2025-11-30-accounts

Lighthouse Church Inverness

(Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) Scottish Charity Number: SC052967

Trustees’ Annual Report Period 01/12/2024 to 30/11/2025

Charity Name & Contact information

Your charity’s name: Lighthouse Church Inverness

Scottish Charity Number: SC052967

Registered Address: 24 Simpson street, Nairn, IV12 4 NT

Email: [e-mail]

Charity Trustees

1. Mrs Alison Hanna

2. Mr William Prentice

3. Mr Stephen Spriggs

Independent Auditor

Alistair G Taylor FCMA, CGMA 6 Thurston Road, Pontypridd CF37 4RH

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 ensuring that there is strong governance of the church 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 based on 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.

We have one member of paid staff who provides Admin support. This person is also an active member of the church congregation. Any other duties are carried out by volunteers from the church congregation.

Trustee recruitment and appointment

The Process of inducting a 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 second year as a Charity and as a Church and we have spent time expanding upon our existing structures and leadership with the Church. We have a core leadership team responsible for 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 achieved our objectives 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 variety of 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 a stable attendance in the congregation of around 50 people on average each week. We also have a steady

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attendance of kids and youth attending each week. As we move into the coming year, our aim is to provide a more established kids and youth work in the Church.

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

We have an established Ladies Bible Study group that operates during the daytime on a weekly basis. This is well attended and also provides pastoral care to the ladies in attendance. We have established a Men’s Fellowship group that runs biweekly in the evenings which is also well attended and provides pastoral care to the men in attendance.

We have a 2no. new house bible study groups meeting in Nairn and the BlackIsle.

We are looking to establish more of these local study groups as the church continues to grow.

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Photo From a Service at the Bikeshed with Apostle Peter Anderson from Go Global

• d. Whats App Church Group: We have a Whats App group which the church uses 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. This group also allows us to keep our church community informed about what is happening in the life of the church, reminders for various events and giving opportunities for people to serve their community in our outreaches.

e. Monthly Worship Practice

This was implemented to give our Worship and Sound Team space to practice leading worship together whilst also growing in fellowship together. We have seen new people sign up to serve on our Worship Team and these practice sessions have given them the opportunity to become part of the Team before serving on a Sunday morning. We also have a new volunteer Sound Engineer who works cohesively with the Worship Team to provide the best possible sound quality on a Sunday.

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We are looking forward to recording the audio messages and then sharing those via our website. This will enable the community we serve who are unable to attend on a Sunday to receive sound biblical teaching and still feel part of our church community.

f. Monthly Wee Gathering of Ladies

• This group is led by a member of our church community. The group runs monthly on a Thursday evening for ladies. They do not have to be part of our church congregation to attend the meetings. There is usually a visiting speaker from the various ministries in and around the Inverness area. This is a time to share a meal together, worship together and hear inspirational stories, pray for each other and encourage one another in the Christian Faith. The lady who organises this group has a heart for evangelism and as a church leadership team we support and encourage others to pioneer these new outreaches.

g. Leadership Training & Discipleship Opportunities:

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

• Our network Go Global provides 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 people in the congregation who want to do an online course with the Global Classroom.

• In-house Leadership Support: Regular Leadership team meetings are organised to provide teaching and organise church life. We communicate almost daily over a What’s 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.

• Go Global Leadership Conferences where all leaders within the Go Global Network gather together for training

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and fellowship. We pay for our leaders to attend this conference to further their growth and skills in leadership

h. Admin Support Appointment

We have appointed someone to offer Admin/Media Support for the church. This person is an active member of our church congregation and offers support in all aspects of administrative tasks. This support assists our leaders by releasing them from these tasks enabling them to focus their time on pastoring, mentoring, support and outreach within our church and wider community.

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

Our second year as a charity has been increasing our 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 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 at 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.

Christmas Vouchers for the poor

During the Christmas period we provided gift vouchers to people within our community. These people are struggling to keep afloat financially, and the Christmas season can be an especially difficult time. The vouchers we provided them enable those families to stock up on food and buy gifts for their children that would have otherwise gone without.

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As a church we seek to support those who are finding life difficult and struggling to make ends meet financially.

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 festive food, small goody bags for children. Many members of the church took part in the festivities. As we have

seen an increase in children attending, we were also able to put on a small Nativity.

Easter / Summer Outreach

We have outreaches to our local community planned for the Easter season and also in the summer holidays. This enables us to reach families who are in need of support at help. These events will bring the Christian faith to meet them where they are, offering sound biblical teaching, prayer and also practical ways we can support them as families in the community we serve.

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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 £15,817.89

Total Expenditure was £10,446.65

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 and the new Christians that have joined us.

We would like to make more connections with the Merkinch community which we serve, in particular working with the children in

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the community and connecting with the schools, and giving to the poor.

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

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and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Approved on behalf of the Trustees on 30[th] August 2025 and signed on its behalf by:

Alison Hanna (Charity Trustee)

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Statement of Re￿iptS and Payments sc 052967 OSCR Recei ts and ments accounts seCtTr￿ A 5￿ten￿l ol recwpts payTWIts •70 X4kY

Tr)Tty￿a £10.446 65 £10,446 65

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