2025-08-31-accounts

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Broadgrace Charitable Incorporated Organisation Trustees’ annual report and financial statements

1[st] September 2024 – 31[st] August 2025

Trustees’ annual report	page 1
Financial review	page 7
Independent examiner’s report	page 9
Financial statements and notes	page 10

Trustees’ annual report

For the period 1[st] September 2024 – 31[st] August 2025

Reference and administration details

Charity name and registered charity number

Broadgrace | 1171839

The charity is also often referred to as Broadgrace Church.

Charity’s principal address and contact details

Broadgrace Church, The River Rooms, Church Street, Coltishall, Norwich, NR12 7BX.

01692 535593 | www.broadgrace.org.uk | enquiries@broadgrace.org.uk

Names of the trustees who manage the charity

Name	Office
Stephen Michael	Chair of Trustees (and elder of the church)
Matthew Hall	Trustee (and elder of the church)
John Hindley	Trustee (and elder of the church)
Timothy Chapman	Trustee
Fiona Foreman	Trustee

In June 2025, Daniel Ernst stepped down as an elder of the church and resigned as a trustee.

Structure, governance and management

Broadgrace is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). It is governed by a Constitution of a Charitable Incorporated Institution whose only voting members are its Charity Trustees (the ‘Constitution’), dated 21[st] February 2017.

Broadgrace CIO was created to replace an existing charity, Broad Grace Charitable Trust (registered Charity number 1136670). All assets and activities of Broadgrace Charitable Trust were transferred to the new CIO on 1[st] September 2017. Broad Grace Charitable Trust was then closed, and was removed from the Charity Commission register on 2[nd] October 2018.

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Appointment of trustees

Charity Trustees are appointed by a resolution passed at a meeting of the ‘Spiritual Leadership’ of the church. The Spiritual Leadership is made up of the elders of the church. All members of the Spiritual Leadership are currently also trustees. The trustees are in agreement, however, that it is also important to have ‘external’ trustees as members of the board. They bring a broader perspective and wisdom that is a valuable addition to that brought by the trustees who are more closely involved with the day-to-day work of the charity. They also contribute different and valuable experience of work and church life.

Governance and management of Broadgrace

The Constitution states that: ‘The spiritual government and leadership of the Church Fellowship for the purposes of which the CIO has been established shall remain with the Spiritual Leadership and to the extent to which the Charity Trustees are not synonymous with the Spiritual Leadership their powers shall be confined to the proper management and administration of the CIO in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution and in furtherance of the Objects and in so doing they shall have full and proper regard to the Spiritual Leadership provided always that they shall not act outside their powers as conferred by this Constitution and by general law.’

The Spiritual Leadership of the church is currently made up of three elders: Matthew Hall, John Hindley and Stephen Michael. All elders are also trustees of the charity. Daniel Ernst resigned as an elder and as a trustee in June 2025. He continues to be a member of the church. We are also in the process of appointing Matt Timmins to serve as an elder and trustee, with his commissioning service due on 14[th] September.

John Hindley is employed full-time to serve the church. All matters relating to employment are delegated to a formal Remuneration Committee made up of Matthew Hall (Chair), Timothy Chapman, Fiona Foreman and Stephen Michael. This committee undertakes all discussion of salary, terms and conditions and other matters relating to employment. Employed trustees will not become members of this Committee.

The elders of the church meet weekly for prayer and to discuss any urgent pastoral or other matters. They also meet monthly to discuss any business affecting the church and to spend longer considering the life of the church. Once or twice a year they aim to have an ‘away-day’ together to allow for wider reflection. They also meet for an evening from time to time either socially or to discuss theological matters that have interested one of them. The trustees meet twice a year, or more frequently if there is a need to do so.

The elders are accessible to all the members of the church and regard themselves as members together of a family and not above or superior to other members. They strive to have a highly consultative decisionmaking process, with church members having great involvement in and ownership of decisions. Many other members serve in various ways, and we are highly dependent on one another in all aspects of church life.

Professional advisors

Bankers

HSBC, 18 London Street, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1LG.

Independent examiner

Richard Williams, 9 Kingsway, New Malden, KT3 6AJ.

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Public benefit statement

The trustees are satisfied that the activities we undertake to meet our charitable objects are for the public benefit. All our various meetings, groups, courses and events are open to the public; events and activities are advertised as widely as possible and church members are keen to share their faith and church life with the community.

Additionally, some of the meetings and events we run are specifically aimed at the general public. One example would be Tiddlers , our weekly baby and toddler group which is widely regarded as a making a valuable contribution to village life.

We continue to use our building, The River Rooms, to serve the local community. The facilities we provide there are available to everyone. We have a good relationship with our long-term tenants, A Piece of Cake tea room, as well as with the tenants in our offices. In 2024 we renewed the lease with A Piece of Cake for a further ten years. We took this as an opportunity to celebrate with Liz the partnership we have now enjoyed for ten years.

At each of their meetings, the trustees consider how the charity is benefitting the public, both in its activities and in the general ways that church life is conducted.

Activity of the charity in meetings its objectives

Objects

The Objects of the CIO are, for the public benefit, the advancement of the Christian faith, in accordance with the Statement of Faith, in such ways as the charity trustees may from time to time decide.

Activities of the charity

In common with all his churches, Jesus Christ lies at the heart of all we are and do as a charity. Our main activity is to follow him in living as a church family who love, care for, support and disciple one another. We seek to be an open family, welcoming in all who want to join us in investigating faith in Christ or in following Christ. This means that our culture is of paramount importance. Love has to be real, which means we must make time to know each other and our Lord.

As a result of this we prioritise praying and reading the Bible together as the primary means of relating to God, and time together knowing and loving each other as the primary means of relating to one another. This culture, shaped by Christ’s gospel, is more important than the organised activity of the church. Most ministry is carried out as we share time, gifts and lives with one another and with our neighbours. The elders and members of the church focus much of our attention on cultivating such a culture of love and faith, with the organised activities of the church seen as supporting this ministry rather than being dominant. We are more concerned with being the family of God than doing particular things (important and necessary though they may be).

This approach is both more freeing for church members, allowing all to serve one another rather than controlling what Christian service looks like, and also more fruitful. This is because we are free to respond to need as we see it, rather than having to go through structures or decision-making bodies. In a larger church these might be necessary. As a smaller church, though, we strive to only create structures and ministry programs that will support the family life of the church rather than institutionalise it.

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As we have grown over the last few years, we have found it more difficult to maintain this culture. We are still committed to doing so as it flows from our understanding of Jesus and his love for us. The challenges that greater size (around 65 members) bring are in knowing one another and communicating well together. To meet these challenges, we are seeking to keep explicitly promoting a culture of mutual love and gospel service. We also moved from three to four community groups after Easter 2025 to draw more people into these relational groups and create space for more to join them.

Moving towards church planting

We have also been seeking to take advantage of this growth in numbers as we have continued to move towards planting another church. Our size means we are occasionally beginning to reach the capacity of our building for Sunday meetings. This is not so much during the meeting, as we have about 85 seats and there have always been 10-20 available. It is more during the tea and coffee time at the end of the meeting, especially in the winter when the children cannot play outside, that we notice it.

During 2024-25 we have held church meetings to discuss church planning together. These revealed a range of responses, from excitement to nervousness and uncertainty. We have sought to address concerns individually, through our community groups and in giving more time and space to come together as a church family. During the Spring and Summer, a Growth Planning Group met. This group was formed of a dozen volunteers who worked to come up with a range of possible plans for a church plant. The elders then met to discuss the outcomes of this work. By the end of August they had decided to work on a plan to present to the church in the Autumn of 2025.

Big Day Out Plus, 12[th] July 2025

A “Big Day Out Plus” continues to be a significant part of our life together as a church. This year the focus was on world mission. We were blessed by a talk from Jonathan Armstrong, the pastor of Diss Baptist Church and an extended interview with Del and Laura, our mission partners from Paris. The day also involved time to eat and talk together, a talent show and a highly engaging session experiencing some of what life is like for persecuted Christians, based on material from Open Doors . Some of the church family also stayed over on the nights of the Friday and Saturday, either in the house, camping or in the bunk rooms and shepherd’s hut on site.

Community events

We have been part of a number of very enjoyable community events during the year. We did something slightly different for our Crib Service on Christmas Eve, with a more interactive approach that worked well for the large number of visitors we had.

We again held an Easter Explained event (the photo on the front of this report is from that event), which involved an afternoon of activities for families followed by a family service explaining the events of the first Easter, and a hot-dog supper. We were very pleased by the number of families that came back from last year and others who came as well. We also had a number of visitors on Easter Sunday which was encouraging.

After the Easter holidays we took part again in the village scarecrow competition over the early May Bank Holiday weekend. We involved Tiddlers and the children’s groups in making a Thomas the Tank Engine scarecrow and retained the Community Shield that we won with our Aslan scarecrow the year before. The theme was less easy for us to take advantage of in sharing the good news of Jesus alongside enjoying the festival but we met lots of people and enjoyed being an active part of village life.

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A good number of the church family were involved in all these events and other, including providing games and crafts as part of the village VE Day 80[th] anniversary event.

Evangelism team

We begun work on establishing an evangelism team, led by Emily, over the Summer of 2025. We hope that this team will keep us focused on sharing the gospel joyfully and faithfully. The team has been formed and begun work towards planning for 2025-26. This will include participating in the national Life ’26 mission, which will involve regional collaboration with other members of the Norfolk Gospel Partnership .

The River Rooms

During the first half of 2025 we ran a giving campaign to repay the remainer of our loan with rural ministries. The amount we were seeking to raise was about £55k. Through the generous giving of church members and supporters, and Rural Ministries kindly writing off £10k of the loan, we were able to raise nearly the entire amount needed. The trustees took the decision to use a small amount of our reserves to enable us to repay the entire loan.

This means that we will have about £11k a year of extra income, assuming all the offices are let, to use towards further ministry in Norfolk. In the Lord’s kindness we have also recently re-let the offices. This is a fantastic answer to prayer and puts us in a good position as a church to increase the reach of ministry in Norfolk.

Other activities during 2024-25

As well as these significant matters, we also engaged in the following ministries and areas of church activity, many of which are ongoing but no less important for that. Here is a brief summary of them:

Church staff: we continued to employ both John Hindley (full-time) and Emily Paterson (two days / week) as church staff.
Church family meetings: we have continued to enjoy Sunday meetings together as the main focus of our church family life. We preached through Matthew’s gospel this year, with breaks to consider ‘Picture of the King’ – how we learn about Jesus through the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon.
Community groups: As we mentioned above, we moved from three to four community groups after Easter. These groups, that meet weekly, continue to be an important part of our life as a church family.
Church family prayer meetings: we have moved our church prayer meetings from monthly to being once every half-term. This has made it easier for people to remember when they are and led to increased participation and some excellent time of prayer together.
Wednesdays together: once again we had a break from community group meetings for the first few weeks of the Easter term. Emily led four sessions on how we engage in evangelism together.
Tiddlers: our weekly toddler and baby group has a regular and committed membership. We have seen steady numbers over the year and deepening relationships. It is a happy, welcoming group and a great place for deeper connection than is sometimes possible with our neighbours.

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Kids’ Club: we have three groups: a younger Kids’ Club (for primary school age children), an older girls group and an older boys Bible study. All three groups have met fortnightly. We have decided to move to two groups, one for primary-school age and the other for secondary-school age from September 2025. Plans for this transition, and also some changes in group leadership, have been made over the summer of 2025.
Safeguarding: we continue to encourage a culture of safeguarding, with the appropriate suite of policies that are updated annually. We are supported in this by Christian Safeguarding Services (CSS) who provide advice, training and DBS support for us.
Missionaries: we continued to support the family we sent in 2018 on long-term mission service to Central Asia. We also made an effort to deepen connections with Stefano and Jenny Marriotti and Del and Laura de la Hoyde this year.
School’s ministry: we have many members who are actively involved with local schools, as pupils, staff, governors, parents and so on. John and Emily continue to take assemblies and RE lessons as well. Emily has begun work on further developing and connecting the various links we have to help us grow together as a church in supporting our local schools.
Writing: John has been continued to contribute articles to The Marlpit (the monthly village magazine for Coltishall and Horstead) and the Frettenham Newsletter (which is quarterly). He has also been working on a book on church leadership.
SaRang Church: we continue to enjoy our partnership with SaRang Church in Seoul, South Korea.
Acts 29: we continue as members of Acts 29.
The Rural Project (TRP): We are members of this initiative. John is part of the steering committee and is coaching a church planter in rural Northumberland.
Norfolk Gospel Partnership (NGP): we have benefited from a number of events run both for church members and elders by the NGP. John is still on the steering committee and is leading the training strand of the gospel partnership.
Crosslands learning site: part of the Norfolk Gospel Partnership’s training provision is the Crosslands Learning Site, based at Holy Trinity in Norwich. Several church members once again studied with Crosslands this year and Emily served as a tutor on the course.
Crosslands seminary: Matt has continued with his study on the Crosslands Seminary course. Arron has joined the church and is also studying with Crosslands, in the same year as Matt. John is enjoying being tutor to them both.
Wider ministry: John has again had a number of speaking engagements during the year serving other churches and conferences.

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Financial Review

The charity raises money primarily through the giving from its members, gifts from supporters and through income from rental of the River Rooms.

The accounts are prepared under the Receipts and Payments method. During the financial period to 31 August 2025, £103,458 (2024: £54,530) was received in donations, with an additional £16,653 in gift-aid receipts. A one-off £5,484 donation was received to finance future church planting set-up costs.

Additionally, £35,981 (2024: £38,747) was received in rental income from the River Rooms and £3,189 (2024: £2,709) in other income including royalties from John Hindley’s publications.

The value of direct charitable activities was £90,001 (2024: £90,381). Grants and donations paid out were £7,291 (2024: £5,874) which includes grants and contribution to fees for Matt Timmins and Arron Pilgirm to support their study at Crosslands as well as donations to a number of other local and national charitable organisations.

Loan repayments of £59,747 (2024: £42,807) were made against the interest-bearing loan held with Rural Ministries. The loan with Rural Ministries has now been fully paid off, due to the generosity of members and a £10,000 grant from Rural Ministries.

At the balance sheet date, a legal charge remains registered against the The River Rooms. As outlined above, the loan secured by this charge has been repaid in full. The trustees intend to submit the application to the Land Registry to formally remove the charge during the 2025/26 financial year. The Trustees are satisfied that this matter has no financial impact on the charity and that the charge does not represent any outstanding liability.

Statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

The trustees have decided to maintain £25,000 in reserves. This figure was based on the following requirements:

£5,000 available cash funds to be maintained in relation to general church activities.
£10,000 available cash funds to be maintained in relation to the River Rooms.
£10,000 repairs and maintenance fund for the River Rooms.

The cash balance at 31 August 2025 was £35,498.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

There were no funds in deficit at 31 August 2025.

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Risk statement

The charity is exposed to various risks - be they operational, financial or reputational. The trustees review the charity's activities regularly to identify significant risks and, where possible, they take appropriate measures to mitigate those risks.

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

Charity law requires us as Trustees to prepare financial statements for each accounting year which record the receipts and payments of the charity for the year.

We are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable us to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011.

We are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. We are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charity’s website in accordance with legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements.

Independent Examiner

Mr Richard Williams has been appointed as the charity’s independent examiner. His report can be seen on pages 9.

Approval

This report was approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Stephen Michael Chair of Trustees

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Independent Examiner’s Report to the trustees of Broadgrace CIO

for the period 1[st] September 2024 – 31[st] August 2025

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Broadgrace CIO ('the charity') for the year ended 31 August 2025 on pages 10 to 12, and notes pages 13 to 15.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the charity, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed

Richard Williams

Address: 9 Kingsway, New Malden, KT3 6JA

Date:

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Receipts and payments accounts for year ended 31 Au ust 2025 g

Unrestricted funds £	Restricted funds £ 48,084 5,215 - - - 53,299 - - 53,299 - - -	Endowment funds £ - - - - - - - - - - - -	Total funds £ 103,458 16,652 2,543 35,981 646 159,280	Last year £
55,374	48,084			54,350
11,438	5,215			9,580
2,543	-			2,709
35,981	-			38,747
646	-			789
105,981	53,299			106,175
180 180 106,181 90,001 7,291 97,291
			180	-
			180	-
			159,460 90,001 7,291 97,291
				106,175

90,001	-	-	90,001	90,381
7,291	-	-	7,291	5,874
97,291	-	-	97,291	96,255

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A4 Asset and

investment

purchases

A4 Asset and investment purchases
Loans repaid	11,932	47,815	-	59,747	42,807
Tenants deposits
repaid	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*
	11,932	47,815	-	59,747	42,807

*Total payments*	109,224	47,815	-	157,039	139,062

*Net of receipts/*
*(payments)*	(3,063)	5,484	-	2,421	(32,887)
A5 Transfers between
funds	-	-	-	-	-
A6 Cash funds last
year end	33,077	-	-	33,077	65,964
*Cash funds this*
*year end*	30,014	5,484	-	35,498	33,077

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Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 Au ust 2025 g

1 Cash funds Unrestricted Restricted[Endowment ] funds funds funds £ £ £ Cash at bank 8,027 5,484 - Reserves account 21,987 - - Total cash funds 30,014 5,484 - Unrestricted Restricted Endowment funds funds funds £ £ £ B2 Other 2,731 - - Gift aid due to charity monetary assets Fund to which Current asset belongs value B3 Investment - assets Fund to which Current Details asset belongs value Land & Buildings (The River General Fund B4 Assets Rooms, Coltishall) 630,770 retained for the Furniture, Music and PA General Fund 37,744 charity’s own use equipment Fund to which Amount due Details liability relates B5 Liabilities Tenants deposits General Fund 3,458 Date of Signature Print Name approval Signed by Chair of trustees on behalf of all the trustees Stephen Michael 11/06/26

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Notes to the accounts

1 Accounting policies

The accounts have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis and comprise a statement that shows the charity's receipts and payments, a statement that summarises the charity's assets and liabilities and related notes. The accountancy profession have determined that only accounts prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards present a 'true and fair' view and, as these receipts and payments accounts have not (and cannot) be prepared in accordance with accounting standards, these accounts do not present (and are not intended to present) a 'true and fair' view of the charity's financial activities and state of affairs.

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity. Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the trustees for particular purposes. Restricted funds are donations which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors; they include donations received from appeals for specific activities or projects.

2. Payments in relation to charitable activities undertaken directly

Unrestricted funds £ 58,427 18,523 10,115 2,936 90,001	Restricted funds £ - - - - -	Total funds £ 58,427 18,523 10,115 2,936 90,001	Total 2024 £
58,427	-	58,427	57,924
18,523	-	18,523	20,110
10,115	-	10,115	8,195
2,936	-	2,936	4,152
90,001	-	90,001	90,381

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River Rooms operating costs

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Total
Total funds
funds funds 2024
£ £ £ £
Utilities 13,088 - 13,088 14,297
Repairs and
Maintenance 4,715 - 4,245 4,444
Cleaning 720 - 720 833
Insurance
(Incorporated into
whole charity total) - - - 536
Total 18,523 - 18,523 20,110
----- End of picture text -----

Grants paid in relation to charitable activities undertaken by others

Unrestricted funds £ 831 1,200 3,075 595 1,289 300	Restricted funds £ - - - - -	Total funds £ 831 1,200 3,075 595 1,289 300	Total 2024 £
831	-	831	720
1,200	-	1,200	1,200
3,075	-	3,075	2,125
595	-	595	1,109
1,289 300	-	1,289	720
		300
7,291	-	7,291	5,874

4. Transactions with related parties

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John Hindley (Full-time) was employed as Pastor. Total remuneration package was £48,433 (which includes Employer pension contributions of £8,073) for serving in that capacity, not for serving as trustees; these payments are permitted by the charity's governing document.

The only other expenses paid to trustees were reimbursements for items purchased in relation to ministry and travel expenses for the employed staff. All expenses payments were in line with Broadgrace financial policy and were approved by two signatories.

5. Movements of funds

Balance at 31.08.24 £ 8,077 - - 5,000 10,000 10,000 33,077	Receipts £ 106,161 47,815 5,484 - - - 159,460	Payments £ 109,224 47,815 - 157,039	Transfers £ -	Balance at 31.08.25 £
8,077	106,161	109,224		10,498
-	47,815	47,815		-
-	5,484	-		5,484
	-

5,000	-			5,000
10,000 10,000	-			10,000
				10,000
33,077	159,460	157,039	-	35,498

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