2020-12-31-accounts - Cornerstone Church, Bournemouth

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CORNERSTONE CHURCH (BOURNEMOUTH)

REPORT

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED

31[st] DECEMBER 2020

CORNERSTONE CHURCH

INDEX TO THE REPORT & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 31[st] December 2020

	Page
Charity Information	3
Report of the Trustees	4 – 11
Financial Statements	12-15
Copy of independent examiner’s report on the 2020 accounts	16
for Cornerstone Church

2 Cornerstone Church (Bournemouth) – Annual Report Jan-Dec 2020

CORNERSTONE CHURCH

CHARITY INFORMATION

The Trustees Mr Toby Butler (Church Leader) Mrs Ann Brignall (ended November 2020) Mr Ian Collier Mr John Hensby Mrs Mary James Mrs Madeleine Parish Mrs RoseMarie Philips (ended November 2020) Mrs Trish Storer (resigned August 2020) Mrs Jacqui Underwood Secretary Mrs Mary James Treasurer Mr John Hensby Principle office address Cornerstone Church Holloway Avenue Bournemouth Dorset BH11 9JR Registered Charity Number 1163367 Inland Revenue charity number X95938 Independent Examiner Mrs Sue Wintle Oak Accounting *** Bankers CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ Lloyds Bank Plc 1480 Wimborne Road Bournemouth BH10 7AY

3 Cornerstone Church (Bournemouth) – Annual Report Jan-Dec 2020

CORNERSTONE CHURCH REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES For the year ended 31[st] December 2020

The Trustees have pleasure in presenting their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31[st] December 2020.

Structure, governance and management

Governing Document

Cornerstone Church is a self-governing, self-financing congregation within the Baptist Union of Great Britain. The decision-making body, being the Church Meeting, comprises all the members of the Church, and is governed in accordance with the constitution adopted on 25[th] September 2014 as part of the process to register with the Charity Commission in accord with the revised rules set out in the Charities Act 2011.

Cornerstone Church was registered with the Charity Commission on 26[th] October 2014.

Organisational structure

The Church membership appoints Ministers, Elders, a Church Secretary and a Treasurer to oversee the running of the affairs of the church. The individuals holding these posts also act as Trustees of the charity.

The church had no children’s and youth worker from January 2020 – April 2020, as Marie Willis who had been appointed in September 2019, resigned. A new children’s and youth worker was appointed and began work in May 2020.

All the other Trustees and office bearers are non-stipendiary.

Recruitment and appointment of New Trustees

Ministers, Elders, Secretary and Treasurer are all Trustees of the charity and their appointment is approved by the membership at a General Meeting, as and when required.

Objectives and activities

Cornerstone Church is a fellowship of Christian people affiliated to the Baptist Union of Great Britain. The mission of the church is summarised by the statement:

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

Public Benefit

In undertaking the planning of the many activities undertaken during this year, we have taken into account the Charities Commission guidance on public benefit and in particular in relation to the guidance relating to the advancement of religion. We have sought to ensure that all our activities are available and open to all within the community in which we serve, both in the provision of services of worship and in provision of community activity and support.

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Reviewing Progress in Relation to Priorities Identified Last Year (2019)

The priorities identified at the end of 2019 were as follows:

i) To discern God’s will for our church through a church-wide mission audit, allowing us a church to reflect on what has been and to ask God what he is saying about going forwards. This will help us to strategise for future years and align our priorities.
ii) To keep prayer & worship of Jesus at the core of all we do. To develop ways of using the new prayer space for both church members and the wider community.
iii) To grow a healthy church, seeing both growth in numbers and depth of relationship with Jesus. We long to see people coming to faith and growing in faith.
iv) To see particular growth amongst children, young people and families through our various activities, as well as through detached work and one-off special events.
v) To invest in and empower new leaders.
vi) To encourage more of a discipleship culture at Cornerstone church, looking at housegroups and other ways of encouraging growth in our walks as Christians.
vii) Seeking to become more aware of the needs of our community and to respond where we are able to help – particularly to support those who feel socially isolated and those struggling financially.

Progress made on these priorities:

i. A team of 12 met in the summer of 2020 as part of a mission audit, led by an external consultant. As a result of this reflection and visioning process – also aided by a church survey – we began to put in place the following:
A new café area in the foyer, planned in the autumn term, with work done early 2021. It was clear that a café would serve our local area, as well as being enjoyed by church members.
Provision for victims of domestic abuse. Several people felt that we could be doing more to reach out to victims of domestic abuse. In November, BCHA (Bournemouth Churches Housing Association) set up a weekly drop-in service. We also began to form the ‘Women’s Wellbeing Café’, a weekly space of friendship and support for local women. The opening of this was delayed until 2021 due to Covid restrictions.
We agreed that more could be done around discipleship. A team was put together to look further into this.
ii. Covid-19 restrictions hit the church and nation in the middle of March 2020. Leading up to this, we had been starting to be more open in worship and more people were speaking out prophetically. From March 2020 – July 2020 we went online for our services and were not allowed in the building. Worship and prayer were still considered key and we set up a phone buddy system – people were encouraged to pray for each other over the phone/text etc. We opened the prayer space and church as a place of private prayer on various days in the summer of 2020, but uptake was low. We offered prayer and chats to people in the local community – this was more popular, but not buzzing! Once back in the building, restrictions still limited sung worship, but we did still worship! We also opened the prayer space and indeed the whole building for our Christmas walk through, which was a wonderful success and open to the whole community.

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iii. Although Covid-19 has restricted us in many ways, we have still seen numerical growth and have certainly seen people go deeper with God, as they have been challenged to meet with God as individuals rather than rely on the Sunday gathering to ‘do it for them’. Several individuals, couples and families have joined our church in 2020 and in July 2020 we were delighted to baptise one of our newer attendees.
iv. Our full-time youth & children’s worker resigned in early January. We appointed a new youth& children’s worker in March 2020, to start in May 2020. Although this was during lockdown, we were sure they would be effective and the appointment was still necessary. They ran our children’s work online until July 2020, then various family gatherings on a Sunday afternoon, followed by the start of kids’ church on a Sunday – until we had to stop again due to lockdown in November. We have been able to do a good amount of detached work since June 2020, meeting a number of local young people to chat and sometimes pray with them. Junior Youth Club and Youth Club both began again in the Autumn term, with Youth Club also meeting online prior to that, as well as in person, outside during the summer. We began running our playgroup for under 5s and parents again in the Autumn term. Everything was under restrictions, but we feel we made a significant positive impact on the lives of those around us. Even with restrictions, we still ran an all-age family gathering, as well as a Light Party, which around 70 people attended, many from our local community.
v. We appointed a new, young head of AV in July 2020 and another young adult became worship director in Spring 2020. Our AV director has been able to attend staff meetings and therefore received some input and training when we have been able to meet in person. We still hope to do more with both of them, but are pleased to have both in these roles. Another under 40 year old joined to co-lead the women’s wellbeing café. All of these people are under 40 and have not led anything before. We hope to do more training with them as the months go on.
vi. Although many housegroups were unable to meet in person throughout 2020, we encouraged housegroups to continue to meet online and many did. We also ran discipleship zoom groups on Sundays, headed up by various leaders, including some Moorlands students. These were a great way of encouraging congregation members to actively participate on a Sunday instead of passively watching a service. There is more to do in this area, but we are pleased with what we have been able to do given it has been a strange year.
vii. One of the big needs of our community in this lockdown year, has been people struggling due to isolation. We have done what we can, through meeting outside for tea and coffee, running playgroup and other children’s groups and starting a phone buddy system. Another unmet need is provision for those suffering from domestic violence which we were able to offer some support for through the BCHA drop-in. We have also supported various congregation members through our Fellowship Fund. In time, we would like to run a CAP money management course.

Achievements and Performance

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Prior to March 2020, we would see about 70-80 people in attendance at church, with 6-10 children. Our church went online from March 22[nd] – mid-July 2020, but people remained engaged either online or via our newsletter and phone buddy system.

Attendance post-Covid has been varied and restricted as about a quarter of the congregation were wary of returning. We did see some new people join us however, including new families. By November 2020, we were seeing up to 18 children at church most Sundays and around 50 adults.

Membership of the church stood at 54 during the year.

We held a Light Party in October half term for local families. About 70 attended and despite restrictions was very well received. Our Christingle took place outside due to lockdown/high rates of infection. We had around 40-50 people in attendance, although this is slightly difficult to judge as it was dark! Everyone had fun and we finished with fireworks, which was lovely. We were able to use the puppets at both of these events.

We transformed the church into a walk-through nativity scene for one week as we approached Christmas. Families were walked through 6 different tableaus and talked through the story of Jesus’ birth using videos, music and ‘guides’. It was powerful and around 70-100 people came along, many of whom do not normally attend church.

We had a wonderful carol service, again outside, but we were allowed to sing! It was an amazing opportunity to share Jesus’ love with our local area. There were around 100 people there. In the week running up to it, we went in groups of 6 to sing at people’s houses who were more housebound at the time. It was joyfully received and was a blessing to the neighbours too.

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Activities mainly geared towards adults

⚫ Tuesday evening Sports Night ran for a short period of time from January – March and then in the Autumn, with restrictions in place.
⚫ Meeting for over 50s and Coffee morning continued to run January – March 2020, until lockdown and both were well attended.
⚫ During the summer, we held open coffee times outside on a Wednesday, this was a temporary substitute for meeting for over 50s and Coffee morning. This continued until it got too cold and was hugely appreciated by older people in particular who had found lockdown very isolating.
⚫ BCHA began their drop-in advice service for victims of domestic abuse in November, running weekly on a Monday.
⚫ The “Time Out Group” (TOG) decided to end, partly due to Covid but also the age and capacity of those in the group.
⚫ Narcotics Anonymous used the facilities at Cornerstone Church as much as possible throughout the year on a Monday night, as support groups were allowed to continue even through some lockdowns.
⚫ Community Dancing ran January – March but did not start up again in 2020.
⚫ Door to Door visiting was paused during Covid.
⚫ Two new boot camps began at the church, run by women from the local community.
⚫ Housegroups continued throughout the year, in person where possible, but mainly online via zoom.

Activities geared mainly towards children and young people

⚫ Tuesday morning Parents and Toddlers Group was forced to take a break from March – September 2020, but restarted in a restricted format for the Autumn term, as there was a clear need in the community. Most weeks we saw 10-15 young families in attendance despite the restrictions.
⚫ Junior Youth Club ran January – March, but had to stop from March – September. This was restarted in September, with around 10-16 children in attendance.
⚫ Youth Club ran January – March 2020 and restarted online in May 2020, followed by meeting in person outside from July 2020. In the Autumn term it ran indoors and again was seen as a support group, as many of our young people fitted the categories of young people in need of extra support (LAC, bullied, mental health issues).
⚫ A puppet group meet for rehearsal, and regularly perform at special services and all age gatherings throughout the year, where possible during the various restrictions.
⚫ One student from Moorlands Bible College has been with us since October 2018 and has been a great asset wherever he has helped. He has been invaluable in support at children’s events, but also in preaching and leading. Another student joined us in October 2019 and helped with children’s and youth clubs as well as design. This student left in June 2020 to go to another church for placement. In September 2020, we welcomed 2 new Moorlands students, who again made a big impact in helping with kids and youth clubs and events. As well as giving their help at the church (especially with youth events), it forms a part of their on-going training and development in their college course.
⚫ The 68[th] Guides, Brownies and Rainbows met until the start of lockdown and have

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since ceased to continue running a group here, due to low numbers.

Maintaining the provision of facilities at Cornerstone Church

The church employs the following self-employed contractors on a regular basis:

a) Busy Bees to clean the premises (Busy Bees were on furlough for various months of 2020)

b) Superior Property Services to cut the grass which surrounds the premises.

c) Other contractors are employed on an ad hoc basis as required

Developing facilities at Cornerstone Church

A contractor began work on the refurbishment of the main hall in February 2020. This was completed in July 2020 and all agree it is brilliant. It was then decided to redecorate the side hall and turn the foyer into a proper café space. This was approved at a church meeting. The total cost of all this refurbishment was £86,700.

Links with other Community Agencies

It has been encouraging to receive positive feedback during the year from the community, schools and community organisations on our activities, and to continue to be recognised as being active in supporting the local community.

Oak Academy students continued to attend Open Door to make teas and coffee, until restrictions stopped this.
75 shoeboxes were collected for distribution via “Samaritan's Purse” working with needy children in various countries around the world.
Strong links with the charity Hopestonia continue. Cornerstone has collected household items which are taken to Estonia by this local charity.
Food Bank support continued throughout the year with the church support switching to the Kinson Foodbank based at St. Andrew’s Church. We donated to the Food Bank at Harvest and also from the Fellowship Fund when the need was great.
We have also raised money for both local charities and for supporting those charities working overseas. A Macmillan coffee morning was held in September raising some £148 for Macmillan Caring Locally. We also donated £300 to Christ the King school towards their wellbeing support for children returning to school after lockdown.

Financial Position

Income

Income from donations paid to our bank increased as a result of the lockdown, as some donors started regularly giving that way. Income from those who gave their offerings at Church was, understandably, well down, as was rent income, so overall income was roughly in line with budget.

In addition to general fund income, we collected and paid over the following sums for other purposes:

£446 from our Harvest offerings to support the work of Kinson Foodbank;
£895 from Christmas offerings to support the work of Faithworks Wessex among the homeless.

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£1,431 for the Fellowship Fund to support Church members and our local community in financial need.

Expenditure

There were quite a few savings on the costs of running the building and activities during long periods when we couldn’t meet properly. Pension Deficit Contributions were reduced for a few months and we were also without a Youth Worker for about 4 months before AJ arrived. Overall, we spent £15,000 less on our general activities than we expected when we agreed the budget in November 2019.

Balances

The original 2020 budget predicted a £32,000 deficit for the year, but the expenditure savings and the recharge of the Youth Worker costs to the Development Fund meant that our general reserves only dropped slightly from £50,200 to £48,500 in the year.

Development Fund

The Church building was less used in 2020, but that meant we had time to redevelop the main hall and to improve storage facilities, update the side hall and install café facilities in the foyer. The costs of all this came to about £86,700 and this, plus the Youth Worker costs, were charged to the Development Fund. We’re grateful to a few regular donors who keep some income coming in, but the overall effect reduced the balance on that fund from £173,500 to £77,500.

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Looking Ahead

Although 2021 is looking unpredictable with Covid-19 still very much present and restrictions high, here are our 2021 priorities:

i) To keep prayer & worship of Jesus at the core of all we do. We would like to run an evening service at some point, with more time to pray & worship, uninterrupted. We would like to return to our regular rhythm of prayer throughout the week, once restrictions are over.
ii) To grow a healthy church, all looking to go further in their journey with Jesus, as missional disciples, building God’s kingdom.
iii) To see further growth and consolidation amongst our children’s and young people’s work. We have good links with schools which we would like to grow. We would like to start a junior mega club (mini mega club) for reception – year 2 aged children, as well as a drop-in café for teenagers.
iv) To see the families of those who come for kids work engaged in the church too, through chats in the café and hopefully see them coming on Sundays too and finding their own faith.
v) To firm up our pastoral care system, ensuring that needs are being met in the most caring, efficient and effective way possible.
vi) To start a women’s wellbeing café, engaging with and supporting women from our local community and signposting them to further support as needed.
vii) To look at running a discipleship year.
viii) To continue to meet the needs of our local community. We would especially like to start a CAP money course.