## **SANDON ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH** ## **Report of the Trustees from January to December 2020** The Trustees present their report and independently examined financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2020 **Reference and Administrative Information** Charity Name: Sandon Road Baptist Church Charity registration number: 1116868 Address: Sandon Road, Stafford. ST16 3HW Correspondence address: 22 Gladstone Way, Stafford, ST16 3JT ## **Trustees:** Alex Harris (Senior Minister) Simon Acaster (Deacon) Duncan Leake (Elder) Sandra Bunn (Deacon) Lawrence Larbi (Elder) Sally Cox (Deacon) Geoff Biggin (Secretary) Steven Cranston (Deacon) Stuart Wray (Deacon & Treasurer) Ruth Concar (Deacon) Geoff Markham (Deacon) **Bankers:** HSBC, Market Square, Stafford; Santander Bank, Market Square, Stafford; Unity Trust Bank, Nine Brindleyplace, Birmingham **Independent Examiner:** Tim Herriott, 15 Briarsleigh, Stafford, ST17 4QP ## **Structure, Governance and Management** The organisation is an Unincorporated Association and was registered as a charity on 17[th] November 2006. The charity's Governing Document is its constitution adopted on 4[th] February 2010. Members of the church are accepted on profession of faith following attendance at a Church Members’ course. The members’ meeting normally takes place at least 8 times a year and has responsibility for the overall policy of the church. In accordance with the Constitution, the trustees are appointed by the members, and together with the Senior Minister, Elders, Secretary and Treasurer are responsible for the day to day running of the church’s work and witness and the financial and legal aspect of the charity. All members are encouraged to take an appropriate part in the spiritual and practical tasks involved in the furtherance of the charitable objective. Relevant matters may be submitted to the church meeting by the Trustees for consideration, or may be raised by members in Church meeting for further consideration by the Trustees. Though the Constitution permits decisions to be made at Church meetings by appropriate majorities, the Church seeks to work by consensus wherever possible. Ministers are a vocational calling, Elders are elected for five years and Deacons for three years. Each may serve a second term. Their election is by the whole membership, usually at the AGM. The trustees meet approximately ten times during the year. The Secretary and Treasurer are appointed from the membership of the church and re-elected annually. ## **Objectives and Activities** The principal purpose of the charity is to proclaim, advance, practice and teach the Christian faith through engaging in a range of activities including - The provision of space for public worship and prayer; - Evangelism and Mission, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally; - Expressing God’s love to the community through the provision of youth activities, toddler and older friends groups which are open to all sections of the community - Nurture and growth of Christian disciples; - Training and equipping the congregation for Christian service; - Giving pastoral care; - Supporting charitable social action at home and abroad; - Relating in support and fellowship to Baptists and other Christians; - The provision of meeting space for community activities such as children’s parties and adult education activities - Raising finance to further the purpose by receiving grants donations and loans. The church seeks to be a friendly and welcoming community and anybody is free to attend any of its worship services. The Church operates systems to ensure that all people working with children and vulnerable adults are appropriately vetted with regard to the Disclosure and Barring Service The Trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. ## **Achievements and Performance during the year** 2020 has been a challenging year as a result of the global pandemic and the limitations of our in person gatherings. However, we have substantially adapted our activities to ensure that the care and development of those within the existing Church communities has continued and that wherever possible we continue to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. Key moments in 2020 include the creation of 'Sunday Connection' and the opportunity to connect online via Zoom for two of our Sunday congregations; this then later evolved into a YouTube service and evolved again into a socially distanced physical gathering. We provided for the children of the Church through weekly videos and teaching as well as Zoom gatherings for games, and youth small groups moving online. Collectively these ensured that despite not meeting together in person we upheld our value of 'Bible saturated'. In line with our value of 'Loving People' we created a network of 'care calls' to ensure that those within our community kept in touch, for the vulnerable adults within our community this still continues on a weekly basis. We encouraged those within the Church to join small groups so that they could stay in touch and grow together, this led to four new groups starting. We also helped the local school with its distribution of free school meals during the first lockdown. To reinforce our value of 'Courageous in mission' we provided opportunities to support those outside the Church with webinars on Finance, Grief and Wellbeing as well as ideas about how to use social media to reach out to others. At Christmas we used resources from 'Advent Conspiracy' to create family activity packs to those in our surrounding communities and over 250 were given away. In support of our value of 'Spirit dependent' mission huddles were also established as an opportunity for those looking to deepen their faith and understanding of mission with a significant focus on prayer and fasting. We have been delighted to see significant growth in our ministry to those who are retired with the establishment of Bite-sized church, a paper service sheet delivered to 50 people who attend our Beacon Friendship Group. This group has also, when appropriate, met in person. Our evening service has also seen significant growth and gained new members over the past year and is anticipating remaining online for much of 2021. Finally, our Chinese congregation has also seen significant growth and has taken the opportunity to reach out to the wider Chinese community several times this past year, again aided through online resources which mean that this more geographically dispersed community can meet more easily together. ## **Financial Review** During the Covid pandemic, the Church has been forced to close its mission outreach café and conference facility, which had previously been one of its main sources of funding. The Church has continued to raise the funds which it needs to carry on its activities from within its own membership and congregation. No wider public appeal was made for funds during the year. The church’s main expenditure is the ministerial wages bill, followed by the rent for its mission project at the Beacon International Centre which provides a service to the community and a larger place of worship, both of which advance the Christian faith. The Church is dependent on its membership working as volunteers in all aspects of the church’s activities, many of which run with little or no impact on the church’s expenditure but nevertheless contribute substantially to the achievement of the church’s objectives. The financial results for the year are set out in the accompanying financial statements. The Church is a participating employer within the Defined Benefit section of the Baptist Pension scheme and has been making ongoing deficit payments to cover the costs of past service of its employees within the scheme under a recovery plan. The church understands that if it had left the scheme at the year-end, it would have had to make a one-off payment estimated to be £75,000 to meet its statutory obligations to the scheme. The church has no plans to leave the scheme and expects to continue to make payments to the scheme in line with the recovery plan ## **Statement of policy on reserves:** The Trustees have established a Reserves Policy to enable the church to function effectively and meet its obligations in the event of a decline in our income or a major cost. Having considered the relevant risks of changes in income and expenditure, the Trustees have determined that the appropriate level of reserves is £50,000 to enable it to retain sufficient funds to pay 6 months’ salary to cover notice to any minister in post and 1 month’s pay for any other employees of the church. As at 31[st] December 2020 the church held total reserves of £9541 due to lack of income from closure of its café project. We have received gifts from the members of £50,117 to support our work in 2021, with another £23,280 promised in 2021. With reduced staff commitments we have set a new reserves policy of £30,000 for 2021. **This report has been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Charity Reporting and Accounting: the essentials – March 2015 (CC15c)** **The Trustees declare that they have approved the Trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the Charity’s Trustees:** |**Signature**|| |---|---| |**Name**|Geoff Biggin| |**Position**|Church Secretary| |**Date**|**21st August 2021**| Independent examlnerfs report on the accounts Sectlon A Independent Examiner's Report lJw*y no IW 111•W• 14.Q1 and 7 171IiL A(ifany)|1116868|| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Annual accounts for theperiod|||||| |Period start date|**01/01/2020**|**To**|Period end
date|**31/12/2020**|| ## **Section A Statement of financial activities** |**Recommended categories by**
**activity**
Guidance Notes
**Incoming resources**
**Income and endowments from:**
Donations and legacies
S01
Charitable activities
S02
Other trading activities
S03
Investments
S04
Separate material item of income
S05
Other
S06
S07
**Resources expended**
**Expenditure on:**
Raising funds
S08
Charitable activities
S09
Separate material item of expense
S10
Other
S11
S12
S13
Net gains/(losses) on investments
S14
S15
**Extraordinary items**
S16
S17
S18
Other gains/(losses)
S19
S20
**_Reconciliation of funds:_**
S21
S22
**_Total_**
**_Net movement in funds_**
Total funds brought forward
**_Total funds carried forward_**
**_Total_**
**Net income/(expenditure) before investment**
**gains/(losses)**
**Net income/(expenditure)**
**Transfers between funds**
**Other recognised** **gains/(losses):**
Gains and losses on revaluation of fixed assets for the charity’s own use|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**Total funds**
**Prior year**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**Total funds**
**Prior year**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**Total funds**
**Prior year**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**Total funds**
**Prior year**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**income**
**funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**Total funds**
**Prior year**
**funds**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||222,114|57,016|-|279,130|180,993| ||889|-|-|889|325| ||76,859|-|-|76,859|177,093| ||-|-|-|-|-| ||-|-|-|-|-| ||-|-|-|-|-| ||299,862|57,016|-|356,878|358,411| ||||||| ||132,622|-|-|132,622|199,898| ||112,727|45,934|-|158,661|196,182| ||||||| ||-|-|-|-|-| ||245,349|45,934|-|291,283|396,080| ||||||| ||54,513|11,082|0|65,595|(37,669)| ||0|0|0|0|0| ||54,513|11,082|0|65,595|(37,669)| ||0|0|0|0|| ||0|0|0|0|0| ||||||| ||0|0|0|0|0| ||0|0|0|0|0| ||54,513|11,082|0|65,595|(37,669)| ||||||| ||937,539|100,204|0|1,037,743|1,075,412| ||992,052|111,286|0|1,103,338|1,037,743| Section B Balance sheet Restricted Unrestricted income funds nds Totsl last year (restated) Endowment Total this funds ar Fixed assets Intangible assets Tangible assets Heritage assets Investments F01 F02 F03 F04 F05 915,000 915,000 915,000 Total fixed assets Current assets Stocks Debtors Inv95tments Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets B10 915,00 6,500 129.243 135,743 Creditors: amounts falllng due wilhin one year B11 Net current assets/(IlabilitiesJ 812 135,743 Total assets less curnent liabilities B13 1,050,74 Creditors: amounts falling due after one year Provisions for liabilities B14 13,000 13.Th)0 13,000 815 Total net assets or IITabilltles Bl6 992,052 111,286 Funds of the Charity 1,103,338 1,037,743 Endowment funds Restricted income funds Unrestricted funds Revaluation r•sorve 817 Bl8 111,286 111,286 992,052 B19 992,052 1,037,743 Total funds B21 1,037,743 Signed by one or h¥0 trustees ortr behalf of all the trustees Dale of approval ddlmml Siqnalure Print Name Bi¢¢i £1 12 CC17a (Excell 2810312021