Charity Number: 1201850 

## **EMMANUEL CHURCH SHEFFIELD** 


## **UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 31 MARCH 2025** 

Emmanuel Church Sheffield Hawk Works, 109 Mary Street, Sheffield, S1 4RT 



**Trustees' Annual Report for the period** 

|||Period start date|Period start date|Period start date||||Period end date|Period end date|Period end date||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||01||04||2024||31||03||2025|
|**From**||||||**To**||||||



Section A                        Reference and administration details 

|**Registered Charity Number**|1201850|
|---|---|
|**_Principal address_**|Hawk Works,<br>109 Mary Street,<br>Sheffield,<br>S1 4RT|
|**Trustees**|Andrew Seaton (Chairman)<br>Ben Leach<br>Ben Bradbrook<br>Alison Hattam<br>Rosalind Revans<br>David May (Senior Pastor)|
|**Leadership Team**|David May (Senior Pastor, Elder)<br>Roger Mason (Elder)<br>Jude May<br>Faith Oyegbile<br>Roger Mason<br>Hannah Mason<br>Simon Pask<br>Lottie Pask|
|**Independent Examiner**|Sam Rebbettes<br>18 North Street<br>Kingsclere<br>Newbury<br>RG20 5QX|



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**Section B              Senior Leader’s Overview** 

April 2024 to March 2025 has been a year of growth and progress for Emmanuel Church Sheffield. Having officially moved from being a church to a church plant in the previous year, the first part of this year felt like one of strengthening foundations that led to us taking some big steps forward in the second part of the year. 

A significant move for this year was relocating our Sunday meetings from the dance studio on Arundel Street to All Saints Catholic High School. We had outgrown the dance studio, with limited space for both children’s groups and our main gatherings. After a long search, much prayer, and several disappointments, we were thrilled to secure All Saints Catholic High School as our new Sunday venue. The school has been very welcoming of us hiring the space and the bigger hall and other classrooms available allows us plenty of growing room as we look ahead. Following the move, we fairly quickly saw our average Sunday attendance grow from 80 to over 100 including children. 

In terms of leadership at Emmanuel, throughout the year, we had a leadership team of Faith Oyegbile, Roger Mason, Jude May and me. I had become an Elder (our most senior church leaders) the previous year and in January Roger Mason was also prayed into Eldership, on a Sunday with the help of Matt Partridge from our wider Catalyst network. Our Trustee team was the same throughout the year – Alison Hattam, Ben Bradbrook, Ben Leach and me. 

Our staff team has grown significantly this year. In September, we said a big thank you to Deborah Awolola as she completed her time as our administrator. We are deeply grateful for her hard work and delighted that Deborah and her family remain an active part of the Emmanuel community. 

In November, we welcomed two new part-time staff members: Lottie Pask, who oversees operations, and Vicki Stone, who leads communications. Both have made an outstanding contribution, ensuring Emmanuel runs smoothly and enabling us to achieve so much together as a church family. 

A major source of celebration was seeing 5 people baptised. All 5 had incredible stories of how God had been worked in their lives and how they had become Christians. The Emmanuel church family had played a privileged role in helping all them take these steps. 

Throughout the year, there were some major highlights. Catalyst festival was a big highlight of the year. Joining with lots of other churches and in our network to worship, hear great teaching, enjoy time together at Stafford Showground over the August bank holiday weekend. Another would be running Alpha in Gerry’s Bakery in Walkley, we had a wonderful group of people attend the course learning about Jesus and what the Christian faith is all about. 

We are seeking for Emmanuel to be a loving and health church family. We often speak about continuing to grow in and maintain our cultural values of honour, courage and generosity. As we grow, mid-week groups meeting in homes across Sheffield have become even more vital for building this type of community. Our leaders do an incredible job in modelling what we are going for together. 

An amazing example of generosity the Emmanuel church family has shown was seen in our annual gift day, where we gave away £15,000 to fund a local Christians Against Poverty Debt Centre and to help fund a major conference for leaders in Catalyst working in Muslim majority nations. 

Moving venues, our continued numerical growth as a church and an increase in events we run have required significant time and energy to be invested from many different volunteers, leaders and staff who have served so beautifully to make it all happen. We are also grateful for the financial generosity so many in our congregation has shown, to make this all possible. 

|**Signed:**<br>**Name:**||22/01/2026|
|---|---|---|
||||
||David May||



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**Section C              Structure, governance and management** 

**Description of the charity’s trusts** 

CIO constitution dated 06/02/2023 Type of governing document 

(eg. trust deed, constitution) 

Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) How the charity is constituted 

(eg. trust, association, company) 

## **Trustees and leadership** 

The charity is governed by its Trustees. The following held office in the period to 31st March 2025: 

**David May** – Dave heads up the leadership team, overseas the staff team and provides visionary and strategic leadership for the church. 

**Ben Leach** – Ben was the charity’s chairman and a practising accountant. 

**Ben Bradbrook** – Ben is a paediatric consultant working in the NHS. 

**Alison Hattam** – Alie is the director of governance and compliance for a physiotherapy clinic. 

The power of appointment or removal of trustee’s rests with the Trustees and new trustees are selected from the church family. They are well known to the existing Trustees and have demonstrated a high level of commitment and dedication to the vision of the church by the way in which they model and live out the vision and cultural values of the church. Prior to being appointed, any new trustees will meet with the Chair of Trustees and the Senior Leader to understand their responsibilities and the framework within which the church operates. This induction will include reading and accepting the policies and guidelines contained in Emmanuel’s Staff Handbook. 

The Trustees meet quarterly, in addition to this the Trustees meet from time to time with the leadership team. The Trustees retain responsibility for the overall strategic decisions of the CIO and are responsible for approving budgets and monitoring on-going financial performance against those budgets. The Leadership team and those staff and volunteers overseeing different ministry areas within the church make day-to-day decisions on expenditure and activities. 

Emmanuel Church Sheffield is led by the Leadership team, who provide the functional and spiritual leadership of the church, including responsibility for maintaining the understanding of the Christian faith in accordance with the church’s statement of beliefs and providing pastoral care of the church. The Leadership Team is responsible for the day-to-day management of the church’s various activities under the oversight of the Trustees. 

## **Staff and volunteers** 

The following staff worked for the church in the period to 31[st] March 2025: 

**David May** – Dave is an Elder, heads up the leadership team, overseas the staff team and provides visionary and strategic leadership for the church. 

**Lottie Pask** (appointed 5/11/2024) – Operations administrator, oversees the smooth running of our Sunday meetings and other events, supports leaders and volunteers to fulfil their roles, does the finance bookkeeping and provides other administrative support. 

**Vicki Stone** (appointed 11/11/2024) – Communications administrator, website, social media accounts, whole church emails and communications and provides other administrative support. 

**Deborah Awolola** (finished 15/09/2025) – Deborah worked part-time as the church administrator, providing administrative support to all areas of church life. 

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## **Section D                    Objectives and activities** 

**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document** 

The main objectives of Emmanuel Church Sheffield are the advancement of the Christian religion in accordance with its statement of beliefs and the relief of any charitable need as the Trustees shall determine. As the primary means of furthering these objectives, Emmanuel Church Sheffield wants to help people meet Jesus. To encounter God’s lifetransforming presence, know His peace and flourish in His purposes. We desire this not just for individuals, but our dream is to play our part in seeing the communities of Sheffield flourish. 

The church’s strategy for working out our above vision, and fulfilling its charitable objectives, focuses on the activities undertaken through its various ministry areas, considering the following overarching principles: 

• **Encountering God’s presence** We want to provide a great environment for people to connect with God, to encounter his life transforming presence. And we think that the best way to do that is with others, both through our Sunday church meetings and throughout our city in our Mid-Week Groups. We also hold monthly worship and prayer meetings, which allow extend time to enjoy God’s presence while worshiping together. 

• **Knowing God’s peace** Peace in the bible is so much more than just tranquillity or the absence of war, it’s about wholeness and being fully complete not on our own, being made whole and complete in Jesus. We seek in our teaching on Sundays and in our mid-week groups to help equip people to know this peace. 

**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)** 

• **Seeing Sheffield flourish** As a church we want to see Sheffield flourish, and we want to play our part in that by connecting faith with everyday life. Working closely with our friends at other churches in the city, we want to help make Sheffield a better place to live and work. We are and want to increasingly support projects and people who are trying to make life better for everyone – particularly those facing poverty. We also want support other seeking to do similar things in other parts of the UK and around the world. 

We are also passionate about working in partnership with other churches and organisations within Sheffield and the UK. The groups we work with include: 

- Catalyst – within Newfrontiers we are a part of Catalyst, a network of churches aiming to make disciples in the nations of the world: www.catalystnetwork.org 

- • Newfrontiers – we are part of Newfrontiers, a family of around 1,000 churches in over 80 different nations: www.newfronterstogether.org 

- • Emmanuel Church Oxford – our sending church, they continue to pray for us and support us in many ways and we are part of the same wider networks as us - Newfrontiers and Catalyst (see above). htps://www.emmanueloxford.org 

- • Evangelical Alliance – we are members of the Evangelical Alliance, the umbrella body representing the UK’s two million evangelical Christians: www.eauk.org 

- • Arise – we are actively part of Arise, a prayer and mission movement that invites believers in Sheffield to live their faith more freely. It involves over 100 churches in Sheffield.  htps://www.ariseshefeld.org 

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- Ascend – an initiative helping young adults find employment. They provide, young people with training and work placements. htps://www.togetherforshefeld.co.uk 

The work of Emmanuel Church Sheffield relies on the commitment and hard work of its Leadership team, three staff and many volunteers, as well as the sacrificial financial giving of church members. We could not achieve what we do without the large amounts of time and energy invested by our volunteers. 

## Public Benefit 

When planning activities for the period and the services available to the local community, the Trustees ensure that they have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission. The Trustees affirm their commitment to the public benefit and continue to see how this can be developed. 

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Section E                      Achievements and performance 

## **Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the period** 

During the period to 31st March 2025, the church undertook the following activities: Sunday Services 

Our Sunday services provide an environment in which people can encounter God’s presence and grow spiritually. The church has maintained its aim to present a rounded teaching programme in keeping with the church’s vision, and the church has also been served excellently by several visiting speakers. 

The Trustees want to place on record their sincere thanks to all those who served the church so brilliantly in providing high quality weekly services for both adults and children. 

Our standard format of service comprises worship, notices and teaching, However, we have regularly celebrated communion, held baby dedications and adult baptisms. 

We have had times of corporate prayer and have heard from lots of our church family on various topics. Our Sunday services are promoted public on our website and social media platforms they are open and accessible to everyone. Children Children and young people are a crucial part of the life of the church. Dani Bradley and Hannah Cooper, our volunteer leaders of our Children’s team, have led brilliantly. They together have provided high-quality weekly groups for our children. We moved during the last year from having one group to two groups. We are committed to nurturing and safeguarding our children and young people. All our children's workers are required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service Check and complete relevant safeguarding training. Also, during this year, a BIBS (Baby Interrupted Bible Study) started and has run very successfully, providing excellent opportunity for those with little ones to find support from God and one another as they pray and study the bible together. Emmanuel Mid-Week Groups We have had 7 groups meeting on Wednesday nights around the City. Our groups are crucial in helping create a space where we can help each other grow in our Faith. The groups meet to study the bible, pray, socialise, provide other training and encourage each other. We encourage the groups to take part in ‘Discovery Bible Studies’, a very simple way of reading and studying the bible together that makes it possible for anyone who comes to get involved. Groups also play a key role in helping make sure we are caring pastoral for all in the Emmanuel community. We encourage everyone who comes to Emmanuel to join a group. Prayer and Worship Prayer and worship play an essential part in our church life. We pray in our Sunday gathering and Mid-Week Groups take time to pray time they meet. In addition to this, once a month on Wednesday evenings our groups take a week off and we have a special prayer and worship time all together. 

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Section E                      Achievements and performance 

Our monthly prayer and worship meetings are always very significant times together as a church, we have chance to pray for a wide range of areas. We are encouraged by the number of people who make a real effort to attend these times. Our prayer and worship meetings are open for anyone to join us. 

## Alpha 

Alpha is a programme exploring the Christian faith in an open-minded and welcoming environment. Each session includes a short video and a time of discussion in which the group can share their thoughts and questions about what they have heard. Alpha, is free and open for anyone to sign up and come along to. 

In the last year the church has run the Alpha course in Gerry’s Bakery over 9 weeks in February and March. We were delighted to have 12 wonderful guests on this course exploring faith in Jesus. We ran this course in partnership with other churches in Arise network across Sheffield, working together to advertise and promote all our courses starting at the same time. 

## STEPS 

STEPS is a powerful discipleship course designed to help people overcome unhelpful patterns of thought and behaviour. Over 12 weeks it leads people on a journey towards greater freedom. It’s a brilliant course that is open for anyone to come along to. STEPS is a free course and open for anyone to attend. 18 people did this course with us in September-December 2024, many found it highly beneficially, with many great stories of the difference it made for people. 

## Pastoring 

At Emmanuel, we want to take care of each other in the ups and downs of life. We seek to provide such support and encouragement through our group leaders and leadership team. We seek to ensure that our group leaders don’t get isolated and know when they should seek help and who on the leadership team, they can seek help from. Students and Young Adults We have a good number of students and young adults who are involved in lots of areas in the life of the church, we love giving opportunities for them to use their gifts and passions in the church. 

During the last year, our Young Adults team have provided monthly meetings for young adults to gather, encourage each other, pray, worship together and socialise. They have also been on a weekend away alongside Emmanuel Church Oxford. Serving teams We have many volunteers who serve on various teams to make all that Emmanuel does possible. As well as serving others, teams are a great way for people to get to know others in church and for people to get use giftings God has given them. 

Our current teams include: • **Children** – our children’s teams serve our children in our weekly Sunday meetings. 

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Section E                      Achievements and performance 

• **Host** – the host team helps to get our venue ready for our Sunday services and makes sure everyone feels welcome and comfortable at our Sunday gatherings and helps with communion. • **Tech team** – this team sets up and runs the PA system, projects the visuals, working alongside the worship team. **• Emmanuel Mid-Week Group Leadership** – this team is responsible for leading our Mid-Week Groups and does an excellent job in making sure that the groups achieve their aims. **Other serving areas include** – Alpha course, STEPs course, student and young adults’ team, Football ministry team. 

## Catalyst 

Being part of Catalyst enables us to maintain meaningful relationships with churches in the UK and overseas. Catalyst also provides access to training, mentoring and support for leaders and individuals at Emmanuel. In the last year we have taken our leadership team to training days and our staff team have benefited from prayer, training and relationship building days. We have also sent three of our younger leaders on a two-year Leadership and Theology training programme with Catalyst and 6 others have started Train1000 a Church planting training programme. The whole church has benefited as well from gifted guest speakers from other Catalyst churches coming to preach in last year. 

Supporting Catalyst financially is important in furthering our objectives, particularly in that we want to be a church that supports other churches, social action and the planting of new churches in the UK and around the world. 

## Catalyst Festival 

Over the August 2024 bank holiday weekend, many of us attended the Catalyst Festival alongside thousands of others from our church network. It was an incredible time of teaching, worship, and prayer, as well as a wonderful opportunity to deepen relationships within our Emmanuel family. This event takes place every two years, but this one was particularly special—it was the first since COVID and our first ever Catalyst Festival as a church. Remarkably, it was at the previous festival in 2018 that the idea of planting Emmanuel first began to take shape! 

## Football Ministry 

We run a weekly football ministry in the Hillsborough area; this is open for anyone to attend, for a small weekly contribution to the cost of hiring a pitch. Often the ministry sees as many as 18 attendees, primarily men from the local community. Each week, the session begins with a short talk and discussion. 

## Arise 

We have continued to be heavily involved in Arise, a local prayer and mission movement involving over 100 churches in Sheffield. Many in Emmanuel got involved in the prayer walking that takes place each year in March. We also got involved in Streets of Light, decorating our windows with messages of light, peace and hope over Halloween. We also make being at the monthly church leader gatherings a priority. 

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**Section F                    Financial review** 

|**Brief statement of the charity’s**<br>**policy on reserves**<br>**Review of financial performance**<br>**Internal controls and risk**<br>**management**|The charity aims to keep unrestricted reserves equivalent to approximately<br>three months of ongoing expenditure. The Board considers such a level gives<br>reasonable security to staff expecting monthly payments.|
|---|---|
||During the period, receipts amounted to £154,098 (2024: £136,482). The<br>primary component £151,567 (2024: £134,526) related to donations from<br>church members and visitors.<br>Payments totalled £131,851 (2024: £92,857), with the largest component 48%<br>(2024: 55%) being spent on staff costs. In sum the charity operated at a surplus<br>of £22,247(2024: £43,625).|
||The Trustees have overall responsibility for the charity’s internal controls and<br>risk management procedures.<br>The Trustees recognise that the nature of some of the church’s work requires<br>acceptance and management of some risk in order to achieve its charitable<br>objectives, and are satisfied that systems and controls in place are<br>sufficient to monitor, manage and mitigate the church’s exposure to these risks.<br>The Trustees regularly review any significant risks facing the church and this<br>review will continue in the coming year.<br>All major insurable risks are subject to normal churches and employers’<br>insurance. Any contracts entered into on behalf of the church are reviewed<br>before execution to ensure that they do not significantly impact the church’s<br>abilityto fulfil its objectives.|



## **Section G                    Declaration** 

**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.** 

**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees** 

|**Signature(s)**<br>**Full name(s)**<br>**Position**<br>**Date**|||
|---|---|---|
||<br>Andrew Seaton|David May|
||<br>Chairman|Senior Leader|
||<br>22/01/2026||



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**Independent Examiner’s Report** 

**Report to the trustees/** EMMANUEL CHURCH SHEFFIELD **members of On accounts for the period** 31 MARCH 2025 **Charity no** 1201850 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** 12 to 13 

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Charity”) for the period ended 31[st ] March 2025. 

**Responsibilities and basis of** As the charity trustees for the Charity, you are responsible for the preparation of **report** the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). 

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out  under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. 

**Independent examiner's** I have completed my examination.  I confirm that no material matters have come **statement** to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: 

- accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or 

- the accounts do not accord with the accounting records 

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. 

**Signed: Date:** 22/01/2026 **Name:** Sam Rebbettes ACCA **Address:** 18 North Street Kingsclere Newbury RG20 5QX 

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## **Section A - Receipts and payments** 

|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**|**Total funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**<br>**151,567**<br>**2,531**<br>**154,098**<br>**-**<br>**154,098**<br>**63,153**<br>**26,065**<br>**27,341**<br>**15,292**<br>**131,851**|**Last year**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Donations & Gift Aid|**151,487**||**80**||**151,567**|**134,526**|
|Other Income|**2,531**||**-**||**2,531**|**1,956**|
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
|**_Sub total_**|**154,018**||**80**||**154,098**|**136,482**|
||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales, (see**<br>**table). **|||||||
||||||||
||||||||
|**_Sub total_**|<br>**-**||**-**||**-**|**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**<br>**A3 Payments**|||||||
|||||||**136,482**|
||||||||
|Staff Costs|**63,153**||||**63,153**|**51,561**|
|Church & Sundays Costs|**26,065**||||**26,065**|**10,947**|
|Mission & Social Action Costs|**27,261**||||**27,341**|**21,421**|
|Office & Administrative Costs|**15,292**||||**15,292**|**8,928**|
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
||||||||
|**_Sub total_**|**131,771**||||**131,851**|**92,857**|



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||**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**<br>**-**<br>**131,771**<br>**22,247**<br>**-**<br>**43,625**<br>**65,872**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**<br>**-**<br>**80**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**|**Total funds**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**<br>**-**<br>**131,851**<br>**22,247**<br>**-**<br>**43,625**<br>**65,872**|**Last year**<br>**to the nearest**<br>**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A4 Asset and investment purchases,**<br>**(see table)**|||||
||||||
||||||
|**_Sub total_**<br>**_Total payments_**<br>**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**<br>**A5 Transfers between funds**<br>**A6 Cash funds last period end**<br>**_Cash funds this period end_**|**-**|||**-**|
||||||
|||||**92,857**|
||||||
||**22,247**|**-**|**22,247**|**43,625**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|
||**43,625**|**-**|**43,625**|**-**|
||**65,872**|**-**|**65,872**|**43,625**|



## **Section B  - Statement of assets** 

|**Categories**<br>**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**<br>Cash at bank<br>**_Total cash funds_**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**<br>**65,872**<br>**65,872**|**Restricted funds**<br>**to nearest £**<br>**-**|**Restricted funds**<br>**to nearest £**<br>**-**|**Last year**<br>**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**65,872**|**-**||**43,625**|
|||||||
|||||||
|||**65,872**|**-**||**43,625**|



These financial statements were approved by the board of trustees and authorized for issue on ____________________ and are signed on behalf of the board by: 

|**Signature(s)**<br>**Full name(s)**<br>**Position**<br>**Date**|||
|---|---|---|
||<br>Ben Leach|David May|
||<br>Treasurer|Senior Leader|
||<br>22/01/2026||



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