2025-04-05-accounts - Emmanuel Church (Bramcote)

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

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Introduction

Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) is a Registered Charity in England and Wales (1157080) and is registered as a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales (08898983). It is governed by its memorandum and articles of association. The charity also uses the name Emmanuel Church Bramcote.

Registered Charity and Company Office: 93 Balmoral Drive, Bramcote, Nottingham. NG9 3FT The Directors: Richard Adam, Rachel Atkin*, Philip Carter, Alec Cobbett, Martin Cornforth (from 13 May 2024), Brian Davies, Richard Hopkins, Paul Jenkins, Brian Kruger, Natasha Schneider (from 13 May 2024), Ruth Watts (from 13 May 2024)

The Members: Richard Adam, Martin Cornforth (from 13 May 2024), Brian Davies, Richard Hopkins, Paul Jenkins, Brian Kruger

*Rachel Atkin stepped down as a Director in Novemeber 2024.

New Members and Directors are appointed by the current Members, following a process involving consultations with the Directors and with the wider church as set out in the bylaws. =

The Directors (also referred to as Managing Trustees) normally meet five or six times per year, and the meetings are fully recorded with agendas and minutes. A sub group consisting of the Directors, but excluding those who are also paid members of staff, sets pay and remuneration, using the Teachers Pay Scale as a guide. The Directors are assisted in the day to day care and running of the Church by a body of Elders (also called the Leadership Team) comprising the Members of the company, which meets roughly fortnightly. Induction to the role of Director and training are provided on an individual basis as appropriate. All Directors are required to complete Safeguarding training. Further external training for particular roles is also made available.

The Directors ensure that policies and procedures are regularly updated and reviewed. Legal advice is sought when necessary. A register of Directors’ interests is held to ensure that we are aware of conflicts of interest and manage them appropriately. This is updated regularly, and any potential conflicts are declared at the beginning of each Directors’ meeting. The Directors have a clear procedure that if there is a potential conflict of interest on any matter, the Director with the potential conflict of interest is asked to leave the room and take no part in the debate or decision. The Church had three paid employees during the period of this report, of whom two were also Directors: Richard Adam and Richard Hopkins. We are heavily dependent in all our activities on help voluntarily given by members of the congregation, including two part time members of staff employed on a voluntary basis.

The company is affiliated to three organisations: The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), the Midlands Gospel Partnership (MGP), and the Evangelical Alliance (EA). These affiliations have no impact on the operating policies adopted by the company.

Objectives and activities

Our charitable purposes:

® to advance the Christian faith in accordance with the Statement of Faith; e to relieve sickness and financial hardship and to promote and preserve good health by the provision of funds, goods, or services of any kind including through the provision of

e to advance education.

counselling and support;

Our key objectives for this financial year have been:

® to hold weekly church services at Bramcote College which are also livestreamed on the internet to advance the Christian faith in Bramcote.
e torun regular activities during our weekly services for children and young people, as well as additional activities outside of the services.
e to continue with our midweek group meetings to enable church members to grow as Christians together.
e to provide regular events to which unbelievers can be invited to hear about the Christian faith.
e to appoint new elders (Members) to the Leadership Team, bringing the number of nonstaff elders to five.
e to appoint new Managing Trustees (Directors) with responsibility for Safeguarding, and Health and Safety.
e to review and update the church bylaws. « to develop new policies addressing whistleblowing, cornplaints, and bullying and harassment
e to review how Safeguarding is overseen in the church e to update and relaunch the church website * to continue to respond to the six areas highlighted in the review of our leadership practices at Emmanuel conducted in Feb 2023, namely o Workload of leadership and staff :
e to update and relaunch the church website
Review and expand leadership structures
Communication
o The purpose of Growth Groups, particularly with regard to the role of leaders in pastoral care and discipleship

The role of women within the church
o The importance of being willing to take risks for the gospel
e to plan and organise a weekend away for church members in the summer of 2025 e toraise, through prayerful reliance on God and regular reports to the congregation, sufficient funds to cover our activities for this financial year.
e to continue the ‘hardship fund’ and use it to help those within the congregation who are particularly affected by the pandemic or other financial pressures.
e to use a minimum of ten percent of our non-trading income to support partner organisations in advancing the Christian Faith in Bramcote, the UK and around the world.

The Directors have had regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit in planning the activities of the charity during the year 24-25. This report notes identifiable benefits to the public in line with these purposes.

A lot of time this year has been spent by the Leadership Team and Managing Trustees on reviewing and improving our structures and procedures. Whilst this activity is largely behind the scenes, it is important in developing a strong foundation on which to grow our work as a church.

As well as updating the church bylaws, we have adopted new policies on Complaints, Whistleblowing, Bullying and Harassment, and Church Discipline. We reviewed and made changes to our Safeguarding policy and appointed a Managing Trustee with specific responsibility for championing Safeguarding. We have put together a new Safeguarding team who have been meeting together to consider and improve different aspects of the church’s Safeguarding, including safer recruitment and Safeguarding awareness in the church. We have appointed a

Managing Trustee with responsibility for overseeing Health & Safety, and progress has already been made on fire safety procedures, first aid training, and safety in catering.

Our aim has been to expand the Leadership Team to include five non-staff elders alongside the two paid elders. We have appointed another elder this year and have been working with two further individuals with a view to appointing them. So we end the year with four non-staff elders, and the possibility of two more. We anticipate that one current elder will step down early in the new financial year.

As we continue to respond to the six areas highlighted in the review of our leadership practices at Emmanuel conducted in Feb 2023, we have made progress in developing a strategy for communication, and one church member has been appointed to take the lead on this. And staff and elders have spent time reviewing the purpose of our mid-week Growth Groups.

Whilst all this has been going on behind the scenes, we have continued with our weekly services, seeking to advance the Christian faith through teaching, singing and prayer. These services are livestreamed online and are available to anyone to watch through our church website. Our midweek Growth Groups also continued to meet throughout the year, advancing the Christian faith through their key aim of helping one another to grow as Christians.

In addition to our other regular meetings also, monthly prayer meetings, termly members’ meetings, and regular meetings for both men and women, we ran a course looking at an overview of the bible, began a regular men’s breakfast with bible study, and started a new series of meetings helping us to ‘Dig Deeper’ into key issues of the Christian faith. All these meetings are open to anyone attending on Sundays.

Our children and youth work continued alongside our services, as well as our midweek ‘YPF’ group aimed at encouraging 14-19 year olds in their faith, and ‘Pebbles Plus’, a group aimed at preschool children and their carers, providing a place for fun for the children, friendship and support for carers, and a chance to hear something about the Christian faith through the bible stories.

We also ran a number of events aimed at introducing non-Christians to the Christian faith. These included a quiz nights, carol services and carol singing, an Easter craft event, and an evening hearing about the life and faith of Hanro Liebenburg, a professional rugby player. These events are open to all members of the public and are publicised through our website, flyers delivered to the local area, and through personal invites from members of the congregation. We were pleased to be involved in the ‘Hemlock Happening’ community event again this year, running a stall offering a craft activity to children, and a chance to find out more about the church.

We continued to support the work of the Midlands Gospel Partnership and the Midlands Ministry Training Course which seeks to provide practical training for biblical ministry.

We continued our support of a local charity, Crossteach, both financially and with staff and volunteer time. Crossteach teaches about the Christian faith in schools, through lessons, assemblies and lunchtime clubs.

We have also provided financial support to charities and individuals working in Argentina, Germany, Egypt, Nottingham, and Oxford, seeking to advance the Christian faith. We are pleased that we have once again been able to meet our objective of giving 10% of our nontrading income to such partners. To reduce any risk of fraud, all gifts to those working overseas are made via charities based in the UK. We also support these individuals through regular contact and prayer.

We are thankful to God for another year of his goodness to us.

Financial Review

Overview:

Due to reduced income and increased expenditure at the start of the year, we found ourselves running a significant monthly deficit, which was projected to reduce our general funds to the lower limit of our reserves policy by the end of the year. Our reserves policy is to maintain between two and six months’ running costs in our general funds. This need was brought to church members, which resulted in a 15% increase in giving to the church, substantially reducing the monthly deficit. Although a monthly deficit still remains, we have the money in the general funds to cover this in the short term.

General Funds:

Income:

This increased by 8% compared with the previous year.

The total amount of donations without conditions received from Directors during the year amounted to £48,585. There were no donations received from the Directors with conditions.

Expenditure:

This increased by 2%. Staff salaries remain our biggest expense. None of the employees earned more than £60,000 during this financial year.

The two ministers were both Directors of the company, and in addition to their salaries totaling £89,718, received employer pension contributions of £10,838 and were reimbursed £5,282 for their expenses.

The non-staff Directors did not receive any remuneration, nor receive any expenses apart from being reimbursed for expenses for items purchased for the charity.

We are pleased to have been able to meet our aim of giving 10% of our non-trading income to support partners in Bramcote and around the world who share our objectives.

Balance:

This led to a deficit of £15,003. This meant that our total general funds were £55,146. This equates to circa 3 months of our normal expenditure. This is within the limits of our reserves policy of aiming to have between 2 - 6 months’ of running cost in the church’s bank account.

Restricted Funds:

Our building fund was not used in this financial year. The donors to this fund are happy that it is kept by us for the future.

We opened a hardship fund at the beginning of the pandemic. In this financial year it had an income of £180 (including Gift Aid) and grants totaling £2,965 were made. This resulted in the net balance in the fund being £12,413. Repayments of previous loans given were made during the year in line with the planned repayment schedule.

Signed by

4 Dru

On behalf of the Trustees and Directors Date approved: Ue /l/ 20.5"

Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) Financial Statements 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025

Statement of Financial Activities

	2025	2025	2025	2024
	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Total
Incoming resources
Donations& gifts	178,197	180	178,377	165,245
Investment income	831	-	831	1,164
Total	179,028	«180	~—«4179,208	166,409
Resources Expended
Church activities	193,831	2,965	196,796	195,889
Governance costs	200	-	200	200
Total	194,031	2,965	196,996	196,089
Net (outgoing)/incoming
resources	(15,003)	(2,785)	(17,788)	(29,680)
Brought forward	70,149	25,198	95,347	125,027
Carriedforward	55,146	22,413	77,559	95,347

The attached notes form an integral part of the financial statements

Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) Financial Statements 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025 Balance Sheet

April 2024 toto 5 AprilApril 2025 Balance Sheet
	2025	2024
	£	£
Fixed Assets	i
CurrentAssets
Debtors	40,827	39,830
Bank and cash balances	38,281	56,645
	79,108	96,475
Current Liabilities
Creditors due within one year	1,549	1,128
Net CurrentAssets	77,559	95,347
Total assets less current liabilities	77,559	95,347
Creditors due afterone year	~	-
NetAssets	77,559	95,347
Funds ofthe charity
Unrestricted use income fund	55,146	70,149
Restricted use income fund (Building fund)	10,000	10,000
Restricted use income fund (Hardship fund)	12,413	15,198
Total Funds	77,559	95,347

e The attached notes form an integral part of the financial statements e Forthe year ended 5April 2025 the Company has taken the exemption under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.
e The members have not required the Company to obtain an audit in accordance with Section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.
@ The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.

Approved by the Directors on

And signed on their behalf by:

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Chia / TAUS TOL
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Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) Financial Statements 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025

Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year ended 5 April 2025

1 Accounting Policies

Accounting Convention

The accounts have been prepared on the historic cost basis, in accordance with applicable accounting standards.

Depreciation

The historic policy has been to write off the cost of fixtures, fittings and equipment in the year of acquisition.

Funds

Restricted use income funds are to be used for projects designated by donors. The Unrestricted use income fund allows the Church to budget for anticipated commitments and short term emergency needs.

Reserves Policy

Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) aims to have financial reserves of between two and six times current average monthly expenditure. The Directors regularly review the financial health of the church at each of their managing trustees meetings.

2 Result for the year

This is stated after charging directors’ insurance (£nil: 2024 £nil) and auditors’ remuneration of £nil (2024: £nil) as the accounts are not subject to audit.

3 Tangible fixed assets

The Church has no capitalised Fixed Assets, the small items of equipment purchased have been written off in the year of acquisition.

4 Debtors

Debtors falling due within one year

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2025 2024
Prepayments and accrued income 40,827 39,830
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5 Creditors due within one year

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Accruals
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2024 2024
1,549 1,128
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Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) Financial Statements 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025

Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year ended 5 April 2025

6 Provisions for liabilities and charges and contingent liabilities

The directors are not aware of any contingent liabilities and there is no requirement for any provisions.

7 Employees

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||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |2025|2024| |Average|number|of employees|during|the|year|3|3|

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8 Directors’ Remuneration

No director received remuneration for services provided in their role as director during the year. Two of the directors have received remuneration during the year as part of their employment by Emmanuel Church (Bramcote).

Richard Hopkins received remuneration of £53,432 (2024: £51,776) and pension contributions of £6,448 (2024: £6,213) for the year and Rich Adam received remuneration of £36,285 (2024: £35,257) and pension contributions of £4,390 (2024: £4,231) for the year.

Four directors received reimbursement of expenses for covering travel and accommodation expenses, costs incurred on behalf of the charity or for training costs. The total amount of expenses reimbursed by Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) to directors was £6,232.

Emmanuel Church (Bramcote) Financial Statements 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Emmanuel Church (Bramcote)

| report on the accounts for the Church for the year ended 5 April 2025 set out on pages 1 to 4.

Respective responsibilities of the Trustees and Examiner

As the Charity's Trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts; you cansider that the audit requirement of $.144(2) Charities Act 2011 does not apply. It is my responsibility to state, on the basis of procedures specified by the Charity Commissioners under S 145 of the Act whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of Examiner's Statement

An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items in the accounts. The procedures undertaken co not provide all the evidence required in an audit, and | therefore do not express an audit opinion.

Independent Examiner’s Statement

in connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements a) to keep accounting records in accordance with S 130 of the Act; and
b) to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Charities Act.

have not been met; or

2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

T Sydney BSc MBA

Independent Examiner

Introduction

The Members: Richard Adam, Martin Cornforth (from 13 May 2024), Brian Davies, Richard Hopkins, Paul Jenkins, Brian Kruger

*Rachel Atkin stepped down as a Director in Novemeber 2024.

New Members and Directors are appointed by the current Members, following a process involving consultations with the Directors and with the wider church as set out in the bylaws. =

Objectives and activities

Our charitable purposes:

® to advance the Christian faith in accordance with the Statement of Faith; e to relieve sickness and financial hardship and to promote and preserve good health by the provision of funds, goods, or services of any kind including through the provision of

e to advance education.

counselling and support;

Our key objectives for this financial year have been:

® to hold weekly church services at Bramcote College which are also livestreamed on the internet to advance the Christian faith in Bramcote.
e torun regular activities during our weekly services for children and young people, as well as additional activities outside of the services.
e to continue with our midweek group meetings to enable church members to grow as Christians together.
e to provide regular events to which unbelievers can be invited to hear about the Christian faith.
e to appoint new elders (Members) to the Leadership Team, bringing the number of nonstaff elders to five.
e to appoint new Managing Trustees (Directors) with responsibility for Safeguarding, and Health and Safety.
e to review and update the church bylaws. « to develop new policies addressing whistleblowing, cornplaints, and bullying and harassment
e to review how Safeguarding is overseen in the church e to update and relaunch the church website * to continue to respond to the six areas highlighted in the review of our leadership practices at Emmanuel conducted in Feb 2023, namely o Workload of leadership and staff :
e to update and relaunch the church website
Review and expand leadership structures
Communication
o The purpose of Growth Groups, particularly with regard to the role of leaders in pastoral care and discipleship

The role of women within the church
o The importance of being willing to take risks for the gospel
e to plan and organise a weekend away for church members in the summer of 2025 e toraise, through prayerful reliance on God and regular reports to the congregation, sufficient funds to cover our activities for this financial year.
e to continue the ‘hardship fund’ and use it to help those within the congregation who are particularly affected by the pandemic or other financial pressures.
e to use a minimum of ten percent of our non-trading income to support partner organisations in advancing the Christian Faith in Bramcote, the UK and around the world.

Managing Trustee with responsibility for overseeing Health & Safety, and progress has already been made on fire safety procedures, first aid training, and safety in catering.

We continued to support the work of the Midlands Gospel Partnership and the Midlands Ministry Training Course which seeks to provide practical training for biblical ministry.

We are thankful to God for another year of his goodness to us.

Financial Review

Overview:

General Funds:

Income:

This increased by 8% compared with the previous year.

The total amount of donations without conditions received from Directors during the year amounted to £48,585. There were no donations received from the Directors with conditions.

Expenditure:

This increased by 2%. Staff salaries remain our biggest expense. None of the employees earned more than £60,000 during this financial year.

The non-staff Directors did not receive any remuneration, nor receive any expenses apart from being reimbursed for expenses for items purchased for the charity.

We are pleased to have been able to meet our aim of giving 10% of our non-trading income to support partners in Bramcote and around the world who share our objectives.

Balance:

Restricted Funds:

Our building fund was not used in this financial year. The donors to this fund are happy that it is kept by us for the future.

Signed by

4 Dru

On behalf of the Trustees and Directors Date approved: Ue /l/ 20.5"