2025-08-31-annual-report - Carrickfergus Vineyard Church

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Carrickfergus Vineyard Church (A company limited by guarantee, not having a share capital) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

for the financial year ended 31 August 2025

The trustees present their Trustees’ Annual Report, combining the Directors' Report and Trustees’ Report, and the unaudited financial statements for the financial year ended 31 August 2025.

The financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their financial statements in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

The Trustees’ Report contains the information required to be provided in the Trustees' Annual Report under the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) guidelines. The trustees of the charity are also charity trustees for the purpose of charity law and under the charity's constitution are known as membersofthe board of trustees.

In this report the trustees of Carrickfergus Vineyard Church present a summary of its purpose, governance, activities, achievements and financesfor the financial year 31 August 2025.

The charity is a registered charity and hence the report and results are presented in a form which complies with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and, although not obliged to comply with the Statement of Recommended Practice applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland FRS 102, the organisation has implemented its recommendations where relevant in these financial statements.

Mission, Objectives and Strategy

Mission Statement

The objectives of Carrickfergus Vineyard are to seek and advance the Kingdom of God in our town by furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ, building up the faith of Christian believers, sharing in the training of Christian workers, promoting Christian education and bringing relief to the poor, the needy and the sick.

During the year the church has fulfilled these objectives as set out below.

Objectives & Aims

Connected Charities

During this period, we have continued to support the work of three charities by way of ongoing financial support and various levels of involvement. These charities represent our commitment and support locally, nationally and internationally. We continue to give to these organisations in line with our income from financial donations. Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland (“VCUKI”) (nationally) Vineyard Churches UK and Ireland exists to participate in the advancement of the Kingdom of God through the work of local Vineyard churches that communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word and practice. This is summarised as extending God's Kingdom together, everywhere in every way. It gives spiritual oversight to the senior pastors of Vineyard Churches and facilitates church planting. Carrickfergus Vineyard uses the name “Vineyard” by agreement. Our Senior Pastors serve in leadership of the Ireland region of VCUKI as Area Leaders. We gather as pastors, staff, leaders and churches at various points in the year, including our annual Legacy Vineyard Gathering each October.

Stand by Me (internationally)

Below is a brief outline of their vision: -

Through our children’s homes, schools and care centres, we aim to meet the individual needs of children who are orphaned, abandoned, abused and victims of war or disease, or are living in extreme poverty. We aim to make lasting improvements to children’s lives, caring for them as Jesus would, by restoring their dignity and giving them a sense of worth. We want every child entrusted to us to feel loved and to reach their full potential.

Carrickfergus Vineyard specifically supports the work of Stand by Me in Ethiopia.

Home for Good (locally)

Below is a brief outline of their vision: -

We believe the Church is ideally placed to ensure that every child and young person has the loving home they need. Our Biblical mandate to care for the vulnerable, extend hospitality and seek justice compels us to action. Through opening our homes and hearts to children and young people in care, and through our churches becoming a welcoming and supportive community to all looked after and adopted children and the families who care for them, we can make a transformational difference.

We also partner with other charities in various ways for the facilitation of work in line with our aims and objectives, details of this work within the report.

Carrickfergus Vineyard Church (A company limited by guarantee, not having a share capital) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT for the financial year ended 31 August 2025 Achievement & Performance

Performance against Objectives The level of performance against objectives is, in the main, a reflection of the activity of the church members of Carrickfergus Vineyard who volunteer their time, energy and money freely because of faith. The leadership and organisation of this activity is the primary responsibility of the senior pastors and a small leadership team in support of the senior pastors.

Furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Advancing the Kingdom of God

Carrickfergus Vineyard aims to advance the Kingdom of God throughout the town of Carrickfergus, across the whole country and island of Ireland. Our church has actively worked in our local community to be a blessing in practical and relational ways.

The church welcomes those of all or no faiths and from every background and community who wish to visit during our Sunday service. Some of those have decided to stay and join Carrickfergus Vineyard.

Our Sunday morning services continue to meet in Carrickfergus Academy School, Downshire Road. This facilitates a main service, with separate environments for children and youth during this time, and the ability to host a cafe/coffee time afterwards to build community. We have children’s groups for different ages running simultaneously to our church service. Sunday evening Youth gatherings continue in our Town Centre Venue.

We run regular “Hello & Welcome” events to share our vision and values and to integrate those who are interested into the life of our church.

This year to encourage furthering the gospel and advancing the Kingdom of God we welcomed a guest speaker from the charity Hope for Every Home Ireland as part of a Sunday series called “The Invitation.”

To engage with our community and bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Advance the Kingdom of God we run a number of ministries. Some people who attended, or were impacted by these ministries have then decided to join with us at Carrickfergus Vineyard. Below are some examples. A full overview of our community activities and special events can be found on our website at www.carrickfergusvineyard.org

CAP Money course and CAP money course taster session with Horizon Surestart. - Working in collaboration with local primary and secondary schools and our own community relationships, we joined with Carrickfergus Foodbank to ensure that 23 families received a Christmas food parcel in the run up to the festive season. - A Breakfast with Santa event for the local community took place, offering families a free Christmas & Santa experience at Carrickfergus Academy school, with the aim of helping those being impacted by the increase in cost of living. This was attended by over 200 children and their families. - The Living Room — started in June 2023, a monthly Friday evening drop in space was open to encourage connection and tackle loneliness within Carrickfergus. This is a welcoming space for adults in Carrickfergus to relax and have a chat over a cuppa and toast, perhaps even play a board game with others. - Annual October Reach Supper & Storytelling evenings for women in our church and local community. - Tots Tea Room weekly during term time for little ones and parents/carers. We continued to lease our community venue in the centre of Carrickfergus where we run various community activities. These activities are detailed further in this report and are a result of our commitment to our local community.

Building up the Faith of Christian Believers, Training and Education

Sunday Church and Life Groups

Sunday Services and Life Groups continued to meet. Life Groups remained a vital means of connection and grew in number over the year. Life Groups are offered in addition to the practical teaching through Sunday services and empower Church members to live a God-centered lifestyle. We have monthly communion services and termly family gatherings to bring all the generations together to worship God.

Youth

Youth continued to gatherin anumber of environments including Sunday mornings during church and Sunday evenings. We also facilitated a youth “in-house weekend” in our town centre venue where our young people gathered to receive spiritual input and also do outreach into our local community. A number of our young people also attended Summer Madness, a Christian Youth Festival this summer where they made connections with others from different church streams. A group of youth also attended MOVE, a summer camp held near Dublin, where they made friendships with young people of different backgrounds from across the island of Ireland and were encouraged to live out their faith in their everyday lives. Various members of our youth group travelled internationally to take part in mission teams with local youth organisations such as Exodus.

Encounter Nights

Our young adults continue to lead our monthly prayer and worship nights on Sunday evenings in Carrickfergus Academy creating leadership and training opportunities for the emerging generation.

Carrickfergus Vineyard Church (A company limited by guarantee, not having a share capital) TRUSTEES' ANNUAL REPORT

for the financial year ended 31 August 2025

Young Adults

Our Young Adults begana life group designated for their own age group and together attended Cause Ireland, an event run by Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland, again especially for their own stage of life.

Women’s Ministry

As well as our Reach women’s ministry regular supper and storytelling events and coffee and connect evenings, which are very invitational, this year we ran a Reach Spring Retreat, facilitated by a trained spiritual director to build up the faith of the women in our church community.

Leadership

Leadership Essentials - we continued a monthly leadership course in conjunction with Antrim Coast Vineyard Church in Larne. This course is produced by Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland, covering many of the most important and foundational aspects of leadership, it is the perfect place to grow in understanding and insight alongside others from both these churches. Its aim is the development of current and emerging leaders and team leaders.

Special Days

We also facilitate significant occasions in the lives of the church members including our Baptism service in June and Baby dedications in March and October. This year we welcomed a guest speaker from Lagan Valley Vineyard Church to share about the Biblical basis and meaning of baptism. We officiate at weddings and funerals as they arise.

Courses

This year we have run various courses, including the Practicing the Way Course, an on-ramp to spiritual formation, exploring what it means to follow Jesus and laying the foundation for a life of apprenticeship to him.

Prayer

In January 2025 in our Sunday gatherings we had a teaching series called, “Teach us to pray”. We put this into practice not only individually but in our monthly prayer gatherings and with our Easter prayer space in our town centre venue. We also ran the Practicing the Way Prayer course for a group to deepen their understanding and practice of prayer and the Christian faith.

Children and Youth ministry volunteers

Our volunteers receive regular training in safeguarding from our Designated Child Protection officer who is a social worker and various other training to explore subjects such as therapeutic play and neurodiversity.

Family Meeting (AGM)

We hold an annual family meeting open to all who attend our church, where we have presentations from board members on finance and management, and senior pastors on church ministry and activity.

Relieving the Poor, the Needy and the Sick

Carrickfergus Vineyard actively seeks ways to bless and practically serve our community, especially the poor, the needy, young and ald, including those who are outside our church community. Often this is in partnership with other charities and organisations.

CAP UK — Christians Against Poverty UK

Carrickfergus Vineyard has partnered with this charity by way of paying for the training of volunteers to become CAP Money Coaches. These volunteers have been fully trained and authorised by CAP to operate as a money coach and regularly deliver the CAP Money Course. Below is a brief outline of their vision:

Christians Against Poverty is a national debt counselling charity with a network of 190 centres based in local churches. CAP offers hope and a solution in debt through its unique, in-depth service.

In September 2024 we welcomed Jacqui Robb, our local CAP centre manager, as our Sunday service guest speaker to share insight into the work and thank our congregation for their continued support.

Carrickfergus Foodbank

As a church we collect donations monthly for Carrickfergus Foodbank, run by another local church, Jordan Victory Church, and at Christmas time work with them to deliver hampers to those in need in our local community through links with schools and other agencies. We act as a referral agency for the Foodbank on an ongoing basis. In December 2024, we welcomed Alex Moore, the local Foodbank manager, to share their vision and thank our church for their ongoing support.

Carrickfergus Vineyard Church (A company limited by guarantee, not having a share capital) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

for the financial year ended 31 August 2025

Below is an outline of their vision: We don't think anyone in our community should have to face going hungry. That's why we provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to us in crisis. We are part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK.

Links Counselling Service

Links Counselling Service is a charity that exists to make counselling accessible to everyone within the community. They offer professional counselling for children, young people, adults and couples to ensure that no one journeys alone. We are now making two rooms available in our venue, facilitating Links extending their counselling services available to the local community through our venue, by having five counsellors over five days a week. Below is an outline of their service:

The Northern Emotional Wellbeing Service (NEWS) exists to provide talking therapy and mental health support within the community. Our team of counsellors will collaborate with you to ensure that you get the most appropriate form of treatment, helping you to build resilience and learn new mechanisms for coping with difficult emotions and situations.

We have also supported families within our own church community with foodstuffs who have faced financial crisis or illness which has led to extreme hardship for them. As well as being a referral agency for Carrickfergus Food Bank we also facilitate referrals for Carrickfergus BabyBank and are able to assist people in need to access those services.

Community Engagement & Support

Carrick Manor

We have a team from our church who go to a local nursing home monthly to provide a short Sunday service with worship, testimony and bringing joy and hope to the residents and staff.

Tiny Tots Tea Room

This is a time to come along and enjoy some social time together with others from our community, while the young ones play. Tiny Tots Tea Room runs term time, Tuesday mornings, 9.30-11am, meeting in Carrickfergus Vineyard Community Venue. We have tea, toast, treats and toys for mums/dads/carers and their little ones, all are so welcome. We have special events at Easter and Christmas to share the Christian story with our little ones and their families and a Tots Teddy Bear picnic for a fun ending before the summer term.

Living Room

A monthly Friday evening drop in runs in our town centre venue, providing a warm space for people to call in and have supper, chat and games with volunteers from our church community.

School mentoring & support

A mentoring team has been established by one of our pastors, Paul Daniels, in Carrickfergus Academy, a local secondary school in our town, providing a team of mentors from our community to meet weekly with school pupils requiring additional support. This year we worked in collaboration with the school to provide a uniform bank for families who are struggling to provide uniforms for their children, by means of our special Christmas offering.

Book Club

This is again a space to come along and enjoy some social time together with others from the community and discuss the book of the month. Book club meets once a month in combination of online and in person gatherings to facilitate different needs of women in the local community. Some of our in person gatherings include hosting authors and facilitating cinema trips for women from our local community.

Fostering and adoption

We have been working along with the Home for Good charity, believing that the church can make a difference for the children who need a home, raising awareness of the need for foster and adoptive parents. We are a Home for Good church offering a welcoming community for families on this journey. We have started a support group for foster carers and adoptive parents in our local area. Chantel Daniels, one of our pastors, provides input to the Home for Good NI Advisory Board.

Garden of Eden Allotment

Our church allotment is located just behind Eden Community Centre. This is a special place that everyone is welcome to be part of, from pulling weeds, sowing seeds, digging, building fences, chatting and enjoying the space. We grow food for the local community and we grow as individuals in the community together. We have had a spring planting day and a harvest day to teach and help families experience growing their own. The allotment is also made available for use by our local secondary school group.

Carrickfergus Vineyard Church (A company limited by guarantee, not having a share capital) TRUSTEES' ANNUAL REPORT

for the financial year ended 31 August 2025

Community events

This year we have re-started special community events that we ran before Covid, including a Light Party in October half term, a Breakfast with Santa Christmas event and an Easter Egg Hunt. Through these events we make connections with many families in our local area and provide fun events for those who may not otherwise be able to afford such experiences. As well as our own church Christmas Carol service we brought carols and faith to our community with a Christmas Carols event in our local pub.

Other Groups

As well as Links Counselling Service we had other agencies using our Vineyard Venue in 2024-2025.

Women’s Aid

Women's Aid have been using our larger meeting room to host courses with groups of women each term since September 2021.

Social Services

We were able to facilitate contact visits in our comfortable town centre venue for Northern Trust social workers and families.

Summary

It should be noted that the above is not a complete list of activities. However, they do demonstrate Carrickfergus Vineyard is continuing to fulfil its obligations and achieve its objectives.

Structure, Governance and Management

Structure

The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006.

Carrickfergus Vineyard is a registered charity, charity number NIC101536 duly constituted by means of its Memorandum and Articles of Association and operating as a church.

Organisational Structure

Carrickfergus Vineyard is a company limited by guarantee (company number NI604963) as well as a registered charity, in which company directors also form the Board of Trustees. The liability of each Trustee in the event of winding up is limited to £1. The Church is associated with Vineyard Churches UK. The association provides pastoral care for the Senior Pastors and family and external reference concerning church affairs and doctrine.

The day to day running of the church is by the Senior Pastors, Paul Daniels and Chantel Daniels.

Induction and training of new Trustees

New Trustees are appointed when appropriate. Suitable candidates, who are generally, but not exclusively, selected from within the membership of Carrickfergus Vineyard, are considered on the basis of their skills, experience and sympathy with the aims of the church. New Trustees have the opportunity of reviewing appropriate documents, including the accounts as part of their induction process.

Risk Management

The systems of internal control are designed to provide a reasonable, but not absolute, assurance against material misstatement orloss. They include:

Anannual budget approved by the Trustees.
- Regular review by the Trustees of financial reports. - Identification and management of risk.

Financial Review

The results for the financial year are set out on page 12 and additional notes are provided showing income and expenditure in greater detail.

Financial Results

At the end of the financial year the charity has assets of £153,062 (2024 - £130,948) and liabilities of £3,127 (2024 - £4,231). The net assets of the charity have increased by £23,218.

Carrickfergus Vineyard Church I (A company limited by guarantee, not having a share capital) TRUSTEES' ANNUAL REPORT for the financial year ended 31 August 2025 Reserves Position and Policy

Investment Policy

The constitution of Carrickfergus Vineyard Church authorises the Trustees to make and hold investments using its funds. Cash balances are currently held with The Cooperative Bank plc. The Dankse Bank accounts have now closed but were active in the 23/24 year. The Trustees have regard to the liquidity requirements of the organisation and have operated a policy of keeping available funds within interest bearing accounts.

Reserves Policy

The Trustees who served in this period have undertaken the work of the charity, identified the major risks to which the charity is exposed and are satisfied that all appropriate policies are in place to mitigate those risks. Carrickfergus Vineyard maintains reserves in orderto cover fluctuations in income and expenditure, to allow for any major unexpected expenditure, or to mitigate any decline in the overall financial environment.

Trustees

The trustees who served throughout the financial year, except as noted, were as follows:

Laura Jane Farrell Deena Nimick Gareth Harold Hamilton

Steven Milburn

In accordance with the Constitution, the trustees retire by rotation and, being eligible, offer themselves for re-election.

Compliance with Sector-Wide Legislation and Standards

The charity engages pro-actively with legislation, standards and codes which are developedfor the sector. Carrickfergus Vineyard Church subscribes to and is compliant with the following: a The Companies Act 2006 a The Charities SORP (FRS 102)

Carrying On Our Work

The Senior Pastors, leadership team and volunteers of Carrickfergus Vineyard Church will continue to build on the work that is already happening in the church in orderto follow God, to form an authentic community of believers and fulfil the Kingdom ministries left to us. We are going to intentionally see lives transformed by Jesus starting with our own. We will continue to grow and adapt our outreach projects, working with the poor in Carrickfergus, both practically and relationally and we will continue to serve our community as a whole.

We will continue to support our connected charities locally, nationally and internationally by way of ongoing financial support and partnership.

We will continue to operate as a ‘come as you are’ church and be ‘a place of hope’.

Approved by the Board of Trustees on 15 January 2026 and signed on its behalf by:

TrusteeSteven Milburn TrusGare t eeh Harold Hamilton