THE BRIDGE BAPTIST CHURCH
CHARITY No. 1185 755
Our Church “The Bridge Baptist Church” originally called “Zion Baptist” was built well over a hundred years ago and has been serving the community since then.
It has always put the needs of the people in our town at the forefront of everything they do.
On October 10th 2019 we became a Charitable Integrated Organisation, though physically we did not actually make any changes until January 1[st] , 2020, just for the sake of simplicity in our accounts and documentations.
2020 started off with so many plans for meetings, courses and similar with Helen and Elaine and the Leadership Team, though in reality it has been a challenging year with little or no actual physical contact or communications since we had the lock down in March and we have missed the people in our fellowship so so very much during these periods
Our main emphasis is, and always has been on following Jesus as our Lord and our Saviour with everything we are involved in and to put Him at the forefront of all our endeavours.
We are a worshipping Church with amazing musicians and we believe that we are at the very cutting edge both in our Worship and the wide variety of Christian speakers who are invited to come and talk to us every Sunday morning.
The beginning of 2020 saw the start of our “Breakfast Church” where people were invited for a breakfast on a Café Style layout and a shorter service starting at 10am, this was well presented and encouraging, until Covid-19 restrictions stopped play, something we will work on for next year (2021)
The “Bridge Parent & Toddler group hosted mainly by Helen and Lillian, as last year was, again really well attended to a full capacity.
The Tuesday morning “Connect” run by Derek & Sue on the Tuesday morning was a small group session, mainly with a Christian Video, Coffee and Discussion type of learning.
The “Open” early on the Friday was an experiment to see the kind of help that we could provide to the local community whether social, friendship or Clothing was an issue, sadly it was not well attended which makes one wonder if our neighbourhood is an affluent one or people are quite wary of what churches can offer them!
We held a “Friends of Dementia” session to familiarise people with the struggles that people with this horrible illness had to suffer and how one could emphasise with sufferers.
EMBA Safeguarding Level 2 course run by EMBA was well attended and helpful, particularly where our children and young people are involved.
Then we were hit with the terrible Covid-19 which caused our church to close its doors, something that never happened even during two World Wars!
We had a massive hole in our church roof early in the year, awkward to even access the damage with seven quotations up to £7,500! Since repaired by a local builder with Derek, Dennis and Matt doing a clean-up operation.
We have updated our Worship and Musical items with Matt and Ben up at all hours in a freezing cold church sorting cables and other mystifying things that our Worship Team uses.
The Church has been decorated as well as our centre downstairs and thanks to Simon for putting in the extra effort for such a great job.
Helen and Elaine have spent an inordinate amount of time preparing for sanitising the church in readiness of opening the church, with all the necessary legal requirements that go with it, Elaine has kept us all enthralled with her weekly newsletter and thanks to all the contributors.
It was with sadness that we lost Rob Quincey, our ex-Church Treasurer of many years also John Kellet who passed away, and we do thank Helen for officiating the Funerals Service, not an easy task for her at the best of times.
Derek and Sue have been quite busy during lockdown collection foods and essentials for a local food charity which covers the Ashfield area, providing foodstuffs and essentials, and at times their home must have resembled a mini supermarket!
Marina was all geared up for shoe box appeal for Samaritans Purse but like so many things this year the actual shoe boxes had to be missed although the Church donated a sum from our accounts.
During the latter part of December, we did manage to host two Christmas Carol Services, we decided to have two to be able to accommodate all the people, it was an excellent end to what had been a difficult year.
A sincere thanks to all the folk in our fellowship who have continued to support our church both financially, physically and in communication with each other as the Covid-19 restrictions have allowed. These contributions have really helped our fellowship during this most difficult period, nevertheless we have still managed to contribute our finances to various charitable institutions, The Baptist Missionary Society, Ashfield Food Distribution, Water Aid, Sightsavers, Tearfund, Children of Cancer UK as well as others.
Worthy of note is that we decided many years ago to donate at least 10% of our income to other charitable causes, of course the people who covenant to our church through the Gift Aid scheme whereby we receive 25% of what they give through the HMRC scheme has helped enormously.
All in all, though our church has been closed for such a long period of time, the work of many people in our fellowship has continued and a great thank You for all their efforts.
We have missed you all and pray for the time when masks can be discarded, and we can hug each other again.
Thanks again.
Brian Tomlinson – Church Secretary and on behalf of our amazing Leadership Team here.
Not• Recelpts Weekly offerings Donations and other *Kome Income tax recovered on grfts Investmeni in(x)me Total Recolpts 2,542 18,004 5.647 603 26,796 Mlsslon Upkeep of Church Premises Administration Total Payments 1.407 11.507 18.056 30,970 Net (Payments) lor the perlod 4.174 Balance transferred from prnvious Church Balanco as at 31st Decenknr 2020 35,332 31.158
Basls of accounts These accounts have been prepared on a "receipts and payments" basls and In accordance wilh S6ctK>n 133 Charitss Ad 2011 . The Bridge Baptist Churth registered as a charty effectNe as from 1 Oth October 2019. Ifs 8d1Vit commenced on 1st January 2020. Donatlons and oth•r Incom• Grfl aid donations Samarilan's Purse Room hire 17,675 324 Inv••tmont Incom• Baptist Trust interest COIF Charities divKlends COIF Charities - NMxe8se in vae of nvestsnent 365 77 161 603 Misslon 8aptiSt Missionary Soc*ty Water Aid &ghtsavers Ashfield Voluntary ActM)n Shoebox Appeal Baptist Union fees Baptist Union donalm Breakfast Church Youth work Parent and toddler 250 250 125 100 100 122 250 82 78 Upkeop of Church Pr•mls•s Lh1 and heat Cleaning Refuse disposal R8palrs and malntenarh Gardening Insurance 1.577 787 185 6.648 425 1,885
Admlnlslrnllon Telephone Pastoral Leader and 8UPPOrt Wa901 Sp•aker• Ltences Postaga and Slat Music exp•nses 7.428 337 275 1,113 426 361 120 Lo981 expen883 COVID - 19 expense• Gifts and hostsig Sudry expenses W•bslte and emal •xpens 18.056 Bal•nc• a• at 31st D•c•nkn 2020 Bardays Bank CurMt P&mint Cash-in-hand East M#Jlands' 8aptst Tnjsl Co. Ltsl. COIF Charils Inveslmenl FMJ (Mark81 Vam) 15.520 439 12.514 31.158 Asmls h•kl lor th• church own u The Church is the benefiaal 0r (subpct to the reknnt trusts) of the lollowing assets. the legal lilo to is hokl by tho Churth's LA1{11&n trustee {the Easl Mmjlands Baptist Trust Co. Lld.). Church premises at man$k1 Road. l--AshrW1d. Notts. NG17 4FN vaKd for inwrance wrpo$8s al £1.8(X),(AyJ. Churth alx> (y4$ futur•& furnitwe tyLx)l wlh Insured vakne of £145.IXA). b) Ll•bllfth• There are no 11a1$ at 3181 DMbOl 2020.
Al Not• Asi•t8 31,158 Assets hekj ts Clwi's o Total Ass•t• 1976 158 Llabllltl•• The accowts and 8taiern•nt ol awts and 801 out M pages 10 r•lalig lo Ihe y•w erthd 3181 December 2020 ar• as apKThed by the trustee8. &"gned
Inde endent examine to the trustees of The Brld Ba st Church I report to the Trustees on my examination of the aLzounts of The Bridge Bapts"st Church for the peri¢xl from 10" October 2019 to 31" DernIr 2020. Res nsibilities and basi5 of re ort As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 20111'the Act'l. I reEx)rt in resFect of my examinatK)n of the Trust's aeu)unts e2rrred out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination I have followed all the appliG4ble Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515Xbl of the Act. Inde endent examlnerfs ststement I have compId my examination. I conffimi Ihat no malerial matsrs have comg lo my attenlion In connection the 8xaminatn giving m cause to believe that in any material resp8Ct'. 1. Accounl¥)g rerdS V•erè ncA kept in rBspect of Ihe Trust as Tequir&J by section 13 of tho Act., or 2. The acLounls do not acco wlth tre records.. or 3. The accounts do not compty wth the applicable requirements concerning Ihe fom) and content of accounts sel out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requlrement Ihal the accounts give a 'lrue and falr vbew. which is not a matter 0)nsed as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns 8nd have rne across Tr) other matters in connetxlon with the examlnallon lo which attention should b8 drawn in thks report in order to enab a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Name.. MR. STUART BRANDRETH CHARTEREO ACCOUNTANT Addr8ss.' 41 CHESTNUT DRIVE, BERRY HILL, MANSFIELD. NOThS NG18 4PW Date.. TH 19 MARCH 2021