WELLINGTON BAPTIST CHURCH REPORTS 2025 Wellington Baptist Church The Church Office, 28 South Street Wellington, Somerset, TA218NS Tel: 01823 663713 Email: office@wbchurch.biz Web: Mvw.wellingtonchurch.com Facebook: Wellington Baptist Church Instagram:wellybaptist You Tube: Wellingtonchurch.org.uk Registered Charlty No. 1164098 There are two parts to this AGM report: one which {as stsndard) looks back and yet is ex- traordinary, and the other, by necessity, brings an element (unusually for an AGM report) of "now" and "future., Let me begin by expressing thanks to all who make up the WBC Church family: for their efforts and hard work, often which at the time goes unnoticed or under the radar. but which is highly significant. WBC are a team of people who work so very hard to make min- istry and outreach happen and function. By stepping up to a rota call, by setting aside oth- er life priorities and sacrificing time, by being energetic and innovative. prayerful and sup- portive and doing as much the small as the g￿at, the minor as the well as the major. Thank u to you all who do this, week in and out. To those who go home tired and sometimes disillusioned, I thank you for your IOOOh commitment. The extraordinary part, looking back, is to recognise the extraordinary year of growth that WBC saw in the year past. Of "Baptisms and Belongings (new memberships) and catching wave of the Holy Spirit which encouraged so many. The baptisrnal pool was open so many times, we might just as well have left it open. We are not on our own in this. Across the reglon, churches are seeing exactly this, and it may not be possible to reason why {why do we always feel that we need one?) except to acknowledge that this is how the Spirit of God works. Sometimes there is a large wave, and we need to jump on it, catch it and go with it. Sometimes there is a harvesting moment in contrast to a planting and feeding one, and that lifts us all and reminds us why we are doing it all. ie year past also saw new infrastructure in the form of new hall toilets. All these rnonths on, we see them in place and almost tske them for granted, but the fruit of all that fund raising was realised in builders that certainly didn't hang around and ripped out, and then speedily built in. A5 we look at them now, we cannot.really understand how we coped be- fore. given how bad the old toilets were. So thank you to all who made that possible, to all who fund raised and then helped the build tske pla￿. With a new church hall door in place too, the entrance to the halls redecorated (where do you stop?}, the halls have changed significantly. The answer to the question might well be-the next projett7 The challenge for leadership is to recognise that a church cannot be eternally in fundraising mode, at least not without a small break. Which is what we felt we should take. An important deci- sion: the main purpose of a church is not to fund raise, though it plays a big factor of course. So having reminded many who write AGM reports, that it is of the past year that text needs to be created, I need to beg an Indulgen￿ to write of the present. For I need to mark this significant moment in recognising the work of Karen Mullen, upon her retire- ment from being our Church Administrator which is imminently upon us in the next two months. I remember distinctly Karen in her first few rnonths and the extraordinary skill set she brought to the Church Office: organised, efficient, clear and exceptionally able- and, by the wayi what precisely are those weird squiggles on that pad of paper, Karen? Coming out of being the PA to a Surgeon in a hospital, Karen was super skilled and efficient and had exattly what we needed. She ably threw herself to the task of administering the church, recognising- as every job ha5, that the variable were the people around her. Church Members. site users, and odd people from the community who popped by unan- nounced. The biggest challenge was possibly dealing with the Pastor and his ideas and the variable nature of what the church was doing at the time. Oh, and the unexpected visits from people ' just dropping by., Otherwise, everything would surely be just fine? In the era that Karen has been our Administrator, we have undoubtedly seen the most ac- celerated period of change in administratian, succinctly from analogue to digital, and from paper to electronic, and more recently into the world of numerous policies. It's been quite steep learning curve for us all, but it is amusing to think that an app can just solve every- thing. In fact, that's where the problems seem to begin! The dlgital test bed of WBC Church Office life where "the simple little app" seems to have creatsd five times more work- and that has more often been the reality- Take for instance, as one example, the paper church address book which was once a year edited and issued, and probably out of date by the end of the day, and which was not without it's production challenges. And no doubt, a copy stood by your landline phone at home- need I say more? Yet in thi5 digital era (in which Karen has overseen in the office) we have "wonderfullf upgraded to some- thing called "Churchbuilderf,. The reason wasn't merely "lets do thls digitally" but because of the infamous data-protection act. And now all of a sudden, the role of Church Adminis- trator (in this respect} has shifted from mere Desktop Publishing and Copier Expert (and that's another story) to Online Tech Support for numerous Church Members who have ac- cess problems of varying types, including passwords, app settings land don't lets mention Iphones) and website address issues. You get the picture?1 In fact the church office desk- top computer has turned into rnore of digital control centre. I could mention a Ilst of parallel technical challenges, but the influx of policies and proce- dures and security for digital locks, DBS checks, statutory catering stsndards and site man- agement, Cctv, alarms, keys going missing, well-meant emails sent out that clearly didn't get read, and then people dropping in unexpectedly, at not the best moments. when stress levels are high, and the expectation is that the Administrator will be all sweetness and light. Karen has travelled through all of these challenges and come out smiling and having more than succeeded. So we have much to be thankful and grateful for- to Karenl l am more than grateful that Karen has put up with my weird ways and badly timed re- quests, constant correction of my poor script, and challenging deadlines. And I'm more than grateful for a (largely) shared sense of humour (she might disagree) and cultural roots that go back into a similar ere of 805 dance music. An ongoing occasional quiz be- tween us (to restore sanity) might be observed as what the next line of the song is-, or the appropriate comedy sketch line to sum up what just happened in the office. So I hope you will join me in our corporate and united expression of thanks to Karen and that she has been and done for WBC! Finally, my time in 25 took a jolt forward withln the cluster district of being asked to Mod- erate at Yeovil Baptist Church, in their vacancy. This being in addition to my role as District Minister in a now expanded area from Minehead to Wincanton. to Yeovil, Hemyock, Bridgwater, Taunton and Wellington. As things in Baptist World become further de- centralised to within the local Associations, the earth is moving once again. What the Baptist World in the future looks like, 15 Potentially back to where it first begun many years ago: a collection of local inter-dependent churches that are in close relationship with each other and need each other! Church Office Report As I write the annual report for 2025, 1 am more f ocussed on looking to the future and particularly the end of August when I retire after 19 years in the role of Administrator. But it's also good to look back. The f irst thing I must say is thank you to each and everyone of you who have over the years supported me in the role, answered calls for help to f ill gaps in rotas or join a ministry team, listened to my moans, laughed with me, cried with me: I couldn't have done it without you. I feel bef ore I go I need to teach some of you shorthand so that Sam can continue to marvel at the squigglesl! I was appointed to the role just as our youngest son was starting pre-school so I was f ortunate the hours were f lexible to f it in around his sessions but also workin9 a bit f rom home. As Sam and I both had young children, we operated very much around school term times and holidays, juggling time off and child care. That has now changed as they have grown up and we are constantly hav- ing to check the SCC website for term dates and school holidays, working out when the schools mi9ht want to come in for Easter, harvest, and Christmas. As my predecessor was a man, the off ice environment when I started was very masculine so I f elt the need to pretty it up a bit with anything pink and f ra- grant. There followed a battle of the sexes with nice-smelling hand soap in the toilet, pink Blutak. pink Yorkies (yes, they were a thing for a while), and f lower stickers on the inside of the toilet door in retaliation to screwdrivers left on the toilet cistern. Not lon9 after I started Sam took a sabbatical so on his return his off ice had become a pink and purple tea room to welcome him back with pretty cushions, pink teapot and tea service, and pink iced cupcakes (I dii. have some help with this f rom 2 people who will remain nameless!). We weren't usin9 mobiles as much then so used the church landline pretty much all of the time. Sam had a habit of ringing me pretending to be someone else. I got wise to it after a while, or so I thought, until one day I had a call f rom someone who was at the end of his life and was asking for a visit. I thought this was another prank so played along, not really showing much com- passion to the caller until I reolised it was genuinel! Fortunately, I don't think they realised. I eventually worked out how to store numbers to the phone so that I knew who was calling. The f irst major project after I started was the removal of the pews, re- placing with chairs. Oh, the irony of employing an Interior Desi9ner to ad- vise us on a colour scheme which turned out to be pink and purple-I could have suggested that for nothi n91 We have had a new kitchen f itted, we turned several upstairs store rooms into off ices to generate income, had the hall re-decorated, and last year our lovely new toilets were completed. An ongoing project over the last f ew years, as f unds allow has been to re- place the windows in the hall. The main changes over the years have been with technology of which I am not a fan so have had to be eased into these changes very gently. Thank you Sam for your patience with my reluctance to embrace chan9e. However, I very much appreciated the new Hive app for the site heating: no longer hoving to balance on the boiler room steps to set the heatin9 programmer f or the week. I can now do it f rom the comfort of my sofa! Recently, Sam suggested we make a list of all the tasks I carry out now with so many things changing over the years. It was surprisin9 how much had been added to the original job description so the Leadership Team de- cided it was time to review the role. make chan9es to the job description and perhaps delegate some of the roles to volunteers. I then threw them a curved ball and told them I would be taking early retirement some time this year which means they had to work faster on the job description than an- ticipated. l just like to keep everyone on their toes! I could waff le on with lots of tales about lif e in the off ice (some of which will remain a secret!) but suf f ice it to say there has never been a dull mo- ment. Thank you again to all of you. I will be taking some time away from church after I retire but won't be far away and look forward to coming back to join you as a member of the con9re9ation on a Sunday rather than being "on duty" look forward to meetin9 many of you f or a coff ee and catch-up but be warned there will be lots of talk and photos of grandchildren. Wishin9 you all the best Karen ALLSORTS ANNUAL REPORT AL. SO TS ANNUAL REPORT GROWING FRIENDSHIPS FAITH. FUN. FRIENDS. ALL TOGETHER. What a year it has been for Allsorts! It's been a real joy and privilege to journey with the children and see how much they have grown, not just in confidence and friendships, but in their faith too. There have been so many moments that have reminded me why this group is so special. One of the most exciting things this year has been seeing the children really de- velop in their relationship with God. A particularly special highlight was witness- ing members of Allsorts take the step to be baptised. That was incredibly en- couraging and a real testament to what God is doing in their lives. 'STAR. CHILDREN OFF *-: ON THE WAY 11 KNOW GOD , THEY SHOULD GO, AND EVEN WHEN THEY ARE OLD ER THEY WILL NOT TURN FROM IT. LIVÉ FOR HIMI.,I' PROVERBS 22". 6 For me personally, one of the standout moments of the year was the Bible Bee. Watching the children memorise Bible verses, then stand up and share them, was amazing. Even more than that, it was the way they supported and encouraged one another it created such a positive, uplifting atmosphere. It was exciting, inspiring, and something I would love to build on in the future. Another highlight has been the breakfast Bible study through Lent. This has been a great addition to what we offer, giving space for deeper conversations and reflection. I'm confident this will become a regular and valued part of the Allsorts calendar going forward. In September, we saw a shift in the group dynamic as five of our children moved up to the youth group, Shout. While we miss them, ivs also a great sign of growth and progression, and we're excited to see them continue theirjour- ney. We have continued using the Urban Saints study material, which has been a real strength. It help5 us engage the children well across different age groups and provides a solid, faith-filled foundation for our sessions. It's also been brilliant to welcome new helpers to the team this year, I'm tr ' so thankful for each one. Their sup- port has made a huge difference. It's also been fantastic to have different members of the church come and share their experiences and faith with the children, bringing fresh perspec- tives and encouragement. Of course, there are still challenges. One of the biggest is engaging such a wide age range, from 5 to 11 years old each with different learning styles and needs. We are always working to make sessions fun, engaging, and meaningful, without them feeling like school. It's not always easy, but it's challenge we are committed to meet- ing. Looking ahead, we would really love to grow the team. If you have a heart for children and would be interested in helping or leading in any way, please do reach out to me, I'd be happy to chat and share more details. Finally, a huge thank you. for your supportp your prayers, and for everyone who has helped in any way this year. It truly wouldn't be possible without you. PRAYER POINTS That the children would colltinue to grow in thelr fdith and relationship with God. For wisdom and creativity in plaming enga9in9 sessThs for all ages. For more hewers and leaders ts join the team. ¢J For strong friendships asu ortive, encowa9in9 group culture. Ben S•lllck This year has been an encouraging season for Shout, with meaningful conversa- tions, fun and a strong sense of community among our young people. Our num- bers increased in September as the new Year 75 joined us, bringing fresh energy and enthusiasm to the group. During our Sunday morning sessions, we have explored a range of themes using ,laterial from Youth for Christ, designed to help our young people deepen their faith and live it out day by day. Series covered included the names of Jesus, wise living, and prayer - each sparking thoughtful discussion and practical reflection. Alongside our teaching, we've enjoyed several social events that helped strength- en friendships and create space for fun and connection. Highlights included our summer barbecue, safari supper, bonlire night, and ending with a lively Christ- mas party with lots of games. We are deeply grateful for the dedication of all those involved in running Shout; Cindy, Andrew, Devin, Helen, Lyn and Sherree have each played a vital role in -Ipporting our young people and helping Shout continue to thrive. Sophie Molyneux ,*.1 JOYNEDIJovo We've been maKIng use of JoynedlJovo for a good number of months now and generally speaKing It works well and enables communlcatlon. Just like our Church Facebook group used to operatei we will now be n Introdudng the prlnclple that (Senlors ond those unwell qslde) If we no longer see you In Sunday worship at WBC for a perlod of 3 ￿Onth& we wlll remove you from the Joyned/Jovo 9roup. Thls Is to preserve the pastoral nature and confldentlallty of church farnlly commun5catlon& Jellytots Creche A supervised crèche is in place f or the f irst and third Sundays of the month, to enable o- 5 year olds in our congregotion to play and have fun and to enable arents to be blessed with some time to sit in the service. We have or 6 children that re ularly use the crèche facilities. It is our vision that the number ol children who are part of this 9roup grow as new people join the church, and that these children then f eed other ministries such as Allsorts and Shout as they get older. The crèche is largely free play but there is always a sit down Bible story, and usually an accompanying colouring or craft activity. Many thanks to all who are involved in supporting this ministry. Ultimately we would love to be able to offer a supervised creche on each Sunday of the month. If you feel you could spare one Sunday a month to help with crèche then do let me know. Helen Wallwork PA and Projection PA & Projection. Since taking overthe lead from Colin, we have welcomed Jeremy, David and Jedediah onto the team. This has taken the pressure off everyone in terms of the rota. Overall, there have been no problems with PA, though the mixing desk is beginningto show its age. 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