## **HOUSEHOLD CHRISTIAN CHURCH ANNUAL REPORT** This report is very brief for the simple reason that we are a very small church and there are not many activities going on, hence, the brief report. Our Sunday church attendance ranges from 10 to 20 adults and 5 to 10 children. Although we are just a handful of believers, our influence goes beyond the four walls where we meet for church services. We have a Facebook page where we post our weekly preaching for others on social media to have access to. We have a church branch in Ghana, we support seven disadvantaged people on monthly basis, and we also make one-off donations to people in need both home and abroad. ## **PERSONAL GROWTH** As disciples of Jesus Christ, personal growth into the knowledge of God is our priority. People become believers with little or no knowledge of the Christian faith. The Bible calls this “babes” in the Lord. But then we are expected to grow into maturity of the faith. Household Christian Church prepares its members for growth through Bible Studies, Preaching, Prayer, Worship and Fellowship. The Bible Studies are conducted two times in a week. One on Sunday as part of the church service and the other on Tuesday specifically for that. We use well known Bible study guides which are designed for Christian growth. They are structured with some key topics which are relevant for the Christian faith. The topics are designed to help believers with our walk with God as well as our relationship with fellow human beings. Our Bible studies facilitator is very elaborate and passionate about leading the adult class. He uses a lot of illustrations and real life experiences to bring the message alive. The Sunday Bible studies deals with different topics from character building to empowering believers to have a closer relationship with God. Unlike the Sunday Bible studies which is part of the church service, the Tuesday Bible studies takes an hour and the whole hour is dedicated to the Bible studies. The style of the Tuesday Bible studies is slightly different. There we treat one topic at a time, and it can last for several months before we finish and move on to another topic. We also have separate Sunday schools for the youth and the children. It provides the opportunity for the young ones to ask any question that they may be curious about. It also gives them the chance to share their knowledge and take part in a group discussion. ## **PRAYER** We believe that prayer plays a crucial part in the believer’s life that is why we have three different sessions of prayers in the church. The first session is 30 minutes of prayer. This is part of the Sunday service, and it is the first thing we do when we come to church. The second session is a Friday night prayer meeting which lasts for an hour and a half. This gives us a bit more time to build our prayer stamina and also to pray about various things within the time. The weekly Friday night is devoted to prayer alone. The final session is our monthly half-nigh prayers. This happens on the last Friday of every month. The prayer session lasts for 3 hours. It is designed to encourage the church members to spend a longer time in prayer. The three whole hours of prayer is not the only challenge in that prayer session, the real challenge is that part of the night chosen for the prayers between the hours of 10pm and 1am. ## **PREACHING** The preaching time, for most preachers, is the most and best part of the service. The preaching time is where the preacher gets the opportunity to share with the congregation whatever message they have prepared. In the past, the main Pastor was the only preacher. But this year the church has been fortunate to have another preacher who also supports the preaching ministry. We were also fortunate to have three of our matured Christian brothers who preached few times during the summer period. The preaching of the word is very crucial to the church’s service. The preaching comes last after the other main activities of the service so that church can remember some of the things that were preached. ## **PRAISE AND WORSHIP** Another area we were struggling with was the area of praise and worship. We did not have a praise and worship leader until recently when the second Pastor’s wife took up the position. It has been a tremendous relieve to see that area covered. ## **CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICE** The church has separate services for the children and the youth. When the children Sunday school teacher migrated abroad, the children were lucky to have another teacher straightaway without any issue. Few months later, the youth Sunday school teacher went to university and the youth struggled to get a replacement teacher. Since there was no one to lead them, they had no choice but to merge with the children so that they would all have one teacher. After a while, this proved to be difficult as the different age groups meant that the two needed to be separated for different focus. The youth now have two adult volunteers who supervise them of Sundays. ## **OUTREACH AND EVANGELISM** The church growth has been very unstable. We had some good number of visitors but most of them did not stay. The church attendance for the regular members has also one down. We have seen inconsistency of the church attendance. This is also due to the fat that two families move to settle abroad. Outreach and evangelism is solely done by the Pastor. He goes out on Saturdays and preach the word of God in Town. He gives out tracts and do one on one evangelism. This year, there has been a lot of outreach cancellations because of different activities crashing on the Saturdays. Sometimes the Pastor is out of town for different activities and other times he is in town but involved in different tasks. ## **BABIES** Unfortunately, one family in the church lost their newborn baby due to complications found in the baby few hours after he was born. The Doctors did whatever they could do to save that precious baby’s life, but unfortunately, he could not survive. The whole church mourned with them and prayed that the Lord would comfort them and replace what they have lost. On the other hand, a mother welcomed her first children a bouncing baby boy. She felt the arrival of the baby compensated her for all the troubles she went through during the pregnancy. The church rejoiced with her. ## **INTERNATIONAL MINISTERIAL COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN** In May 2023, the church moved from being an independent church to becoming part of the International Ministerial Council of Great Britain (IMCGB). The IMCGB is a group of independent churches who were not recognised as part of the mainstream churches in the United Kingdom who are also known as the Churches Together in Great Britain and Ireland. However, the independents churches under the umbrella of the IMCGB have now been recognised as part of the Churches Together in Great Britain and Ireland. The IMCGB membership also provided the opportunity for Household Christian Church’s Pastor to be ordained. The pastor had remained a lay-pastor for many years leading to the ordination. The church celebrated the IMCGB membership and the ordination service together. It was nice to see some old pastor friends who came from London to grace the occasion in Swindon. The refreshment and fellowship afterwards were amusing. ## **CHAPLAINCY TRAINING** Household Christian Church’s Pastor enrolled on a chaplaincy course last year September and completed the course July this year. He thanked the church for their prayer and support which helped him to complete the course. He said the purpose of the course was for two things. First, it will help him to take a post as a chaplain which will give him more flexibilities to concentrate on the church’s work. Lastly, it will help him to extend his ministry beyond the four walls of the church to the hospital environment where he will often meet different people with various needs. ## **THE ELECTRIC DRUM** The whole church was very happy when a church member decided to buy an Electronic Drum kit as a gift to the church. The Drum has really brought transformation to the praise and worship of the church. Prior to that the church either picked songs from YouTube and sing-along or clap our hands and sing without instruments. This was mainly because the church did not have an instrumentalist who could play for us. Interestingly, the church member who purchased the Electronic Drum for the church is also an instrumentalist who currently plays the drum in the church. ## **CANCELLATIONS** There were cancellations of three main activities of the church. The first one was the trip to the beach which was cancelled because of bad weather. The second one was the Picnic at the Park, which was also cancelled because of bad weather. The last one was the baptism of six candidates. It was cancelled because the Centre where the baptism was to take place was flooded. The church now has to look for another venue to do the baptism. The picnic was later held at the Pastor’s house and the church members who attended had a good time. The only thing the church did not attempt again was the trip to the beach. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HCC 2024 ANNUALGENERAL MEETING – 20/10/24 ## **AGENDA:** 1. Our Personal Growth 2. Preaching 3. Bible Studies 4. Prayer Meetings 5. Women’s meetings 6. Youth and Children services 7. Men’s Fellowship 8. Evangelism 9. Church Growth 10. Personal Issues ## 1) Personal Growth - It’s important to find a pattern of growth. ## 2) Preaching - The preaching is very enjoyable and practicable; people find it relatable. - Sometimes the preaching is quite high level. - . We want more topics that are more practical e.g. How are we raising our children etc. - Things that people can relate to in preaching. - Thinking of doing a family service throughout the year. ## 3) Bible Studies - What we can do more on Sunday Bible Studies is getting people more engaged, so it is less of a preaching than it is Bible Studies. - Wants the person leading the Bible Studies to ask more questions so its engaging for everyone. - We want a summary of the Bible Studies in the end. · Bro Osage finds that he is always having to rewind and doesn't have enough time with 30 mins and sometimes the attendance isn't frequent, and he wants to make everyone feel involved. · He sends the Bible Studies guide to the church group hoping people would go through it. ## 4) Prayer meetings · Prayer meetings attendance is low. People don’t turn up in prayer meetings. · Pastor said he was thinking about moving the Bible Studies to the start of the service followed by the prayer. ## 5) Women’s Meeting · The Women’s Meeting started having monthly prayer meetings. · Thought about doing monthly face to face meetings · Currently on pause because everything they put in place isn't working. · Challenged because the group is small and the same doing everything. · There was a suggestion to meet quarterly instead of monthly. · Quarterly can be face to face. · They want to meet once quarterly but not confirmed. ## 6) Choir practice. - Wants to do it weekly but everyone is so busy. - Wants to go back to Sunday but its challenging getting everyone to do it on Sundays. · Going back to Sunday at 10-10-30 in the morning. ## 7) Men's Fellowship · Bro Vikalp is the leader. the men have met few times but each time they met was in a coffee shop. Some men felt that the leader was not doing enough so the men’s meeting had stopped for some time now. ## 8) Children Service. · The children’s service is led by Sis Olu. She teaches them about love, kindness, honesty and respect. · She invites others from the church to teach the children and engaged them in scriptures which they enjoyed. · She gives the children assignments to complete before they come in on Sunday. - She plans to build a strong bible studies class for the children. · The younger children need more interactive children’s books. - Maybe an iPad to help with the screens. ## 9) Evangelism And · Bro Osei suggested we introduce one soul a month to bring people into the church. · Not many people are coming into evangelism. · Sis Ellen said the church has sown the seeds of evangelism through the outreach and deeds to wait for the seed to grow. - The seed has been planted and it’s just a matter of time and prayer. ## 10)The Church Growth - Sis Ellen said one of the problems of lack of growth may be accessibility. . Maybe more accessible transport for people to come in. - Organize transportation for the people that cannot come in. - Put bus information on the church website so people can know how to get here. - Start looking at ways to improve. - Check the data about the people that came to our church once and never came again. . Work on improving on first impressions. - Work on the website and make it the top of the search when people go to search for our church. - Start making our own social media for the church. - Create a page through pastors Facebook as well. ## **HOUSEHOLD CHRISTIAN CHURCH** Trustees Report for 2022/23 The Friends of Household Christian Church is a registered charity, number 1197453. The address to which correspondence to the charity should be sent is Household Christian Church, Central Community Centre, Emlyn Square, Swindon SN1 5BP, The Trustees of the charity at 04 Dec 2021, when this annual report was approved, were as follows:- |Mr Jacob Frimpong (Chairman & Treasurer)||25/10/2023| |---|---|---| |Mr Gifty Frimpong (Trustee)||25/10/2023| |Mr Amaresh Velamuri (Trustee)|
|25/10/2023| ## **HOUSEHOLD CHRISTIAN CHURCH** ## **ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR TO DEC 2023** |**For period 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2023**
**INCOME**
£
Tithe & Offerings
**Total**
**EXPENDITURE**
Rent
£1,995.00
International
Support
£2,640.00
Church Get-
Together
£1,275.50
Electrical gadgets,
Stationaries and
printing
£845.07
Occasions
£650.00
Zoom meeting costs
£187.08
Internal Support
One Off to
individuals
£1130.00
Keyboard activities
£1,410.00
Others
£1407.34
TOTAL
EXPENDITURE
**Surplus/(Deficit)**|**For period 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2023**
**INCOME**
£
Tithe & Offerings
**Total**
**EXPENDITURE**
Rent
£1,995.00
International
Support
£2,640.00
Church Get-
Together
£1,275.50
Electrical gadgets,
Stationaries and
printing
£845.07
Occasions
£650.00
Zoom meeting costs
£187.08
Internal Support
One Off to
individuals
£1130.00
Keyboard activities
£1,410.00
Others
£1407.34
TOTAL
EXPENDITURE
**Surplus/(Deficit)**|£
13,932
**13,932**


10,132.15| |---|---|---| |||| |||**2,392.01**| ## **Balance Sheet as at 31/12/2023** ## Current Assets Bank - Currents accounts 2,392.01 Represented by: Opening balance - 01/01/22 Bank – Current account 0.00 **2,392.01** ## INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF HOUSEHOLD CHRISTIAN CHURCH For the financial year ended 5[th] April 2023 BASIS OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by The Charity Commissioners under section 43(7)(b). That examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by The Trustees and a comparison of the Accounts with those records. It also includes considering 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 I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the Accounts. ## INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S STATEMENT In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: - (1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements: - to keep accounting records in accordance with section 41 of the Act; and - to prepare Accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the requirements of the Act, have not been met; or - (2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the Accounts to be reached. Imad Ahmad – IFA MIPA