Word of Life Church
AGM of the Trustees of Word of Life Church Ashington Charity No: 1164496
Wednesday 10[th] September 2025 @7.00pm
Attendees:
Rev. Michael Hedley (Trustee, Chair, Elder}, Snr. Pastor Lindsey Hedley (Pastor, Elder), Olaronke Obadebo, (Trustee, Elder), Denis Batey (Trustee, Elder), Jennifer Batey (Elder), Lanre Atanda (Pastor), Wendy Ellis (Trustee).
1. Welcome and Prayer
Michael welcomed and thanked everyone for attending the meeting and opened in prayer.
2. Apologies
Fisayo Atanda (Pastor)
3. Charity Objectives
Matthew 28:19-20 as outlined in Matthew the following 3 main objectives are followed:
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i. The preaching of the Word.
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ii. Water baptism.
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iii. Making disciples.
It was agreed that all these objectives are being met.
4. Minutes of Previous Meeting
Agreed.
5. Matters Arising
Michael outlined the format of the meeting.
5. Accounts
Because we are a charity, we must have enough money in our bank account to cover bills for the following year.
Ina can’t do the accounting for us any longer, so Michael proposed that the accounts be passed to an accountant with an approximate cost of £600. All agreed.
Michael advised that gift aid was proving to be successful in providing extra income for the church.
Jen explained that the church had new members and who had filled in the forms for gift aid accounts to be set up
Action – Den & Jen to create a new form with name address and numbers on for those who use the envelopes for gifting. They will write the amount collected on each envelope and then pass this information to Michael on a monthly basis so that it can be recorded as gift aid on the account spreadsheet.
7. Deacons - Antonio
Michael informed the meeting that Antonio would like to be considered to take up the role of deacon in the church.
Following a discussion, it was decided to invite Antonio to an interview with the team.
The following items are to be included in the interview:
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i. Will Antonio come under and accept the authority of the Word of Life church?
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ii. What will he bring to the church?
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iii. If the answer is no, what will he do?
A discussion followed around the possibility of the need of a protocol for the appointment of deacons and possibly to include a timescale of 3 years for deacons to serve within the document and the expectations of a deacon.
Action – Michael to give this some thought and to feedback to the team.
8. Pastor Report
Lanre read his report where he outlined the following:
Small groups were taking place Men's prayer walk and a youth group. Although at this present time we are having a few problems encouraging the youth to take part in activities.
2 people are attending the discipleship class for water baptism.
Church attendance is averaging around 48.
Bible study regular numbers are attending.
Prayer meeting around 6 in attendance and prayer box is being used regularly.
The leadership team have updated the membership document.
The Sunday School is going well.
9. Safeguarding
No incidents reported.
10. Any Other Business
Jen suggested on a Sunday every 6 or 8 weeks that the Sunday school children stay downstairs and the youth meet upstairs with Claire as a means to try and bring the youth together.
Action – Team to give more thought to this suggestion.
On Wednesday 17[th] an open forum is to be held where other member of the church can come to the meeting to find out what we discuss in the Trustees Meeting.
It was decided to move this date to the 24[th. ]
Action – Denis to announce to the church on the following 2 Sundays that this meeting will be taking place. Denis to ask for a show of hands to see if anyone will be attending.
PAP – a discussion around PAP took place where it was decided for the time being to not use PAP on Sundays and Lanre to carry out the duties of PAP.
Michael requested that the name of PAP be changed.
11. Close
Michael thanked the team for attending. Lindsay close in prayer.
PLEASE NOTE
Michael informed the team that when an invite is sent via email or text, it's important that everyone replies to the invitation. This is because the charitable constitution requires that 55% of the members be in attendance to form a quorum and if there are going to be less than that the meeting would have to be cancelled and re-arranged.
Minutes Agreed ..................................................... (Chair of Trustees)
Word of Life Church
Balance Sheet
31-Dec-24
| Fixed Assets ^ Furniture & Fittings Computer Equipment & Technology Musical Instruments Land and Buildings Accumulated Depreciation ^ Acc Dep Furniture & Fittings Acc Dep Computer Equipment & Technology Acc Dep Musical Instruments Acc Dep Land and Buildings NBV Other Assets Loans made Long Term Loan Current Assets Bank Account - Lloyds Total Assets Shareholders Funds Capital Reserves Capital Reserves Profit / (Loss) for the Year |
4,557.12 £ 5,039.77 £ 549.85 £ 5,000.00 £ |
15,146.74 £ 6,726.79 £ |
|---|---|---|
| 1,872.42 £ 4,644.40 £ 109.97 £ 100.00 £ 1,390.00 £ 21,683.25 £ - £ |
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| 8,419.95 £ 23,073.25 £ |
||
| 17,400.99 £ 14,092.21 £ |
31,493.20 £ |
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| 31,493.20 £ |
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| 31,493.20 £ |
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David Robinson 19 Woodlea Ashington Northumberland
Reverend Michael Hedley Word of Life Church 69 – 71 North Seaton Road Ashington Northumberland NE63 0AG
Date 19[th] September 2025
Examiner’s Report Review 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 point to be raised is that the external funding for the “Warm Spaces Project” was highlighted but not kept separate. In the future should there be any further external funding they need to keep those records on a separate spreadsheet, this can then be linked into the accounts summary. In the audit there were no errors or anomalies identified.
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
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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;
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To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Kind regards
David Robinson