# **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH**
**ANNUAL REPORT AND STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
**COMPANY REGISTRATION No: 07886329**
**CHARITY REGISTRATION No: 1145615**
Independent Examiners Ltd
2 Broadbridge Business Centre
Delling Lane Bosham West Sussex PO18 8NF
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **CONTENTS**
|Page 3|Legal & Administrative Information.|
|---|---|
|Pages 4 to 9|Report of the Directors.|
|Page 10|Independent Examiner's Report on the Accounts.|
|Page 11|Statement of Financial Activities.|
|Page 12|Balance Sheet.|
|Pages 13 to 18|Notes to the Financial Statements.|
2
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION**
**CHARITY NUMBER** 1145615 **COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER** 07886329 **DATE OF INCORPORATION** 19th December 2011 **START OF FINANCIAL YEAR** 1st January 2021 **END OF FINANCIAL YEAR** 31st December 2021 **DIRECTORS** Fiona Coady (Resigned 25th January 2021) Angie Farmer Timothy Paul Spencer Madeline Thomson Martin Truss Jessica Livingstone (appointed 25th January 2021)
**CHURCH LEADER** Linda Ward **GOVERNING DOCUMENT** Memorandum and Articles of Association Incorporated 19th December 2011. **OBJECTS**
To advance the Christian religion either in the United Kingdom or overseas and furtherance of that objective:
a) The proclamation and furtherance of the Gospel of God concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord and the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.
b) The organisation sponsorship and promotion of interdenominational Christian work throughout the United Kingdom and elsewhere the object of which of which shall be:
i. To seek to present the Gospel to every creature by every means possible and lead men and women and children to saving faith by our Lord Jesus Christ and help and encourage them in the service of God. ii. To promote organise and conduct meetings for this purpose.
**WEBSITE** www.blesscc.org **REGISTERED ADDRESS** Grove Mews 42 The Grove Ealing London W5 5LH **BANKERS** Barclays Bank plc 53 The Broadway Ealing London W5 5JS **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER** Independent Examiners Ltd 2 Broadbridge Business Centre Delling Lane Bosham West Sussex
3
## **Bless Community Church**
## **Annual Report of the Trustees 2021**
## **Overview**
Bless Community Church is a charismatic community church in West London and part of the Pioneer Network. The church has a vision to live up to its name and bless the city. We encourage people to embrace the love shown through the person of Jesus and endeavour to equip people for Christian life in the 21st Century.
We seek to follow Jesus by sharing the gospel, worshipping, serving, learning, and sharing life together. We are deeply involved in our local community often taking a leading role in ecumenical inter-church activities and also within the Pioneer Network and Pioneer London Region.
We meet in person at Christ the Saviour Church of England Primary School in the heart of Ealing but also now have an online presence. For more information or to contact us go to www.blesscc.org.
## **Structure, governance, and management**
Bless Community Church (Bless) is a charitable company (no: 07886329) under memorandum and articles of association dated 23[rd] October 2011 and a registered charity (no: 1145615).
Trustees normally serve for three years after which they can put themselves forward for reappointment by the board of trustees for two further terms. New trustees are recruited from Bless members by interview. The induction and training of trustees is set out in the Trustee Agreement and will vary according to the needs of the individual trustee. In addition, training is provided for specific areas such as safeguarding, GDPR and other legal changes. We carry out biennial trustee reviews and provide in-house or external training as necessary.
We delegate the day-to-day work of Bless to the staff led by the Church Leader and Associate Leader and assisted by a large number of church members acting in a voluntary capacity. We make decisions needed between the quarterly trustees’ meetings by extra meetings, usually telephone conferences.
We are aware of the major risks to which the charity is exposed. We review the financial position at each meeting of trustees and take action accordingly. We continue to develop policies and procedures to manage risk and use risk map analysis for review and action, reviewing this annually. We updated our Safeguarding Policies in April 2021 alongside which we updated our Safeguarding Statement which can be found on our website https://blesscc.org/safeguarding. At the same time, we created a new Social Media policy and created an additional statement on our website. https://blesscc.org/social-media-statement
Bless is a part of the Pioneer Network and of the Evangelical Alliance. Bless also plays a significant role in the interdenominational activities of churches in West London both in leadership and through the service of Bless members.
## **Public Benefit**
The trustees consider that the work of the charity continues to comply with S4 of the Charities Act 2006. This will be reviewed in 2022 but it is considered that the following summary of our activities demonstrates their public benefit.
We are a Christian Church that is part of and active in our local community. We hold meetings of worship, prayer, proclamation, encouragement and teaching the good news of Jesus Christ both in person and online. We proclaim the gospel together with other churches. We provide training courses and special events. We run groups and activities for children, youth and adults both within the church and open to anyone in the community. We are actively involved in serving the community with other churches through Ealing Street Pastors, the Churches’ Winter Night Shelters in Ealing, and Ealing Foodbank, youth work and through other local charities and organisations. We support the work of specific organisations, other churches and those working in line with our objects both locally and internationally. We support church members in short- and long-term Christian work overseas. Many visitors, both Christian and non-Christian, attend our church services and social events. All the activities described above, and others are carried out on an unpaid voluntary basis by our members with support from a team of part-time staff. We also encourage individual public service by our members which
includes service on other charity boards, magistrates, school governors and prison workers. During 2021 we continued as much as possible working within the restrictions imposed due to Covid19.
We ensure that the public can benefit not only from our community service activities but also by participating in our church services and many of our activities. Most of our activities are open to all irrespective of race, colour, origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or disability. A few are restricted to one sex or age group by virtue of the subject matter or to specific groups as they provide training, for example for potential leaders or specific roles within the church. Accessibility to our activities includes physical accessibility and the use of accessible venues wherever possible. By meeting at ‘Christ the Saviour’ Church of England Primary School on Sundays we are visible to people who might not otherwise be aware of us and all visitors are warmly welcomed. By choosing to meet in the school we also contribute into the funds of the school through our rent. Most activities are free although we charge a nominal fee or the actual cost for a few activities, such as church weekends; however, we ensure that our activities are accessible to all wherever possible through subsidies.
## **Objects and activities**
## Objects
Our objects are to advance Christianity in the UK or overseas by proclaiming and furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ and promoting interdenominational Christian work. We seek to bless others of any or no faith and to live out Jesus’ command to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
## Spiritual Leadership
Linda Ward, Church Leader meets regularly with a leadership team comprising Ian Brown, Tom Callister and Jacob Simpson. They guide the spiritual direction of the church and act as the organising body for Bless activities.
Most church members are also volunteers. They share the work of the church whether in setting up the hall; welcoming visitors or managing the sound desk on a Sunday; leading or helping with the children’s and youth work; teaching; helping lead worship; leading groups; providing hospitality; serving the community; or in one of many other tasks or roles.
## Teaching and meetings
We continue to have Sunday teaching which is designed to help us understand the practical aspects of being a Christian as well as developing our understanding of God through the Bible. Our teaching is accessible on the Bless website at www.blesscc.org and https://soundcloud.com/blesscc and on you tube at
= https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query bless+community+church for anyone who wishes to hear it.
We continue with mid-week connect groups which enable members to share together, to encourage and support each other to grow in Jesus and serve him. We run weekly and occasional prayer meetings including Encounter evenings of exploration in worship, prayer, and prophecy. We continue with a hybrid of face to face and online access.
## **Achievements and performance**
Our aims for 2021 progressed as follows:
## 1. Church Overview
- Following the lockdowns of 2020/21, as the church reverted to in person meetings, the end of 2021 saw more visitors each week and new people joining the church. A number of families and households have joined Bless with many different nationalities represented, which is a joy to see.
- Constantly navigating lockdowns over the year to ensure safety was very challenging for the staff team. It was an incredible achievement that church members largely remained Covid free as a result of any church attendance due to the measures taken. The staff team are commended for this diligence and care.
- We planned to develop and implement a hybrid online presence and face to face access to church. This has been achieved and been strengthened, our Volunteer Tech team has grown. To support this development, we received £1,000 in grants from the Pioneer network of which we are a member and £500 from All Churches Trust.
- On average at the end of 2021 there were 45/50 people in person each week with another 10-15 devices live on you tube and zooms pre and post meeting so approximately 60-70 people each week live. Subsequently, many access our services through you tube.
2. Communications
- We planned to finish our re-brand of our physical signs and banners. This was completed in July 2021.
3. Teaching, Discipleship & Connect Groups
- We held a weekend at home in January 2021 and prophetic appointments were a highlight. We had over 50 attendees throughout the Weekend, with Children’s groups and youth work alongside adult teaching sessions which included guest speakers Dr Phil Moore, Dr Patrick Dixon and in-house speakers. Alongside prophetic appointments offered to everyone in the Church (facilitated by other Churches in the Pioneer Network), we also sent out prophetic cards to each person attending (and those not, post the weekend), and we enjoyed a fun Saturday night social. The weekend was universally well received and a huge encouragement for the Church.
- We continued to develop and grow diverse ways for people to connect, learn and encounter God together both through large gatherings, small groups and virtual opportunities.
- Teaching for Sundays were planned a term ahead and numbers continued to grow online both live and afterwards reaching a wider audience.
- Monthly Encounter Prayer sessions continued online with 10-12 at each event and including those from other churches
- The pre-parenting group continued as a group during 2021 with the resulting babies! Becky Blackwell began to support the group and hosted weekly gatherings for parents and babies.
- A number of new families connecting with Bless joined us online for many months before they came in person, so this legitimised the work to continue an online presence beyond Covid 19.
- Our connect groups, business group, 20s to 30s and Village People (the new name for the previous pre-parenting group) youth group and children and families continued to do an excellent job connecting and caring for one another resulting in growth during and following lockdowns.
- Our monthly prayer calendar format was updated and re launched.
- We ran a Bless day of prayer in September (an intense 10 mins on the hour for 8 hours in a day like the recent Pioneer Day of Prayer) and this was well attended
- We continued to run Alpha Courses as planned.
- Spring Alpha Course – 9 regular guests, 4 visited the church in person, 1 joined our Welcome team
- Summer Alpha Course – 8 regular guests
- Autumn Alpha Course – 3 regular guests
4. Leadership team and Governance
- The rhythm of meetings was reinvigorated to incorporate our revised structure, i.e., leadership, staff, advisers, chair of trustees and trustees
- The leadership team had an away day in April to review church strategy which influenced church development during the year
- Billy Kennedy from Pioneer met with the leadership team in July and October 2021 to provide input and support
- The whole staff team had a post Covid BBQ / social in July 2021 to recognise some departures in the team and to enjoy the opportunity of being together under Covid rules.
- In relation to the trustees:
- Jess Livingstone joined the trustees and became trustee Safeguarding lead working with Becky Blackwell, our Children and Families Pastor. A safeguarding awareness input was included at a Bless Time (church members) evening.
- We revised our governance risk map and introduced a rolling programme of compliance review of policies
- We reviewed our Operations and Communications post. As a result Jacob took on the additional role of Communications Officer, delivering fortnightly newsletters, designing key publicity and publications for the Church, and continuing to update and develop our website.
- Funding to cover a further operations administrator was not deemed to be possible so staff members continued to carry out their own respective administration.
- The staff continued to manage our expenditure and reduce costs where possible due to the challenging financial position supported by the trustees.
## 5. Mission
- The Alpha course became established as a regular termly offer.
- ‘Playtime’ was re-established for the local community post COVID. We were delighted with the number of guests who attended our Christmas gatherings, especially the families that came from Playtime to the family “Messy Christmas” and the Christmas service. This was due in no small part to the hard work and relationships built by the Playtime team - Becky, Jacob, Cheryl, Dan and Chris.
## 6. Children and Families
- In line with our plan to develop a creche for the emerging young families in the Church, Bless Little ones and the creche developed well with the team of volunteers growing. There is a regular team of helpers who read a bible story, craft, and free play during the service for the little ones.
- Bless Kids for older church began to be offered monthly due to the low numbers in the church and in line with the wishes of the parents.
- Our £25K bid to ‘Pathways’ for Playtime funding for 3 years to support this was successful beginning April 2021
- Playtime re-opened in September 2021 moving venue to Haven Green Baptist Church, a much bigger venue, with the support of Haven Green. By the end of the year there were 50 children on the books.
## 7. Young Adults and Youth
- In relation to our top priority of a Youth Café, work to secure this continued.
- Jacob, our youth leader, began visiting Ealing Fields Secondary school and starting a Christian fellowship group. This continued but with some pauses due to lockdowns.
- We planned to build on the team we already had to cater for more youth coming in as a result of the above projects. Some youth found engaging online during lockdowns difficult which led to a fall in numbers. Dan Blackwell joined the Youth Team. Numbers reduced due to some going to university. All young people were allocated a mentor from within the church.
- We continued to develop our work with Young Adults. By the end of the year there were 52 in the Young Adults group with 39 meaningfully engaged with the church. A key priority in the autumn post lockdowns was facilitating opportunities for relationships to be built amongst the young adults group, in order to instil a sense of belonging and community for both the slow stream of new people who have been joining over the last few months, and for those who have been with us for longer but have felt the impact of the distance that lockdown brought. This has been facilitated through the Bless YA lunch held in October, which received an amazing turn out and was a really great way to get to know one another and have fun over pizza. The end of last year also saw the inaugural Bless YA games night, which again provided an opportunity to spend time together outside of our Sunday mornings and was an entry point for one new member who hadn’t felt able to join us in person for our Sunday services before then
## 8. West London Leaders
- The core team of church leaders continued to meet monthly towards a recovery and reconstruction phase beyond COVID.
- There was ongoing connection with the council, building on this opportunity.
- West London leader representatives met with the council regularly during the Covid 19 Lockdowns for updating and working together across Ealing
- We participated in Movement for recovery, a pan London network sharing priorities and resources across churches, councils, and the mayor.
- In exploring running Kintsugi Hope well-being courses which other churches and for the community to access, a number of church members completed the training in order to be able to offer this in the future.
## 9. Other developments
- We continued to support financially a particular individual in a challenging situation which we hope to see resolved in 2022
## **Financial review**
Reserves policy – In 2020 we reviewed our policy to ensure that our reserves will always cover the costs of all obligations if we had to close. Currently this figure is £27,516.90.
Funding sources – Almost all our income is given by members and increased with Gift Aid. Most of this is given monthly. We also had a vision offering for the work of the church which in 2021 raised £10,135. Our Income excluding CJRS rose by £6,551.
We received the following grants: Pathways £6,300 Pioneer £1000 All Churches Trust £500 CJRS £4594
Expenditure - The largest single item of expenditure is on salaries and external contractors, followed by hall hire. Please see our financial statement for details. The annual budget, including all giving is recommended by the Church Leader after consultation with the Leadership Team and approved by the trustees. We continue to keep a careful control on our expenditure and in 2021 our expenditure only exceeded our income by £74, however this was partly due to Covid reducing our activities.
## **Plans for 2022**
In addition to the ongoing work of the church we have the following plans for 2022:
## 1. Church Overview
We are keen to focus on all three strands of our vision:
- As we ‘Embrace God’ – we are keen to invest in our Sunday Evening ‘Embrace gatherings’ as a priority – creating space for people to encounter God, and express creativity in our worship. The investment in this area is absolutely key for us.
- We are also called to ‘Equip the church’ – to grow disciples, so a high priority for us in 2022, is sharpening ways the Church interacts with connect groups. We hope to create an easier pathway for newcomers through ‘Bless You’ and we will actively explore ways of creating new connect groups we can feed members into. We will also continue to have a focus on ‘mentoring’ both teens and young adults – by growing these programmes – to see stronger spiritual formation and growth in our younger members lives.
- The third part of our vision is to ‘Bless the City’ and we are keen to see growth in connecting with young families through the Playtime ministry and the programmes we can offer for young families. We want to develop a youth café to reach out to teens. And we also want to re-establish a more missional culture in the Church community, but recognise this could take a while to achieve (possibly well beyond just 2022).
- Overall, we are passionate about seeing the Church growth both spiritually in depth and numerically with new members. To achieve this, we will review structural factors including – venue (do our venues remain fit for purpose – could we have more of a visible ‘home?), how we grow our income (through better discipleship and looking at charitable funding grants), and staffing (how do we run our operations?) in 2022.
## 2. Communications
- Continual development of communications will take place based on our established processes under Jacob who now leads on this area.
## 3. Teaching, Discipleship & Connect Groups
- A weekend away for the whole church will take place in January 2022
- We will continue to develop and grow diverse ways for people to connect, learn and encounter God together both through large gatherings, small groups, and virtual opportunities.
- A 'Preaching Training Day’ is planned to invest in anyone with gifts in teaching or would like to explore that area. Booked for 17th Sept 2022.
- Connect Groups will be reviewed following a Bless Advisers morning planned for July so that any changes can be made from September 2022
- We are planning an initiative for new people called ‘Bless You’. This will be 4 connect group sessions to cover the key elements of our vision before someone is invited to join a regular connect group.
- We continue to develop our monthly ‘Embrace’ evenings. The vision of Embrace is to bring the Church into a prophetic encounter with God through worship, prayer and the impartation of the Holy Spirit. We hope to see these evenings of worship be informal and creative, with the intention to seek God, spend time in His presence and contend for His Kingdom to come as a church family. The themes for each worship evening have been planned and submitted to a wider team who are keen to invest in what God is doing with Embrace. Although there is a theme to each evening, there is also deliberate space for us to facilitate an environment for God to move. Some of the
evenings coming up in 2022 will look slightly different to previously, one example of this is a big church meal in the evening following a call to pray and fast for our community. Hospitality will become a huge part of what we do at Embrace with the following months having Hot Chocolate, cakes, etc.
4. Leadership team and Governance
- We hope to recruit a new trustee and continue to ensure that as a charity we are compliant, safe and hold to the objects of the charity. We will continue to manage our expenditure and reduce costs where possible due to the challenging financial position
- ● It is intended to grow the leadership team and in particular to consider the representation of the emerging diversity in the church
- The wider Bless Advisers will support the development of the church in the post Covid environment and with the growth we are experiencing
## 5. Mission
- Alpha Courses will continue as a regular offer. From Autumn 2002 plan for this to be in person (rather than on Zoom) if COVID allows.
- There will be an ‘Alpha Reunion’ in July for everyone who attended Alpha during COVID.
- As we continue to stream online, lots of people engage with our meetings via this medium still, and we hope to continue to see many new guests at Bless on Sunday mornings most weeks.
- Playtime continues to be an amazing outreach to our local community, with many new families connecting with us at ’try church’ all age services at key times of the year. These will continue in 2022.
## 6. Children and Families
- We plan to develop a group for people who are keen on extra discipleship or relationship from Playtime. ‘Playtime plus’. This will most likely be a morning in a coffee shop where we talk about parenting with a faith element. There is money in the grant to fund this new project
- We will bring Bless little ones up to date with building a new team and building new/deeper relationships with the children and parents. Also we will look at what our structure is for the sessions and having a fixed outline for all our volunteers to follow so the sessions are consistent each week.
- Our Children and Families pastor will continue meeting parents or nannies on a oneto-one basis each week. Either a parent or nanny that has shown a particular interest in meeting or someone who might need additional support.
## 7. Youth
- Wednesday Youth will continue to be the main area of weekly youth work/discipleship. The aim is to encourage a number of the teenagers who come on Wednesday to begin coming on Sunday mornings and evenings. Although we are smaller in number in comparison to other years, we hope to see this grow. The smaller number of young people has allowed for a deepening of discipleship!
- We hope to see an arrangement made with ‘The Really Local Group’ for a community space to run a weekly youth cafe after school hours in Ealing Broadway. This hopefully will launch in September/October 2022. A Youth café remains a top priority.
- In partnering with St Paul’s Brentford to run youth work within Ealing Fields Primary School we will move from a discussion group to a Christian fellowship group that will predominantly run bible studies at lunch times.
- Jacob will bring together all the youth workers who are a part of the Pioneer Network. The hope is to build relationships with one another to then allow space for God to share vision for the young people across the network. This will impact Bless youth as we look to run Network wide youth events. Although these events are likely to begin in 2023/24, the preparation and planning will be taking place in 2022.
8. Young Adults
- We plan to facilitate opportunities for community and relationships to be built over socials and food in order to instil a sense of belonging for both the stream of new young adults joining over the last few months and those who have been part of our church family for longer.
- We intend to build a culture of discipleship by producing a mentoring handbook and establishing mentoring relationships as a key pillar of how we operate as a community
- ● The group will Look at how we strengthen the spiritual lives of the YA community through practically learning what it looks like to live spirit filled lives and how we can out that into practice in our every day
## 9. West London Leaders
- The Core team will meet to create a vision for the next two years and plan to arrange a mix of face to face and online meetings. These would begin in September 2022.
BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH
(A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS (contlnued)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021
STATEMENT OF DIREOR's RESPONSIBIUTIES
The Charitles Act and the Companies Att require the Board of Directors to prepare financial statements for
each flnanclal year whlch give a true and fair view of the state of affalrs of the charity as at the end of the
financlal year and of the surplus or deficit of the charity. In preparing those financial Statements the Board
is required to
i. select sultable accounting policies and then apply them conslstendy;
ii. make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent,.
111. prepare financlal statements on a going concern basls unless 5t is Inapproprlate to presume that the
company wlll contlnue In buslness;
Iv. state whether appllcable accountlng standards and statements of recommended practice have been
followed, subject to any materlal departures disclosed and explained In the financial statements.
The director5 are also responsible for maintainlng adequate accounting records which dlsclose with
reasonable accuracy at any time the financlal posltlon of the charlty and which are sufflclent to show and
explaln the charlty's transartions and enable them to ensure that the flnancial statements comply with the
Companles Act 2006 and comply wlth regulations made under the Charltles Act. They are also responslble
for safeguardlng the assets of the charlty and hence for taklng reasonable steps for the preventlon and
detection of fraud and oiher Irregularities.
The dlrectors are also responslble for the contents of the Report of the Dlrectors, and the responsiblllty of
the independent examlner In relatlon to the Report of the Dlrectgr5 is limlted to examlnlng the report and
ensuring that, on the face of the report, there are no inconsistencies with the figures dlsclosed In the
financial statements.
These account5 have been prepared In accordance wlth the provlslons appllcable to companles subject to
the small companles reglme.
l approve the attached statement of ff nanclal actlvitles and balance sheet for the perlod ended 31st
December 2021, and confirm that I have made available all information necessary for its preparatlon.
Approved by the Directors on
signed on their behalf by Dlrector
Print Name..
MAVL•i IkJL TH Mc'o NJ
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS**
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2021.
## **RESPONSIBILITIES AND BASIS OF REPORT**
As the charity’s trustees of the Company (who are also the directors of the company for the purposes of company law), you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”).
Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited for this year under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”). In carrying out my examination, I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S STATEMENT**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention which gives me cause to believe that:
- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 386 of the Companies Act 2006; or
- the accounts do not accord with such records; or
- the accounts do not comply with relevant accounting requirements under section 396 of the Companies
- Act 2006 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
- the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS102).
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
K.Gomes MAAT Independent Examiners Ltd 2 Broadbridge Business Centre Delling Lane Bosham West Sussex PO18 8NF
Date:……………………………………………….26/8/2022
10
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
## **(Incorporating Income & Expenditure Account)**
|**Note**
**INCOME**
**Income from:**
Donations and Legacies
**3a**
Charitable Activities
**3b**
Other Income
**3c**
**TOTAL INCOME**
**EXPENDITURE**
**Expenditure on:**
Charitable Activities
**4a**
**TOTAL EXPENDITURE**
**NET INCOME/ EXPENDITURE**
Funds Brought Forward
Loss/Gains on Disposal of Asset
**TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD**|Unrestricted Designated
Restricted
**TOTAL**
**TOTAL**
Funds
Funds
Funds
**2021**
**2020**
£
£
£
**£**
**£**
99,627
11,976
18,800
130,403
130,229
8,135
727
2,000
10,862
3,654
4,620
-
-
4,620
831|
|---|---|
||**112,382**
**12,703**
**20,800**
**145,885**
**134,714**|
||114,604
10,991
20,364
145,959
143,197|
||**114,604**
**10,991**
**20,364**
**145,959**
**143,197**|
||**(2,222)**
**1,712**
**436**
**(74)**
**(8,484)**
48,153
2,991
3,371
54,515
62,999
-
-
-|
||**45,931**
**4,703**
**3,807**
**54,441**
**54,515**|
Movements on all reserves and all recognised gains and losses are shown above. All of the organisation's operations are classed as continuing.
The notes on pages 13 to 18 form part of these financial statements.
12
BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH
(A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)
BALANCE SHEET
AS AT 31ST DECEMBER 2021
Unrestricted Designated Restricted 31-Dec-21 31-De¢-20
Funds
Funds
Funds
Total
Tot41
Note
Fixed Assets
Tanglble Assets
4,708
4,708
4,708
4,708
5,465
5,465
Current Assets
Debtors & Prepayments
Cash at Bank and in Hand
6.603
53,437
6,603
61,946
7,896
53,457
4,703
3,807
Totrl Current ArtS
60,040
3,807
68,549
61,353
Credltors: amounts tslllng due
wbthln one year
18,816
18,816
112,303)
NET CURRENT ASSETS
41,224
4,703
3,807
49,733
49,050
TOTAL ASSETS less current
45,932
4,70
,807
54,441
54,515
Credltors.. amounts falling due
In more than one year
io
NET ASSETS
45,931
4,703
3,807
54,441
54,515
Fund* of the Charlty
Generbl Funds
Designated Funés
Restrlcted Funds
45,931
45,931
4,703
3,807
48,153
2,991
3,371
4,703
3,807
Totsl Funds
Dlr¢¢torJ' ReJpon#lbllltl••:
The dlrectors are satlsfled that for the year ended on 31st Dember 2021 the charitable company was entltled to
exemptSon from the requlrement to obtain an audlt under sectlon 477 of the Companles Act 2006 and that no member
or members have requlred the company to obtaln an audlt of Its accounts for the year In questlon In accordance wirh
secllon 476 of the Act. However, In accordance wlth setr£lon 145 of the Chatfjtles Art 2011, the accounts have been
examlneij by an Independent Examlner whose report appears on paqe 10.
The dlrectorls} acknowledge thelr responsibillty for complying with the requirements of the Companies Ad 2006 wlth
respect to aecountlng records and the preparation of accounts.
The accounts have been prepared In accordance with the provlslons In Part IS of the Companles Act 2006 appllcable to
companles subject to the small companle5 reglme and In accordance wlth the Flnanclal Reportlng Standard for Smaller
Entltles leffectlve April 20081.
The directors acknov41edge thelr responslblllty for ensuring that the company keeps proper accounting records whlch
comply with section 386 of the Art and for preparing financial statements which give a true and fair vlew of the stste of
affairs of the company as at the end of the financial year and of Its pmflt and loss for the financial year In accordance
ith the requlrements of settions 394 and 395 and whlch otherwise CDmply with the requlrements of the Cornpanles
Act 2006 latInQ to accounts. so far as applicable to the company.
Approved by the Dirertors on ............ .... .. .......
Slgned on thelr behalf by Dlrertor
. Print Name..
13
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH**
## **(A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
## **1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES**
## **Basis of Preparation**
The financial statements have been prepared on a historical cost basis of accounting in accordance with Charities Act 2011, Statement of Recommended Practice "Accounting and Reporting by Charities" (SORP 2015), applicable accounting standards and Companies Act 2006. The accounts are prepared on an ongoing concern basis. The church meets the public benefit entity definition (FRS102). Restatement was not required in making the transition to FRS102. The date of transition was 1st January 2015.
Advantage has been taken of Section 396(5) of The Companies Act 2006 to allow the format of the financial statements to be adapted to reflect the special nature of the charity's operation and in order to comply with the requirements of the SORP.
The company has taken advantage of the exemption in Financial Reporting Standard No 1 from the requirement to produce a cash flow statement.
## _Changes in Accounting Policies and Previous Accounts_
There has been no change to the accounting policies since last year and no changes in the previous accounts.
## **Incoming Resources**
## _Recognition of Incoming Resources_
These are included in the Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) when:
- the charity becomes entitled to the resources;
- the Directors are virtually certain they will receive the resources; and
- the monetary value can be measured with sufficient reliability.
## _Incoming Resources with Related Expenditure_
Where incoming resources have related expenditure (as with fundraising or contract income) the incoming resource and related expenditure are reported gross in the SOFA.
## _Grants and Donations_
Grants and Donations are only included in the SOFA when the charity has unconditional entitlement to the resources.
## _Tax Reclaims on Donations and Gifts_
Incoming resources from tax reclaims are included in the SOFA in the same financial period as the gift to which they relate.
## _Contractual Income and Performance Related Grants_
This is only included in the SOFA once the related goods or services has been delivered.
## _Gifts in Kind_
Gifts in kind are accounted for at a reasonable estimate of their value to the charity or the amount actually realised. Gifts in kind for sale or distribution are included in the accounts as gifts only when sold or distributed by the charity. Gifts in kind for use by the charity are included in the SOFA as incoming resources when received.
## _Donated Services and Facilities_
These are only included in incoming resources (with an equivalent amount in resources expended) where the benefit to the charity is reasonably quantifiable, measurable and material. The value placed on these resources is the estimated value to the charity of the service or facility received.
14
# **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
## **1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Continued)**
## **Incoming Resources (continued)**
## _Volunteer Help_
The value of any voluntary help received is not included in the accounts but is described in the Report of the Directors.
## **Expenditure and Liabilities**
## _Liability Recognition_
Liabilities are recognised as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to pay out resources.
## _Governance Costs_
Governance Costs include costs of the preparation and examination of statutory accounts, the costs of the Directors' meetings and cost of any legal advice to directors on governance or constitutional matters.
## _Grants with Performance Conditions_
Where the charity gives a grant with conditions for its payment being a specific level of service or output to be provided, such grants are only recognised in the SOFA once the recipient of the grant has provided the specified service or output.
## **Assets**
## _Fixed Assets_
These are capitalised if they can be used for more than one year, and cost at least £500. They are valued at cost or, if gifted, at the value to the charity on receipt.
Depreciation is calculated at a rate to write off the cost of tangible fixed assets on a reducing balance over their estimated useful lives. The rates applied per annum are as follows:
|Computer|& Audio Equipment|25%||
|---|---|---|---|
|**2. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS**||Unrestricted|Total|
|||Computer & Audio Equipment||
|||£|£|
|Cost|01-Jan-21|15,668|15,668|
|Additions||2,285|2,285|
|Disposals||(1,321)|(1,321)|
|Cost at|31-Dec-21|16,632|16,632|
|Depreciation|01-Jan-21|10,204|10,204|
|Disposals||-|-|
|Charge||1,720|1,720|
|Depreciation at|31-Dec-21|11,924|11,924|
|Net Book Value|31-Dec-21|**4,708**|**4,708**|
|Net Book Value|31-Dec-20|5,465|5,465|
There are no commitments under non-cancelling operating leases and capital commitments (2020: None)
15
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
## **3. INCOME**
|**3. INCOME**||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Unrestricted|Designated||Restricted|**TOTAL**|**TOTAL**|
|||Funds|Funds||Funds|**2021**|**2020**|
|||£|£||£|**£**|**£**|
|**a) Donations and Legacies**||||||||
|Gifts & Donations||78,853|11,976||8,540|99,369|110,669|
|Gift Aid||20,774|-||2,000|22,774|19,560|
|Grants|**11**|-|-||8,260|8,260|-|
|||**99,627**|**11,976**||**18,800**|**130,403**|**130,229**|
|**b) Income from other Charitable Activities**||||||||
|Events Income||-|487||-|487|3,654|
|Vision Day Offering||8,135|-||2,000|10,135|-|
|Miscellaneous||-|240||-|240|-|
|||**8,135**|**727**||**2,000**|**10,862**|**3,654**|
|**c) Other Income**||||||||
|Coronavirus Job Retention scheme||4,594|||-|4,594|822|
|Miscellaneous||26|||-|26|9|
|||**4,620**|**-**||**-**|**4,620**|**831**|
|**4. EXPENSES**||||||||
|||Unrestricted|Designated||Restricted|**TOTAL**|**TOTAL**|
|||Funds|Funds||Funds|**2021**|**2020**|
|||£|£||£|**£**|**£**|
|**a) Expenditure on Charitable Activities**||||||||
|Bank Charges & Interest||88|-||-|88|98|
|Children/Youth/Students Outreach||1,179|242||144|1,565|2,577|
|Church Giving||-|10,207||9,230|19,437|18,155|
|Depreciation||1,218|-||501|1,720|1,822|
|Events||1,028|266||-|1,294|5,673|
|External Contractors||26,679|-||-|26,679|26,166|
|Hall Hire||10,025|-||-|10,025|6,593|
|Hospitality||1,387||10|-|1,398|758|
|Independent Examiners Fee||1,177|-||-|1,177|986|
|Insurance||733|-||-|733|711|
|Loss on disposal of asset||571|-||-|571|-|
|Miscellaneous||171|-||-|171|489|
|Office||3,922|-||-|3,922|5,455|
|PA/Music||557|-||1,459|2,016|842|
|Payroll Expenses||61,575|-||7,892|69,467|65,474|
|Publicity||2,190|-||25|2,215|2,610|
|Speakers||450|-||-|450|565|
|Telephone||473|-||-|473|394|
|Training||761|265||1,113|2,139|3,280|
|Travel||420|-||-|420|547|
|||**114,604**|**10,991**||**20,364**|**145,959**|**143,197**|
16
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
## **5. RESTRICTED FUNDS**
|J Simpson
Bursary Fund
Books & Training
Technology
Pathways
DNA
Egypt
Special Needs|Balance
Balance
01-Jan-21
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
31-Dec-21
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
-
1,500
1,500
-
-
-
1,000
-
-
1,000
-
1,000
700
-
300
-
1,960
1,960
-
-
1,708
6,300
6,633
-
1,375
681
-
341
-
340
-
490
490
-
-
983
8,550
8,740
-
793|
|---|---|
||**3,371**
**20,800**
**20,364**
**-**
**3,807**|
The restricted funds are wholly represented by the Charity's cash reserves.
## **6. DESIGNATED FUNDS**
|Alpha
Bless Time church meetings
Church Giving
Gazebo fund
Away Day
Pioneer events
Playtime
Weekend at Home|Balance
Balance
01-Jan-21
Income
Expenditure
Transfers
31-Dec-21
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**
-
-
-
-
-
67
11
56
2,148
11,976
10,307
3,817
305
-
-
305
-
-
-
-
41
165
165
41
498
240
252
484
-
255
255
-|
|---|---|
||**2,991**
**12,703**
**10,991**
**-**
**4,703**|
The designated funds are wholly represented by the Charity's cash reserves. Church Giving - The church allocates 10% of unrestricted voluntary receipts for this purpose.
## **7. CASH AT BANK AND IN HAND**
|Current Account|Unrestricted Designated
Restricted
**Total**
**Total**
Fund
Fund
Fund
**31-Dec-21**
**31-Dec-20**
£
£
£
**£**
**£**
53,437
4,703
3,807
61,946
53,457|
|---|---|
||**53,437**
**4,703**
**3,807**
**61,946**
**53,457**|
17
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
## **8. DEBTORS AND PREPAYMENTS**
||Unrestricted Designated|Unrestricted Designated|Restricted|**Total**|**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Fund|Fund|Fund|**31-Dec-21**|**31-Dec-20**|
||£|£|£|**£**|**£**|
|Prepayments|2,112|-|-|2,112|3,087|
|Accrued Income: Gift Aid Tax|-|-|-|-|4,809|
|Rent Deposit|-|-|-|-|-|
|Other Debtors|4,491|-|-|4,491|-|
||**6,603**|**-**|**-**|**6,603**|**7,896**|
|**9. CREDITORS AND ACCRUALS:**|**AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR**|||||
||Unrestricted Designated||Restricted|**Total**|**Total**|
||Fund|Fund|Fund|**31-Dec-21**|**31-Dec-20**|
||£|£|£|**£**|**£**|
|Accounts Payable|4,470|-|-|4,470|5,523|
|Accruals and Prepaid Income|12,220|-|-|12,220|4,567|
|Payroll Liabilities|2,126|-|-|2,126|2,213|
||**18,816**|**-**|**-**|**18,816**|**12,303**|
## **10. CREDITORS AND ACCRUALS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE IN MORE THAN ONE YEAR**
There were no Creditors or Accruals falling due in more than one year during this financial year (2018: None).
## **11. STAFF COSTS AND NUMBERS**
|Gross Wages and Salaries
Employer's National Insurance Costs
Pension
Other|**2021**
**£**
68,240
-
857
370
**69,467**|**2020**
**£**
64,200
-
685
590|
|---|---|---|
|||**65,474**|
Employees who were engaged in each of the following activities:
|Activities in furtherance of organisation's objects
Management and administration
**Total**|**2021**
**TOTAL**
1.5
1
**2.5**|**2020**
**TOTAL**
1.5
0.8|
|---|---|---|
|||**2.25**|
No employees (2020: None) received emoluments in excess of £60,000. Staff are paid through the PAYE system.
An £8593.84 grant was received from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
18
## **BLESS COMMUNITY CHURCH (A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)**
## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021**
## **12. DIRECTORS AND OTHER RELATED PARTIES**
No payments were made to directors or any persons connected with them during this financial period. No material transaction took place between the organisation and a trustee or any person connected with them.
Donations received from the trustees and related parties during the year were £14,730 (2020: £12,200)
## **13. RISK ASSESSMENT**
The directors actively review the major risks which the charity faces on a regular basis and believe that maintaining the free reserves stated, combined with the annual review of the controls over key financial systems carried out on an annual basis will provide sufficient resources in the event of adverse conditions. The directors have also examined other operational and business risks which they face and confirm that they have established systems to mitigate the significant risks.
## **14. RESERVES POLICY**
See Report of the Directors.
## **15. PUBLIC BENEFIT**
See Report of the Directors .
19