2020-12-31-accounts

Word of Life WRU Church

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Trustees/Elders & Deacons

Wednesday 13[th] October 2021 at 19:00 (7:00pm)

Attending: Rev Michael Hedley, (Chair) Pastor Lindsey Hedley, Olaronke Gbadebo, Dennis Batey, Jennifer Batey.

1. Rev Michael welcomed all to the meeting and opened in prayer

2. Michael gave an update as to the current regulations regarding Covid-19. Whilst all government regulations are now relaxed, we feel that it is still right and proper to maintain a healthy awareness of the impact that Covid still has, and therefore Hand Sanitisers will still be in place and a good flow of air will be maintained in the Church building.

3. The Accounts were fully explained. William Abrie is our treasurer and has completed a full set of professional accounts with a balance sheet. These accounts were talked through explaining where we derive our income, where major items of expenditure were there and how grants had been utilised. Lindsey explained the WRU assessment procedure and how we utilise the Tithes and Offerings to pay the assessment which is really the rent for the building.

4. Programmes – Funding Update

5. 4.1 Staircase – Prayer Room – All work is fully completed and monies are spent for this project and a final report is due before April 2022

6. 4.2 English Class – All of the Asylum seekers who attended the course have all passed their English Examinations at College and have stated that they were able to pass those exams because of the work we did with them both on-line and in person once Covid Regulations were relaxed. We have many resources which are still available to use for future programmes. We have a referral awaiting from a GP surgery.

7. 4.3 Healthy Living – Ronke has still two more programmes to deliver one beginning in November and the other in the New Year. This will be done in the Church Building and will need to be well advertised before it begins

8. 4.4 IT – Courses haven’t really started as yet, but will be introduced during our coffee mornings to help people set up and use a tablet or mobile phone to maintain contact with others.

9. 4.5 Guitar Chords online – Michael will be starting to record sessions for this in the very near future

10. 4.6 Camera System – what it is to be used for. Lindsey shared that not only do we use the cameras for our Sunday Service broadcast, but they are to be used by everyone and if we have ideas about their other uses we should bring them forward.

11. 4.7 Other Funding – Michael has recently applied to the Government’s New Deal Pilot fund for Faith Groups – we will hear about the success, or not, of this within the next few days. We will need to have a meeting to discuss this quickly if we are successful.

12. Bible studies are carrying on apace, with good attendance and a wide range of input from everyone involved. We are moving through the book of Genesis at this point and many things are coming out from our studies that we have never seen before, so it is good to be learning many new things.

The Prayer groups now have two separate focuses. Whilst our Tuesday morning prayer meetings have focussed a lot on Church and congregational issues as well as a wide range of other local, national and international prayer points, it still has been heavily focussed on the local Church. The second meeting which is more about intercessory prayer, should be focussed upon the Church, it’s people, its leaders, its programmes and its vision and this is what we will continue to do on our bi-weekly meeting.

1. In the New Year Michael and Lindsey proposed that we should spread out the teaching between the elders and deacons with Michael preaching twice per month and the others sharing the other Sundays meaning each person has an opportunity to preach at least once every two months. This will help the leadership as we will be investing time in other projects, such as possibly working with a new Church plant in Heddon on the Wall, where Steve and Brenda have requested our support. We will have another meeting nearer Christmas to outline a preaching plan for the New Year.

2. Outreach & Evangelism

3. 7.1 Women of Action? Ronke to plan for a meeting in November encouraging all the women in the Church to attend, praying for one another, sharing and working on a project that will benefit women in our Church and community.

4. 7.2 Men’s Group? Michael would like to commence a men’s meeting along similar lines of the FGBM meetings, where they meet for food once every two months in a restaurant, inviting a Non-Christian friend along and share testimony after the meal. This will hopefully commence in the New Year.

5. 7.3 Christmas Planning. We decided to have our Christmas Carol Service on the 19[th] of December 2021 at 3:00pm. Our Christmas Celebration will be held on Saturday the 11[th] of December, with food, fellowship, music, a quiz and games. We will hold our Christmas Eve Candlelit Service on Friday 24[th] December from 5:30pm. We have organised to set up the Church for Christmas on the 27[th] of November. Advent should be used as

a time to invite Non-Christians to Church as it is a wonderful outreach opportunity.

1. The Mission House has been used quite well this year, it has been completely decorated and all the remaining snagging work from the refurbishment has now been completed. The income and expenditure for this has been separated in the accounts so they don’t come under the same account as the Church.

2. With regards to the Refugee/Asylum Seekers, many of them have left due to Covid getting in the way, but also of some mistrust of the fact that they have left a very violent society, and one or two of them feel that some of the other group still have links with that element. So we now only have 2 El Salvadorans who attend Church, although we still maintain contact with some of the others.

3. The Way Forward with Elders/Deacons. Denis and Jen were invited to join us and have now formally joined the Elders and Deacons Team. We are grateful to have them on board and they will also join the Trustee team.

4. No other business was recorded other than some names have left the WhatsApp group, but this is due to the issue in item 9. Tracey who was with us has gone off the radar so to speak, and we have stopped trying to contact her as she doesn’t respond to any texts. We have 4 new people in the church, who will bring new gifts with them.

5. The meeting was closed in prayer by Jen Batey.

Word of Life Church

Balance Sheet at 31 DECEMBER 2020

	2020
Assets
Current Assets	34,304
Bank	34,304
Debtors
Loans Made	1,000
Fixed assets	1,398
Musical Instruments	264
Equipment	1,134
	36,702
Liabilities
Current Liabilities	-
Bank Overdraft
Funded Projects
Creditors
Long-term Liabilities	36,702
Bank Loans/Mortgages
Unappropriated Funds	36,702
	36,702
	-
Income statement for the year ended 31 DECEMBER 2020

Note 1 Income Expenses 2 Personnel Expenses 3 Motor Vehicle Expenses 4 Subscriptions & Licences 5 Property Expenses Cottage 6 Property Expenses Church Building 7 Communications 8 Insurances & Licences 9 Training 11 Administration Surplus /(shortage) for the period Unappropriated funds beginning of the year	Year to date 61,003 25,250
	3,001 1,218 822 521 13,656 1,862 771 25 3,374
	35,753 948
	36,702

Octavian Lazin Unit 11, Pennywell Business Centre Sunderland, SR4 9AR

Michael Hedley

Word of Life Church 69 – 71 North Seaton Road

Ashington NE63 0AG

Examiner’s Re ort Review p

Basis of Report

My examination includes an audit of the accounting records kept by the association ‘Word of Life Church’ and a comparison of the accounts with those records.

General Comments

Following analysis and review of the reports provided, the key points raised is with relation to the signing off of invoices, ensuring that a policy in put in place that for invoices over a specified amount are to be signed off, in addition to having a list of authorised individuals being able to sign off such invoices.

In the audit there were no errors or anomalies identified.

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 to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records have not been met;

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

Octavian Lazin

13[th] September 2021