2022-09-30-accounts - Outpost Church

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OUTPOST CHURCH TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE PERIOD 1[ST] OCTOBER 2021 – 30[TH] SEPTEMBER 2022

Contents:-	Page:-
Administrative & legal information	1
Objectives and activities	2
Achievements and performance	2
Financial review	5
Independent examiner’s report	7
Receipts and payments account	8
Statement of assets and liabilities	9
Notes to the accounts	10
Summary	11

OUTPOST CHURCH

Administrative & legal information

Registered Charity Name: Outpost Church Registered Charity Number: 1173519 Registered Office: Trustees: Roger Tanton (Chair) Peter Morris (Treasurer) Jessica Cayuela Joe Lillicrap Amanda Nunn Elders: Roger Tanton (Pastor) Deacons: Peter Morris

Structure

Outpost Church is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), governed by a Constitution registered 21[st] June 2017, under which the trustees (the elders, plus others appointed) are responsible for the general control and management of the administration of the Church. The appointment of new trustees is initiated by the elders and approved by the trustees once all necessary eligibility checks have taken place. Anyone may make suggestions to the elders for a proposed trustee appointment.

The beliefs and practices of Outpost Church are set out in our handbook and the spiritual leadership of the Church rests with the elders. The work is supported by deacons who lead and serve in practical and spiritual ways under the guidance of the elders.

Our handbook sets out the provisions whereby Christian believers at Outpost Church may join as members. Any person wishing to join the church as a member should speak to an elder or deacon to request a copy of the handbook and/or to express their desire to join in membership.

We are an independent church affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

Charitable objects

The Church is required to comply with its legal charitable objects in all its activities:

a. The advancement of the Christian faith in accordance with the Basis of Faith, primarily, but not exclusively, within Kent and the surrounding area; and
b. such other charitable purposes as shall, in the opinion of the charity trustees, put into practice the Christian faith in accordance with the Basis of Faith, including but not limited to: the prevention and relief of need, hardship and sickness; the advancement of education; and the provision of community facilities;

provided that the advancement of such purposes must be undertaken in a manner that is consistent with the Doctrinal Distinctives and Ethical Statements as may be adopted and amended by the CIO from time to time.

OUTPOST CHURCH

Objectives and activities

As a Christian church our aim is to point people to who God is and what he has done for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are passionate about spreading the good news of Jesus to all and desire to see people experience God’s transforming work flow out from their hearts and into their homes, their church, their community and the world.

The main activity of the week is our Sunday service where we gather together for worship, prayer, praise and bible teaching. Our services are open to all and aim to be contemporary in style, friendly and informal. During the service, primary school aged children are able to attend Adventurers where they learn about the bible through games and craft. We meet up at mid-week groups throughout the year to pray, encourage and support each other, and learn how to apply the bible to our lives.

We were also able to hold a number of other public events during the year; a light party, carol service, Good Friday walk and a summer family festival.

In the planning of all our activities, the trustees have complied with their duty to have regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

Achievements and performance

Sunday Services

We held our Sunday services throughout the year at the Woodchurch Community Centre, advertising primarily through social media and encouraging those in regular attendance to invite friends, family and contacts. It was encouraging to see attendance grow back to pre-pandemic levels of 50-60 per week with a few notable occasions in the second half of the year where numbers began reaching above 60 for the first time at our regular services.

Bible teaching is a key part of our Sunday services and during the year we were able to cover a good range of series. In October 2021 we returned to our long running series in Luke’s gospel, covering chapters 11 and 12. This was followed by three messages in November, focussing on the book of 1 John under the title ‘Be Sure’, looking at the certainty we can have about Jesus, salvation, and God’s will for our lives. In December 2021 we held our Christmas services, including a carol service, which gave us good opportunity to invite others to hear the gospel through the birth of Jesus. We then began a new study in the book of Colossians, lasting from January to April 2022, the big theme being how we can overcome everything that is against us through Jesus.

OUTPOST CHURCH

Then, between May and June 2022, we covered the book of Daniel, followed by a four part series in the book of Jonah over the summer.

In August 2022 we decided to hold one of our services outdoors around an evening BBQ and firepits. We heard bible teaching from our series in Jonah and joined together in a time of worship led by the Outpost band. This was a great opportunity to invite family and friends to church, and it was encouraging to see a number of families visiting from other churches to share in Christian fellowship with us.

We continued to develop our table of free books available at our services. This has been a wellused resource, useful for equipping Christians in their faith, as well as being a helpful way to provide non-Christians with books and literature that helps to point them to Jesus.

Children’s work

It was good to be able to restart adventurers during our Sunday services in the autumn of 2021. The children learnt about the bible through craft, games and teaching, starting with story of Jonah in the months running up to Christmas, before practicing and performing the nativity at our carol service.

In the first half of 2022, the adventurers learnt about the story of Daniel and then explored the parables of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. After the summer break they began learning about the Kingdom of God in the book of Mark.

Mid-week groups

We met roughly once a month during the week for central meeting where we looked deeper at the message from the Sunday service, with a time for further discussion and prayer at the end. Then, on alternating weeks, we were able to meet for men and women’s life groups in people’s homes, which gave us more opportunity to build one another up and encourage each other in our spiritual walk with Jesus.

Other events

After a near two-year hiatus on our events, it was great to be able to host a light party (Oct 2021), Good Friday walk (Easter 2022) and our summer family festival (July 2022). We used these as key opportunities to introduce new people to our church family, sharing with them the message of Jesus in a relaxing and engaging environment, as well as to strengthen new and existing friendships in our church. It was a joy to see these events well attended.

OUTPOST CHURCH

We were excited to be able to host our light party, and it was great to be able to use this as an occasion to celebrate the light of Jesus as an alternative to Halloween. There were light themed games and craft for families throughout the evening with a short talk given to point them to Jesus as the light of the world.

Our summer family festival was our eleventh church anniversary and so we began the day with a thanksgiving service, remembering all that God has done through the work of Outpost Church. We then held a BBQ lunch, with more activities and live worship music performed by the Outpost Band into the afternoon. We continued our thanksgiving celebrations into the evening with food and firepits to wrap up the day.

OUTPOST CHURCH

Financial review

Introduction

We have prepared our accounts using the simplified receipts and payments format accompanied by a statement of assets and liabilities. The totals for the previous year are given for comparison.

We continued to use two funds to help us manage our resources effectively which were as follows:

General Fund – for managing all regular income and regular expenses associated with running the church.
General Reserve Fund – for easily identifying and managing surpluses carried forward, to be used as a resource for larger one-off/extraordinary expenses, new opportunities, or as a means of meeting any potential shortfall in regular income against expenses.

All funds were unrestricted in nature meaning that they could be used to freely advance any of the church’s charitable purposes (objects).

Receipts & Payments Account (see page 8)

God has again been so good to us this year; as can be seen from the receipts and payments account we ended the year with a surplus on our general fund of £1,161 as outgoings of £26,950 were covered by an income of £28,112.

This is very significant as we were originally anticipating a shortfall this year in excess of £8,000, due to many of our activities restarting since the pandemic and thus increased outgoings since the previous year, but had planned to accommodate this shortfall from reserves. However, we are so thankful to have covered our costs this year which is mainly through additional and increased giving, but also less than anticipated expenditure to some extent. It is noteworthy that incoming funds have continued to grow on previous years despite the pandemic.

A further £1,630 was spent from our general reserve fund bringing total unrestricted expenditure for the year to £28,580. This resulted in a small overall shortfall of £469 which was met by reserves giving a year end closing balance across both funds of £24,055. These funds are now available to spend in accordance with the church’s charitable purposes.

OUTPOST CHURCH

Statement of Assets and Liabilities

(see page 9)

The statement on page 9 lists the assets held by the church and gives a broad understanding of the liabilities at year end. The liabilities shown is a list of the main payments that were immediately due at year end.

Reserve Policy

Our reserve policy is to hold four months of expenditure to enable the church to adapt to reductions in income, plus a further £2,000 to meet larger extraordinary expenses and as a means of responding to new opportunities that may arise. The target reserves figure based on the budget for the year was therefore £11,674. Reserves held at the end of the year across all funds were £24,055.

The trustees acknowledge that reserves amount to more than the target figure which is due to the church being able to cover its expenditure on the general fund this year. A significant proportion of these reserves was allocated for the forthcoming year, 2022-23, to continue to advance the work and mission of the church. This will continue to be monitored and reviewed.

Employees

The church had one paid employee during the year; Roger Tanton. In line with the regulations and our governing documents, Roger’s employment related solely to his role as pastor of the church under a contract of employment for three days per week (it was not given to him for any of his work as a trustee which is a voluntary role).

OUTPOST CHURCH

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT

TO THE TRUSTEES OF OUTPOST CHURCH

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Outpost Church ('the charity') for the year ended 30 September 2022 on pages 8 to 10 following.

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
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.

Sarah Crispin, ACA

Stewardship 1 Lamb’s Passage LONDON EC1Y 8AB

Date: 27[th] March 2023

OUTPOST CHURCH

Receipts and payments account

General Fund £ General Reserve Fund £ 23,191 - 4,913 - 8 -	This year 2021/22 TOTAL £ 23,191 4,913 8	Last year 2020/21 TOTAL £ 18,039 4,449 -
28,112 -	28,112	22,487
19,621 - 2,655 - 2,286 - 1,398 - 410 - 339 1,630 163 - 65 - 13 -	19,621 2,655 2,286 1,398 410 1,969 163 65 13	19,248 1,170 765 1,440 70 1,267 210 33 7
26,950 1,630	28,580	24,210
1,161 (1,630) 9,334 15,190 - -	(469) 24,524 -	(1,723) 26,247 -
10,495 13,560	24,055	24,524

*Note: Numbers may not add up precisely due to rounding.

OUTPOST CHURCH

Statement of assets & liabilities

Notes Assets Cash at bank with immediate access Cash in hand Gift aid still to be received Total assets Assets retained for charity’s own use 6 Liabilities FIEC annual membership Annual licence renewals Total liabilities	General Fund £ General Reserve Fund £ 10,495 13,560 - -	This year 2021/22 TOTAL £ 24,055 -
	10,495 13,560	24,055
	404 -	404
	10,899 13,560	24,459
	780 - 56 -	780 56
	836 -	836

*Note: Numbers may not add up precisely due to rounding.

OUTPOST CHURCH

Notes to the accounts

1 Wages & payroll costs

In addition to wages, the figure shown includes the monthly overheads and administration costs relating to running the payroll.

2 Supplies for weekly activities & events

The total expenditure of £2,286 comprised of the following: Summer family festival [£946]; coffee/tea supplies and refreshments [£512]; craft for all-age services [£240]; Christmas services [£236]; Adventurers [£125]; Equipment for cleaning, storage and heating [£67]; Light Party [£57]; Easter [£35]; Harvest [£28]; first aid [£25]; communion supplies [£14].

3 Insurance, fees & memberships

The total expenditure of £1,398 comprised of the following:

FIEC membership [£468]; insurances including public liability [£346]; copyright licences [£202]; safeguarding [£171]; online/digital media [£113]; microphone licences [£56]; bank fees [£42].

4 Donations to individuals & organisations

The expenditure of £410 comprised of the following:

Honoraria for visiting speakers at Sunday services [£210]; Honoraria for photography at carol service [£200].

5 Sound & visual equipment

The additional expenditure of £1,630 against the general reserve fund was for the purchase of a new sound system for use at our Sunday services and other events.

6 Assets retained for charity’s own use

The key assets retained comprise of sound and visual (PA) equipment.

7 Other disclosures

There are no debts or guarantees to report in relation to the specific disclosures required under section 62 of The Charitable Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012.

OUTPOST CHURCH

Summary

The trustees are incredibly grateful to God for his continued provision to Outpost Church this year; income totalled £28,112, and with an expenditure of £28,580, we now go forward with a balance of £24,055. The church is solely reliant on the generous financial support received from individuals and families, without which it would not be possible to sustain or grow the mission of the church.

Following the uncertainties of the pandemic years, it is a joy to see the work growing numerically, with attendance at our Sunday services now beginning to reach above 60 for the first time. We are so thankful to see more individuals and families being blessed by the ministry, with many now stepping up to serve the church in a variety of ways.

Going forward, we continue to trust in God’s goodness and pray for his sustaining hand especially in light of the ongoing cost of living crisis. We pray that his blessing will continue to be upon us as we strive to lift up his Name and point more people to Jesus.

Rog, Jess, Amanda, Joe & Pete Trustees

Declaration

The trustees declare they have approved the trustees’ report and accounts. Named and dated 26[th] March 2023 on behalf of the trustees:

Jessica Cayuela Peter Morris (Trustee) (Trustee)