Annual Report for One Sixteen Bible Church Birmingham.
References and administrative details-
Charity name
One Sixteen Bible Church
Charity registration number
1186822
Registered addresses
61 Bridge Street, Kington, HR5 3DJ
Current trustees
Philip James Close (Appointed 10th Jan 2019) Peter Michael Sherwood ( Appointed10th Jan 2019) Alasdair Iain Nicholson (Appointed 18[th] March 2020)
Trustees appointed during 2022
None
Trustees retired during 2022
None
Charity Bank account
Barclays bank, Stourbridge, West midlands, 81 High street, Stourbridge, DY8 1EB.
Annual report for 2022
The Trustees of One Sixteen Bible Church Birmingham present their annual report and financial statement for period of (1[st] Jan 2022 - 31[st] December 2022)
1) Structure governance and management
The One Sixteen Bible Church Charity is governed by an Approved Governing Document. As per the One Sixteen constitutional document, the members of this CIO shall be it’s Charity trustees for the time being. The only persons eligible to be members of the CIO are it’s charity trustees. Membership of the CIO cannot be transferred to anyone else (Section16:1).
All trustees of the CIO are fully responsible for any decisions made and taken throughout the course of this and any other financial year.
The Trustees of One Sixteen Bible Church Birmingham are continuing to aim for conducting regular (approximately every six months) meetings, within which any objectives and activities of the Church are discussed and agreed upon collectively by the Trustees. As per the charities constitution, each registered trustee continues to recognise their duty bound requirement and responsibility in the day to day/week by week running of the Churches ongoing work. The trustees
also continue to conduct and maintain oversight (yearly financial review of charities accounts) of all financial and legal matters concerning the Charity. Although not all trustees are actively involved in the membership of the Church charity, each trustee is encouraged to take an appropriate part within both the practical and Spiritual tasks involved within the furtherance of the objectives, purposes and activities of the Charity as a whole.
As a charity we continue to operate on the assumption that any matters for consideration can be raised by any trustee or Church member at any time. Any matters which are raised can then be addressed as and when necessary and/or when appropriate by the trustees of the CIO. Any implemented change is to be conducted in accordance with Church policy and governing documents. Although the constitution permits decisions to be made primarily by the trustees, Church members are also actively encouraged to give feedback on aspects of Church matters (governance and management) and these are then discussed as appropriate within the trustee meetings.
2) Objectives and activities
As an Independent, evangelical Reformed Baptist Church “The principle purpose of the “One Sixteen Bible Church” charity is to advance the Christian faith according to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in the Birmingham/Midlands area for the benefit of the public.
In order to achieve this charitable objective set out above, the Church is currently involved in providing a variety of activities, both to it’s members and within the community in general. The aim of these activities is founded upon the Bibles teachings and centuries of historic Christian practice. In order to show and tell of the Love of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to both the community and Church members, making disciples of all nations (Mathew 28:19).
One Sixteen Bible Church is undertaking these objectives through the holding of weekly Church worship services, prayer meetings, Bible studies, theological training/discipleship, pastoral counselling and open-air evangelism. These activities have been arranged and are being conducted in order for One:16 Bible Church members to grow in their Christian faith and to enlighten others (members of the public) concerning the Christian faith.”
Throughout the period of 2022, our Church charity’s various weekly activities have consisted of the following:
-Church services continue to be conducted from 10.30am until 1pm every Sunday morning/afternoon.
-
Church Prayer meeting takes place once a week (mid week meeting) from around 7.30pm to 9pm.
-
Theological discussion sessions (once a month)
-Pastoral counselling and visitations with church members and other members and other evangelistic meetings with members of the public showing an interest in the Christian faith on an ongoing basis.
-Open air evangelism conducted a couple of times a week at non specified times.
-Church services consist of singing hymns, times of prayer, communion, reading and preaching from the Bible.
These objectives and activities are continuing to be conducted in accordance with the primary objective within the Charities governing document and are considered to be of public benefit to many individuals who desire to practice their Christian faith or for those who are inquiring into Christianity.
3) Achievements and performance
Although the success of the Christian faith is not easily measured by visible performance indicators (For example, financial growth/numerical growth etc), it instead measures it’s effective success upon faithfulness towards the Lords commands from within the scriptures. To both see and be part of a body (group) of Christian believers who are progressively growing in nearness to God over time, through Faith and practice together.
This being stated, we as trustees of the One Sixteen Bible Church charity consider the achievements and performance of the Church to be one of much fruitfulness during the year of 2022.
During which time, we have continued to meet together as a Church on a weekly basis. Throughout the year we have once again enjoyed seeing new faces/visitors coming along to the Church. Many of whom have stayed in fellowship with us and continue to attend the Sunday morning Worship service on a weekly basis.
Sadly we have also had various individuals come for shorter periods of time, due to having recently moved to the area and seemingly just looking for a Church to fellowship in the short term. We generally remain encouraged by the attendance of those who come to the Church and we have seen a slight increase of attendees over the year. It isn’t uncommon on some weeks to see between twenty to thirty Church attendees on a Sunday morning.
The duties of the Pastor are increasing and adapting in light of these increased numbers of attendees. Peter Sherwood (the Pastor) continues to prepare from the Bible on a weekly basis in order to preach the Sunday sermons and hold devotions during the midweek prayer meeting. The regular week by week Pastoral ministry is continuing to take place as usual, such as one on one or family pastoral visitations/counselling and discipleship where needed and appropriate. During 2022 some members of the Church also completed the learning series “Behold your God” in which the Church met together (monthly) in order to review and discuss a work pack and Dvd series. Within these sessions members of the Church had opportunities to discuss and learn further, concerning the attributes of the God of the Bible and the Christian faith. These Church activities and the regular weekly Pastoral activities have been undertaken in line with and as per the working performance objectives of the Charity.
The format of the Churches Worship services has remained mostly the same throughout 2022, continuing to meet together weekly on a Sunday morning for the Lords day worship, (singing of hymns, prayer, taking of communion, preaching the Bible). On a practical note we now have a new Church projector screen which allows for the words of the hymns to be read from a screen.
The Churches midweek prayer meetings continue and are attended by a few less individuals than on a Sunday. None the less these meetings remain a wonderful time of fellowship where members of the Church have the opportunity to bring appropriate prayer requests and needs concerning their walk in the Christian faith to one another, and where the Church can then all pray about/for
these matters together during the meeting.
The One Sixteen Bible Church continues to also have the opportunity to get out into the local community of Worcestershire and the Birmingham/West midlands areas in order to speak to members of the public about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith (sharing the Gospel/conducting evangelism). Whilst out and about in the local area members of the One:16 Church are distributing Christian literature and one getting into conversation with those present concerning matters pertaining to the Christian faith. There is often a mixed response when engaging with people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, however in the most part people are often encouraged by what they are hearing and some individuals have even visited as a result of the evangelistic outreach of the Church.
We have had several more informal activities take place throughout the year of 2022. Such as Church walks and outings, Ladies groups meeting together to get to know one another socially. It’s not uncommon for families to occasionally meet together also for coffees, meals and informal fellowship throughout the week and it’s been wonderful to see natural friendships begin to blossom throughout the Church fellowship during 2022.
The Church elders and many of the One Sixteen congregants continue to remain in good standing and relationships with other branches of the protestant/evangelical Christian Communities in the Local area. From time to time the Pastor is occasionally asked to meet with and share/preach sermons for other local Churches. This is mutually encouraged by the members of One:16 Bible Church and is seen to be healthy for the mutual encouragement and edification of like minded Churches within the Protestant Christian faith.
This year we have also occasionally, as in previous years had the privilege of being joined by other evangelical leaders. These individuals have come and shared from the Bible and spoken/preached to the Church members concerning various aspects of the Christian faith. These occasional visiting speakers seemed to be very profitable and seemingly brought a rich encouragement for those at the Church.
The regular preaching/teaching ministry from our own Church leadership has been taken from the books of Mark, Romans, Habakkuk amongst others within the Bible and expounded upon during the preaching within a Sunday morning sermon.
It was also an encouragement to have one of our Church members deliver a science and faith lecture during one of the Sunday morning services, which was very well received.
We continue to hold our regular meetings and services where possible (as per our objectives and activities) and we as Charity trustees remain generally very encouraged for the year ahead.
4) Financial review
As a Church charity we have as previous years continued to rely on the kind financial donations of the Church members throughout the year 2022.
Our Bank account (as above) remains in good standing and the Church has made no wider public appeal for funds during the year.
Due to the growing nature of the Churches’ activities and the increased donations within the Church account. The decision was independently made by the two unremunerated trustees (Philip close and Alasdair Nicholson) to recommence the remuneration of the Pastor (Peter Sherwood) at One:16 Bible Church for services rendered as of October 2022. It was independently agreed that
Peter would begin to invoice the Church charity in conjunction with recorded hours for Pastoral services rendered, at an amount of £10.00 per hour (As per the Trustees meeting minutes at commencement of Charity) for no more than 32 hours per month.
The majority of all other Church expenditure made throughout the year of 2022 has been for the use of the hall hire and various items of equipment such as Projector Screen, Projector, resources, evangelistic literature, and remuneration for visiting speakers.
All in all 2022 has been a blessed year for One:16 Bible Church and we remain encouraged in the development of the Charity and the Churches activities heading into 2023.
CHARITY COMMISSION IOR ENGLAND ATr4D WAiLY 1186822 OMC SIA1£E CHJRCH 6IllPIIN&MM Receipts and pa ments accounts CC16a Foi th• p•nod from I 'JATrJ 20 To |31"DEC Seclion A Receipts and payments AeslT4Cte fund5 EDdOwrnenl Toial lund5 LR51 yv:, luThJs Al Recolpts Sub lOtal(Grt)ss for AR) A2 Asyt and iTrvÈ¥trnent s&leB. Iste tablel. Sub total 6.0 3,21S A3Pa ents i.•Z9 1.929 slors eryra..0 etr Lileffabtye To )sinre VrLi iJu Sub total 3.OBI IM21 A4 Asset 8nd nStMnI urchas•5, sw tablo Assets r•taird J10 J10 474 474 Sub total 310 Tolal paymrts 3.391 2.095 Nel of r¢¢*pts/lpaymentsJ AS Transfers b¢tween funds A6 Cash funds la51 yèar end Cash lund5 this year end 2.fj89 1.120 818 1.93• 4.617 1.9J• 4.627 1,938 CCXX Rl ISSI 1010P42023
Sectlon B Staloment of assets and liabilities at the end of the perlod fi1n¢t• fund$ B1 Cash funds 4627 Total ¢•sh fvnds 4.627 Unr•strict•d fuTrds Endowrnent Its n•4r•st£ PlT0hh bEIL¥ cr•t Yu• B3 Invo$tment assets CwrenT ¥ur IOD B4 A8sets retained for the charity's own use 85 Liabiliti Prl pkn Oaie of bo101 th• ¥u•iW• PETER SHERWOOO 10 M2023 CCXX R2 IS81 10ffj8r2023