LIBERTY CHURCH REPORT 2024
Pastor Mark Ritchie AGM – Monday 9[th] June 2025
We had come through a very tough 2023 and entered into 2024 with much hope and excitement. We started 2024 with a wonderful Hogmanay Party followed by spending the first hours of 2024 in praise, worship and intercession. And this celebration continued into our first Sunday of the month – a joint Liberty United service at Bethel that would also be Pastor Mark’s last service before his 3-month Sabbatical.
Liberty church would navigate the first few months of 2024 with a new Leadership structure where Pastors Lameck and Maud would be pastoring Liberty Bethel and Pastors JP and Jess would be pastoring Liberty Siloh. At the beginning of this report we want to publicly thank our Pastors for all they did - and all they are doing – for Liberty Church. all four have full time jobs and the way they have led and given their time and energy to growing Liberty Church Siloh and Bethel has been incredible. We are so thankful for every one of them – especially for what they did in 2024.
Praise God that both churches grew and developed whilst Pastor Mark was away. Teams were strengthened and people were added to both churches. We want to thank all our Pastors and their teams for the extra ministry and workload they took on whilst Pastor Mark was on Sabbatical.
When he came back, he was encouraged by the way that the churches had grown and during the rest of 2024 his role changed as he tried to support and encourage the Pastors at both churches to continue to go forward and grow. God had spoken to Pastor Mark about areas of ministry he should concentrate in – Young adults and Students and also starting Monday Night Church at some point. So, Liberty was changing and evolving and our burden to plant churches and raise leaders was developing in 2024.
Here are some updates from 2024:
PASTOR MARK SABBATICAL
After 12 years leading Liberty Church, and after a particularly testing season of covid and very challenging 2023 the Trustees and leaders realised that a Sabbatical would be very beneficial to Pastor Mark and in the long run, a blessing to the church.
So Pastor Mark had his last service on January 7[th] and returned to Liberty Church on Easter weekend on March 31[st] 2024. During these three months Pastor Mark visited Ghana for two weeks to reconnect with his friends and churches there. He visited many churches on the Sundays and was refreshed by friendships and ministry. He spent time with God and was refreshed and renewed as he came back to Liberty.
BAPTISMS
We were excited to baptise people in 2024 both at the church and Swansea beach. We had a we Baptismal on 28[th] July at the beach where we baptised 8 people. And on November 3[rd] baptised 12 people at Siloh Chapel. What tremendous testimonies we heard and we were blessed by seeing these 20 people make their faith public and follow Jesus through baptism.
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PRAYER
Prayer and intercession was an integral part of what we did in 2024. Everything we did was undergirded with prayer. This took place in many forms and ways, and we cannot emphasise enough the importance of prayer and seeking God
We had a week of Prayer and Fasting at the end of January for the whole of Liberty Church. This ended with meetings at Bethel at the end of the month. We continued to meet every Tuesday and Friday 6:30-8am by zoom and Debs has been so faithful in this important ministry. We are joined by people from all over the UK at our early morning prayer.
On Friday nights we all used to meet at Bethel but the Pastors of Siloh felt that we needed to meet at Siloh for the people who couldn’t travel and also they wanted to pray specifically for the area. So we have two prayer meetings on Friday bights 7pm -one at Siloh and one at Bethel. The attendance at both were growing.
At Bethel, we hosted all nights of prayer and also we started monthly prayer meetings on the third Saturday of every month led by Eminence and the Call to Prayer team. These are for everyone and there have been some incredibly powerful meetings with God.
In September we hosted a team from ‘The Send’ who were organising prayer for young people all across the UK. It was a very powerful night and some of our leaders at Liberty are leaders for ‘The Send’ in Wales.
So prayer is so important to everything we do.
KIDS CHURCH
Kids Church continued to grow in 2024 and new people joined our teams. Mary Ritchie was the leader of Kids Church and has developed the teachers and programme wonderfully. They have a teaching curriculum that they use and the children really learn about God and His word and a mix of songs, crafts, games and stories encourage the children to grown in their faith. Thank you to all our Kids Church team leaders and teams … our children are growing and developing in their faith. Some of the older kids were baptised in 2024 and we were so delighted!
LIBERTY YOUTH
Our Liberty teenagers were led by Vanessa and Sunny during 2024 and they went through Youth Alpha together on Thursday nights. This was an incredible course for the young people and some of them made decisions to make Jesus their Lord and saviour. Some of them were baptised in our baptismal services. They also had an extra special meal together at the end of the year and plans were being made to continue the youth ministry as we went into 2025. A big thank you to Vanessa and Sunny for all their hard work and faithfulness to our teens at Liberty.
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ELEVATE, YOUNG ADULTS & STUDENTS
We continued the amazing Elevate events for young adults and students. This was mainly reaching out to all young people from the churches around Swansea – from many denominations – and having a night of worship and impartation using our young people and friends from all over UK. These were amazing nights and we help Elevate on Feb 10[th] and June 9[th] So many young people came and the presence of God was incredible.
We also started ‘Ignite’ on Sunday evenings 5:30pm at Siloh. We started these special nights on May 5[th] and it was great to see our young leaders oversee the Ignite evenings - leading worship and ministering to the young adults. We ended the evenings with a meal every Sunday.
ALPHA?
In 2024, we continued to run the Alpha course at Liberty Church. We recognised that this was an excellent way to reach individuals exploring the meaning of life and faith while teaching them the basic foundations of Christian belief and the gospel. In May, Ashelle, along with her Great Oaks' Be-Group, led the Alpha course, which had 15 attendees who made a commitment to give their lives to Christ. The Alpha course took place in Bethel, and we were blessed to witness some of the participants who completed Alpha get baptised in water and received the Holy Spirit during the Holy Spirit Weekend. Additionally, the Alpha course provided a valuable opportunity for the Great Oaks members to strengthen their skills and confidence in facilitating small group discussions, sharing the gospel, and engaging in worship and one-to-one prayer ministry.
WORSHIP & TECH TEAM
Our worship and tech teams had been depleted in 2023 with many key people leaving but in 2024 we thank God for many people who stepped in. Our worship team grew, and many young people and students joined Liberty who could minister in worship. There were also additions in our tech team and things began to improve and we are grateful for everyone who contributed week after week both on the platform and behind the soundesk.
We added to our worship leaders at Siloh and we thank Lydia Ritchie for the way she led the worship team at this time. The team got stronger and stronger as the year went on and Elevate and Ignite also strengthened our young people. We were also blessed with some of the older musicians and worship leaders who stepped up and we have a great mix of young and old and nationalities in our worship team!
At Bethel, God blessed us with young people and students who loved God and had a passion to worship Him. We set up a basic PA system and used it on Sundays and other events. Caleb became leader of the worship team and he has built a great bunch of people who love to worship and enjoy the presence of God!
We were also blessed with Andy, Penny, Nic and Justin – ‘His Nameless Birds!’ They led worship once a month at ‘The Well’ and we at Liberty supported this fully. They also led worship at Bethel and at joint events and were such a blessing to us all.
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We held Prayer and Presence Nights throughout the year – an evening with no other priority than to worship God and allow Him to touch our hearts. These were very powerful nights.
SOCIAL MEDIA & ONLINE
We continued to live streaming our morning services from Siloh. This was a challenge for our media team, but they did so well. I know that many of our people who cannot come to church really appreciate watching the service live. This is shown in Facebook and also on YouTube.
Pastor Mark continued my ‘Garden Messages’ throughout 2024 at 8am on a Sunday morning and pray that it was a blessing to many. There have been many testimonies of how God has touched lives through our online ministry. We want to develop our other Social Media platforms in 2025 – TikTok, Instagram etc.
COMINGS AND GOING
Like every church, we had people who said ‘goodbye’ and others who said ‘hello’ at Liberty! There were many who joined Liberty in 2024 and we are so grateful. God promised us he would send us people to ‘lift up our hands’ and who would build for His Kingdom with us. Pastor Mark was amazed at the many new people at Siloh after returning from his sabbatical.
In October, around 17 people who spoke Spanish arrived independently at Siloh. This was a sign for Pastors JP & Jess that there was a harvest of Spanish speaking people that need to be reached and discipled in Swansea.
In Bethel, God added so many new people from so many nations. We were depleted in 2023 but through faithfulness and passion God brought many to Bethel. The church has grown quickly and we are so blessed by the growth in both Siloh and Bethel.
LANTERN COMMUNITY
We continued to host the Lantern Community once a month at Liberty Church. Lantern was started by the amazing Jean Grainger almost 30 years ago and is a ministry for families of disabled young people. They are an amazing bunch of people and at Easter and Christmas they joined us at Siloh in our services where they sing and bring great joy to all of us.
Lantern met at Siloh throughout the year and some of our Liberty family became helpers in the group. We had a couple of trip with Lantern that were special – especially to Longleat in December. The relationship between Liberty and Lantern is beautiful and strong. Long may it continue!
LIBERTY SILOH
Siloh went through changes in 2024 as Pastor Mark went on Sabbatical but by that time the baton of leadership had been passed to Pastors JP and Jessica. They did a great work and have led the church honourably during 2024. It wasn’t easy for them with many work and health challenges. But they have been so faithful and passionate about the church and kingdom.
As mentioned, it has been a time for rebuilding at Siloh. A new leadership, new ministries, new team members for the various ministries and many new people. As we go into 2025 we go
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with expectation. Siloh is growing and we believe we can build on the foundation of 2024 for a fruitful year of harvest in 2025.
LIBERTY BETHEL
Throughout 2024 Bethel continued to grow both in number and spiritual strength. Pastors Lameck and Maud gathered people and built a great leadership team at Bethel. Behind the scenes, Pastor Mark continued to try and get permission to take out the pews and see Bethel become a place where we can use in many ways.
In the meantime, we built a great commercial kitchen through donations from the council and the kitchen has been a blessing for us.
The most important aspect of 2024 for Bethel was on May 27[th] 2024 when the trustees of Bethel Chapel signed over the chapel and all assets to Liberty church. Most of the bethel Trustees and our trustees were present and it was a wonderful evening – a historic moment when the baton was passed.
Bethel continued to grow an the emphasis on prayer, worship and revival has seen a great group of people get together at Bethel. The future is great. The harvest is coming.
MISSION 24
We continued to host the Mission 24 monthly training events once a month at Siloh. These were powerful days and many of our Liberty family were trained by Mission 24 and went on missions with them to Argentina and Spain. We sent some Liberty family to start the new course that started in September at Lifepoint Church so we have many people trained and ready to reach out.
We also ran Impact Training by Mission 24 on June 19-22 and we reached out to Uplands, the city centre and around Landore. These were wonderful days and many were led to the Lord at this time and many were trained how to share their faith.
CHRISTMAS EVENTS
We help some Christmas events in both Siloh and Bethel that were very special. Both places had Carol Services and many local people came. We also held a Spanish themed party at New Year at Siloh followed by worship and Prayer. At Bethel they also saw in 2024 with a wonderful time together at Bethel.
JOINT EVENTS
We see the necessity to have events where our Church families at Siloh and Bethel can meet and catch up with each other. We had several ‘Liberty United’ services throughout the year, including Eater and Baptismal services at the church and beach. We also met many times for ‘Prayer and Presence’ evenings.
In September we had our ‘Church at the Park’ day at Primrose Park near Bethel Church. What a beautiful and wonderful day. We worshipped, ate together and played loads of games. A beautiful time. We continue to look at ways for us to met and worship together.
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BE-GROUPS
We continued to run various Be-groups at Liberty church nut as new people came in there was a need to strengthen and start new Be-Groups. ‘Living Well’ and ‘Great Oaks’ still continued to minister throughout the year and on Thursday nights the worship group met. This is an area that we were actively trying to develop with new Be-Groups as we went into 2025.
INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS
Missions is still one of our priorities at Liberty church and the first Sunday of every month an offering is taken for our missionaries across the world. We continue to support the Domingos in Philippines and we supported the work of Graham and Sandra Wade in Cambodia.
We also are heavily behind the persecuted church - particularly through Release International. We dedicate one or two Sundays per year to remind Liberty of the issues facing many Christians across the world today and to pastors and leaders we can pray for. Michelle Coe is our Release International Representative, and we are right behind this incredible ministry.
We sent a team to Romania and they were involved in working with the Smiles Foundation and they were involved in many aspects of mission and humanitarian ministry. One of our Liberty family - Emma - went to Romania for 3 months to help with the ministry in Romania.
We didn’t do as many missions trips in 2024 but many of our people went on mission to Argentina and Spain through Mission 24. We want to continue to bring our people on Mission in 2025 as we see it as a time when many people’s lives are changed. We will plan more Missions Trips in the future.
LOCAL MISSION
We were involved in some local missions that saw a lot of people come to church through various events.
In May, Carl and Sunny organised a Family Fun day at Siloh and it was an amazing success. We had bouncy castles, face painting, free teas and coffees, sports stuff and loads of things for the family. Some families started coming to Liberty through this amazing day.
In July we had a Curry Night and many people came. We had all sorts of curry and Kev Johns shared his testimony and a challenge from God’s word. What a wonderful evening! We want to thank Carl and Sunny for their burden to reach out and their lives and vision has brought much fruit!
In November we decided to go through all our toys and have a ‘Great Toy Giveaway’ – many people came and chose lovely toys and baby items and enjoyed a cup of tea. Another wonderful day!
We are committed to reaching our community through these special events and want to continue some Community Ministries around Landore and LLansamlet in the future.
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TRUSTEES
In 2024 we were blessed to add some new Trustees to Liberty Church. Jacqui Alexander stood down after agreeing to ‘step in’ so we could find new Trustees the others left. We thank Jacqui for all her hard work and wisdom as a Trustee. We are blessed!
We added Ben Gillott, Stevie Jenkin, Ashelle Paras and Kenny Ross to join Pastor Mark as Trustees. Ben and Ashelle worship at Siloh and Stevie is from Bethel. Kenny Ross is a friend of Pastor Mark from Fraserburgh and has had a burden for Liberty Church since it started and has supported us in many ways at many times. He works for Teen Challenge as well as running his own business. These Trustees have helped and strengthened us in many ways and we are looking to add to the team as we go ahead.
LEADERSHIP
In 2024 both Liberty Siloh & Liberty Bethel strengthened their leadership teams in preparation for the ministry and harvest ahead.
In Siloh, Pastors JP & Jess added Mary, Roxanna and Stuart to the team that already included Jacqui and Pete.
In Bethel, Pastors Lameck and Maud chose their new leaders for their first Leadership team – Lewy, Atif, Andrea, Eminence and Caleb
All these leaders are anointed and appointed by the Lord and served the Lord in both churches during 2024.
We ended 2024 with our Pastors and Leadership teams excited and ready for all God wanted for us in 2025.
So as we look back at 2024 we see that it was a year full of transition, blessing, new faces, challenges and change. It was also a year of grace. We thank God for all the people who gave their lives to Christ in 2024 and for all of our Liberty family who ‘stepped up’ and grew in their ministry and faith last year. We ALL have a part to play.
We enter into 2025 with great gratitude and expectancy and believe that God will continue to lead us and that we will continue the adventure He has started. As we said at the very first meeting we ever had at Liberty … fasten your seatbelts!
Thank you Lord for all you have done in 2024!
As One!
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LIBERTY CHURCH SWANSEA STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES Year ended December 2024
| Year ended December 2024 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| INCOME AND EXPENDITURE INCOMING RESOURCES Offerings & donations Gift Aid Missions Buildings Fund Donations/Grants from Organisations Other Income RESOURCES USED DIRECT CHARITABLE EXPENDITURE Support costs Salaries & related costs Training and conferences Other Ministers costs Administration Building Running Costs Building Maintenance Office costs Licences & software Bank, Legal & Professional fees Membership Ministry Costs Gifts & Guest Ministers Missions UK Missions Overseas Kids & Youth Ministry Young Adults Ministry Liberty Seniors Media & Worship Outreach Pastoral Ministry Grants Other Depreciation (Profit)/Loss on disposal of assets Total resources used Net incoming/(outgoing) resources before transfers Transfer between funds NET MOVEMENTS IN FUNDS Balances B/forward at 1 January Tranfer in from Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapel Balances C/forward at 31 December |
Unrestricted Funds £ |
Restricted Funds £ |
Total Funds 2024 £ |
| 62,108 - 10,242 - 2,108 3,976 5,000 - - - 3,289 - |
|||
| 82,747 | 3,976 | 86,722 | |
| 33,298 - 733 - 783 - |
|||
| 34,814 | - | 34,814 | |
| 19,766 - 7,928 162 3,612 - 2,575 - 1,127 - 2,266 - |
|||
| 37,273 | 162 | 37,435 | |
| 1,080 - 145 2,978 1,990 95 216 - 307 - - - 1,170 - 2,217 - 695 - - 226 |
|||
| 7,821 | 3,298 | 11,119 | |
| 2,013 4,168 - - |
|||
| 2,013 | 4,168 | 6,180 | |
| 81,920 7,628 827 (3,653) (3,685) 3,685 (2,858) 32 3,657 3,718 2,561,160 2,561,958 3,750 |
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
| Report to the trustees/ members of On accounts for the year ended |
Liberty Church Swansea | Liberty Church Swansea | Liberty Church Swansea |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | Charity no (if any) |
1176598 CE012884 |
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/12/2024 Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’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 Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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• the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
| Signed: Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: |
Pete Waterman (digitally signed) | 5thJune 2025 |
| Pete Waterman (Retired Accountant) | ||
| 38 Cannisland Park, Parkmill, Swansea SA3 2ED | ||
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Section B Disclosure
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
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