## **Darlington Baptist church annual report 2021** ## **Darlington Baptist Church** ## **Registered Ad** d **ress** Grange Road, Darlington DL1 5NH Corporation Road, Darlington DL3 6AR Charity Registration Number 1186432 ## **Trustees** The Revd V Thompson Minister The Revd B Thompson Minister Mr C Hart Trustee Resigned March 2021 Mr B Holt Trustee Treasurer (Term ended March 2021) Ms M Bell Trustee (Elected March 2021) Mrs G Marshall Trustee (re-elected June 2021) Mrs J Hughes Trustee Mr C Marshall Trustee (Term ended 2021) Due to the pandemic our first in person business meeting wasn’t able to take place until June 2021. ## **Property Trustees** The Baptist Union Corporation Limited Baptist House, 129 Broadway, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 8RT ## **Bankers** Santander, Darlington **Independent Examiner** Julie Bell ## **Annual Report for 2021** The trustees present their Annual Report and financial statements for 2021. ## **Structure, Governance and Management** The Charity is governed by an Approved Governing Document. Members of the Church are accepted in accordance with the Constitution which requires them to meet the churches qualification on baptism. The members Meeting normally takes place on not less than 4 occasions per year and has responsibility for the overall policy of the church. During 2021 the trustees were mostly unable to meet in person but held regular meetings online and the church was also unable to hold its usual church business meetings due to restrictions placed upon the charity by the government during the Coronavirus pandemic. In accordance with the Constitution, the members appoint a maximum of 15 trustees, who together with the Minister, Church Secretary and Treasurer (who are also appointed by the Members), are responsible for the day to day running of the church’s work and witness, and the financial and legal aspects of the charity. All members are encouraged to take an appropriate part in the spiritual and practical tasks involved in the furtherance of the charitable objective. Relevant matters may be submitted to the Church meeting by the Trustees for guidance or may be raised by members in Church meeting for further consideration by the Trustees. Though the Constitution permits decisions to be made at Church meetings by appropriate majorities, the Church seeks to work by consensus wherever possible. ## **Objectives and Activities** The principal purpose of the charity is the advancement of the Christian faith according to the principles of the Baptist denomination to include the advancement of education, community service and such other general charitable purposes in such parts of the United Kingdom and the world as the Church shall determine. In order to achieve the principal objective, which is set out above, the Church provides a variety of activities both to its membership and to the community generally. The aim is to show the love of Jesus Christ in both word and deed and to bring people into a closer relationship with Him as living Lord. Central to the work and witness of the Church is the provision of regular public services of Christian worship. These services take place each Sunday at both 10.30 am at the Grange Road site and 6.00 pm at the Corporation Road site. There are also occasional services at other times which are advertised on the Church Notice Board and the website at www.darlingtonbaptist.org. There is a full children’s programme during the morning services. The church seeks to be a friendly and welcoming community, and anybody is free to attend any of these services. The Church runs a series of life groups for the growth of faith and discipleship in the Church building, and further details of these can be obtained from the Trustees on request, or at the Sunday services of worship. The Church is responsible for a Toddler Group and a baby bank which meets in the Corporation Road Church premises on Thursday mornings, with the purpose of assisting the community and demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ. From time to time the Church runs courses in parenting, and courses for people interested in discovering more about Christianity, entitled ‘Christianity Explored’ and ‘Alpha’. The Church runs various events for families and for people in need of mental health support. The church runs a regular soup kitchen and an addiction support service. The Church runs an addiction support and rehab in the community service three days a week. The Church runs an edge centre offering support and advice for benefits and housing upto appeal level. The Church operates systems to ensure that all people working with children and vulnerable adults are appropriately vetted with regard to the Disclosure and Barring Service. The church has read the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and is satisfied that the activities outlined above clearly demonstrate that the charity is providing a benefit to the public. ## **Achievements and Performance** The Church does not measure the success of its programmes only in numbers, including financial numbers, but also in less tangible areas like fellowship and encouragement. The trustees recognise the difficulties faced during 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic and various periods of lockdown meaning that worship for some of the year had to be moved online and some of the regular activities of the church had to be suspended. Despite the disruption to normal activities the Trustees believe that 2021 was a positive year in the life of the church, and that it will be able to pursue its mission purposes in 2022 with renewed enthusiasm. At 31 December 2021 the membership stood at 96. Average attendance at worship services both in person and online has increased during the year, and similar increases were shown in the children’s work. The Toddler Group was suspended from March 2020 due to the pandemic but was able to reopen in September 2021. The group has seen an uptake in attendance and has begun to develop a baby bank to compliment and support the work with young families in providing good quality used clothing and equipment. The soup kitchen and foodbank were able to continue to operate albeit at times on a limited basis, there was a noticeable increase in use and need throughout 2021. A number of the service users began to attend Sunday worship and were Baptised. The addiction support service was also able to operate during most of 2021 seeing increased numbers of people attending the support group and the “KEYS” rehab in the community programme. The Church agreed to begin a new ministry seeking to launch the edge centre. This will provide benefit and housing advice and support upto appeal level. This was made possible by a generous donation from ALL Churches Trust. Towards the end of 2021 the edge team undertook training to run the centre and began to put into place all necessary checks and policies. This ministry will begin with a soft launch in January 2022. Broomtree a support group for those struggling with their mental health was able to restart in October 2021 and has seen a good core group of attenders. The conservatory café which had to close at the start of 2020 due the pandemic was able to reopen for initially one morning a week from November 2021 and has seen a steady flow of people using the service. ## **Financial Review** The Church continues to raise the funds which it needs to carry on its activities from within its own membership and congregation. Funding towards the set up and running costs of the edge centre for two years was granted by ALL Churches Trust. No wider public appeal was made for funds during the year. The Church expressed its part in the life of the wider church by making donations to national and international Christian organisations and societies with Christian aims and objectives compatible with the church’s own charitable purpose. During the year the church lost some regular income due to the suspension of room and hall hire as a result of the pandemic. The Church is heavily dependent on its membership working as volunteers in all aspects of the church’s activities, many of which run with little or no impact on the church’s expenditure, but nevertheless contribute substantially to the achievement of the church’s objectives. The financial results for the year, together with a summary of the accounting policies adopted are set out in the accompanying financial statements. The church is a participating employer within the Defined Benefit section of the Baptist Pension scheme and has been making ongoing deficit payments to cover the costs of past service of its employees within the scheme under a recovery plan. The church understands that if it had left the scheme at the year-end, it would have to have made a one-off payment estimated to be £72,600 to meet its statutory obligations to the scheme. The church has no plan to leave the scheme and expects to continue to make payments to the scheme in line with the recovery plan. The Church has agreed a reserves policy. The purpose of holding reserves is to ensure that Darlington Baptist Church has sufficient funds available to cope with financial issues that might arise, such as the need to fund an urgent property repair, an issue with staffing or the loss of income. The current reserves policy of Darlington Baptist Church is to hold approximately three months of all staff costs plus three months of running costs, to allow the church to adapt to any changes in the income or expenditure of the church. The recommendation is that approximately six months of staff costs and six months of running costs are held, but currently the church funds do not allow this level of reserves. The trustees will annually review the reserves policy with a view to reaching the recommendation over time, as funds and priorities allow. **Registered in England and Wales as Charity No. 1186432** ## **DARLINGTON BAPTIST CHURCH** ## **Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2021** ## **GENERAL FUND** |**Receipts**
**2020**
Offering
50518.50
Gift Day
0.00
Gift Aid (from HMRC)
14426.31
Donations (Church Flowers)
130.00
Donations (from others)
0.00
Bequest
0.00
Church Organisations
1355.00
Church Events
0.00
Use of Premises by Others
6050.00
Property Rental
17816.42
Basement -Donations & Furlough
0.00
Bank Interest
300.64
Raised for Other Causes
1226.20
Loan Repayments
150.00
Miscellaneous (inc Furlough for Cleaner)
0.00
**Total Receipts For General Fund**
**91973.07**
**Payments**
Ministry
66057.10
Worship
1025.40
Church Organisations
1641.64
Youth Work
0.00
Events / Entertaining
338.57
Cleaner's Pay & Pension
3155.04
Upkeep of Premises
4231.51
Utilities
7298.62
Insurance
9587.91
Rental Property Costs
Subscriptions
1775.09
Historic Pension Shortfall Contributions
5447.34
Professional Fees
2204.57
IT / Websites / Phones
Included in Admin
Admin & Safeguarding
669.05
Basement Salary Costs
See Community
Basement Expenses
Fund
Passed on to other Causes
5281.02
Miscellaneous
30.00
**Total Payments**
**108742.86**
**Net Loss for year**
**16769.79**|**2021**
62876.78
13497.32
9369.81
0.00
5058.65
1000.00
0.00
0.00
10640.00
19177.00
3071.95
8.12
1625.80
0.00
516.68
**126842.11**
52588.73
991.12
1118.11
415.15
1006.96
5022.93
11714.03
9665.36
9146.84
3924.23
2188.17
7390.92
4461.40
1956.46
1322.65
10786.33
2306.03
12998.25
554.66
**139558.33**| |---|---| ||**12716.22**| Page 1 of 6 |||**2020**||**2021**| |---|---|---|---|---| |**General Fund**||||| |Financial Balance at 1st January||81364.08||64594.29| |Drive Through Carol Service (2020)||||-1563.16| |Transfer from Community Fund||||6000.00| |Transfer to Reserve Fund||||-30000.00| |ADD Total receipts||91973.07||126842.11| |LESS Total Payments||-108742.86||-139558.33| |**Balance at 31st December**|**£**|**64,594.29**
|**£**|**26,314.91**
| |**DRIVE IN CHURCH**||||| |Financial Balance at 1st January||0.00||**-1563.16**| |ADD Total Receipts||3972.02||| |LESS Total Payments||-5535.18||| |Transfer to General Fund||||1563.16| |**Balance at 31st December**|**-£**|**1,563.16**
|**£**|**-**
| |**COMMUNITY WORK FUND**|**Church Specified Fund**|||| |Financial Balance at 1st January||7557.50||14324.97| |ADD Total receipts||9764.74||| |Less Transfer to General Fund||||-6000.00| |LESS Total Payments||-2997.27||| |**Balance at 31st December**|**£**|**14,324.97**
|**£**|**8,324.97**
| |**Reserve Fund - Transfer from General Fund**|||**£**|**30,000.00**
| |**ROOTS - Restricted Fund**||||| |**Receipts**||||| |Donations||5750.00||14137.37| |Grant||10000.00||| |Total Receipts||**15750.00**||**14137.37**| |**Payments**||||| |Salaries||-5574.54||-10786.30| |Expenses||-2120.05||-697.29| |Keys Project||-225.00||-900.00| |Total Payments||**-7919.59**||**-12383.59**| |**Reconciliation for the year**||||| |Financial balance at 1st January||0.00||7830.41| |ADD Total Receipts||15750.00||14137.37| |LESS Total Payments||-7919.59||-12383.59| |**Balance at 31st December**|**£**|**7,830.41**
|**£**|**9,584.19**
| |**Edge Ministry - Restricted Fund**||||| |Grant Received||||10000.00| |Payments Made||||-4000.00| |**Balance at 31st December**|||**£**|**6,000.00**
| |**FUND SUMMARY BALANCES**||||| |General Fund||64594.29||26314.91| |Drive In Church||-1563.16||0.00| |Community Work Fund (Church Specified Fund)||14324.97||8324.97| |Reserve Fund - From General Fund||0.00||30000.00| |Roots (Restricted)||7830.41||9584.19| |Grant Funding - Edge Project (Restricted)||0.00||6000.00| ||**£**|**85,186.51**
|**£**|**80,224.07**
| Page 2 of 6 ## **DARLINGTON BAPTIST CHURCH** ## **Assets and Liabilities at 31st December** |**Assets**|**2020**|**2021**|Notes| |---|---|---|---| |Bank and other Cash Balances|||| |Santander Current Account|4363.13|3392.57|| |Santander Deposit Account|80823.38|76831.50|| ||85186.51|80224.07|| |Unpaid Rent (Church House)|1677.83|0.00|7| ||1677.83||| |Properties held for the Church's own use|||13| |Corporation Road church building|||| |(nominal value)|200000.00|200000.00|| |Grange Road church building|||| |(nominal value)|200000.00|200000.00|| |8 Tower Road, Darlington|||| |(insured value)|275951.00|275951.00|| |42 Kielder Drive, Darlington|||| |(insured value)|164115.00|164115.00|| ||840066.00|840066.00|| |**Total Assets**|**926930.34**|**920290.07**|| |**Liabilities**|||| |Pension Scheme Liability|**112800.00**|72600.00|14| |**Total Liabilities**|**112800.00**|**72600.00**|| ## **Signed on behalf of Trustees of** ## **Darlington Baptist Church** Page 3 of 6 ## ##