Finance Annual Report
September 2023 - August 2024

Dear Friends,
On behalf of the elders here at Emmanuel, we wanted to start this report by thanking you for another year of ongoing generous giving towards the work of Emmanuel church. Your commitment to the church continues to be a constant source of encouragement and evidence that God is with us and He is at work amongst His people.

We have continued to ‘Make Jesus Known’ at every opportunity by preaching the gospel and extending the love of God to all we meet. We take the words of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations very seriously as we help people on the journey of being transformed into the image of Christ.

I was particularly grateful for the amount the amount given towards our Time to Plant Gift Day in the summer of 2024. These monies are helping to continue to establish the churches that we work closely with in Belfast, Krakow and London Bridge. We were also able to send a gift to Wycliffe Bible Translators to assist their work across the nations.

At a local level, we are now in the third year of training people through the Emmanuel Institute which has only been possible through your giving. Also, as a result of our Care for our City campaign, we continue to operate Food Banks at our various locations, support men and women in our housing projects, work with the local authorities to develop well-being initiatives, and support vulnerable families.

In addition, we are grateful to God for the large numbers of people attending Alpha each term. There are now additional courses running at our Oasis and Hove sites. We continue to see people being baptised and joining the church family.

Encouragingly, our offering target for the new year ahead has been exceeded in the first two months of the period, but overall last financial year's offering continued to be very steady, enabling us to budget and steward with confidence and faith.

Below, you will find a financial breakdown of how we have stewarded the resources that God has given us during our Financial year, September 2023 - August 2024.

Thank you again for your generosity. Let us continue to partner together for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the extension of His kingdom both locally and in the nations.

Very much love,
Neville Jones

We’ve been moved by the stories of those encountering Jesus in fresh ways. From September 2023 to August 2024, 24 people responded to the gospel, 27 took the powerful step of baptism, and we joyfully welcomed 44 new members into our family across all four locations.

In this season, we saw 439 people sign up for 8 Alpha courses, each one taking a bold step toward exploring faith. And because we believe life is meant to be done in community, we launched 140 small groups over three terms—creating spaces where growth and connection could thrive.

This year, we also welcomed two new site leaders—Matt Simmonds at our Villas location and Mike Spence at Shoreham Centre. Their leadership has already begun shaping and deepening our community.

FINANCIAL YEAR OVERVIEW

Here’s the finance update for Emmanuel, covering the Clarendon Trust and its subsidiaries across all three Terms (full financial year - 2023/2024). This includes Emmanuel church, its trading subsidiary, Clarendon Spaces (event hire, cafes, etc.), and our support of other churches within Newfrontiers, our wider family network. It also covers our work with the poor and disadvantaged through our Care for Our City projects under the governance of the Friends First and Oaks Trusts.

Income and Expenditure between September 2023 and August 2024

For this period (Terms 1, 2 & 3) overall General Fund income (including Emmanuel, Sphere, Newday and the trading sub) was £1,802k and related expenditure was £1,846k meaning we had a deficit of £44k for the period.

Gift Campaign income was £390k and we also raised other income such as food bank grants leading to total income in our Designated & Restricted funds of £426k.

Due to a difference in the amount of Gift Campaign funds raised, spending of Gift Campaign funds raised in the previous year, and spending from long-term property funds, the overall Designated & Restricted funds balance decreased by £169k.

Consequently, total expenditure was £2,406k compared with income of £2,193k resulting in a total deficit of £213k which, as noted above, was mainly due to spending of funds raised from Gift Campaigns in previous years.

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE

Where did our income come from?

This shows our actual income between September 2023 and August 2024 in detail. As you can see, the majority of it was offering income.
Gift Aid is where we claim the tax back from the government from members’ giving. It effectively boosts the amount you give.

What did we spend money on?

Notes on the expenditure in the list above

Admin/Finance/IT: Insurance, phones, IT, audit, payroll costs, and salaries.
Communications: Live stream investment, video production, design work, and salaries.
Leadership: Travel expenses, conferences, external speakers, team gatherings, and salaries.
Ministry to Church Members: Pastoral needs, intern training, counselling, students, youth, and salaries.
Properties: Utilities, maintenance, repairs, and salaries.
Sunday Costs: Worship, production, venue hire, kids work/videos, transport/storage, and salaries.
Care for our City: Care initiatives, Baby Basics, Friends First and salaries.
Trading Subsidiary: Cafés, lettings, and salaries.
Church Planting and Newday: Grants to church plants, travel expenses, gatherings with church planters, contribution to Newfrontiers, and salaries.

GIFT CAMPAIGNS

In addition to our General Fund offering income, we also went ‘above and beyond’ in our giving with funds raised in Terms 1, 2 & 3.

In Term 1 our Care for our City giving campaign raised a total of £140,066 for our social action projects across the Friends First and Oaks Trusts, in the areas of Food Insecurity, Housing, Family Life and Wellbeing.

In Term 2 the Time to Build giving campaign raised a total of £126,019 for our people and buildings, namely a subsidy towards the Weekender 25 and maintaining our properties, plus supporting our youth at Newday 25.

In Term 3 the Time to Plant giving campaign raised a total of £124,109 for supporting our church plants in Krakow, London Bridge and Belfast, and making a gift to Wycliffe Bible Translators, and to Newfrontiers, our wider family network.

All the figures in the report are preliminary figures which have not yet been audited.

Please feel free to direct any questions you may have, or any suggestions of information you feel may improve these termly updates to the finance team.

accounts@weareemmanuel.com