2025-04-03-annual-report

Christian Fellowship

Shiloh Christian Fellowship Trustees Report Year Ending 31* March 2025

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Charity Number: NIC109202

Shiloh Christian Fellowship, 101 Skipperstone Road, Bangor, BT20 4EU

Correspondence Address: 51 Lismore Avenue, Bangor, BT20 4XD

The Trustees submit their Annual Report & Financial Accounts for the Year Ending: 31% March 2025

Trustees of Shiloh Christian Fellowship at the date of this report are as follows:

• e Mr Mark Gordon

• e Mr James Anderson

• e Mrs Linda Neill

• e Mr William Morrison

• e Mr Keith Mooney (independent)

Designated Officers

Pastor of Shiloh Christian Fellowship: Mr Mark Gordon

Deacons: Mr William Morrison, Mr James Anderson & Mrs Linda Neill

Authorised Signatory: Mr Cyril Glass

Broad Street Advisory Limited, Chartered Accountants, Bangor

Bank

Danske Bank, Bloomfield Shopping Centre, South Circular Rd, Bangor BT19 7HB

Structure / Governance / Management of Shiloh Christian Fellowship

The structure, governance & management of Shiloh Christian Fellowship consists of the above-named Trustees, Deacons, Pastor & Designated Officer, who have overseen all financial affairs, progressive development & decision-making regarding the Fellowship in this reporting period.

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Charity Number: NIC109202

Shiloh Christian Fellowship Mission Statement

Shitoh Christian Fellowship (hereinafter known as the Fellowship) shall be composed of sinners saved by the grace of God, who unite in Christian Fellowship to advocate the truth of God, to proclaim the riches of His sovereign mercy to the lost and perishing, and by sympathy and biblical counsel to help one another in the Christ-like and heavenward life.

We undertake by the Holy Spirit's help to seek to bear one another’s burdens, provoke one another to love and good works, and in the exercise of a tender-hearted forgiving kindliness, acknowledge each other as members of that mystical body the ‘Church’ of which our risen and exalted Saviour Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, is the Head.

Aims& Objectives

Shiloh Christian Fellowship

• e Holds weekly religious services where individuals, members of the public come together to worship the Lord and hear God's word.

• e We love and support one another by providing care and practical / spiritual support to our Fellowship members & to individual members of the public through our Fellowship activities, which include: - Sunday morning and evening services, and also mid-week Bible studies.

• e We further aim to promote our common faith by regular outreach programmes of evangelism including: -

• ® Street work

• ® Tract distribution ® Door to door evangelism

• ® Other projects to reach the general public with the good news of Jesus Christ

• © Providing registered officiant services to conduct Weddings, Funerals & Thanksgiving services to those members of the public who invite / request us to do so.

Trustees

Trustees meet in their official capacity approximately 3-6 times per year to discuss the general affairs of the Fellowship. These meetings can be increased should circumstances require it.

Trustees also meet at various Fellowship services and can address any matters that may arise. Trustees may also call General Meetings of Fellowship members to discuss the ongoing ministries, projects and associated Fellowship services.

In the most recent meeting for this reporting period (February 2025) the Trustees discussed the following agenda, which we include as a portion of the Trustees Report.

Membership:

A series of meetings took place over 8 consecutive weeks during June & July 2024 to look at the subject ‘Church Membership’, what that means & why it's important. After the completion of the study series, approximately 37 people submitted Expression of Interest forms for consideration of continued membership or new membership to Shiloh.

Shitoh has witnessed our membership / attendance at Sunday morning services increasing to an average of 65/70 people, while attendance at Sunday evening services range between 30-50, with higher numbers at bespoke evangelistic services.

A full list of members and their addresses etc has been drawn up and is kept on Shiloh's database.

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Charity Number: NIC109202

Steering Committee

The formation of a suggested ‘Steering Committee’ is still being developed.

This would allow a number of committed Fellowship members to take responsibility for the oversight and forward planning of current and future planned ministries, projects and outreach programmes.

It was envisaged the ‘Steering Committee’ would be formally elected after the new membership course was completed, however, other pressing matters prevented this.

We anticipate this will happen in autumn /winter of 2025.

Charities Commission NI

Trustees recognise the need to prepare their Annual Report and Financial Accounts etc for submission to the Charity Commission NI for the 2024/25 reporting period. The Trustees therefore approved Broad Street Advisory Limited, Chartered Accountants to prepare the financial statements.

Building Maintenance

New Roof: The membership agreed it was necessary to replace the flat roof of the Fellowship which had not been done since we purchased the hall.

“Roofguard Services’ were approved to complete this work in September /October 2024. All costs etc are recorded within Shiloh’s Annual Accounts.

Electrics: In January 2025 to comply with Health & Safety regulations, all electrics (lights, heating, Emergency Exits etc), were replaced, upgraded by BASE Electrical.

All costs etc are recorded within Shiloh’s Annual Accounts.

Seating: The membership approved the replacement of all seating in Shiloh and 100 new chairs were purchased.

All costs etc are recorded within Shiloh’s Annual Accounts. Interior / Exterior Painting: In March 2025 the entire building was painted. All costs etc are recorded within Shiloh’s Annual Accounts.

Sunday School

After some considerable time planning approval was granted for our new Sunday School.

L&G Contracts (Upper Ballinderry) were approved to build the new structure.

By the time of writing the report, although the cabin has been completed, it has not yet been delivered to our site as we were held up by NI Water from whom we required approval for toilet facilities.

This approval eventually came through and we hope the new Sunday School will be delivered in August 2025.

Partial costs (deposits etc) are recorded within Shiloh’s Annual Accounts. Outstanding balances will be paid once the work is complete.

Sound Equipment

To date we have not been in a position to upgrade our music / sound equipment. itis envisaged this will take place in autumn / winter 2025.

® Weekly Services

Shiloh continues to provide a Morning Service every Sunday morning and an Evening Service once a fortnight. Itis hoped that very soon we will be in a position to provide weekly morning and evening services. Our Wednesday night Bible Studies continue x3 per month, and 1x per month a general Prayer Meeting occurs.

All of these services have seen a notable increase in numbers attending.

Opportunities for other members etc to conduct Bible Studies have been taken up and various members have provided interesting and uplifting content.

Shiloh’s Morning and Evening services continue to be ‘livestreamed’ via social media and are also available on YouTube.

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Charity Number: NIC109202

These draw significant viewers from the immediate locality, nationally and internationally.

® Satellite Bible Studies

Emanating from our services and attendee / membership, a number of satellite Bible Studies continue to take place in various homes, supporting young Christians and others in their understanding of the Word of God.

One study continues to be conducted via WhatsApp on a fortnightly basis with 4 project team in Pakistan which is very well attended.

® Prayer Meetings

In addition to our monthly Wednesday evening Prayer Meeting, Shiloh also provides an opportunity every other Sunday morning for members to attend an early morning Prayer Meeting prior to our main Morning Service.

® General Meeting Of Members A new members meeting took place to welcome everyone into the Fellowship and to reinforce the commitment associated with membership of Shiloh.

® Evangelistic Services In this reporting period we have not held any specific ‘evangelistic meetings’ such as ‘Testimony Nights’, but we endeavour to do so by the next reporting period.

OtherProjects& Ministries ® Spring Into Summer / Awesome Autumn Aid / Good News for Winter Blues

This single project which changes its name based on the season of the year, runs on a Thursday afternoon. The project is open to members / attendees of Shiloh and the wider community to come along and engage in the activities taking place, which can range from crafts, to quizzes, darts to storytelling. It is an Opportunity for local people to come in for a cup of tea / coffee and a chat. This project receives a nominal annual budget for basic running costs / materials.

in this reporting period numbers attending have increased and further individuals have benefitted from our ‘Community Purse’ (see below) which provides financial support to members or local people in need.

© Community Purse

The leadership team has again agreed 10% of the weekly income received from voluntary offerings / donations given to Shiloh would automatically go into our ‘Community Purse.’ This is specifically used to help people from our congregation or the local community who may need assistance with costs toward oil, gas, electricity, food or other concerns. More people have accessed this service provision.

® Care Team Shiloh continues to have a small number of members committed to providing home / hospital visits to members of the Fellowship who are unable to attend services or who are admitted to hospital.

© Crisis Intervention Support By continuing to provide direct / indirect crisis intervention and support for individuals and families experiencing problems with drug / substance abuse, a number of our members offer counselling and / or sign-posting services to other professional agencies.

® Weddings, Funerals, Baptisms / Thanksgivings Our registered officiant is our Pastor: Mark Gordon, who is responsible for conducting weddings and the completion of Marriage Schedule information for the General Registrar's Office. He is also called upon to conduct numerous Funeral Services annually which can take place at Shiloh or in other funeral churches, funeral homes, private residences or Belfast Crematorium.

In addition to these ‘Baptism Services’ take place annually.

In this reporting period (2024/25) Shiloh held one general baptism service for 10 individuals.

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Our ‘Thanksgiving Services’ correspond to what others call ‘Christenings’, however Shiloh does not support or endorse infant baptism.

© Website Administration

Shiloh’s website (www.shilohchristianfellowship.co.uk) is regularly updated to inform our members and the wider community. The site is hosted by Kyber Digital Limited.

® Pakistan /Myanmar / Moldova / Adopt a Child individual members of Shiloh continue to support various mission projects with small financial donations which includes our Pakistan Outreach Project providing food hampers to very poor families in ‘Brickworks’ across the Farooqabad region of Pakistan.

This project has seen an increase in personal donations from individuals allowing us to help more poor people and to enable the team to extend their evangelistic work.

Shiloh Christian Fellowship also donates a small amount annually toward the POP team and their work. The Myanmar Project is again funded by individual donations to help purchase food for those experiencing conflict in Myanmar. This work is quite small but impacts in a big way. We hope to develop this outreach in the coming year.

Support for the Moldova Project is in the form of small gifts given by individual members toward the work being carried out by a former member of Shiloh in that region.

We had the privilege of hosting a meeting with the Moldova Team whom we support, when they travelled back to Northern Ireland on furlough.

Shiloh donates an annual amount to this project.

Itis hoped in the near future an evangelistic team from Shiloh shall visit Moldova to help with the projects. An invitation to the new Northern Ireland Co-ordinator for Adopt A Child will be sent out in the autumn to allow those who support this project to get first-hand knowledge of the work taking place among children in Guatemala and Peru.

Future Potential Projects

® Men’s Mental Health Group

Shiloh continues to consider establishing a new Men’s Mental Health Group to provide a safe space for men suffering from mental health issues (including addiction), where they can meet together to talk through their concerns in an environment where they are not judged but feel strongly supported. Part of this project may involve creating a polytunnel where clients / users can learn to grow plants and vegetables as part of a holistic approach to therapeutic recovery and transformation.

® Preachers Class

Because Shiloh is growing and to ensure the work / ministry can continue into the future, it has been proposed that a training / education program be set up to train those interested or who feel called to preach the gospel. This project will encourage individuals to prepare and deliver sermons, both within the Church and also during street evangelism.

In this reporting period a number of trial preaching opportunities have been extended to individuals within Shiloh, and this work is beginning to bear fruit.

© Residential / Nursing Homes Prior to Covid 19 and the government restrictions imposed, Shiloh provided a number of short gospel services in various residential / nursing homes in Bangor and Holywood.

Although we anticipated this ministry to begin again within this reporting period it has not yet been possible to gain access to the homes, or to provide this service.

® Children’s BLAST Weekend We expect to hold a Children’s BLAST (Being Light And Salt Together) weekend of events in July 2025 to launch a new beginning of our children’s work and ministry.

® Safeguarding Training In line with our new Sunday School opening in autumn of this year, Shiloh will provide Safeguarding Training. 6 Charity Number: NIC109202

Shiloh also expects everyone involved in the children’s ministry to be Access NI cleared to do so.

0 First Aid Training

As our Fellowship grows, it was suggested it would be beneficial to have a number of designated ‘First-Aiders’ trained to assist in the event first aid may be required.

This will take place in the next reporting period.

Conclusion

The Trustees of Shiloh Christian Fellowship believe we continue to meet the public benefit requirement by providing benefit to our members and the wider general public through the advancement of religion: namely the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ: salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, for all (or any) who will confess their sins, repent and trust in Jesus. Although the gospel of Jesus can offend, there was no intentional harm caused by its proclamation, nor any intentional harm was caused by the pursuit of our charitable purposes, nor was there any private benefit to any individual/s.

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Signed & Dated ‘4
Mrsames Anderog —tansa (Puclvase. £o" RUGS T 202°
Mrs Linda Neill:Pe a” ee 7 /o.™bho 225
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Mr William Morrison: pholohs ee.10 |? 2 [(20]
Mr Keith Mooney: fillies, ee 20 ae
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Charity Number: NIC109202