CFS and SS Big Weekend Away – Feb 2024
charity registered in England No 1147116 www.churchfromscratch.org
Annual Report and Impact Statement for the year ending 31 December 2024
Table of Contents
| Table of Contents | Page 2 |
|---|---|
| Annual Report and Impact Statement | Page 3 - 9 |
| Independent Examiner Report | Page 10 - 11 |
| Statement of Financial Activity | Page 12 |
| Statement of Assets and Liabilities | Page 13 |
| Notes to the Accounts | Page 14 - 17 |
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Annual Report and Impact Statement for the year ending 31 December 2024
Charitable status
Church from Scratch is a registered charity in England, No. 1147116. Principal address: 34 Cranley Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, SS0 8AL.
Trustees serving during 2024:
Alex Emery Mary Blake Peter Dominey Emma Nash (co-opted to stand for election January 2025) Simon Hill (co-opted to stand for election January 2025)
The charity is established by means of a constitution with trustees appointed by the Partners (members).
Summary of Objects and Activities
Church from Scratch is a Christian church, a member of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Eastern Baptist Association.
The principal purpose of the Church is the advancement of the Christian faith according to the ways of Jesus as found in the Bible and which uphold the fundamentals of the Baptist denomination. The Church also advances education and carries out other charitable purposes in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world.
In addition to the reports set out below, our activities include holistic mission, public worship, prayer, Bible study, teaching, baptism, communion, pastoral care and social action, through a community comprising of, and working with many disadvantaged and marginalised people.
Public Benefit Statement
The charity’s trustees continue to have regard for both the charitable objects set out in the governing document and to ensure that the activities of the charity, as described, meet the public benefit test. In so doing, they take account of the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance when planning the charity’s programme of activities.
The Trustees of Church from Scratch are confident that the activities of the charity demonstrate strong evidence of public benefit.
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Nature of the Church
Church From Scratch is a Jesus centred network of relationships, projects and initiatives; it is a Baptist church in South East Essex; responding to local needs and opportunities. The heart of the church is an inclusive family, many of whom are marginalised and disadvantaged by the ways of the world. The church acts as a pathfinder in Christian mission and as a change-agent.
A network of Community Groups in South East Essex
The Community Groups are foundational to Church From Scratch. These are often homebased and typically organise around a weekly meeting and meal where we work out what it means to live as followers of Jesus. They provide opportunity for discipleship and transformation as people develop relationships of trust together over the shared meals and through shared lives. British Sign Language is used in one to include the deaf.
Each Community Group is guided by one or more facilitators who are coached, encouraged and supported by the church leadership. Small-group discipleship resources are created by an in-house team of authors to resource the meetings.
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Weekend Away
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During the year, people belonging to CFS have grown in faith and new people have joined as we share life and faith together, supporting each other with practical care for those among us facing serious mental and physical illness and difficult domestic situations.
The values of CFS
The four values have stood the test of time and sustained us as we find continuing and new ways to express and live them out. They hold us to the ways of Jesus and are at the centre of all that CFS is and aspires to be:
We value Jesus at the Centre: doing it his way; changing as we follow him deeper; relying on him; recognising we're a little bit of his worldwide church; realising Jesus' Spirit is at work now.
We value Building Community: building real and loving relationships as we rely on each other; growing up in faith together; giving our community away to others.
We value All people: moving wider to all; encouraging participation by all; standing up with those who need us.
We value Living life to the full: finding Jesus in all parts of life; holding on to faith as we take risks; helping each other to grow into the full and unique people God wants.
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Activities, events and programmes during the year
This has been a good year for the church after a difficult 2023 . We saw growing numbers of people in our Community Groups (house churches), strengthening leadership, baptisms and increased energy and expectation as we followed Jesus. This good news was reported in our now weekly email news and three times a year ‘Share and Scratch News’ newspaper which is written jointly with our sister social enterprise, Shared Space.
Monthly Gatherings - for people from across the church and Shared Space happened in a variety of venues providing additional ways for people to discover and develop their faith through discerning what Jesus has for us, musical worship and learning.
January
Partners Promise Meeting where people commit to each other to being ‘Partners’ for the year ahead, living out the values of CFS together.
February
Carroty Wood Weekend . A residential weekend in Kent with people from across the CFS community and the Shared Space shops. New friendships were made, and four sessions introduced people to Jesus in fresh ways. Teams cooked together and many other activities were held.
March
During Easter week we held four Passover Meals to help us understand Jesus better though themes of death, slavery and freedom. We also held events on Holy Saturday, and on Easter Sunday there was a BBQ celebration of resurrection.
May
Bless week was four days of special activities.
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Day 1: Blessed to be a blessing – retreat day
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Day 2: Bless Jesus - a worship banquet
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Day 3-4: Bless others - here CFS teams could go out and bless others
A session to learn British Sign Language with the help of a deaf member of the church, was well attended by the public and people in CFS and SS. Other ad hoc BSL training sessions occurred during the year.
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A push to get people registered to vote
Many in CFS have never voted. We did our bit to encourage people to register and give them a voice.
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a ‘voice’. We5 minutes! can help you register tonight in just
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June
Breadmaking day – a day of fellowship and prayer
July
Camping and discipleship weekend at Ivy Farm on Mersea Island with four teaching sessions - many coming would
otherwise not have had a holiday during the year, many are not Christians.
August Worship BBQ
Immersive Experience - we ran residential training for two trainee ministers, giving them a breadth of experience across CFS and Shared Space, supported by taught Faith, theological reflection sessions.
Table Talk Event – one of our learning meals, this time to explore the intersection of faith, spirituality and mental health.
September
Launch of new CFS Community Group – think of this as launching a new house church. The Monday night community was getting too large, so we established another : Ne community and both have taken root and continue to grow.
October
Baptisms of Sandra, Kim, Steph and Rosie and a monthly church gathering.
November
Farsi Bible Programme – arranging these Persian Bibles for asylum seekers we are supporting.
December
Christingles service and other Christmas events
Advent Night Owl – a series of zoom meetings, to help people prepare for Jesus’ birth at Christmas, led by a diversity of people in the church.
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Resource creation and sharing
In the year we created a variety of small group resources for use by CFS and to be shared with the wider church, along with a number of one-off resources. The series included:
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What matters? - a deep dive into the CFS values
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Easter
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Jesus and violence
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What hope looks like – a series on 1 Thessalonians
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Called to Pray - a series on prayer
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Difficult words and Jesus - a series on biblical concepts including sin, grace, shalom and blessing
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Jesus said, I am the… - a series on the I am sayings of Jesus in John’s Gospel
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Baptism - a discipleship mentoring course for pre and post baptism support
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God is close – a Christmas series
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Several one-off resources
Radical Roots
As the lead partner, we finally completed production of Radical Roots, a dramatic series of 10 videos, small group resources and supporting materials for use by Baptist churches in the country. A national launch is scheduled for the start of 2025.
We were delighted to work with the Baptist Historical Society on these resources which explore Baptist distinctives through our 400 year history as a movement. We worked in partnership with Baptists Together, supported by 7 Baptist associations and 2 Baptist colleges.
Partnership with Shared Space
Shared Space is the social enterprise CFS founded with
which we closely partner. We run a variety of groups, residentials, training and initiatives with them, they have over 100
volunteers and our minister leads the charity. Shared Space funding has made it possible for CFS to reduce its call on Baptist funding in recent
years on the journey towards CFS being self-supporting. We have scheduled a day for the start of 2025 to explore deeper cooperation and levels of integration between CFS and Shared Space, helped by an external facilitator.
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Together Free
Our minister continues to serve as a founding trustee of this national charity, based in Southend. Together Free works towards ending modern slavery and human trafficking.
CFS Aims for 2025 includes
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Centre all we do on Jesus, so we become more like him.
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To live and express the values of CFS in all we do.
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Develop and work from the CFS Development Plan.
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Equip people of CFS to express and share the good news of Jesus, so people in and beyond Southend are transformed.
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Write and publish small group courses and videos, to assist CFS and other churches in their mission and discipleship.
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Build upon our partnership with Shared Space social enterprise , further replicating the Shared Space model and working with Shared Space in mission, finding new ways to partner with Shared Space around new and existing leaders.
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Develop the Community Groups in depth and number so we become more authentic and prevalent.
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Identify, train and nurture CFS people, so leadership is shared, and new Community Groups can be formed.
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Encourage greater generosity of time and money within and beyond CFS, to release resources for the mission we are called to.
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Support Baptists and others in pioneering so other people venture out in incarnational mission.
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Share our resources and insights through developments to the CFS website and through training events including Immersive Experiences.
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Be receptive to the opportunities and needs as they present, responding with agility so we don’t miss the party.
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Support the newly formed anti-slavery and human trafficking charity called Together Free through our minister’s time, given by CFS to be a trustee.
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Run residential mission and discipleship events as capacity allows, including weekends and holidays.
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Accounting Basis
The accounts were prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
Reserves Policy
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Reserves will be maintained to ensure core activity can continue during any period of unforeseen difficulty.
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A proportion of reserves will be maintained in a readily realisable form.
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The calculation of the required level of reserves is an integral part of the organisation's planning, budget and forecast cycle and it considers:
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Risks associated with each stream of income and expenditure being different from that budgeted
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Planned activity level
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The church’s commitments
On this basis, and having reviewed the policy during the year, the Trustees believe that for 2025 a reserve equivalent to six months’ running costs should be maintained. The reserves policy will be reviewed annually.
Signed: Peter Dominey on behalf of the trustees 28.2.25
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Independent Examiner’s Report
| report to the trusteeson my examination of the accountsof the above
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Independent Examiner’s Report continued…
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Statement of Financial Activity for the year ended 31.12.2024
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Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the year ended 31.12.2024
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Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31.12.2024
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Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31.12.2024
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Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31.12.2024
Direct Costs
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Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31.12.2024
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