Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on 27[th] September 2023 at 7:00pm
In Attendance: Rev Michael Hedley, (Trustee, Chair) Snr Pastor Lindsey Hedley, (Leader) Olaronke Gbadebo, (Leader), Denis Batey, (Trustee), Brian Watson, (Leader), Hazel Watson (Leader).
-
The meeting was opened in prayer by Rev Michael Hedley and a welcome offered to everyone in attendance and a copy of the agenda given to each attendee. The reason for the meeting was explained by the Chair, and that it is an Annual General Meeting for Charitable purposes. The minutes of this meeting apart from the preaching plan will serve as the AGM for the Charity. The accounts and minutes will be posted onto the Charity Commission website before the 31st of September upon a successful conclusion of this AGM.
-
Apologies were received from: Mrs Millicent Little (Trustee), Mrs Jennifer Batey (Leader)
-
We firstly discussed item 3, that we are meeting our charitable aims and that the Church is growing really well, with the building being almost full every week, with a group of 10 children as well who attend Young People’s Church.
Please see the preaching plan that was discussed for the months of October 2023 till end of January 2024. Further discussion was held regarding the need for adequate support for the children in our Young People’s Church. It was decided that all children should remain with their parents during the worship element of the Sunday service and should include having a children’s song within that element.
How to staff the Children was then discussed next. It was decided to approach a couple of members of the church to be part of and help coordinate the Childrens element of the service, using the worksheets that have been supplied. These are held in a file and are available for the next three weeks. Brian will continue to monitor the use of these worksheets and aim to ensure there is a suitable amounts of copies for each Sunday. When we have agreement that other church members will participate in the YPS, then we can put together a programme of overseeing the Young People’s element of the Sunday Service. In the meantime, Lindsey will oversee this coming Sunday and hopefully by the following Sunday we will have something more concrete in place. We will also create a WhatsApp group solely for the Sunday YPS. A copy of the sermon notes will be made available to those involved with the YPS.
- The next item for discussion was the Church accounts. Ina Abrie is now the Church Treasurer, taking over from William her late husband.
Michael explained about the current issues regarding the Church bank account and how since March he has been dealing with this, and we have had to complete multiple forms to ensure that we can still use a Community Account but for our Incorporated Charitable Status. Hopefully this will be resolved successfully within the next two weeks.
Michael on behalf of the Trustees and leaders placed upon record our gratitude for Ina Abrie who took over the accounts from her late husband earlier this year, and the excellent job she has done to bring them into being professional accounts. There had been an issue with the closing off of last years accounts on the software, but this has now been resolved with a direct debit set up to Benchmark Accounting Software.
Arrangements for adding the accounts onto the Charity Commission website. Because of the Charity Commission’s rules on an upper limit of £25,000 income before needing to have accounts examined
externally, Mrs Abrie, (Treasurer), will this year act as the internal reviewer. Next year when we breach the upper limit of £25,000 income, the accountancy firm that she works for will be the external reviewers.
There is an outstanding loan of £1,000 on the accounts that we discussed. This was from a loan for a church member, who needed help to fund part of their PhD. This was given out in 2019 and so far no repayments have been made. It was decided that the leadership would approach the church member and ask if they can commit to paying back a certain amount each month, and if they do that for a period of a year and then review as to whether we write off the remainder of the outstanding loan.
We also asked if anyone had ideas of further giving to Charities, and we all agreed to pray into any organisation we support as long as the monies are sent direct to the people working on the ground through a UK bank account.
We have also been given permission by the HMRC to claim back Gift Aid on the donations we receive from the Church members. Brian will now put a system in place to get this up and running and see how much we can claim back from the past 4 years. Michael had meticulously sifted through the bank statements from the past 4 years to provide this information. Brian explained a little about how confidentiality would be maintained in the system used for claiming back Gift Aid.
Overall our accounts are in good shape and Brian will now continue to utilise the accounts spreadsheet which provides the treasurer with the data for the Church Accounts. We will be on time again getting our accounts posted onto the Charity Commission website before the deadline of 31[st] of October. The accounts were formally accepted and agreed unanimously as a true and accurate reflection of the monies received and paid.
- The next item on the agenda was the Way Forward.
Because of the growth in the Church we are almost at a tipping point in relation to the space we currently have and can utilise. We discussed a few ways in which we can grow the church further and they were:
- 5.1 Securing a new building 5.2 Extending the building 5.3 Planting out a new Church 5.4 Creating more space within the current building
5.1 Securing a new building is not a way forward at this point as we do not own the building and it would be complicated to get the WRU to sell the building then to be able to purchase a new building, it seems appropriate stay where we are and use what we have got.
5.2 Extending the building outwards would not gain very much space for a very large outlay.
5.3 Planting out a new Church and developing a team of leaders is very much the way that we will go whilst looking at utilising as a means to help us in the short term. We will pray into this in the coming months. This will take time and therefore we will need to look at item 5.4 in the short term.
5.4 We agree to seek quotes to take down the wall between the sanctuary and the meeting room, close off one of the entrance doors from the porch. Also utilise the fold down tables instead of the tables we have currently to create space for more chairs in the meeting room. We can also in the future, depending on what happens with the person renting number 73, look at ways in which we can knock through into the house next door creating more space. In between now and Christmas we will pray into these plans and get quotes.
The Bible study and the Foundation course is going well, but a question was raised as to the viability of more people attending the Bible studies by the means of having house groups. A couple of church members names were suggested to approach with the possibility of hosting Bible study equipping hubs.
-
We then discussed Outreach.
-
6.1 Women of Action. Hazel has suggested a games evening sometime in the near future. There was, however, no desire to hold a National Women of Action meeting in the Church.
-
6.2 Mens Meeting. Brian is looking at having a similar event, after noticing that dominoes were a really helpful way to gain interest as some of the asylum seekers had shown a great deal of interest and maybe it will be a way of helping them to develop their social and citizenship skills whilst helping to acclimatise with the local male church members.
-
6.3 The Coffee Mornings will continue to be facilitated with Lindsey where she can, but Brian in his new role will look to gain more people to help with this. The Coffee morning is an excellent outreach, but also an opportunity for the congregation to meet together with each other and friends of the Church as well. We will be extending this as autumn and winter approaches to have the warm spaces again. Michael is busy working on a funding application that may help us to facilitate this further over potentially 3 days of the week.
-
Any Other Business.
Once again a rota for teas and coffees and cleaning was discussed, but this has never been successful. A church member has been cleaning the church, which is really helpful and is done with cheerfulness.
We will no longer provide letters of reference to Refugees/Asylum seekers until they have been with us for 6 months.
There being no further business, thanks was given to all who have attended and the meeting was closed in prayer by Rev Michael Hedley. The next meeting will be held in January 2024.
----- Start of picture text -----
1 Jan to 31 December 2022 Accounts Summary
Closing Balance from 31 Dec 2021 £ 28,793.60 £ 28,793.60
Income
Tithes £ 3,202.08
Bank Tithes £ 16,488.00
Union Grants £ 3,500.00
Cottage Income £ 120.00
Total Income £ 23,310.08 £ 23,310.08
Expenditure
Zoom/Software/Licences £ 2,091.73
Professional Fees £ 2,309.20
General Committee Fuel/Accomodation £ 638.21
Phones & Internet £ 2,225.95
Insurance £ 858.04
Catering and Entertainment £ 801.43
Stationary £ 655.22
Printing & Ink £ 77.04
DIY/Repairs & Maintenance £ 3,036.35
Cleaning Materials £ 38.00
Miscallaneous £ 676.08
WRU Assessment £ 1,017.50
Training £ 330.55
Conference & Pastoral Event £ 315.16
Gifts £ 796.19
Website £ 143.92
Car Service & Repairs £ 154.99
Fuel £ 2,006.32
Church Electricity British Gas £ 702.36
Church Gas - British Gas £ 389.96
Church Water Bills £ 144.00
Cottage Electricity - Npower £ 337.91
Cottage Gas - British Gas £ 556.68
Cottage - Water Bills £ 172.00
Mission Contributions £ 362.00
Pastor Housing Allowance/Salary £ 9,730.98
Total Expenditure £ 30,567.77 £ 30,567.77
Balance £ 21,535.91
Car Park £ 5,000.00
Hot Tub £ 249.00
Printer £ 204.99
Gear 4 Music £ 255.87
Total Asset Purchases £ 5,709.86 £ 5,709.86
Bank Closing Balance as at 31.12.22 £ 15,826.05
----- End of picture text -----
----- Start of picture text -----
Word of Life Church
Profit & Loss Account
31-Dec-22
Dec-22 Dec-21
Income
Cottage Rental £120.00 £9,742.20
Cash Offerings £3,202.08 £2,744.67
Bank Offerings £16,488.00 £16,616.00
Gifts - (£1,029.35)
Grants received £3,500.00 £23,310.08 £9,975.00 £38,048.52
Gross Profit £23,310.08 £38,048.52
Expenses
Pastoral Housing Allowance £1,050.00 £2,200.00
Salaries & Wages £8,680.98 £12,400.00
Accomodation £638.21 £39.08
Car Service & Repairs £154.99 £746.63
Fuel General £2,006.32 £969.17
Contact Magazine £3.33
Other Subscriptions £1,120.70 £1,773.90
Spotify £228.70 £119.88
Cottage Electricity £337.91
Cottage Gas £556.68 £714.79
Cottage Water £172.00 £305.59
Cottage Maintenance £358.89
Other Proffesional Fees £2,309.20 £4,417.14
Decorative & Posters £288.75
Church Electricity £702.36 £201.16
Church Gas £389.96 £654.97
Chrurch Water Rates £144.00 £172.98
Church Building Maintenance £2,677.46 £5,939.74
----- End of picture text -----
----- Start of picture text -----
Website Development £143.92 £20.00
Marketing Materials Printing & Distribution £149.00 £16.13
Phones & Internet £2,225.95 £2,342.30
Website Marketing £90.00 £150.00
Building & Contents Insurance £858.04 £838.07
Thirty One Eight DBS £145.00
Mission Contributions £362.00 £390.00
Other Training £330.55 £129.00
Conferences £315.16
Stationery £655.22 £166.35
Printing & Ink £77.04 £23.25
Catering & Entertainment £801.43 £1,745.07
Cleaning & Janitorial £38.00 £97.11
Gifts & Donations £796.19 £297.38
WRU Assessment £1,017.50 £834.56
Computer Costs and Software £742.33
Depreciation Computer Equipment £1,655.18
Depreciation Furniture and Fittings £270.20 £32,493.15 £37,704.25
Net (Loss) / Profit (£9,183.07) £344.27
----- End of picture text -----
Word of Life Church
Balance Sheet
31-Dec-22
| Fixed Assets ^ Furniture & Fittings Computer Equipment & Technology Musical Instruments Land and Buildings Accumulated Depreciation ^ Acc Dep Furniture & Fittings Acc Dep Computer Equipment & Technology NBV Other Assets ^ Loans made Longterm loan made Current Assets ^ Bank - Barclays Total Assets Shareholders Funds ^ Unappropriated Funds Unappropriated Funds Capital Reserves ^ Profit & Loss b/fwd Loss for the year |
£ 2,702.00 £ 4,970.50 £ 549.85 £ 5,000.00 |
£ 13,222.35 £ 2,114.02 |
|---|---|---|
| £ 300.23 £1,813.79 |
||
| £ 1,000.00 £ 15,826.05 £ 948.40 £ 36,169.05 -£ 9,183.07 |
£ 11,108.33 £ 16,826.05 |
|
| £ 27,934.38 | ||
| £ 948.40 £ 26,985.98 |
||
| £ 27,934.38 | ||