## **TRUSTEES REPORT** ## **HOPE COMMUNITY CHURCH, ADMASTON** Period: 2022/23 ## **Aim and Vision** The aim of the church is to bring glory to God through being a caring Christian community, discipling people in the way of Christ, and witnessing to the wider community. Our vision is to see Christ build his church as many come to trust him as real disciples, know their sins forgiven, and are led and empowered by His Spirit; and to see other similar churches planted in the Telford area. The above is in accordance with our Statement of Faith and our Values. ## **Objectives** The Objectives of Hope Community Church Admaston remain as set out in the Constitution dated 2[nd] July 2013: “The objects of the CIO is to advance the Christian Faith, in accordance with the statements of belief appearing in the schedule “Statements of Faith”, for the benefit of the public in the North Telford area, in particular but not exclusively, through the provision of opportunity for prayer, worship, teaching, fellowship, communion, the public celebration of Christian festivals and evangelism to enlighten others about the Christian Faith, and the provision of pastoral care to the community.” ## **Achievements and Performance** This is our tenth Annual Report and covers the period 1[st] April 2022 – 31[st] March 2023. ## **Establishing a Church** The average attendance on a Sunday over the 12 month period was 35.7 persons (2021/2 = 35.7). This remains below the last year before covid (2019/20) which was at 38. The age profile of the church post-covid is significantly older. The average age on a Sunday is about 50 (43 in 2019/20). Younger persons have either not returned or are less frequently present, and those who have joined us post-covid have tended to be older. For the long-term good of the church and community it is vital that we reach the younger age groups. ## **Discipleship** . This is always hard to measure, but we have maintained the previous year’s expansion to three small groups. The “Microgroups” were re-launched in the year and there are now two of these meeting regularly on-line. ## **Prayer** We have offered opportunities to pray together monthly on a Monday night, weekly on a Sunday morning, and weekly on a Wednesday morning. The Wednesday morning has remained on Zoom, but the Monday evening has moved to in person. In the summer, we relaunched having ad-hoc prayer days. These have occurred broadly each half term since then. The participation in these and the feedback has been very positive. ## **Worship, Teaching and Communion** Each Sunday and at some other events opportunity for public worship has been offered to all who wish to participate. Tony Finch has continued to write new songs which has contributed to our worship. We continue to have a monthly rota between 3 worship leaders with a pool of about 7 participants for the band. Others also occasionally lead. During the year we have had series covering the following themes: Issues facing Christians today; The Messages of Paul’s letters to the churches; Prayer; 2[nd] Coming and Christian GROWTH+. We continued the monthly lunches during the period, though we put breakfasts on hold. The attendance for lunch has reduced a little over the year. ## **Celebration of Christian festivals** We have had special events for Christmas and Easter. These have been fantastic events and well attended. There has been a lot of organisation and preparation for these with a huge input form volunteers for which we are most grateful. ## **Evangelism** People from the church have continued to work evangelistically with St Christopher’s Trust. This has included the “Fun Week” as well as regular mothers and toddlers activities, the café and groups for men and women. IN particular, our members ran a “Warm Welcome Space” which helped several people and resulted in one person coming to church regularly and another occasionally coming. We have continued distribution of the Hope Magazine to about 4000 homes which is reliant on volunteers. ## **Pastoral Care** We have coordinated pastoral care for needy members and sought to ensure that people are contacted regularly. As a church, we have also given regularly to the local Foodbanks and contributed to the “Warm Welcome Space”. ## **Ecumenical** The church has retained and developed close ties with other churches in the North Telford area. This is aided through the St Christopher’s Trust work. This has all been through both online and in person prayer regularly and occasional special events such as the Good Friday service. ## **Regional Newfrontiers participation** The local Christ Central Shropshire region has been an important encouragement to the church leaders. There are regular leaders’ gatherings. There have also been in person and online events at a national/international level which have been of great encouragement. ## **Beyond Telford** During the period, we have strongly supported churches conducting humanitarian aid and evangelism in Ukraine and Zambia through the charity BREADTrust. We have encouraged our congregation to sponsor children through the Compassion programme and in disaster response appeals. We have also continued to support The Children’s Mission in Uganda with financial contributions towards them building a school. ## **Social Media** Over the last few years, Tony Finch has been leading our social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. A large element of this has been producing his own songs for wider access. During the year, the YouTube channel has grown from 3000 to 3500 subscribers, with views in excess of 1.2 million and there is a high level of viewing from many countries which are high on the Open Doors persecution index. ## **Financial Review** Our income during the year was £35902 ( 2021/22: £30952). Our expenditure during the year was £33697 (2021/22: £30689). Giving a surplus for the year of £206 (2021/22 £263). Most giving is through standing orders but there has been a noticeable increase in cash giving across the year. The four major areas of financial actual expenditure were Staff Costs £17033 (51%) – increased due to the full year employment of an Administrator and an increase in Roland West’s hours (see below). Giving £4082 (12%) – this has increased from last year due to our financial position. Rent £2680 (8%) – for (mainly) Sunday use of the main hall at Admaston House and a dedicated small office. Magazine and other printing costs £2407 (7%) - mostly for magazine printing for hand delivery to circa 4000 houses in the area The church continues to benefit from the Government Gift Aid scheme receiving a total of £4998. ## **Financial Policies** The Trustees have a reserves policy which requires that the church holds a balance equivalent to 3 months of expected operating expenditure. ## **Structure, Governance and Management** During the year, Roland West, Tony Finch, and Kevin Croker have continued as Trustees, and Helen King was appointed as Trustee. The trustees met once during the year, but had other regular contact to resolve any arising issues. In line with the Charity Commission guidelines, the Trustees intend to appoint an Independent Examiner for the Financial Accounts. During the year, the leadership team has continued with Roland West, Susan West, and Tony Finch. The leaders have continued to meet fortnightly to review all matters of church life and development. Hope Community Church is strongly reliant on volunteers who play an essential role in the life of the church in many ways. There are rotas for a variety of specific jobs. A good level of pastoral care has been noted. Our thanks go to all participants. During the 2022/23 year Roland West (senior church leader) has been paid £12800 for 2.1 days per week (2021/22: £12000 for 2.1 days per week). This is done on a contracted basis and includes all ongoing expenses. Only purchases on behalf of the church are separately recovered. Roland is absent for all Trustee discussions with regards to this matter. The other Trustees have agreed to extend the contract from April 2023 for a further 12 months with an inflationary adjustment to monies paid. This report is approved by the Trustees on the 10[th] May 2023 and signed on their behalf by Roland West (Chairman). |**Charity Name**|**No (if any)**||| |---|---|---|---| |**Hope Community Church, Admaston**|**1152758**||| |**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||**CC16a**| |Period start date
01/04/22
**For the period**
**from**|**To**
Period end date
31/03/23||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |**A1 Receipts**||**to the nearest £**
**2400**
**600**
**4904**
**7904**
**7904**
**26**
**676**
**2407**
**374**
**391**
**4964**
**8838**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**2500**
**19922**
**4998**
**8483**
**35903**
**35903**
**4082**
**17034**
**2680**
**26**
**676**
**2407**
**374**
**391**
**6028**
**33697**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |Cash Giving|**2500**|||**2500**|**692**| |Gift aided Giving|**17522**|||**19922**|**20815**| |Income from Gift Aid|**4398**|||**4998**|**5425**| |Other Gifts and Income|**3579**|||**8483**|**4020**| ||||||| ||||||| ||||||| ||||||| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**27999**

|||**35903**|**30952**| ||||||| ||||||| ||||||| ||||||| ||||||| |||||**35903**|**30952**| ||||||| |||||**4082**|**5930**| |||||**17034**|**16296**| |||||**2680**|**2753**| |||**26**||**26**|**108**| |||**676**||**676**|**358**| |||**2407**||**2407**|**2275**| |||**374**||**374**|**777**| |||**391**||**391**|**381**| |||**4964**||**6028**|**1811**| |||**8838**||**33697**|**30689**| |**_Sub total_**||**24859**|||**8838**||||**33697**||**30689**|| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**A4 Asset and investment**||||||||||||| |**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| |**_Sub total_**||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| |**_Total payments_**||**24859**||**8838**|||||**33697**||**30689**|| |||||||||||||| |**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**||**3140**|||**-934**||||**2206**||**263**|| |**A5 Transfers between funds**||||||||||||| |**A6 Cash funds last year end**||**19931**|||||||**19931**||**19668**|| |**_Cash funds this year end_**||**23071**|||**-934**||||**22137**||**19931**|| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 12/08/2023 1 **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees|**Details**
Cash at Bank and in hand
Cash in hand
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**22120**
**17**
**22137**
Agreement Error
Agreement Error
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**Cost (optional)**
**Cost (optional)**
Print Name
Roland West
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |---|---|---|---| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||OK| ||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||Date of
approval| |||Roland West|16/05/2023| ||||| ||2||| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 12/08/2023 2 CCXX R3 aeeounis ISSI 1210812023 ## **HOPE COMMUNITY CHURCH ADMASTON Charity 1152758** ## **Financial Statements** ## **For the year to 31st March 2023** I have conducted a review of the accounts and the records supporting them. The records examined are well structure, complete and ordered and no deficiences were apparent. The management processes in place appear to be fully adequate. - I have not conducted a full audit and have relied upon explanations provided by the church in reaching my conclusion. - I am happy to recommend these accounts as fully representative of the financial transactions of Hope Community Church Admaston during 2022/23 Ian Newcombe Ian Newcombe 16th June 2023