GRIFFITHSTOWN BAPTIST CHURCH Annual Reports & Accounts for 2024 ciiii*LRfi,IL .STREtT Annual Reports and Statement of Accounts _for the year ending 31[st] December 2024_ ## **Moderator** Rev Harry Place ## **Officers & Deacons:** Mrs M Jones (Secretary) Mr N Snook (Treasurer) Mrs J Cocks Mrs B Harris Mrs S Jones Mr K Harris Mrs F Perry ## **Independent Examiners** Mrs W Hassel Mrs G Parry 1 ## **Secretary’s Report** Another year has passed since I sat down at my keyboard to write my annual report. 2024 saw another year of pastoral vacancy come and go. We are extremely grateful that each week our pulpit has been filled and the word of God is being preached. I would like to extend my thanks to Howard Jones for continuing the role of pulpit secretary and ensuring we have a preacher each week. This role is vital to the running of the Church during pastoral vacancy and can be very time consuming. He has also stepped in last minute when preachers have been ill. So thank you to Howard for the continued work filling our pulpit. The start of 2024 saw the introduction of our new membership document. Our moderator, Rev Harry Place, worked with the deacons to create a document detailing the rights and responsibilities of being a member of a Baptist Church. This was in addition to our constitution. Harry held 2 sessions where he talked through the document and what it means to be a follower of Christ and a member specifically of a Baptist Church. Following these two informative sessions the document was taken to the Church meeting and formally accepted. During a time of pastoral vacancy it is especially important that we take the role of being a member seriously and that we all use the gifts God has given us to support the life of the Church. Being part of the Baptist Union of Great Britain is part of what makes our Baptist traditions unique but being part of the union also comes with lots of responsibilities. We are required to have policies in place and ensure these are adhered to. The deacons have spent countless hours looking at and writing policies. In February we adopted our new health and safety policy and appointed our health and safety officer: Wendy Hassell and Barbara Harris. We will have more health and safety updates during 2025. Safeguarding is also the responsibility of the whole Church. In March Keith and I spent a morning at the Church and invited everybody who needs it to come and have their DBS checks completed. We now have a rolling programme to keep all DBS checks up to date. We have continued to work closely with Richmond Road for Messy Church and Holiday Club. Messy Church is hosted at Richmond Road and supported by our members. Thank you to everybody who volunteered to support Messy Church. The numbers for attending Messy Church were sporadic throughout the year but I believe this reflects the ‘busyness’ of society and life. There are so many demands on everybody and we are grateful for those who did attend and support. Holiday Club as always was held at our Church and supported by a few members from Richmond Road. A huge thank you to Keith especially for his tireless enthusiasm and countless hours that he puts into the preparation and running of Holiday Club. Again last year it was a huge success and we are grateful for the support from the Church, whether that be in giving financially, donations or giving your time to help during the actual week. We have continued to have a few social events during the year as well. Quiz nights run during the Spring and Summer months and continue to test the grey cells of those who attend. Thank you to Howard Powell for organising the evenings and writing the questions. On Palm Sunday we held a soup lunch after the service and our usual Harvest Lunch in September. It is always lovely to have a time of fellowship together over food. Thank you to Anne Coulstock for organising and making the food at these events. The Christmas Fayre was another success and continues on the theme of food! We are grateful to all the people involved in the running and setting up of the Christmas Fayre. As well as the fun and fellowship through out the year we have had more sombre occasions such as Remeberance Sunday. This was a beautiful, reflective service led by our moderator where we 2 came together to show respect for our service men and women in the past and currently serviing. We also mourned the passing of Adrienne Martin and a close friend of the Church Julie Morse. 2024 was also a turbulent time for the deacons. We are very keen to look to the future and begin a search for a new Pastor. However, there have been long standing issues within the Church which were preventing us from growing and moving forward. We felt we could not appoint a new minister until these issues were resolved. We made a commitment when Jon left that we would face these issues head on and not minimise them or ignore them as had been done previously. We sought the support of our moderator, Harry Place, but also our Regional Minister, Rob May. Their support, guidance, love and encouragement has been invaluable to the deacons. On a personal note I would like to thank both of them for the support they have given to me, as secretary, during the whole process. I am now pleased to say that the issues have been resolved and we stand at a cross roads for Griffithstown Baptist Church. Our future can be bright and hopeful and in 2025 we can start in earnest the process of seeking a new Pastor. However, we need members to take their commitment to being a member seriously. We all have God-given gifts and talents and we need to use these to support the Church in growing and doing something new. We need financial as well as practical support from the members. I strongly believe that we can do great things in furthering God’s Kingdom in our village of Griffithstown but if we are not prepared to change and try something new, we will become a declining Church and face permanent closure in the not too distant future. Please continue to pray for the deacons but also pray and ask God how you can support our Church during the exciting times ahead. Blessings Michelle 3 ## **RENEW@GBC & Craft Group Report** Our attendance numbers continued to remain constant, which in one sense is good but could be considered disappointing if an increase in numbers were the sole object. We continue to be, and appreciate continuing to be a place for shared conversations and activity, together with the opportunity for a quiet, meditative encounter with God during times of prayer and reflection on a set verse from the Psalms. In all this, the objectives of the Renew Wellbeing ethos of Being Present, Being Prayerful, Being in Partnership, continue to be met. In comparison to last year, our busyness knitting doesn’t seem to have produced the same extent of items, although a more than reasonable number of knitted children’s garments were made, some of which were donated by a lady in the community who has peripheral links with us as a church. Added to which, knitted squares for blankets were sent to The Gift of Warmth. In appreciation of this, they placed a photo on their Facebook page crediting us for our contribution to their cause. As provider of a safe place and space within the community in partnership with Torfaen County Borough Council (TCBC), representatives from Torfaen Voluntary Alliance (TVA), of which we are also a part, visited us with details about what services are available within the Borough to make known what may not necessarily be common knowledge. This was especially helpful in the light of various changes to procedures and protocol within the Health Authority. Leaflets and cards summarising the information and providing useful contact details for the various aspects of help or assistance were made available that we could use or pass on. They followed this up by telling us about these things, giving us the opportunity to ask questions or make comments. The ladies from TVA were pleased and impressed in the way we engaged, complimenting us that we were more vocal than most groups that they visit! As ever, conversation centres around the table where teas, coffees, biscuits and cakes are shared, and on when their or significant birthdays, it’s fast becoming a tradition that a birthday card and cake and celebration tea so that it is reaching the stage of becoming compulsory! This can also be said of our Christmas Meal when we again went to The Star at Ponthir, who made their Christmas Menu especially available to us a week or so before their planned launch date. We look forward to the new year, continuing to not only maintain our numbers and deepen and broaden our own friendship, but also to welcome more from the locality to add to those who have discovered our group as a safe place, perhaps even a refuge where they have found a genuine welcome, friendship and ready conversation. The same open invitation with which we closed last year's report is repeated, namely to join with us on a Tuesday afternoon between 1.30 and 3.30 and to encourage you to make us known amongst your family and friends who may be lonely, in need of some company and a lift. Sylvia Powell and Howard Jones 4 ## **Children’s Work Report** ## **Sunday School** It has been wonderful to see our Sunday School numbers growing over the past year. Currently there are around seven families represented, which means there are 9 children and young people. They don’t all attend every week, but we usually have three to six children in Sunday School and Creche. This is very encouraging and we thank God that he has blessed us in this way. Another encouraging development is the offer from Howard Jones to sometimes work with the older children in the Sunday School – those who have now started secondary school – to look with them at scripture in a bit more depth. ## **Sparks** This is a primary age Bible based youth club that meet every Thursday during term time. We present the word of God through stories, games, drama and craft. The numbers in the group have sadly dwindled at the start of this year. Before Christmas we could have up to 6 children, but with some of them now starting secondary school, and others being involved in other clubs and activities, we are down to just two! There is hope, however, that another child may be starting soon. Please continue to pray that we can grow in numbers and reach more children with the word of God. ## **Themes** We continue to follow the same themes in both Sunday School and Sparks as we tend to have different children attending each. Towards the beginning of 2024 we did a topic on the Armour of God. Over the weeks we looked at different aspects of the Armour of God and the children made their very own cardboard soldiers. At Easter, last year, we had a joint Sunday School and Sparks party, where the children did a presentation for their families on the Armour of God. The Sunday School enjoyed presenting what they had been learning during the church service on Fathers’ Day, giving all the men in the church their very own Armour of God bookmark. In the Autumn Term we began a topic on the “I AM …” statements of Jesus as recorded in John’s Gospel. We have made a display of these on notice boards in the Sunday School room and downstairs in the carpeted hall, so please take a look. Finally at Christmas we had a joint Christmas Party which was very well attended by the families from both Sunday School and Sparks. The children were all given presents of Christian books. We now are looking forward to starting a new topic in 2025, looking at the life of Jesus whilst he was on earth. Please continue to pray for the work with the children and young people in the church. ## **Prayer Group Report** We meet as a group every Wednesday morning (10-10:30am), we are roughly 10 in number. Prayer is our lifeline to God as a Church, praying as a group of believers helps bring unity with the Church that Jesus prayed for. We as a Church spend an hour per week together. I would encourage each of us to give time to prayer as the opportunity arises, without any pressure to contribute (out loud). Every Blessing Sue Jones & Babs Humphry 5 ## **Christmas Fayre Report** A big thank you to those who helped make this year’s Fayre another success, with Father Christmas adding that extra good feel factor. From the money taken at the Fayre, donations were given to the charities normally supported by the workshop team, also with gifts of biscuits to the housebound. We collect items throughout the year, bric a brac no longer needed or any unwanted gifts would be very welcome. Over the years the money raised has been used for many projects in the church, such as a dishwasher for the kitchen, blinds for the Sanctuary and Manse, also a boiler for the upstairs class rooms, to mention a few. The support of the Church is vital to the success of the Fayre and look forward to your continued encouragement. Janet Day ## **Link to Hope shoe box appeal** A big thank you to those who supported the Shoe Box Appeal Again this year. We were able to deliver 33 boxes to a central point in Chepstow. We hope to support the appeal again this year and I am optimistic the Church will again give this worthwhile cause their full support. Janet Day ## **Bible Connect Report** We continue to meet every two weeks on a Monday at 10:30am via zoom and average about 8-10 people. Bible study is examining God’s word in order for us to understand it and be changed by it. At present we are studying David and his life beginning as a shepherd boy right through to when he became King of Israel. David had many weaknesses, doubts and struggled with sin, yet he was considered “as a man after God’s own heart”. He learnt to trust in God and find strength in Him when he faced difficulties. David is considered a role model for us all, so that we look beyond our failures and weaknesses and put our trust in God. If you would like to join us you would be most welcome. Please contact me and I will give you all the details. Blessings Sue Jones 6 **EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH, GRIFFITHSTOWN** ## **Financial Statement for year ended 31st December 2024** ## **Main Account Income & Expenditure** ||**INCOME:**||Closed
Open||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||_Offering_||||£||£| ||||||11,369.00||| ||||||5,510.58||| ||||Standing Order / Bank Transfer||22,668.92||39,548.50| ||||||||| ||||||||| ||||||873.27||| ||Coffee Morning||||580.48||| ||Manse Rent
Weddings and Funerals
World Vision
Probus Donations||||14,400.00||| ||||||210.00||| ||||||1,275.00||| ||||||330.00||| ||Funeral Adriene Martin - Holiday
Club||||111.00||| ||Shoe Box Appeal||||93.00||| ||Harvest Donations - Food Bank||||105.00||| ||Torfaen Borough Council-Holiday
Club||||200.00||| ||Torfaen Voluntary - Renew||||1,000.00||| ||Quiz Night||||586.00||| ||Craft - Donation for Selection
Boxes||||150.00||| ||Bank Transfer from Santander||||1.00||| ||Christmas Fayre Workshop||||50.00||| ||Renew/Craft Donation||||200.00||| ||Christmas Card Donations||||35.00||| ||Miscellaneous Donations||||20.00||| ||On Line / Card Reader Donations||||24.56||20,244.31| ||_Income Tax Recovered_
Gift Aid Declaration||||||| ||||||||| ||||||7,081.93||7,081.93| ||||||||66,874.74| 7 ## **EXPENDITURE:** ## **NOTES:** ||**EXPENDITURE:**||||**NOTES:**||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||Ministry||||||£||£| ||||||1||2,314.98||| ||Upkeep of Church||||2||16,081.53||| ||Upkeep of Manse||||3||3,825.36||| ||Home Mission||||||1,500.00||| ||BMS
Donations||||||1,500.00||| ||||||4||||| ||||||||2,578.00||| ||Holiday Club||||||1,415.21||| ||Nic’s Cleaning||||||757.50||| ||Flowers||||||57.00||| ||Sunday School||||||217.81||| ||Coffee Morning||||||172.95||| ||Miscellaneous Expenses||||5||2,912.32||| ||Renew / Craft||||||456.24||| ||Sundries||||6||4,673.55||38,462.45| ||||||||||| ||_Administration Costs_||||||||| ||Printing/Stationery/ Postage||||||1,661.24||1,661.24| ||Bank Transfer to Santander||||||25,001.00||25,001.00| ||_Other Payments_||||||||| ||Church Kitchen /Meals/ Refreshments||||||355.86||355.86| ||||||||||65,480.55| ||||||||||| ||||||||||| ||Surplus/Deficit for the year||||||||1,394.19| ||BalanceBroughtforwardfrom PreviousYear||||||||21,543.78| ||Balance Carriedforward atEnd of Year||||||||22,937.97| ||||||||||| ||December Bank Statement Balance||||||||23,052.97| ||Uncleared/UncashedItems||||||||115.00| ||||||||||22,937.97| 8 ## **Notes to the Accounts** ||1. MINISTRY|||||||||£| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||||||||||| ||||Pastor's Stipend|||||||0.00| ||||NIC.
Pension|||||||0.00| |||||||||||0.00| ||||Baptist Pension Shortfall|||||||10.00| ||||Tax|||||||0.00| ||||Minister/Moderator Expenses|||||||217.98| ||||Pulpit Supply|||||||2,087.00| |||||||||||2,314.98| ||2. UPKEEP OF CHURCH
Utilities
Insurance|||||||||| |||||||||||6,968.45| |||||||||||3,769.07| ||Broadband|||||||||407.65| ||Maintenance|||||||||4,936.36| |||||||||||16,081.53| ||3. UPKEEP OF MANSE
Utilities
Insurance
Council Tax|||||||||| |||||||||||2,564.36| |||||||||||521.00| |||||||||||0.00| ||Maintenance|||||||||740.00| |||||||||||3,825.36| ||4. DONATIONS|||||||||| |||||||||||| ||World Vision|||||||||1,194.00| ||Cariad Kenya|||||||||600.00| ||Quiz Night - Water
Aid|||||||||586.00| |||||||||||| ||Harvest Donations - Food Bank|||||||||105.00| ||LinktoHope-Shoebox Appeal|||||||||93.00| |||||||||||2,578.00| ||5. MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES
SWBA Subscriptions
BU Subscriptions
CCLI
Messy Church
Sparks
Waveley Fire & Security Ltd – Annual Check
Bank Charges
Zoom License 2024
Proclaim License 2024
BlackwoodFireAnnual Check|||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| |||||||||||| 9 |6. SUNDRIES|6. SUNDRIES||| |---|---|---|---| ||Christmas Items 2023|113.59|| ||Safeguarding + Health & Safety|403.39|| ||Waveley Fire & Security Ltd – Additional Detectors|2,107.10|| ||Hi Viz Vests|14.49|| ||Golden Wedding Gift & Card|16.50|| ||Ubiquity - Web Services|204.00|| ||Computer Anti-Virus Software|39.99|| ||Notice Boards & Posters|476.91|| ||Cloud Storage Solution|636.37|| ||Christmas Items 2024|638.22|| ||RemembranceDisplayItems|22.99|| |||4,673.55|| ## **Santander Account Income & Expenditure** ||**Description**||**Income**||**Expenditure**||**Balance**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||||B/F||45,279.37| ||Total Transfers from Current
Account||25,001.00||||| ||Interest 4th Sep 2023 to 2nd Sep
2024||478.59||||| ||Transferto CurrentAccount||||1||| ||||||C/F||70,757.96| ## **Report of the Independent Examiners to the Members of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Griffithstown** In accordance with the provisions of Section 43 of the Charities Act 1993, we have examined the Receipts, Payments & Accounts of Ebenezer Baptist Church set out on Pages 1-5 relating to the Year ended 31st December 2024. We confirm that the Accounts and Statement accord with the Accounting Records of the Church and that such records satisfy the requirements of the Act. We are not aware of any matter to which attention needs to be drawn in order to obtain a proper understanding of the Accounts. Address: Address: 207 Adventurers Quay 6 Victoria Street Cardiff Pontypool CF10 4NS NP4 5HH Date: 5[th] February 2025 Date: 5[th] February 2025 10 ## **Expenses Budget 2025** ||£||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||280.00||**Ministry**||Stipend/Nic/Tax/Pension||||£34,933.20| ||385.00||||Pension Shortfall||||£0.00| ||809.37||||Minister’s Expenses||||£217.98| ||118.51||||Pulpit Cover||||£2,087.00| ||0.00||**Church Building**||Utilities||||£7,247.19| ||216.00||||Maintenance||||£5,133.81| ||203.17||||Insurance||||£3,919.83| ||155.88||||Broadband||||£423.96| ||313.83||**Manse**||||||£3,978.37| ||430.56||**Children’s Work**||Sunday School||||£217.81| ||2,912.32||||Messy Church||||£200.00| ||||||Sparks||||£100.00| ||113.59||Flowers||||||£57.00| ||403.39||Donations||||||£2,578.00| ||2,107.10||Home Mission||||||£1,500.00| ||14.49||BMS||||||£1,500.00| ||16.50||SWBA & BU Subs||||||£691.60| ||204.00||CCLI||||||£841.74| ||39.99||Miscellaneous||||||£1,500.00| ||476.91||Cleaning||||||£757.50| ||636.37||Kitchen||||||£64.42| ||638.22||Refreshments||||||£291.44| ||22.99||Holiday Club||||||£1,415.21| ||4,673.55||EmergencyReserve||||||£1,000.00| ||||Technical||||||£742.25| ||||Printing/stationery||||||£1,727.69| ||||Sundries||||||£2000.00| ||||Renew/Craft||||||£456.24| ||||Total||||||**£75,582.25**| ||||||||||| ||||Average Required Income per Week =
**£1,453.50**||||||| ||||Average Required per Month =
**£6,298.52**||||||| 11 **Home Mission** |**Income**
Balance @ 1/1/24
Boxes
Workshop
**Income**
Balance @ 1/1/24
Workshop
**Income**
Balance @ 1/1/24
Donations
**Income**
Balance @ 1/1/24
Cash in hand@ 18/11/24
Christmas Fayre
Cash in hand@ 2/12/24
Donation|**£**
77.68
86.41
100.00

264.09
**£**
25.35
100

125.35
**£**
158.50
388.00

546.50
**£**
1583.45
20.85
836.86
37.75
20.00

2498.91|**Expenditure**

Home Mission


Balance @ 31/12/24
**Baptist Missionary Society**
**Expenditure**

BMS

Balance @ 31/12/24
**BMS Birthday Scheme**
**Expenditure**

BMS

Balance @ 31/12/24
**Christmas Fayre/Workshop**
**Expenditure**

Goods

Home Mission

BMS

World Vision

World Vision
Goods
Balance @ 31/12/24||**£**
100.00
164.09| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||264.09| |||||**£**
100.00
25.35| |||||125.35| |||||**£**
400.00
146.50| |||||546.50| |||||**£**
43.24
100.00
100.00
50.00
50.00
40.52
2115.15| |||||2498.91| 12 |**Income**
Balance @ 1/1/24
Donations
Donations
Donations
Donations
Donations
Donations|**£**
187.37
10.00
116.50
122.00
118.00
14.50
335.10

903.47|**Craft**
**Expenditure**
Flowers
Rose
Postage
Postage
Deposit for Christmas Meal
Selection box donation
Meal
Cash in hand
Balance @ 31/12/24|**£**
15.00
14.45
7.99
3.45
150.00
150.00
463.75
98.83| |---|---|---|---| ||||903.47| 13 ## **Membership Numbers** |**Membership 1st January 2024**
**Dismissals:**
By Resignation
Called Home
**Membership 31st December 2024**
**Members called home:**
Adrienne Martin|65| |---|---| ||1
1| ||**63**| ||| ## **Dates for your diary** |Friday 18thApril|Good Friday|10:30am| |---|---|---| |Sunday 20thApril|Easter Sunday|11am| |Sunday 27thApril|149thChurch Anniversary|11am| |Sunday 8thJune|Pentecost|11am| |Sunday 27thJuly|Holiday Club Service|11am| |Sunday 28thSeptember|Harvest|11am| |Sunday 9thNovember|Remembrance Sunday|11am| |Sunday 21stDecember|Carols by Candlelight|5:30pm| |Wednesday 24thDecember|Carols Around the Tree|5:30pm| |Thursday 25thDecember|Christmas Day Celebration|10:30am| 14