2021-12-31-accounts - Hill Cliffe Baptist Church

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Hill Cliffe Baptist Church Annual Review of Church Ministries 2021/22

www.hillcliffe.info

May 2022

Introduction and Thanks

Please enjoy reading this annual review of our church-led ministries at Hill Cliffe covering the period May 2021 - May 2022.

Leadership – for the period March 2020- March 2021

We were delighted to add Anne Hall and Graham Palmer to our diaconate this year – both long-term members of the church yet serving on the Leadership Team for the first time. Our Leadership Team, comprising our Deacons – Anne, Graham, Pam, Bryan, Joe, and Tim - along with Steve (Church Secretary), Ruth (Church Treasurer), John (Church Youth Worker), and Stuart, served the church in providing leadership for the various ministries and practical responsibilities of the church. Stuart continued to provide spiritual, pastoral and theological overview and direction for the Leadership Team and the church during this period.

In March, Ruth Hughes decided to step back from the Leadership Team. We are very grateful to Ruth for the many years of faithful and excellent service she has given to the church as part of the Leadership Team in the role of Treasurer. Ruth is continuing to fulfil the responsibilities and tasks of the treasurer until the church appoints a suitable replacement in due course.

Teaching Ministry

Since May 2021, we have undertaken Sunday morning teaching and have prepared weekly Small Group studies on the following series (most recent first):

The Holy Spirit – Described by Jesus in the Gospels
Easter and Resurrection Series
4 Psalms for Life – Praise, Thanks, Trust, Lament
Advent and Christmas Series
Book of Philippians
Coping With Change
Summer Services
The Book of Acts – Acts 1-9

Sunday Evening Prayer Gathering

We have been alternating between meeting in-person and meeting on Zoom throughout this year.

Facebook Pages, Weekly News Update Email, and News Feed Our Private Prayer and Support Facebook page connects around 70 adults across our church family for prayer and support – with around 45 more receiving the updates via the email News Feeds.

The Public Hill Cliffe Facebook page has 185 friends, many of whom are not part of the church congregation. It shares news of services, events and messages from the church to this wider community.

Host Team and Connections Team for Church Services

Since returning to the church for Sunday Services we have continued and expanded the Host Teams to include the coffee team and general stewarding, under Pam’s coordination. We have also reintroduced the Connections Team under Rhys’ leadership to ensure that newcomers in particular receive a warm welcome and are connected with others in the church. Many thanks to these wonderful teams and each of the team members.

Graveyard and Church Grounds Maintenance - report from Peter Hindley

The work on the graveyard has continued with most of the area made safe now so that most of the grass can be cut with the John Deere. All the Gorse and Brambles have been taken out.

Most of the Japanese knotweed has been removed but this is an ongoing problem to solve. Stan and myself erected a new fence along the field boundary to make it safer for the children playing on the field and help stop litter coming through from Fox Covert Graveyard and thankfully this has worked.

The grounds around church take a lot of effort to keep it looking good and without the help of Graham Newton, Graham Palmer and Bryan Hancock this would be very difficult. I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thanks to these guys for their help.

On behalf of the church I would like to say thank you to Stan for all his work and expertise on the graveyard and around the church grounds.

Children’s Ministries – report by Bryan Hancock and Jane Quinn

The early part of the year was a challenge as Government guidelines for meeting evolved into more “consistent normality”.

Junior Church continued to meet together, in the church hall, each Sunday morning following a series called Luke Street looking at the life of Jesus and how that has a relevance for us. Sessions were led by Bryan, Jane and Ruth Hughes. Numbers were usually between 10 and 15 children although occasionally numbers crept over 20.

We continued to publish the lessons online until the end of August when we withdrew this resource.

Moving into 2022, numbers have continued to average around 15 children each week although we have had 30 different children attending. We are very grateful to June Newton, Jackie Hancock, Emily Palmer and Amy Harper for their help with this class.

As restrictions have reduced, we have considered how we can move to more specific age group classes. We have been blessed by several volunteers coming forward as teachers and helpers and we believe we can move to a new trial format for June and July 2022. This will involve Jane and Bryan running weeks 1, 3 and 5 All Together sessions and Amy Harper, Jennie Gray, Lynda Battarbee and Fiona Lofthouse running weeks 2 and 4 Age group classes. If this format works, then we propose to continue with it in September.

In August we plan to relaunch Day Camp, Monday 22nd to Friday 26th. Currently we have 80+ plus children registered and would be very grateful for staff team volunteers.

Youth Work Ministries – report from John Harper

It has been so good to meet with our young people, without many or any restrictions, for the majority of the last 12 months.

Sunday Mornings have returned to a form of normality in as much as we are able to have 3 age specific groups functioning for our young people. The oldest group continue to follow the main themes of the adult morning service, while the high school age groups have a change in theme every 4 weeks.

Worship ’n Wait has returned, once a month on a Sunday night, in 2022. Its purpose is to offer space for young people to worship at length and spend time with God, listening to His prompting and being encouraged to respond.

Bible Study on Friday Afternoon continues to happen in 2 homes as young people attend after school, sharing a meal and then opening the Word and praying together. This really helps young people to get to know one another as family and to get to know God’s word. We see this as an important part of discipleship for young people in the same way that we see small groups fulfilling a key role for adults at our church.

HC Youth Club (formerly Impact) returned weekly and in person in September and quickly reached our capacity in that we regularly have 40 young people involved in this weekly ministry (35 places for years 6-9 and 6 young leaders to compliment the 8 adults leaders) We have spent this year working our way through Matthew’s Gospel as we want to introduce the young people (80%+ are not part of our church in any other ministry) to Jesus.

In October 21 we ran a residential at Quinta (Shropshire), where we partnered with NWBA and targeted our younger half of youth. This was a fantastic weekend, where a number of young people from Thursdays who don’t regularly attend on Sundays, were exposed to worship (and responded in a really positive way) and were given opportunities to hear the Gospel and have time afterwards to consider its call on their lives. We are planning to run this residential again in 2022.

We continue to partner in a number of areas with various organisations from BYP on a Friday night at the leisure centre, Limitless Youth Festival (where many of our young adults are running a venue this summer) or

sending a small group of young people on a mission to Northern Ireland each summer, working with Larne Christian Fellowship (LCF).

It is also exciting to see many of our young people signing up to help or lead at Day Camp this summer.

A big word of thanks to all of our youth work volunteers who have been so up for rolling with any and all of the changes during the last 24 months and who have continued to volunteer with a servant heart and great gifting.

In Youth Work we continue to try to ask the following 2 questions regularly to our young people and each other:

What is God saying to you/us?
What are you/we doing about it?

These 2 questions are central to youth work at Hill Cliffe as we move towards a vision of ‘Disciples Making Disciples.’

Small Group Ministries – report from Joe Martin

Small groups continue to facilitate a deeper, applied understanding of the themes explored on Sundays as well as an opportunity for group members to build deep, trusting and mutually supportive relationships with one another and with God.

I would like to express thanks to Jennie and Steve Gray who have stepped back from leading and hosting their group. Their hard work has been appreciated by so many who have been part of that group over many years. Tim and Dawn Appleton have stepped up to lead the group and I’m sure it’ll flourish under their leadership. I’d also like to thank Kirsten Laird who has stepped back from leading the Monday night house group. That group continues to run under the leadership of Sarla Martin.

All small group leaders recently met together. Leaders report that the Study notes are helpful and pastoral care within small groups is working well. It was noted that many in our church fellowship still aren’t part of a small group. We are now looking at ways to promote small groups at church. The church web site remains a great source of information regarding our small groups.

During the last Alpha course small groups were invited to pray intentionally for specific Alpha guests. This was a successful way of small groups engaging with another ministry within the church. Small groups will now be actively looking for ways to partner with other ministries. Initially this will most likely be through a commitment to pray but other opportunities may present themselves.

Men’s Ministry – report from Joe Martin

Men’s ministry is focused around the Men’s breakfast on a Saturday morning most months. The planning team consists of Joe Martin, Keith Curtis and Graham Palmer. Dan Whitehead and Colin Webb serve faithfully as chefs in the Kitchen.

The breakfasts continue to successfully provide a relaxed time and place where men can meet in the presence of God to share food, fellowship, prayer and encouragement.

Worship Ministries – report from Tim Grainger

Thanks to our various teams for their continued contribution to the worship ministry at church. We have three strong bands, and I'm grateful to Andy and Katharine for their leadership. It has also been great to see folks step up to join the sound, AV and camera teams. We are always recruiting but it is good that we now have enough people in the teams to make these crucial aspects of the worship ministry viable.

I would like to especially thank Adrian for his hugely valuable contribution to the sound ministry for a number of months. Adrian went above and beyond and brought stability when we really needed it.

Please do pray for the worship ministry and all the teams involved. Worship on a Sunday doesn't just "happen", it involves a lot of time and planning and we can't do any of it on our own strength, so your prayers are very much valued and appreciated.

Finance Ministries – report from Ruth Hughes

Accounts year ending 31/12/21

The year ended with an income of £126,878 and with £136,939 of expenditure. Like the previous year the finances continued to be affected by the restrictions and so we ended the year with a deficit of £10,061. We ended the year with £43,257 in the current and savings accounts, which has helped support us during the pandemic but we will need to look to a more balanced accounts in the coming years. Despite our reduced income we were still able to be generous with what God has given us. In 2021 we gave away a total of £34,300, 27% of income. This included £5685 of gifts that were given to support those affected by the floods in Warrington, the church family really rallied around the call to support those in need. It is a privilege to be able to partner with other churches in Warrington and support those in need. It is my prayer that whatever our income we continue to be generous in supporting others, may our measure that we give, be a good measure, pressed down and pouring over.

Pension deficit – The pension deficit at the end of December stood at £32,800 and deficit payments are set to continue until June 2026.

Outreach Ministries

Local Mission/ Outreach Partnerships – update from Stuart

We continue to partner with several local outreach ministries, providing volunteer, prayer and (at times) financial assistance from our church to support them.

Alpha and Christianity Explored – report from Pam

Alpha

Despite the shadow of Covid restrictions still looming, we were very pleased to be able to run Alpha again this year and immediately

acknowledge God’s provision with new committed team members, delicious refreshments and versatile use of the Church building. All the attending guests quickly committed to the course and formed a comfortable group as they explored the themes of Christianity together. The away day was a pivotal opportunity that really impressed our guests as they experienced generous Christian hospitality and explored their understanding of the Holy Spirit. It is a privilege to share the news that all the Alpha guests are continuing in their journey of faith and are regularly attending places of worship and fellowship.

We are very grateful to the Church family for their involvement with Alpha; for the many invites that were made, for the encouragement that was given and for the prayers that were offered up to support the team and the Alpha guests.

Christianity Explored

The response to this new group, which provides an opportunity for people to get to know Jesus better through studying the Bible, has been overwhelming! The group very quickly became larger than anticipated thanks to the glorious work of the Holy Spirit bringing conviction to those who signed up. All the guests who attended Alpha are now attending this course, along with many others who are eager to learn new knowledge of Jesus.

The group meets weekly, to study the Bible, watch a video and engage in discussion, as well as taking further reading and studying home to complete before the next session. The course runs for 10 weeks so please continue to pray for revelation and transformation in the lives of all who are attending.

World Mission Ministries – report from Mary Evans

Like all churches we are called to be concerned for the whole of God’s world. At Hill Cliffe we seek to fulfil the commission to ‘Make disciples of all nations’ in various ways.

We have made a number of commitments to specific people who are part of our Church. At the moment this is to Stephanie Darling working in Malawi and Liz and Nick Byles working in Cambodia. Stephanie is

with SIM and involved in teaching in a Bible College and also working with the denomination closely linked with SIM. Nick works with EMI supporting building projects for Christian mission work and Liz works mainly with World Renew on health promotion.

We also have a commitment to support BMS (the Baptist Missionary Society) and as part of that we have agreed a special interest in Dan and Annie Dupree working in a church and community project in Albania.

Support clearly includes financial backing, some of which comes from church funds and some extra from gifts from individuals within the church. But it also and very significantly includes prayer. This happens through prayers in church and home groups, in a small group which meets once a month to pray for Stephanie, but again very significantly also the individual prayers of church members. Information for prayer is provided regularly through the church news emails, and on the Facebook pages.

Outside of these direct commitments, the church also provides ongoing support for Christian Aid, Tear Fund, and Fair Trade plus a number of other organisations and individual members support a range of different missions or people that they know.

Pastoral Care – report by Bryan Hancock

Anne, Graham, Bryan and Stuart have been meeting recently to assess our congregational pastoral needs. We believe that following scriptural examples, the church is a body of believers called to support one another and pastoral support is a whole church function. The pastoral team have assessed the congregational list using involvement in small group and ministry roles as indicators of potential pastoral support networks. Using this assessment has revealed some fellowship members who have struggled to return to church, and we will be looking at ways to re-engage with them. The assessment has also shown up those who are housebound, and we will be looking for ways to involve the fellowship in their pastoral support. There are others who have decided to move away from the fellowship and whilst this will pose more of a problem in re-engaging, we will continue to pray for them and where

appropriate look for opportunities to invite them back into the fellowship .

The team are currently working on -

Reviewing the Church Congregation List to assess how best to help the church family connect with one another, or reconnect with one another. We are also assessing where particular pastoral support is needed, and how best to help (if required).
Preparing a set of Signposting Resources (to be posted on Noticeboards, on church emails, Facebook Page, and on our Website) to help people identify where they can get expert help or support across a range of pastoral issues and disciplines.
Identifying those leaders who will act as ‘go-to’ people for anyone looking for pastoral support in the church. These people will then help signpost to, or arrange for, the most relevant support available.

Church Membership at Hill Cliffe:

There are 3 key elements to how we describe Membership at Hill Cliffe. Church Members are:

COMMITTED – to our Church Family, our Church Covenant (Values), our shared Vision Emphasis and our Leadership

INVOLVED – in our Church Family Gatherings, Ministries and Vision INVESTING – in our Church Family Resources and Vision Emphasis If you would like to explore becoming a member at Hill Cliffe please contact Stuart

Annual Church Covenant:

The Church Members at Hill Cliffe have committed that each year we will covenant together on the basis of our agreed Church Values (Based on Baptist Union Values) in God’s strength. Please see Appendix 1 below for the Annual Covenant.

This covenant represents our desire and aspiration to live a godly life in following Jesus, and to do so with the support, fellowship and

accountability of our brothers and sisters in the Hill Cliffe Church Family.

What it does not represent is the pretence that we are going to fulfil our aspirations perfectly. The Church Members are requested to make a fresh commitment to this Covenant each year at our AGM.

Appendix 1: Annual Church Covenant

Annual Church Covenant

As a Church Membership we have committed that each year we will covenant together on the basis of our agreed Church Values (Based on Baptist Union Values) in God’s strength. This covenant represents our desire and aspiration to live a godly life in following Jesus, and to do so with the support, fellowship and accountability of our brothers and sisters in the Hill Cliffe Church Family. What it does not represent is the pretence that we are going to fulfil our aspirations perfectly.

We will make our new covenant at our AGM Church Meeting. Because we take this joint-commitment seriously, If you are not able to make it to that meeting, please indicate the renewal of your covenant via email to Steve Gray, steve.gray@hillcliffe.info or in writing a brief note.

Hill Cliffe Baptist Church’s Church Values

We are a Worshipping Community