2024-12-31-accounts - Bluntisham Baptist Church

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Bluntisham Baptist Church

Bluntisham CF. wha ci

Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024

Bluntisham Baptist Church

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

Reference and Administrative Information

Charity Name and Registration Number

Bluntisham Baptist Church - Registration number 1136939

Address

Bluntisham Baptist Church High Street Bluntisham Cambridgeshire PE28 3LD

Trustees who served during the year

Isabel Daniels Janet Harris Katy Horrocks Malcolm Lee Philip Taylor (resigned 23 April 2024) Jill Slater Lucy Thatcher Peter Thatcher

Property trustees

The Baptist Union Corporation Limited, Baptist House, 129 Broadway, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 8RT

Structure, Governance and Management

The Church is governed by the Constitution which was adopted on 19[th] June 2010. The Constitution can be downloaded from the Church’s website www.bluntishambaptist.org

The Charity Trustees are responsible for the governance of the Church. The Charity Trustees are the Minister, Elders and Deacons. The Elders and Deacons, who must themselves be Church members, are nominated and appointed by the Church members and must receive the support of at least two-thirds of the voting members at the relevant general meeting. The Elders and Deacons are appointed for an initial three year term with the opportunity to be nominated for reappointment at the end of each three year term.

Members’ meetings normally take place six times each year and have responsibility for the overall policy of the church. All members are encouraged to take part in the spiritual and practical tasks involved in the furtherance of the charitable objective.

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Objectives and Activities

The Church’s mission is ‘To share the love of Jesus with everyone’.

The principal purpose of the Church is the advancement of the Christian faith according to the principles of the Baptist denomination. The Church may also advance education and carry out other charitable purposes in the United Kingdom and/or other parts of the world.

In fulfilling its principal purpose, the Church will engage in a range of activities either on its own or with others that will vary from time to time. The activities include:

Regular public worship, prayer, Bible study, preaching and teaching
Baptism, as defined in the Union’s Declaration of Principle
The Communion of the Lord’s Supper which shall normally be observed at least once a month
Evangelism and mission, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally
The teaching, encouragement, welcome and inclusion of young people
The nurture and growth of Christian disciples
Education and training for Christian and community service
Giving and encouraging pastoral care
Supporting and encouraging charitable social action in the United Kingdom and abroad
Encouraging relationships with and supporting Baptists and other Christians

Notwithstanding the appointment of persons to accept responsibility for any of the activities, all individuals, organisations, groups, and committees operating within the life of the Church, and their leaders, are accountable to the Charity Trustees and also through any specific direction of the Church Members’ Meeting.

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 also adopts a Safer Recruitment policy for all volunteers working with children and young people.

The Trustees have read the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit, and are satisfied that the activities outlined above clearly demonstrate that the Church is providing a benefit to the public.

Achievements and Performance

During the year we began our search for a new minister. Following the completion of our Ethos Statement and Church Profile under the guidance of our moderator, the Church entered the Baptists Together Settlement Process in July. We are currently in advanced talks with a potential new minister and prayerfully hope that we will be able to call a new minister soon.

We are delighted to report that, during this time of ministerial vacancy, the Church has thrived. During the year we welcomed 18 new people into membership and three people were baptised at a baptism service in November. Our regular ministries have continued to flourish and our church buildings continue to be well used by the local community.

We are extremely grateful to everyone who has stepped forward to take on new or additional roles and responsibilities to lead and help with all of our ministries and activities. We are also very grateful to all of the local preachers, and to our own church family, who have helped lead our Sunday worship.

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Our weekly Sunday morning worship services were attended by 80 adults as regular attendees, along with an average of 15 children and young people.

Our Carols by Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve for the local community was attended by over 260 people.

Our children and youth activities on Sunday mornings have continued as our Church continues to be blessed by the enthusiasm, commitment and gifts of all of our leaders and helpers in this important work.

During the year we launched ‘Purposeful Prayer’ to put prayer at the heart of all that we do in our Sunday services, our communications and our activities. In 2024, we held a 24 hour of prayer, a 12 hour of prayer and organised and hosted a prayer meeting with other local churches to provide prayerful support and encouragement to each other.

We continue to operate a prayer chain to circulate requests for specific prayer matters and to hold our monthly prayers for schools.

Homegroups continued to meet regularly to offer support and encouragement to each other.

We were delighted at the continued success of our ministry activities which drew in people from the local community as well as providing fellowship and support for our own Church family:

Little Fishes Toddlers Group (weekly)
Little Fishes for Dads (monthly)
Beacon Café (weekly)
Friday Fellas (monthly)
Friday Ladies (monthly)
Craft and Chatter (weekly)

It was a particular pleasure to be able to celebrate 25 years of Little Fishes. Our thanks go to everyone over the years who has helped make it such an amazing ministry.

Fellowship events during the year for the Church family included:

Church picnic
Curry and quiz night
Ladies breakfast
Pizza, prayer and pudding evening

In October we held a world mission month, during which we held a number of fellowship events and special Sunday services to celebrate and support mission activities around the world.

Our Christmas community event, ‘Live the Story’ was a great success. We also held an Easter Trail community event and a Light Party.

In 2024, our week-long Holiday Bible Club had a theme of ‘Deep Sea Divers. It was attended by 76 children. We are very grateful for the commitment of the organising team and the 50 leaders and helpers who contributed to its success. A celebration service followed by, appropriately given the theme, a fish and chip lunch was held to conclude the event.

During the year, we ran a highly successful Transforming Work course which was attended by nine people.

Ongoing Safeguarding training was provided to ensure all relevant volunteers are kept fully up-to-date.

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Five of our members volunteer as advisers with the Beacon Money Advice Centre which continued to provide vital support to people in our community who were faced with debt problems, working alongside the Bridge Church in St Ives.

The ‘Open the Book’ team continue to work alongside other local churches to take the gospel message into local schools.

During the year, Church members were actively involved in other charities including Cambridge Street Pastors; It Takes a City (Cambridge); Gener8; Cornerstone Pregnancy Advice Centre and Cambridgeshire Workplace Chaplaincy.

A number of our members continued to preach and help lead worship at churches in the local area.

Mission has always been an important part of our church life but this year we focused on ensuring that the Church family were more closely involved in mission work both locally and around the world. We did this by displaying mission maps including details of all the ministries Church members are involved in and regularly updating and sharing the prayer letters from the mission workers linked with the church. We wrote a prayer diary, focusing on different countries and their prayer needs, which provided a structured way to inform people of the challenges faced all over the world. The Church continued its support of the Guinebor II hospital in Chad, the delivery of clothing and equipment to Armenian Ministries, in spite of the stricter regulations on what can be sent, the collection of tools for TWAM and the annual shoebox appeal with Samaritan’s Purse. One of our Church members continues to help promote mission on behalf of the Eastern Baptist Association (EBA) and Baptist Missionary Society (BMS).

We were pleased that the number of local community groups using our facilities increased during the year, many of which use our buildings on a weekly basis. We regularly welcomed music groups, keep fit groups, an amateur dramatics group and an educational organisation.

Leadership team meetings continued to be held every month, with extra ad-hoc meetings held as necessary. Eleven Church meetings were held during the year, including the AGM in March.

Financial Review

Due to the continued generosity of the Church family in their regular giving and donations, together with the careful management of expenditure, the Church recorded a small surplus in General Funds and so was able to end the year in a sound financial position.

The Next Steps Building project is being funded by the Church family, grants and a loan from the Baptist Union Corporation. The loan is repayable in monthly instalments with the final instalment due in May 2033.

Reserves policy

The Church aims to maintain reserves in unrestricted funds equal to approximately three months’ total annual expenditure as a matter of general financial prudence. Additional reserves are currently being held to meet known, and anticipated, future commitments in meeting the Church’s planned mission activities.

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Independent Examiner's Report

Report to the Trustees of Bluntisham Baptist Church (Charity no: 1136939) on the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024 set out on pages 6 to 14

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 December 2024.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date:

Name:

Relevant professional qualifications:

Address:

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Receipts and Payments Accounts for the Year Ended 31 December 2024

General Fund

Receipts Note Regular offerings Income tax recovered on gifts Donations and other income 2 Rents and contributions for use of premises Interest Total receipts Payments Ministry 3 Mission 4 Upkeep of church premises 5 Administration 6 Course fees for Minister in Training Total payments Net receipts for the year Transfer to Building Fund General Fund at 1 January General Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 64,582 13,513 7,393 6,744 2,223 94,455 13,656 8,024 30,715 12,510 0 64,905 29,550 0 68,616 98,166	2023 £ 64,082 13,421 6,063 4,547 1,778
		89,891
		34,352 5,960 18,938 11,866 3,405
		74,521
		15,370 (7,000) 60,246
		68,616

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Next Steps Building Fund

Receipts Note Regular offerings Rental income from manse Income tax recovered on gifts Donations Grants 7 Fundraising and other income Interest Total receipts Payments Loan repayments BUC 8 Windows in Fellowship Room Fixtures and fittings Other payments Total payments Net receipts/(payments) for the year Transfer from General Funds Building Fund at 1 January Building Fund at 31 December Home Mission Fund Receipts Payments Net receipts for the year Home Mission Fund at 1 January Home Mission Fund at 31 December BMS Fund Receipts Payments Net receipts for the year BMS Fund at 1 January BMS Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 34,490 8,795 8,681 5,968 0 605 530 59,069 58,668 0 0 60 58,728 341 0 32,710 33,051 2024 £ 1,173 (1,173) 0 0 0 2024 £ 1,080 (1,080) 0 56 56	2023 £ 36,239 3,296 8,094 5,600 1,335 474 666 55,704 70,699 6,261 5,238 60 82,258 (26,554) 7,000 52,264 32,710
		2023 £ 993 (993) 0 0 0 2023 £ 1,230 (1,205) 25 31 56

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Minister in Training Support Fund

Receipts Payments Net (payments) for the year Minister in Training Support Fund at 1 January Minister in Training Support Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 540 (540) 0 0 0	2023 £ 1,115 (1,165)
		(50) 50
		0

Youth Worker Fund Receipts Youth worker salary and expenses Net receipts for the year Youth Worker Fund at 1 January Youth Worker Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 2,500 0 2,500 6,655 9,155	2023 £ 2,550 0 2,550 4,105 6,655

Emergency Support Fund 2024 £ Receipts 0 Payments 0 Net receipts for the year 0 Emergency Support Fund at 1 January 1,854 Emergency Support Fund at 31 December 1,854	2023 £ 0 0
	0 1,854
	1,854

Music Group Training Fund 2024 £ Receipts 0 Payments 0 Net receipts for the year 0 Music Group Training Fund at 1 January 2,216 Music Group Training Fund at 31 December 2,216	2023 £ 0 0
	0 2,216
	2,216

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Other Charities Fund

Receipts Payments Net receipts for the year Other Charities Fund at 1 January Other Charities Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 2,427 (2,064) 363 641 1,004	2023 £ 641 (484)
		157 484
		641

In addition to these monies that were collected and passed on to specific charities, the church also made donations totalling £1,509 during the year. Charities supported included: Home Start; St Ives Foodbank; Mission Direct; Guinebor II Hospital in Chad; Armenian Ministries; London Institute for Contemporary Christianity; and It Takes a City (Cambridge).

Little Fishes Fund

Receipts Payments Net receipts for the year Little Fishes Fund at 1 January Little Fishes Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 718 (705) 13 875 888	2023 £ 765 (264)
		501 374
		875

Ladies Fellowship Fund

Receipts Payments Net (payments)/receipts for the year Ladies Fellowship Fund at 1 January Ladies Fellowship Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 0 (566) (566) 566 0	2023 £ 206 0
		206 360
		566

During the year, after many years of successful ministry, the Ladies Fellowship sadly decided to stop meeting. The group’s remaining funds were used to buy a garden bench which has pride of place in the church memorial garden.

Friday Fellas Fund

Receipts Payments Net receipts/(payments) for the year Friday Fellas Fund at 1 January Friday Fellas Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 1,200 (1,150) 50 324 374	2023 £ 63 (125)
		(62) 386
		324

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Beacon Cafe Fund

Receipts Payments Net receipts for the year Beacon Cafe Fund at 1 January Beacon Cafe Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 279 (196) 83 196 279	2023 £ 161 0
		161 35
		196

These funds represent monies received into and paid out from the church bank account.

Benefact Trust Grant

Receipts Payments Net receipts for the year Benefact Trust Fund at 1 January Benefact Trust Fund at 31 December	2024 £ 0 0 0 0 0	2023 £ 1,750 (1,750)
		0 0
		0

The grant was received for, and spent on, replacement windows for the Fellowship Room.

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Statement of Assets and Liabilities at 31 December 2024

Assets Note Cash and bank balances BUC 7 Day Notice Account Cambridge and Counties Bank Deposit Account CAF Bank Current Account Santander Current Account Cash Total	2024 £ 85,182 42,735 10,082 9,009 35 147,043	2023 £ 73,385 23,800 10,250 7,270 4
		114,709

*Representing balances in these funds:*
General Fund	98,166	68,616
Next Steps Building Fund	33,051	32,710
Home Mission Fund	0	0
BMS Fund	56	56
Minister in Training Support Fund	0	0
Youth Worker Fund	9,155	6,655
Emergency Support Fund	1,854	1,854
Music Group Training Fund	2,216	2,216
Other Charities Fund	1,004	641
Little Fishes Fund	888	875
Ladies Fellowship Fund	0	566
Friday Fellas Fund	374	324
Beacon Café Fund	279	196
*Total*	*147,043*	*114,709*
Assets held for church’s own use 9 Liabilities BUC Corporation Loan 8	4,026,917 170,520	3,740,633 214,683

The Trustees’ Annual Report on pages 1 to 4 and the Receipts and Payments Accounts and Statement of Assets and Liabilities set out on pages 6 to 11, together with the Notes to the Accounts on pages 12 to 14 were approved by the Deacons on 12[th] February 2025.

Signed

Deacon for Finance

Bluntisham Baptist Church

Notes to the Accounts

1. Basis of preparation of the accounts

These accounts have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis in accordance with Section 133 Charities Act 2011.

2. Donations and other income Donations Funeral and memorial fees Holiday Bible Club Donations Other income	2024 £ 6,737 0 656 0 7,393	2023 £ 5,714 195 0 154
		6,063

3. Ministry Manse costs Visiting preachers Resources Pension contributions Minister’s stipend and national insurance Minister’s travel expenses Ministers’ conference	2024 £ 11,906 1,084 656 10 0 0 0 13,656	2023 £ 3,867 1,417 542 4,989 22,709 778 50
		34,352

The Minister acts as one of the church trustees and receives remuneration and other benefits in respect of his services as Minister, including the provision of manse accommodation owned by the church.

4. Mission Home Mission Charitable giving Holiday Bible Club Fellowship and community events Kintsugi Hope courses Sunday school Youth work Open The Book Alpha course Home groups	2024 £ 3,550 1,509 1,097 615 581 277 255 140 0 0 8,024	2023 £ 3,407 0 692 751 0 345 397 0 192 176
		5,960

Bluntisham Baptist Church

5. Upkeep of church premises Repairs and maintenance Gas and electric Insurance Cleaner Equipment Telephone Water rates 6. Administration Administrator Licences Miscellaneous Subscriptions Publicity Printing and stationery Website Bank charges Independent examination Training courses 7. Grants Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme 8. Loan from Baptist Union Corporation Balance at 1 January Repayments Interest Balance at 31 December	2024 £ 14,958 6,854 3,575 2,354 1,631 682 661 30,715 2024 £ 8,359 972 778 767 696 491 205 182 50 10 12,510 2024 £ 0 0 2024 £ 214,683 (58,668) 14,505 170,520	2023 £ 3,615 8,082 3,462 2,130 452 782 415
		18,938
		2023 £ 7,833 923 356 967 554 501 205 187 0 340
		11,866
		2023 £ 1,335
		1,335
		2023 £ 268,139 (70,699) 17,243
		214,683

The loan was initially granted for a term of 12 years and is repayable in monthly instalments. The final instalment is due in May 2033. The loan is subject to a variable interest rate which ranged from 7.75% to 7.00% during the year.

The loan is secured on the Church’s property and assets.

Bluntisham Baptist Church

9. Assets held for the church’s own use

The church is the beneficial owner (subject to the relevant trusts) of the following assets, the legal title to which is held by the church’s custodian trustee (the Baptist Union Corporation Ltd):

Church and hall premises (High Street, Bluntisham PE28 3LD) which have an insurance value of £3,134,787.
Church manse (5 High Street, Bluntisham, PE28 3LD) which has an insurance value of £732,393
A burial ground for which no meaningful value is available.

The church also owns fixtures, furniture and equipment with an insured value of £159,737.