2024-12-31-accounts

Christ Church Fareham (Charity Reg. no. 1186046)

www.christchurchfareham.co.uk

Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024

“… that we may declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.” 1Peter 2:9b

2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

CONTENTS

ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Trustees’ report Independent examiner’s report Financial statements Receipts and Payments Account Statement of Assets and Liabilities Notes to the Financial Statements	Page
	3 9 10 11 12

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

TRUSTEES REPORT

AIM AND PURPOSES

Christ Church Fareham exists to bring the hope, joy, truth, and love of Jesus in the Fareham area and surrounding regions. We seek to live out the Great Commission, given by Jesus Christ to his disciples to make disciples, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all of Jesus’ commands. As part of this, we seek to grow a Bible-believing, Gospel-proclaiming, Spirit-filled Church in Fareham for today and future generations.

We have four charitable aims, defined in our governing document.

• 1) To advance the Christian faith

• 2) To relieve persons in conditions of need or hardship

• 3) To advance education in accordance with Christian principles

• 4) To provide community facilities and opportunities

The trustees are committed to encouraging as many people as possible to worship Jesus Christ and to be part of our community. Our activities take into account the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit including guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. We want to help ordinary people to live out their faith in Jesus every day, encouraging and supporting one another, and being led by the Holy Spirit. Our activities comprise:

• Loving God: worship and prayer; preaching the Gospel; and deepening our faith in Jesus Christ

• Loving one another: caring for people who live in and around Fareham, helping those who are in need or hardship

• Loving the world: mission and outreach work

OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES

Worship and prayer; preaching the Gospel; and deepening our faith in Jesus Christ

• We preach from the Bible every Sunday at our weekly meetings. During 2024, we have preached sermon series from the Old Testament, including Deuteronomy 1-9 and all of Haggai; and have preached through Matthew 26-28 and Revelation 1-3 from the New Testament. In 2024, we have also preached thematic sermons on parenting, serving, and on becoming a Christian. Visitors to the Church have often commented appreciatively on the Bible teaching we provide.

• Throughout 2024, we ran Life Groups that met weekly. These groups encouraged time together in one another’s homes to build friendships, pray together and learn together in discipleship. By the end of 2024 we were running 5 groups.

• We also ran a Women’s Bible Study in 2024. This group met monthly in one another’s homes to study Genesis and then 1 John together in a mutually supportive environment. This group received excellent feedback.

• The whole Church meets together to pray each month, supporting one another’s needs, as well as praying for our town and the World. In 2024, we added a second monthly prayer meeting on the third Sunday of the month.

• Each Sunday we offer Children’s Work for children under 11. There have been games, crafts, videos and teaching from the Bible to help our children grow in understanding of who God is and the salvation offered in Jesus Christ.

• The youth, at secondary school age, in the Church take part in the adults meeting one week and have agespecific teaching in a classroom the other week. There are also midweek activities, learning more about Jesus.

• Jason Manning continues to lead our Under 18s ministry, bringing leadership and greater theological input for our under 18s and support for the parents in the Church. In July 2024, he completed his graduate diploma in theology that we funded.

• In 2024 we took a group of 10 teenagers to NewDay. They had a fantastic time worshipping God and reported positive experiences of God in their lives

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

• We attended the 2024 Commission Festival in August as a Church. A high proportion of the Church was able to make it. The feedback from this event was that it deepened faith and relationships across the week.

• We increased our equipment/capital spend in 2024 significantly, this enabled us to update our tech equipment, and to purchase items for our new Sunday venue including a storage container.

Caring for people

• We ensure church members are well provided for and no one goes without; and use our finances to bless people outside the church – including people who visit us and others we make contact with as a Church.

• In 2024, we supported members financially, this included covering the cost of attending church socials and giving a gift towards unexpected living costs.

• Over Christmas, we prepared 20 Christmas hampers in partnership with local schools and blessed needy families in the area.

• We organised a curry and quiz night in March to raise money for the brilliant work CRY do. We met the costs of running the event and all proceeds went directly to CRY. The event was enjoyed by all attendees and raised a significant sum for CRY.

• We now have 76 people on our mailing list and overall, over 100 people with whom we are in ongoing relationship through various means of communication, who regularly receive offers of help and support, and who themselves join in with the work of caring for those less fortunate.

Mission and outreach

• A huge highlight in 2024 was baptising 10 people! Two people, completed the Alpha Course, became Christians and were baptised. Three were baptised as believers, after joining the church from other denominations. Four were under 18’s, including two teenagers impacted by Newday, who after declaring faith in Jesus were baptised.

• In 2024, we once again run one Alpha course. The feedback from this was positive.

• Numbers on a Sunday have increased. On average, 73 people gathered each Sunday, up from 69 in 2023. In September 2024, we moved to a bigger Sunday venue due to needing more space and are now meeting at Cams Hill School.

• We did an outreach event in Fareham Town Centre in March 2024 as part of our Mission Weekend. We gave out 300 free cakes, offered free face painting, games, and gave out flyers for the Sunday meeting. Across the weekend we a delivered flyers across the town, knocked on doors, and interacted with members of the public. The event was positively received by both the members of the Church and those we interacted with.

• In 2024, we continued to support a missionary in East Asia. His work alleviates poverty and shares the Gospel with people who have never heard it before.

• We started supporting a Church plant and CRY project in Albania to care for children and see the Gospel proclaimed there

• We have also been regularly supporting Commission, the family of churches we are part of. They use their funds to spread the Gospel across the UK, India, Spain, Portugal and USA and into new regions. They also help alleviate poverty in those regions

• Our Pastor, Duncan Sills, uses some of his employed time serving Commission (part of New Frontiers) who seek to preach the Gospel and reach out across nations. On a monthly basis, he has been teaching theology to people across the South of England. This was the fourth year the course has run and Duncan is responsible for leading the course, as we take our first steps as a charity into a more formal education setting.

We are so grateful to all our members and volunteers in the Church, who enable all this work to take place. Thank you to everyone who has played even a small role in what we did in 2024.

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

2024 was another very encouraging year for us. Baptising 10 people really was a wonderful celebration. We saw good growth and continued to impact the lives of people in Fareham in greater ways than in previous years. We have significant plans moving forward.

• We will run the Alpha Course again in 2025, combined with a town centre bandstand outreach event followed by Good News Sunday, designed to spur our people into a bolder missional lifestyle sharing Jesus with others around them.

• We are intending to run a Freedom in Christ course in 2025, to help our members live out their identity as Christian’s in greater freedom.

• We are hoping to employ a part-time Women’s Pastoral Worker in 2025, to help provide more focussed and proactive pastoral support to the ladies at Christ Church Fareham.

• We are looking to build deeper relationships with people in the community, looking for ways to help people in need across our town. We will seek to work closely with Cams Hill School that hosts our Sunday meetings and Redlands School where lots of our children attend to explore ways of doing this.

• Our under 18s work will continue to grow and expand. In 2025, we will have two internal training lunches with under 18’s volunteers and one training day led by Commission which everyone will be invited to attend. These training days along with ongoing reviews throughout the year will strengthen and equip the team to serve in the best way possible.

• We will continue to encourage Church members to engage positively with our wider family of Churches in Commission. This will be done by encouraging a group to go to the Leadership Conference in June, to consider signing up for training courses, and inviting guest speakers in.

• Most importantly, we are steadily growing our congregation and are excited for new people joining us in the future.

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

RISK MANAGEMENT

The trustees consider that principal risks faced by Christ Church Fareham have been:

Safeguarding

We are members of 31:8 and ensure all our under 18’s workers are DBS checked to work with children. Our pastor, Duncan Sills, is also certified to work with vulnerable adults. We have a three person safeguarding team in place with a DSO and two deputies.

Financial

We are grateful to God for his generous financial provision. The trustees protect the charity by preparing budgets each year; monitoring actual receipts and spend against budget; ensuring we have the funds to continue running the charity appropriately; and having the accounts independently checked each year. Three different people have access to the accounts and so ensure each other person is using finances appropriately.

Employment Policies

Since taking on a new member of staff, CCF have adopted a number of employment policies designed to protect our employees. These will need to grow and adapt over time.

FINANCIAL REVIEW AND RESERVES POLICY

£101,849 income has been received in 2024, an increase of 9.44% (£93,063 in 2023) and payments made of £110,083, an increase of 11.14% (£99,051 in 2023). This brought total reserves to £48,142 all of which was being held in the bank. This is well above the required 3-month operating cost requirement.

Our giving to other charitable organisations and individuals increased 37% in one calendar year, which has enabled us to be more generous and do significantly more in the mission field. The overall loss in 2024 was budgeted, as we employed 2 full time staff members, moved into a bigger venue which required new equipment to be purchased and planned to be more generous in supporting mission around the World. We are encouraged by our financial position and give praise to God for the real generosity of church members.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Christ Church Fareham is a Registered Charity (No 1186046).

Christ Church Fareham is affiliated to Commission, part of the New Frontiers family of churches.

The trustees are responsible for making decisions on all matters of general concern and importance to Christ Church Fareham including deciding on how the funds of the charity are to be spent.

The trustees met 5 times during the year with an average attendance of 100%.

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Christ Church Fareham now meets on Sunday mornings at Cams Hill School, Shearwater Avenue, Fareham, PO16 8AH. The correspondence address is 63 Hilson Drive, Fareham, PO15 6NP.

Trustees who have served at any time from the date of registration to the date of this report was approved are:

Date Date Appointed Resigned Duncan Sills Oct 2019 Jonathan Simmonds Oct 2019 Jeff Moss Oct 2022 Wendy Clark Sept 2023 Pastor: Duncan Sills Independent Examiner: Knight Goodhead Limited 7 Bournemouth Road Chandler’s Ford Eastleigh, Hampshire SO53 3DA HSBC Fareham Bank: 71 West St, Fareham PO16 0AN

The trustees are hugely appreciative of the many volunteers who work so hard to make our church a lively and vibrant community.

• Those who enable meetings to run smoothly – getting rooms ready, AV equipment, welcoming, serving refreshments, etc

• The musicians who play, sing, and record songs to help us worship

• Those who lead services, lead prayers, share or who read and preach from Scripture at services

• Those who prepare, teach and help with our children and youth on Sundays

• Those who host and lead midweek meetings and the various social and outreach events

• Those who give – often sacrificially

• Those who cover everything going on at Christ Church Fareham in prayer – in prayer meetings and in private prayer

• Those who take the time to thank and encourage one another here.

It is astonishing how much is being done, and by so many. We thank each one of you – and give thanks to God for you.

Approved by the trustees on 13 October 2025 and signed, on its behalf by Jonathan Simmonds (Chair of Trustees)

…………………………………………………….

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Christ Church Fareham Charit Re No. 1186046 2024 Annual report and financial statements Page 8 of 12

2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES IN RESPECT OF THE ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

The Charities Act 2011 requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the Charity’s financial activities during the year, and its financial position at the end of the year. In preparing financial statements, the Trustees seek to:

• Follow best practice and guidance provided by the charity commissioners

• Use suitable accounting policies consistently

• Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable

• State and apply applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practice, and explain any areas of concern or deviation

• Prepare financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is appropriate to assume that the Charity will not continue its operations.

Trustees have overall responsibility for ensuring the Charity has appropriate systems of controls, financial and otherwise. They are also responsible for keeping proper records which disclose and explain with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the 2011 Act. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities and to ensure that:

• The Charity is operating effectively and efficiently

• Its assets are safeguarded against unauthorised use or disposition

• Proper records are maintained

• Financial information used within the Charity or for publication complies with relevant laws and regulations

As far as the Trustees are aware, there are no relevant examination information (information needed by the Charity’s independent examiner (“Examiner”) in connection with preparing this report) of which the Examiner is unaware. Each Trustee has taken all the steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant examination information and to establish that the Examiner is aware of that information.

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF CHRIST CHURCH, FAREHAM

I report to the Trustees on my examination of the accounts of Christ Church Fareham for the year ended 31 December 2024.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As Trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act).

You consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) of the 2011 Act and that an independent examination is needed.

An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as Trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act. 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 matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

• 1 accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the 2011 Act; or

• 2 the accounts do not accord with those records; or

• 3 the accounts do 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.

Name Chris Goodhead Firm Knight Goodhead Limited Address 7 Bournemouth Road, Chandler’s Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire Postcode SO53 3DA Date: 2 October 2025

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT

for the twelve months ended 31 December 2024

RECEIPTS Voluntary receipts Planned giving Collections/One-off giving Gift aid recovered Total receipts PAYMENTS Church activities Staffing costs Church running expenses Mission giving and donations Total payments Excess of receipts over payments Transfers between funds CASH AT BANK 1 January 31 December	2024 Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ 78,218 0 78,218 2,703 3,443 6,146 16,624 861 17,485 97,545 4,304 101,849 97,545 4,304 101,849 (60,031) 0 (60,031) (37,316) 0 (37,316) (12,736) 0 (12,736) (110,083) 0 (110,083) (110,083) 0 (110,083) (12,538) 4,304 (8,234) 0 0 (12,538) 4,304 (8,234) 56,376 0 56,376 43,838 4,304 48,142		2023 Total £
			69,269 3,628 20,166
			93,063 93,063 (57,084) (33,621) (8,346) (99,051) (99,051) (5,988) 0 (5,998) 62,364 56,376

The restricted funds in 2024 were part of a specific collection to support a mission partner in South East Asia.

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

Statement of Assets and Liabilities

Cash funds Bank current account Other monetary assets Gift Aid recoverable Liabilities Global Giving Independent examination HMRC Staff Pension Contributions Other Costs	2024 Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ 43,838 4,304 48,142	2023 Total £
		56,376
	1,423 0 1,423	2,313
	0 0 0 750 0 750 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 1,224 0 0 0
	750 0 750	1,244

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2024 Annual report and financial statements

Christ Church Fareham Charity Reg No. 1186046

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. The Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with Charities Act 2011 using the Receipts and Payments basis.

2. Staff costs

Wages and salaries Contribution to pension scheme Average number of employees	2024 £ 2023 £ 53,772 51,215 6,259 5,869
	60,031 57,084
	2 2

3. Further analysis of Receipts and Payments Account

a) Church running expenses Venues and gathering costs Operating costs Publicity New equipment b) Mission Giving and Donations Commission gift Other giving	2024 Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ (11,701) 0 (11,701) (18,094) 0 (18,094) (1,393) 0 (1,393) (6,128) 0 (6,128) (37,316) 0 (37,316) (2,400) 0 (2,400) (10,336) 0 (10,336) (12,736) 0 (12,736)	2023 Total £
		(11,881) (16,492) (1,319) (3,929)
		(33,621)
		(2,400) (5,946)
		(8,346)

1. One trustee, Duncan Sills, received remuneration of £28,800 in salary and a further £4,200 in pension contributions during this year. (2023: £29,700 in salary and benefits.)

Two trustees received reimbursement for expenses incurred on behalf of the charitable organisation in 2024. Jonathan Simmonds received £42.21 and Jeff Moss received £65.51.

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