Annual Report for 2023
Registered Charity Number 1131765 Address: Kirkley Park Road Lowestoft Suffolk NR33 0LQ
Trustees: P Axon (Church Secretary) I Davies R Dorling J Read L Scott A Smith (Church Treasurer) F Tucker C Emerson (appointed January 2024) J Peacock (appointed January 2024)
Bankers: CAF Bank Limited
The trustees present their Annual Report and financial statements for 2023.
Structure, Governance and Management
The Charity is governed by an Approved Governing Document. Members of the Church are accepted in accordance with the Constitution which requires them to be or to have been publicly baptised on the profession of faith in Jesus Christ, or following other modes of baptism to renew their public profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
The members meeting normally take place four times per year and have responsibility for the overall policy of the church. The members appoint the Trustees, who together with the Minister, Church Secretary and Treasurer (who are also appointed by the Members), are responsible for the day to day running of the church’s work and witness, and the financial and legal aspects 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 guidance, 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.
Objectives and Activities
The principal purpose of the charity is the advancement of the Christian faith according to the principles of the Baptist denomination to include the advancement of education, community service and such other general charitable purposes in such parts of the United Kingdom and the world as the Church shall determine. In order to achieve the principal objective which is set out above, the Church provides a variety of activities both to its membership and to the community generally. The aim is to show the love of Jesus Christ in both word and deed and to bring people into a closer relationship with Him as living Lord. Central to the work and witness of the Church is the provision of regular public services of Christian worship. These services normally take place each Sunday at 10.30 am.
During 2023 our Youth Specialist completed her degree in Theology, Mission and Ministry (Youth Work). Also, two young people completed a young leader training course. The Church welcomed
approximately 70 young people to one or more of the weekly youth groups. The Church continued to remain in relationship with local primary schools, offering prayer spaces and support to children in year 6 supporting them through SATs and the transition to High School. Connection with local High Schools continues to grow too.
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 Church has read the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit, and is satisfied that the activities outlined above clearly demonstrate that the charity is providing a benefit to the public.
Achievements and Performance
The Church does not measure the success of its programmes only in numbers, including financial numbers, but also in less tangible areas like fellowship and encouragement. The Trustees recognise that these are difficult to measure, but believe that 2023 was a positive year in the life of the church. The beginning of 2023 continued with the interregnum with Rev. Danny Pritchard as moderator. Following her appointment, Rev. Lou Webber took up her position as Senior Minister in August. The Church formally welcomed Rev. Webber into the church at the induction service in September. During 2023 four people joined the membership during the year and two people left. The membership stood at 119 people at the end of 2023
In our work with Children and families, Little Fishes Toddler Groups have been busy all year with both groups being full with a waiting list. We now have approx. 55-60 families we see regularly and new volunteers who have fitted in well with the team. We have built strong relationships with our families and support some meeting for coffee. Adults and families are coming to all age services with more coming along and returning. At Kidz Church on Sunday morning, we have approx. 21 children attend. This is now split into two groups by age so we can help them personally grow in faith. The Older children have also served at all age services with refreshments, welcoming and giving out gifts. Other activities during the year included a local schools event, Music for Schools in June for two days where we created a welcome board and gave out our activity leaflets. We had three summer Family fun mornings using superheroes from the bible. We had around 60 families per session come along. In October we held another family event, Pumpkin Heroes with 150 people coming through the doors.
In 2023 the Chaplaincy merged into a wider collective being present at different occasions such mind body spirit fairs, wellbeing events, statutory and voluntary sector events. We took a team to First Light Lowestoft and Latitude, working with the festival pastors. Weekly we continue to pop up in a cafe and deliver breakfast and support to local retailers. Our Wild Church has continued to grow with one person coming to faith and around 10 attending each time
We have had some challenging times at Whitton Life this past year but that has only made us strive harder for our goals. We have still seen growth in our groups following on from changing the signage on the front of the building. We have been building greater relationships with those we see on a regular basis. We continue to work with the local community services and the council to provide those we see with the best information and sign posting for all the issues that they come to us with. One of those has been a regular person form the Citizens Advice Bureau coming in once a term to give advice particularly to families, these can range from housing, benefit claims etc. This has been a valuable service to the community and we hope that this will continue providing the funding will remain. Our aim is the same as previous years, to help people and the community where we can, to work with local services to provide the best help that we can, to show love and care in every aspect
of the work that we do and through that showing them God’s love we can bring them to a place where they themselves will be able to grow and have a personal faith themselves.
Financial Review
The Church continues 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 expressed its part in the life of the wider church by making grants to national and international Christian organisations and societies with Christian aims and objectives compatible with the church’s own charitable purpose. The Church is heavily 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. Early in 2023, the trustees identified a potential funding deficit once our new Senior minister came to post. This issue was brought to the membership with a plan for reducing costs and hopefully increasing revenue. The flat owned by the Church received a tenant in April 23 and the rent paid contributes towards general funding. The Trustees were thankful with the numbers in the congregation increasing and general giving increasing. A review of ongoing costs continue. The financial results for the year, together with a summary of the accounting policies adopted 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.
LRBC Church Accounts for the Year 1st January - 31st December 2023
| 2023 Assets at the start of year Staffing Fund 13608 Maintenance Fund 1456 Mission Funds 32887 Legacy/Capital Fund 80325 Youth Minister Fund 10230 Total 138506 Income Legacies/Capital Gifts 0 Grant Benefact Trust 1150 Weekly Offerings 39634 Gift Aided Offerings 81514 Income tax recovered on gift aids 24300 Other income (Lettings etc.) 15821 Directed Income 20516 Interest Received 4587 Total 187522 Expenditure Property 49901 Admin 8304 Staffing 90778 Capital Fund 0 Wider Mission 17916 Mission Training 3887 Local Mission 17287 Total 188073 Total Cash Assets at start of year 138506 Plus Income 187522 Less Expenditure 188073 Cash Assets carried forward 137955 Non Monetary Assets Insurance Values 2023 Church buildings Church contents Manse Minibus Whitton Life Centre Whitton Life Contents Total |
2022 6,883 436 34,755 121,964 26,230 |
|---|---|
| 190268 | |
| 21861 0 39,093 69,468 19,456 1,450 30,160 2,371 |
|
| 183859 | |
| 30219 7454 85065 63500 18131 9632 21618 |
|
| 235619 | |
| 190268 183859 235619 |
|
| 138508 | |
| 4,637,269.00 £ 172,774.00 £ 272,199.00 £ - £ 404,622.00 £ 98,950.00 £ 5,585,814.00 £ |
| Expenditure Property Property upkeep Church utilities Insurance Manse Maintenance Whitton Life utilities Minibus Manse refurbishment Total Administration General Admin Computer Costs Bank Charges Affiliations Total Staffing Salaries Staff support Youth Minister Fund Internal Mission Fund Total Capital Asbestos and Heating Whitton Flat Refurb Total External Mission Ukraine Refugees Leprosy Mission TWAM BMS Appeal (Ukraine 2022) BMS Birthday Scheme BMS Home Mission Open Doors Tearfund Pakistan Appeal BMS Appeal (Syria) Christian Aid Gaza Appeal Total Mission/ Training Ministry Training E Day Ministry Training J Dorling Total Local Mission Total Expenditure |
2023 11324 8652 3930 6556 5261 1144 13034 49901 6292 1248 61 703 8304 68874 6874 10230 4800 90778 0 796 0 750 0 420 6700 6700 500 0 1050 1000 17916 3638 249 3887 17287 188,073 £ |
2022 9,950 5,965 3,947 3,754 5,547 1,056 0 |
|---|---|---|
| 30219 | ||
| 6,480 148 104 722 |
||
| 7454 | ||
| 63,682 5,783 12000 3600 |
||
| 85065 | ||
| 53,600 9900 |
||
| 63500 | ||
| 519 750 0 1,143 405 7,200 7,200 750 165 0 0 |
||
| 18,132 | ||
| 5032 4600 |
||
| 9632 | ||
| 21,618 | ||
| 235,620 £ |