Charity Trustees who manage the charity

Trustees:

Malcolm Bull Appointed 24[th] October 1996 Janet Bull Appointed 24[th] October 1996 Ken Brooke Appointed 24[th] October 1996 Rachel Langley Chair Appointed 24[th] February 2021 Leanne Russell Secretary/Treasurer Appointed 1[st] March 2021

Names and Addresses of Advisors:

HSBC Bank

96 High Street Kings Heath B14 7LD Account No: 51187252 Sort Code: 40-11-15

NBB Solicitors

Grays Court 11 High Street Harborne Birmingham B17 9NT

Independent Examiner

Peter Tymoshyshyn FCA Arundales Chartered Accountants Stowe House

1688 High Street Knowle, Solihull West Midlands B90 0LY

Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance

Elim International Centre De Walden Road West Malvern WR14 4DF

Registered charity: 251549

Structure, Governance & Management

New Life Church Centre is constituted by Deed of Trust dated 24th October 1996 and is registered with the Charity Commission, charity Number 1059123.

New Life Church Centre Trustees are appointed to the board by recommendation of the chairperson and by a majority vote. A new trustee will be already familiar with the work of the charity, as they are drawn from within the church congregation with due regard given to their skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the charity. However, there may be a good reason why an appointed trustee will not be a member of the church.

For any future newly appointed trustees, a copy of the governing document will be provided to them, along with full training and links to guidance from the Charity Commission and the policies and procedures of the charity.

Directions relating to the charitable trust are made by the trustees in consultation with the leadership team, who are responsible for governing the life, vision and teaching of the church. The day-to-day management and decisions on expenditure and activities are decided by the leadership team and volunteers in charge of different teams and departments of the church. The church is led by the Leadership team.

To support the pastor, Tim Williams was appointed as an elder 2023. The leadership team now consists of the Pastor Tom Skelton, Rachel Langley and elders Ken Brooke and Tim Williams.

Names of Senior Staff with Delegated Responsibilities

Tom Skelton is appointed as Pastor and works three days a week in a paid role.

Rachel Langley works 15 hours per week in a paid role. The role is responsible for managing church administration and operations along with supporting the church and community programmes and serving on the leadership team.

Charities Objectives and Purposes

New Life Church was established in January 1936, the sole purpose of the church has always been to spread and promote the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who commanded and commissioned all his disciples and followers to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15-18).

The charity which is a Christian church, has the following objectives and purposes as stated in its Governing document:

Advancement of the Christian faith in the United Kingdom
To provide relief and aid to persons who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress or who are aged.

The object of all activities at New Life Church Centre is to operate in accordance with its Statement of Faith as stated in the governing document.

Statutory Declaration on Public Benefit

The Church continues to carry out a wide range of activities in pursuance of its charitable aims. When planning and reviewing the programme of activities, the trustees and church leaders have given due consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and in particular the specific guidance to charities for the advancement of religion.

The trustees and church leaders are committed to ensuring the church plays its part not only in the local community but also further afield. In the same way, Church members are encouraged to live out their faith in their individual local communities and neighbourhoods.

The Trustees and church leaders consider that the Church’s programme of activities, summarised below, provides benefit both to those who worship at the Church and the wider community of New Life Church Centre, Birmingham and beyond.

Summary of Charities Activities, Performance and Achievements

Sundays

The Church holds one service of worship each Sunday, with communion being served on the 2nd and 4th Sundays in the Month. These services are open to the general public, services are advertised on the church’s website and live-streamed on our YouTube channel. In addition to the general advertising of the main Sunday services, invitations to special events, such as Easter and Christmas services, are regularly advertised on our social media platforms.

In 2023, the Church had 50 adult members and 11 under the age of 18. This is a 6.25% increase in adults and 83.3% increase in under 18 year olds on the previous year with a regular average of 45 people attending on a Sunday. The age range of the church is from 12 months to 82 years of age. The majority of the Church’s activities are open to the public and the Church welcomes its congregation from all cultural backgrounds, with the aim of ensuring each member has the appropriate opportunity to engage with and benefit from the Church’s activities.

Prayer

The Church also encourages its members in the activity of prayer. This is emphasised in the local Home Group activities, through the church’s WhatsApp group responding to prayer requests as well as meeting for prayer in person each week.

Life Groups

Members of the congregation are encouraged to join Small Groups, these groups provide a smaller format for Bible teaching, encouragement and prayer. Life Groups are co-ordinated by an elder, and each group is led by respected members of the Church. In addition to Bible teaching and prayer, Home Groups are also designed to provide pastoral support and opportunities for developing friendship. During 2023 three weekly life groups ran on Monday and Tuesdays with 40% of church members attending a group which is an increase of 20%.

Pastoral Care

Pastoral support was provided by the Pastor and pastoral team, this would include home and hospital visits when members were sick, unwell or feeling overwhelmed. Regular monthly Pastoral home visits are provided to offer ongoing support, counselling, encouragement, spiritual guidance and friendship by the pastoral team. The pastoral team offer support to church members as wells individuals associated with the church but are not church members.

Children and Youth

Sunday school (Life Kids) runs every Sunday morning during the service for children aged 4-11 years and is run by a team of 3 church volunteers. It offers a range of activities that are planned to help young children have a greater understanding of God, Jesus and the Bible. The sessions hope to give children the opportunity to learn about values of Christ and in a simplified way how these apply in our daily lives and relationships. One week each month the children are invited to attend the family service and this is planned as an interactive service to involve the children

A youth group runs every other Sunday evening for young people aged 11-16 years young. The sessions focus on encouraging them in their faith, reinforcing Christian foundations and values through discussion, activities and team games.

Limitless youth ran as a community youth group on Thursday evenings and was attended on average by 25-30 children aged 11-16 years each week.

Messy Church

We ran three messy church events during 2023 with Easter, summer and Christmas events. These events were each attended by over 30 children and their parents, with 93% of children/families being from the community and not church members. Messy Church provides

the opportunity for families to engage with church in an informal and fun way, learning about Christian values and beliefs through fun and at times messy craft activities, interactive stories and by being community together and sharing a meal. Are aim in 2024 is to return to running four messy church events, 1 each quarter with Easter, Summer, Autumn and Christmas themes. These events provide the opportunity to engage with families in our communities and therefore strengthening our position within the community.

Worship Team

We are so very blessed at NLCC to have 10 musicians and singers to serve on our worship team. The team meets throughout the year to learn and rehearse new songs for Sunday services and seasonal services and events.

The vision for the future is to continue build and equip the worship team, by developing worship leaders, recognising their gifting and providing the opportunity to develop musicians, as well as support younger musicians.

Community Work

Cafe Connect

Cafe connect continued to run through 2023. The cafe offers a welcome space to meet new people, to simply talk and enjoy a coffee and cake. The cafe is led by a church leader and supported by volunteers. The cafe is an informal space set up with tables and chairs, providing plenty of tea and coffee and cakes, there has also been the addition of a pool table and darts board.

The Cafe is attended by church members as well as individuals from the local community. It runs as a free café, but donations are received on a weekly basis.

Over the year we have up to 18 attending with an average attendance of 13, 5 of those that attend do require transport, fortunately we have been able to meet this need through the generosity of several of our church members who attend being able to offer transport to and from the cafe.

We continue to partner with Wythall Council being part of the Wythall Warm Hub network, offering a warm and welcoming space throughout the colder winter months.

The Cafe can be a life line for some, providing the opportunity to get out of the house and meet people and in the process friendships are being made. For some it is the only time in the week they get to talk to someone face to face.

We have also been able to continue to provide pastoral team visits to two of those that attend from our community.

In Their shoes

In Their shoes continues to provide support to the homeless in and around Birmingham. A greater focus now being on smaller towns like kings Norton, Cotteridge, Kings Heath, Maypole and Moseley. Donations of toiletries, warm clothing, hats, gloves, socks, underwear as well as snacks i.e. biscuits, crisps, chocolate bars, pot noodles are provided by church members and the local community along with financial donations that are used to purchase £5 Greggs Gift cards. The lead for In Their Shoes makes up bags of provisions which are handed out directly to those in need by the In Their Shoes lead and church members.

Over the past year In their shoes has worked with the local High school to support young people with the provision of toiletries, sanitary products and under wear. Donations of toiletries and cash is provided by church members.

Wider Community Work

Our Pastor works as a critical friend in partnership with the local High School, the role being a member over the governors in the school provides the opportunity to support the continuous development and improvement of the schools ethos, governance and philosophy. Supporting the school to look at the education of local children as something measured by more than exclusively academic metrics. Introducing insights from other third sector organisations to offer different approaches to the management and oversight of the schools operation, providing feedback to help assess how effectively stakeholders in the school are being served by the school.

To compliment our community programmes, we are committed to working with other local churches to deliver seasonal events to include an Easter and Christmas Trail in our local park for our local community, these historically are attended by over 200 children and their carers.

We also provided a needy local family with a £125 Mountain Warehouse Gift card to buy coats as they were walking miles in the rain to school, we also gave them £120 in a Smyths Gift card to put towards Christmas Presents.

Wider Missionary Work

The Church continues to be involved in and support Christian organisations financially and with prayer, in both the UK and overseas. Donations have been made of £977.50 to Turkey/Syria Earthquake appeal and £300 to Safe Families and Elim Missions.

Volunteers

Like most churches, we rely on a small army of willing volunteers to ensure the smooth running of the Church and to keep the fabric in good order. The list of jobs undertaken is large and ranges from serving on a team ie refreshments, children and youth, cafe, pastoral care, communion and

worship team. We thank all the volunteers who contribute to the ministry of New Life Church Centre.

Social Media

We continue to live stream our Sunday service on YouTube. This Enables those that are unwell or unable to attend to be able to view and join in online. Having service videos available after the event has also meant that new people have been able to connect with us. Family members and people who used to be connected to NLCC have also watched after the event. We have seen an increase throughout the year with people choosing to engage and watch our online content.

We continued to use Facebook and instagram as platforms to share with the wider community our events, online services, updates on church life as well as share encouragements. The church has continued to use WhatsApp throughout 2023 to share updates, prayer requests and church information. Church members can make prayer requests and support one another as well share links to Christian resources and music.

The Church Building

Hall Hire

The church building continues to be hired out to a local business, Funky Monkeys that offers stay and play sessions for children aged 0-4 years to attend along with their

parents/grandparents/carers. These sessions provide local families a space to meet new parents where children can learn, play and socialise. These sessions ran weekly, two mornings per week for 34 weeks of the year.

These stay and play sessions had 40-50 families in attendance across the two sessions and was made up of both local families and those that travel from outside Wythall.

The hire of the building to a local business helps provides another opportunity to open our doors and serve the needs of our local community in a practical way.

The hall was also hired out for two children’s parties.

Harringtons started paying £300 per month in November for using the church overflow carpark during the week.

Church Maintenance

All taps in the mens and ladies toilets were replaced due to their age and an expansion tank was fitted to the existing boiler to improve the overall efficiency of the heating system.

The main hall and side hall were repainted in March.

Following a flood in the main hall in July from heavy rain, repairs were carried out to the roof at a cost of £2200.

80 New chairs for the main hall were purchased with a £1,103 deposit being paid and the balance due in January 2024.

Tech and Media

In July a New Mac Mini and Projector was purchased to improve our visual display during services of song lyrics, presentations, videos. Along with this software was updated with pro presenter now being used, this totalled £4,687.

Compliance

Safeguarding

Safeguarding practice is fundamental to our New Life Elim congregation . The church has a congregation of less than 100 members which serves the local community by offering a number of different community groups.

Our safeguarding practice covers all groups for both children and adult participants, and we operate under the belief that safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone. We promote our practice by ensuring that team members that have been DBS checked, completed safeguarding training and have access to key information relating to safeguarding including an up to date safeguarding policy underpinned by Elim and National Safeguarding guidelines.

Safeguarding is a regular feature on the monthly newsletter keeping the congregation and visitors update with any improvements, changes or information that supports their attendance. We have a safeguarding display board with key details of the coordinators displayed.

We have this year completed our safeguarding audit to stage 2 which now requires all team members to update their safeguarding training annually, complete and sign volunteer agreements and provide references to support the position that they hold. All paperwork for this will be complete by December 2024.

Fire Safety

A fire risk assessment was carried out in May 2023, identifying fire hazards and risks.

A fire safety service and any necessary maintenance is carried out twice yearly with the fire extinguishers serviced yearly by Churches Fire. Weekly fire alarm tests are carried out along with monthly emergency lighting checks and any faults reported.

GDPR

Both the Data Protection and Data Privacy Notice were reviewed in 2023, as a result the church directory was updated and data removed of those no longer members or who have no legitimate interest in NLCC.

Online consent forms are now being used to obtain consent and individuals details. this is now accessed via google drive and is password protected. All paper copies previously held containing personal data are no longer held in the church office and have been destroyed,

Health and Safety

Risk assessments for all groups and events were reviewed and updated, and all actions completed.

Eight staff and volunteers completed a Level 3 First Aid in the work place course in September 2023, ensuring there is a first aider at all our services and events.

Yearly PAT Testing of all electrical equipment is carried out yearly by a qualified electrician.

Church Partners

We maintain our partnership with Elim, a movement of Pentecostal churches that provide resources, training, ministry, consultancy and support.

New Life Church Centre is an Elim Network church. The Elim Network commits, by this covenant, that New Life Church Centre shall be a member of the Elim Network and a partner with its members, including the Elim Pentecostal Church, but shall have independent governance.

However in early 2023, the decision was made by the trustees to move the church fully into the Elim movement and relinquish its independent charity status and transfer all assets to Elim Four Square Gospel Alliance. We were accepted into Elim in May 2023, but the process of closure of the charity accounts is still being processed. We expect for this to be completed in 2024.

Income and Endowments

The funds are provided by regular giving of church members and those who attend regularly. All church funds are administered through the Trust for the benefit of the church, and other Christian work.

Funds are raised by church members tithes/giving, either from cash/cheque given during inperson services or by online giving. Total tithes/offerings/giving in 2023 was £28,964 this is down £5,840 compared to 2022. From this £20,358 is from online payments and £8,606 from cash/cheques therefore 70.3% was from online giving and 29.7% from in person giving during services. This compares to 69.2 % of online payments and 31.1% of in person payments in 2022. Online giving has therefore seen a slight increase in % of 1.1%.

Additional income is £5,897, £2,654 from hall hire and £3,243 from kids, youth and community activities.

Reserves Policy

There is currently no reserves policy, this is to be discussed and addressed in the future.

Financial Summary

Statement of Liabilities and assets:

The Statement of Assets and Liabilities includes the cash at bank and fixed assets, the only liability we have is the accountancy fee which is paid straight after accounts production.

Financial Overview

Following the Pandemic, normality resumed in 2022, so 2023 was a standard year without restrictions on our activities. Our total receipts for the year were £42,775 of which £28,964 came from Tithes, Offerings, Donations & Gifts, this is compared to £34,804 in 2022, so we have seen a decrease of £5,840 for giving and £3,870 for other income.

Gift Aid was claimed on 24[th] December 2023 for the year totalling £6,843 this was down £5,253, but this is due to the December 2022 claim being for a longer period of time (6th April 2021 to Christmas 2022).

This was offset by the increase in other receipts for example, the income from venue hire being up £914 and our activities income from our children, youth & community programs being up £289. Other income of £600 was also received from Tom and Lauren Skelton in a part payment for the rent which had being paid upfront on their behalf when they relocated to Birmingham and with interest rates being better, our interest received was up £372.

Our expenses during the year was £67,149, which was up from £63,155 in the prior year, this was an increase of £3,994. We did have £2,200 for an unexpected cost of repairing the roof after a flood in July and one off costs as follows; £850 Surveyor costs regarding the potential purchase of house the next door to church, but due to the extent of the work needed it wasn't affordable, £500 Solicitor fees paid for work carried out on governing document, £250 Surveyor fees regarding the

cesspool this was needed for the house sale and transition to Elim, along with £1200 paid to Brimble & Bhol Solicitors for services rendered in the transition.

We continued to improve our equipment by purchasing a New Mac Mini £1,577 and Projector £2,709 in June and a new Cordless vacuum in June at a cost of £160. Plus it was decided that new more comfortable upholstered chairs would be purchased for the main hall, a £1,103 deposit was made in October, with the balance paid in February 2024.

Overall, despite the additional costs during the year and the deficit of £24,374, our Cash in Bank and Hand still remains strong at £64,017. Trustees & Leadership will be in discussion of how and where to utilise some of the remaining funds in various areas in the coming year to make ongoing improvements to the building and facilities offered to our members and the community.

We are conscious of a monthly deficit in our running costs, which we will address in 2024/2025 when we are within Elim, but we are trusting that with the improvements that are being made and with the growth we are seeing in the church this will not be an long-term issue.

Restricted Funds

In July a donation of £1,000 was given by a generous church member to help purchase equipment.

£40 was given specifically for our In Their Shoes Programme and will be utilised in 2024.

Future Designated Funds

£3,309.30 is remaining to pay for the balance of the chairs, this is paid in February 2024.

£1,572.98 will be paid to Andertons Music in January for the purchase of some equipment following the flood in July.

Particulars of Any Outstanding Guarantee Given by The Charity

The Trustees declare that the charity has given no guarantee where potential liability is outstanding at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.

Particulars of Any Outstanding Debt

The Trustees declare that the charity has no outstanding debts which are secured by an express charge on any of the assets of the charity at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities

Responsibilities of trustees

Charity law requires us as Trustees to prepare financial statements for each accounting year which record the receipts and payments of the charity for the year.

We are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable us to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011.

We also have a responsibility to safeguard the assets of the charity and to take reasonable steps to prevent fraud or any other irregularities.

- Approval This report is approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Rachel Langley

Chair

Date: 25th October 2024

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