2024-11-30-accounts

Lighthouse Church Inverness

(Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) Scottish Charity Number: SC052967

Trustees’ Annual Report Period 23/11/2023 to 30/11/2024

Charity Name & Contact information

Your charity’s name: Lighthouse Church Inverness

Scottish Charity Number: SC052967

Charity Trustees

Independent Auditor

Bank

The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, 36 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh EH2 2YB

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Structure, governance and management

Lighthouse Church Inverness is a Non-Denominational Christian Church. It is a Scottish Incorporated Charity Organisation (SCIO) which operates within the parameters of the governing document ‘Constitution of Lighthouse Church Inverness’. The Structure of the organisation is two tiered; Trustees and Members. The Trustees are responsible for the strong governance of the is in place, delegating the daily outworkings of the organisation to the members. Appointment of Trustees is detailed in the Constitution, all trustees are active members of the Church congregation.

The members are a core leadership team of seven who have been identified as well-respected volunteers within the church congregation and appointed on the basis of their long served character and expertise. The core leadership team along with the Trustees are required to give their consent on all matters of the churches daily outworkings, financial decisions, and strategic plan for church activities in accord with the objectives outlined in the constitution.

At this stage we do not employ any staff and all duties are carried out by volunteers from the church congregation.

Trustee recruitment and appointment

The Process of inducting new Trustee includes an introduction to the 2-tiered SCIO structure and an explanation of the responsibilities of the Trustees in accordance with the Constitution of Lighthouse Church Inverness.

Required reading for new trustees includes the statutory guidance available at OSCR ‘Guidance and good practice for Charity Trustees’ the Charity Safeguarding documents specific to Trustees and undergo Trustee Specific safeguarding training.

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Objectives and activities

The Church's purpose as set out in the governing document is the advancement of religion, as expressed by the Christian faith, for the public benefit through:

• The worship of God.

• The discipling of people of all ages.

• Mission and outreach in the communities in which the Church works.

• Education in the Christian faith.

This has been our first year as a Charity and as a Church and we have spent time setting up structures and leadership with the Church. We have a core leadership team responsible of the oversight of the day to day running of the Church and discipleship for the congregation, and the Charity Trustees form part of this team.

Achievements and performance

1. Worship of God / Discipling of people of all ages/Education in the Christian Faith

The leadership team have set out to provide a church environment where the congregation can be supported and thrive in the Christian faith. Some of the ways we have demonstrated the achieved our objections are as follows:

• a. Weekly Sunday Church Service at the Bikeshed, on Grant Street, Inverness. We provide Biblical teaching during our Sunday Services with a good various speakers from within the leadership team and guest speakers from our Network of Churches - Go Global and Christian organisations in the local community such as Scripture Union.

We have seen an increase in the congregation from 15 to 50 on average over the year. During the tail end of the year we saw a increase in kids and youth coming to church and the entire leadership team have undergone safeguarding training in

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response to this. As we move into the coming year, providing a more established kids and youth work in the Church is high on our agenda.

We have been blessed to have a great many people providing the worship for Sunday Morning services and mid week prayer and praise nights.

• b. Once a month Prayer and Praise night at the Bikeshed .

• This is an opportunity for the Church to bring personal prayer in a small group setting. We also provide a less formal worship time alongside prayer and conversation.

• c. Small Bible Study Groups are provided once a month in peoples homes in different locations. We have one established group in Nairn, and we set up a group in Inverness on a midweek evening but due to geographical challenges and poor public transport many of the congregation found travelling into town from surrounding areas challenging. Instead we have made adjustments and in the coming year the church is providing day time Ladies Bible Study group as an option for those who rely on public transport. This has been set up by one of newest members.

d. Whats App Church Group: We have a Whats App group

• which the church use to support each other in prayer or any need on a daily basis. It has proven to be an invaluable tool to support each other in the faith and in life.

e. Leadership Training & Discipleship Opportunities:

We make an effort to provide training for both leaders and those who are looking to be more involved.

• Our network Go Global provide an online teaching school called Global Classroom. Providing biblical teaching from experience bible college teachers to those who want a deeper understanding of the bible. We have paid for

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people in the congregation who want to do an online course with the Global Classroom.

• Christian Leadership Training Weekend away with Go Global at Lendrick Muir. A group of our leaders went to Lendrick to hear teaching from different Pastors.

• In-house Leadership Support: Regular Leadership team meetings are organised to provide teaching and organise church life. We communicate almost daily over a Whats App group which is an effective tool for support and discussion on church matters.

• Safeguarding training provided by 31:8 for both leaders, safeguarding leads and Trustees.

2. Mission and outreach in the communities in which the Church works.

Our first year as a charity has been a year of forming connections with the community in which we operate. That community is Merkinch in Inverness, to paint a picture of the need in our area, Merkinch is

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amongst the most deprived areas of Scotland ranking 8th in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020.

One of the goals outlined in the charitable purposes is to provide ‘Mission and outreach in the communities in which the Church

works’ . As an expression of this we looked a ways to serve and meet the needs of the community where we could, in particular helping the poor and raising awareness that we are there to provide support. And at this early stage in our establishment with few feet on the ground we decided our best efforts could be spent supporting and working with other established organisations in the community already making a difference to the community.

We have particularly tried to connect with Merkinch Primary School , here’s a story to illustrate some of our efforts:

At Christmas time we asked the Head Teacher if there was anything we could donate that would provide help to the children. The Head Teacher suggested that we purchased trainers and wellies for the kids. We provided 25 pairs for trainers and wellies just before Christmas, although this may seem small it made a big difference for those receiving the gifts.

We got this message from the Head Teacher…

‘Thank you very much for all the trainers. One wee girl we gave a pair to was wearing size 12 boots and went home in size 2 trainers.’

Right: Delivering Shoes to kids at Merkinch Primary School, Inverness.

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We also connected with Scripture Union Scotland who have already made a connection in Merkinch Primary School and the feeder Inverness High School. As a Christian Organisation with a similar goals for the school we provided financial support to them to set up a counselling course at the high school, and continue to look to find ways to work together on outreach in the school in future.

Christmas service Outreach

We widely advertised in the community for a Christmas Service which involved Carols, Puppet Stories, Christmas Bible teaching, poems, giving away free turkey sandwiches and festive food, small gifts for Children. Many members of the church took part in the festivities.

Above: Photos From the Christmas Service at the Bikeshed

Financial review

The Trustees ensured good management of the Church’s resources. The principal source of income is regular donations and the congregation.

Total Income was £11115.80

Total Expenditure was £5597.10

Statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

The basic rationale for maintaining reserves is to enable the church to continue to operate by reducing risk of potential short fall in future income, which is 100% from charitable donations and unpredictable by nature.

Over the next year we plan to move to a new venue and this will incur additional outgoings against property rental. In order to do this we must accumulate a reserve.

Details of any deficit

NA

Donated facilities and services

NA

Future plans

Our hopes for the year ahead to move to a new and larger venue which will have the sufficient and appropriate spaces to provide more space for the congregation and additional rooms for a youth/kids church separate from the main congregation.

We plan to further enlarge and strengthen our current activities, reaching more people in new locations. Carrying out additional midweek small groups to disciple the congregation.

We would like to make more connections with the Merkinch community which we serve, in particular working with the children in the community and connecting with the schools, and giving to the poor.

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We plan to be part of a chaplaincy service to the students and lecturers at The University of the Highlands and Islands.

Trustees’ Responsibilities Statement

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The law applicable to charities in Scotland requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the

Trustees are required to audit:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the method and principles in the Charities SORP 2019 (FRS 102);

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the reports and financial statements;

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue its activities.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the provisions of the constitution. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

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Approved on behalf of the Trustees on 24[th] August 2025 and signed on its behalf by:

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Statement of Receipts and Payments Lfighthouse Church Inver R•eèl ts and mènts •ecount• sc 052967 OSCR Sprfinn A SIHtptnpnl nf receip15 and pxyrn¢nts AIR GPNS Re¢eiws Gn>ss I Lindan0￿1￿1 PILreea5 trorn 5aolllye¢ iei• A2 r#t￿lp[ ExwJesToi tMei Gr¢￿ I1￿￿p £5597.10 £5597.10 ot• AJS¥bt•l 5SPT IQ A4$vty¢•twl •lr•e•lptil{p•trii)MtsJ AO Tr•nsf•r4tollfromif¥nd¥ 551171 12

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