Trustees Handbook - July 2023

TRUSTEES’ HANDBOOK

July 2023

1 Manor Farm Barns, Baines Lane, Seaton, Oakham, LE15 9HP

t: 01536 201339

e: enquiries@churchgrowth.org.uk

w: www.churchgrowth.org.uk

CONTACT DETAILS:

Church Growth Trust

1 Manor Farm Barns, Baines Lane, Seaton, Oakham, LE15 9HP

t: 01536 201339

e: enquiries@churchgrowth.org.uk

w: www.churchgrowth.org.uk

Church Growth Trust is the operating name of Church Growth Trust Limited, a registered charity no. 1138119, and a company limited by guarantee no. 07352319, registered in England

1.0 Purpose of Trustees’ Handbook

The purpose of the Trustees’ Handbook is to help existing and potential trustees understand:

• What Church Growth Trust is and does;

• How Church Growth Trust’s governance works.

2.0 Church Growth Trust’s Story and Foundations

2.1 History

The roots of our work are in the work of Stewardship (previously UKET and East of England Evangelization Trust), which was set up in 1906 with its original sole purpose to hold Brethren church properties. Giving Services, along with a number of professional services, such as Accounts Examination, Payroll Bureau and Charity Formation, are now the main ministry of Stewardship. The trustees of Stewardship in 2010 therefore made the historic decision to separate the property and trusteeship services to a new charity that would be focussed on this property-related ministry. Church Growth Trust is this new charitable company, registered with Companies House and the Charity Commission. We also obtained from the Ministry of Justice our Trust Corporation status, so we can hold trusteeships of properties.

Although we have historic connections with Stewardship, we are an independent charity, set up as a charity for the purpose of holding church properties and with trust objects specifically designed to encourage church growth and church planting of independent evangelical churches in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The trustees of Church Growth Trust have a clear vision, not only to hold Brethren and other independent church properties, but to see the resources held by the charity used for planting, growing, resourcing, connecting, inspiring, enabling and equipping independent evangelical churches. This is a ministry with roots in the past and a vision for the future.

2.2 Vision

As the name suggests, we aim to offer not only property and trusteeship services but also ways of helping churches to grow. Our vision is:

"We aspire to glorify God by securing for Gospel use independent church properties and together with churches making them fit for their God-given purpose.”

2.3 Mission

We aim to fulfil our vision by:

1. Holding and accepting independent church properties (as owner or trustee) and:

• Blessing churches which occupy our buildings by granting concessionary rents;

• Helping these churches to keep their properties in good condition, compliant with legislation and suitable for modern church use, including helping to fund building projects;

2. Providing professional property and architectural services and guidance in church practice and governance, including encouraging churches to make best use of their properties;

3. Supporting church planting and revitalisation of independent churches.

2.4 Values

At the heart of our approach to everything we do are our four core values of:

• Generosity

• Relationship

• Integrity

• Excellence

These values undergird the way CGT’s Trustees and staff behave, carry out the work of CGT and deal with each other and anyone CGT works with. These values guide the way we behave and give us standards to measure ourselves by. Each of us has a part to play in shaping the way we do things, based on these touchstones.

2.5 Statement of Faith & Practices

The Statement of Faith, to which all trustees express commitment, and the church practices the trustees are expected to support are contained in CGT’s M&As and are set out in Appendix 3 below.

2.6 Ethos Statement

CGT has an Ethos Statement, which is linked to its employment policies. Even where there is not an Occupational Requirement for a member of staff to be a committed and practising Christian, there is an expectation for all members of staff to be able to sign the Ethos Statement.

3.0 Governance

3.1 Legal Structure and Status

Church Growth Trust Limited is a company limited by guarantee. Such companies have members (rather than shareholders) and directors. The directors are the charity trustees. In CGT’s case the members and the directors (trustees) are always the same people. New trustees are appointed by the existing trustees and they automatically become a member of the company. CGT is also a registered charity and is therefore subject to both company and charity legislation. CGT is licensed by the Lord Chancellor as a Trust Corporation, which allows it to act as Custodian Trustee and Corporate (or Sole) Trustee of charities (and more particularly property Trusts). The principal documents of governance are the Memorandum and Articles of Association. All the trustees’ authority is derived from it. Trustees also set out governance policies. Wherever there might be a conflict between governance policies and the M&As, the M&As are authoritative.

Under the Charities Act 2011 the trustees are responsible for controlling the management and administration of CGT. However, they have delegated certain responsibilities (as set out in the policies) to the Chief Executive and, as set out in the relevant committee briefs, to various committees. The Chief Executive alongside the Operations Director are empowered to put into place such management and operational structures as considered necessary, in consultation with the board of trustees. Responsibility for operational decisions rests with the Chief Executive.

3.2 Board of Trustees

3.2.1 Size and composition

The optimum size of the board of trustees is viewed to be between six and ten. A blend of backgrounds, skills, age, gender and race is sought.

3.2.2 Qualities required

Qualities required in new trustees would be as follows:

• Spiritual maturity and Christian commitment. They would be expected to subscribe to CGT’s Statement of Beliefs and be involved in a local church.

• Understanding of and a commitment to the work of CGT – to see the value of CGT’s work, to be passionate about it. Ideally a trustee would have a Brethren or independent church background.

• Skills and experiences in areas that would be beneficial to the work of CGT.

3.2.3 Availability

The trustee would need to be available for the regular trustees’ meetings, which are at present four times a year, including one 24-hour strategy session (usually in April), two online (via Teams) meetings in February and October, and an in person meeting next CGT’s office in Rutland. A trustee would also be expected to have some committee involvement, reading of papers, email correspondence for interim decisions and occasional extraordinary online Teams meetings.

3.3 Trustees’ Knowledge and Skills

The following fields of knowledge and range of skills are recognised as strategically valuable for CGT.

• Property – legal and general;

• Charity governance;

• Finance – accountancy, investment, treasury & general finance;

• Strategy –general and IT;

• Senior church and mission leadership;

• Media - PR, new/digital media & general media;

• Insurance;

• HR;

• Education.

The aim is to include these within the Board of Trustees as far as possible, within the constraints of keeping the number of trustees to a reasonable size. Knowledge and skills can also be made available through non-trustee members of the Board of Trustees and sub-committees. Appendix 4 shows the current staff and trustees’ skills matrix.

3.4 Staff

There are at present eight members of staff. The organisational chart is shown in Appendix 1 and at present is fairly straightforward, with the Chief Executive being accountable to the Board of Trustees and on a day-to-day basis with the Chairman of Trustees. The Operations Director reports to the Chief Executive and the Property

Manager (four days a week), Architect (full-time) and Office Administrator (who is also the Chief Executive’s PA) (full-time) report to the Operations Director The Property Administrator (three days per week) reports to the Property Manager and the Cleaner/Administrator Support (1.5 days per week) reports to the Office Administrator

Any new staff appointments at present require the Board of Trustees’ approval. The recruitment, interviewing etc will normally be carried out by the Chief Executive and Operations Director and, where appropriate, supported by one or more trustees, being signed off by the Operations Committee. Any disciplinary issues will also need to be authorised by the Board of Trustees.

Policies have been agreed by the Trustees to allow the Chief Executive delegated authority. The Chief Executive (and as appropriate with other members of staff) is expected to generate and formulate vision and strategy, to be influenced/honed and agreed/ratified by the Board of Trustees.

4.0 Role and duties of Trustees

The general role and duties of the Trustees are set out below:

4.1 Board Role

The essential role of the Board of Trustees is summarised as follows:

• Agree ethos, vision, mission and major policies of CGT;

• Agree the strategic direction of CGT;

• Monitor performance;

• Ensure major risks are identified and managed;

• Ensure compliance with legislation;

• Approve annual budget and capital expenditure programme;

• Approve annual report and accounts;

• Appoint, support, review performance and plan succession for the Chief Executive;

• Set terms of reference and authorities for the sub-committees;

• Set role descriptions for Board Offices.

4.2

Duties of trustees as company directors (Company Act 2006)

• To act within powers;

• To promote the success of the company in achieving its charitable purposes;

• To exercise independent judgment;

• To exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence;

• To avoid conflicts of interests;

• Not to accept benefits from third parties;

• To declare an interest in proposed transactions or arrangements

4.3 Additional duties of Trustees under Charity Law

• To act in the best interests of the charity;

• To secure the proper and effective use of property;

• The duty to act personally

4.4 Drivers of Board Performance

4.4.1 Role clarity

• Strategic and policy level (i.e. not managing).

4.4.2 Capability

• Relevant skills and knowledge;

• Sufficient time and engagement;

• Size and structure of the Board of Trustees serves and does not hinder capability.

4.4.3 Processes

• Quality of information provided;

• Quality of focus of Board attention;

• Quality of meetings and decision-making processes;

• Quality of sub-committees and other delegated structures.

4.4.4 Behaviours

• Both support and challenge;

• Transparency and open discussion;

• Confidentiality;

• Conflicts of interest handled properly.

4.5 Induction of new Trustees

When new trustees are appointed there is an induction process whereby the Trustees are given information about CGT, copies of minutes of past meetings, information on the role of trustees, a copy of an expanded version of this Handbook and are offered other training as appropriate.

TRUSTEES AND STAFF

TRUSTEES

Neil Walker (Chairman)

Paul Withams

Susanna Sanlon

Neil is married to Christine and has until recently devotes much of his time to the church in Walsall in the West Midlands where he was an Elder. Most of his career has been spent as an educator in a variety of settings, and he continues to do some work with a number of local schools. He is a Director of Partnership UK, Trustee of a number of local Almshouse Charities, serves on the steering group of the Future & Hope Network and was previously a Trustee of the Midland Evangelization Trust.

Paul is married with two grown up sons and is a member of Tile Kiln Church Chelmsford having held a number of leadership roles over the years primarily in premises management and administration. He is now retired following a 35-year career in Information Technology having latterly worked for the UK services arm of the Japanese company Fujitsu. His main hobby / interest is sound engineering, both for studio recording and live events.

Susanna is married and lives in Tunbridge Wells. She has two sons. Susanna grew up in a Brethren church in Nottingham and was baptised there as a teenager. Since marrying her husband, Peter, she has worshipped mainly in Anglican churches. She serves alongside him as he ministers at Emmanuel Anglican Church, Tunbridge Wells which was planted from their former Church of England church. Susanna is a Chartered Town Planner and has worked in private practice for over 20 years, working on a range of projects, from entire new communities to small scale individual dwellings. She has worked on numbers of church projects, assisting local churches wherever she can. Susanna is a busy mum, minister’s wife and planner – juggling the responsibilities of each of these roles. She enjoys time with her family, walks, board games and coffee with friends. Her sons have recently caught the bug for supporting Nottingham Forest, so she has happily been making more frequent trips back to her home town in order to cheer on the reds with them.

Richard Canham

Richard took early retirement from the retail finance industry in November 2014 in order to spend more time on charitable activities. Richard currently lives in Enfield and is part of Albany Church, where he served as one of the church leaders for over 30 years. He is also a trustee of other organisations including Counties (Chairman), and a trustee of several local churches.

Richard Jones

Richard is married and lives in West Derby, Liverpool and has two grown up daughters. He has been an active member of West Derby Evangelical Church since childhood. Serving as Elder and Trustee since 2002, Richard has been encouraged by the growth of the church, the faithfulness of its people and the positive work in the community. As a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Richard has worked in the construction industry since 1989 delivering a range of consultancy services for public and voluntary sector organisations. A particular expertise is in education building consultancy for local authorities, dioceses and multi-academy trusts. Recently he has managed over £1bn of expenditure on schools for central government with global consultancy Arcadis. Richard also runs a small property rental business. Loving the outdoors, Richard enjoys travelling with the family, walking and long distance bicycle rides.

Dan Leafe

Dan is married to Susie. They divide their time between Bristol- where Dan's work as a barrister is based and Cornwall where Dan is one of the leaders of the Anchor Anglican Church, Fowey. The Anchor is a church plant outside the structures of the Church of England, Dan and others having made a decision to leave their parish church in 2019. It is part of the Anglican Network in Europe. Susie is the director of a charity called Anglican Futures which offers pastoral and practical support to clergy and laypeople with their "Anglican Future". Dan and Susie's spare time is spent in all things Cornish - boats, beaches, food, football, and traditional singing. Most of all though, Dan is a tennis fanatic.

Giles Arnold – Chief Executive

Giles is married to Sue with two adult children. He is a Chartered Surveyor. He has been managing Church Growth Trust since its inception in 2010 and before that worked for Stewardship. Although not now involved in the day-to-day management of its church buildings, he has knowledge of these and the occupying churches. He leads the expanding team and is regularly meeting trustees and elders of independent churches, who are considering how Church Growth Trust can help them with their properties. He works with other sister organisations on a national basis, including with the Living the Passion conferences, church planting work and revitalisation of churches. He also specialises in advice on church and charity buildings, such as guidance on major projects, advice on leases and help with unravelling Trust Deeds. He has led a local independent evangelical fellowship and is involved in leading, preaching, training, mentoring and discipling in his current church.

Garryl Willis - Operations Director

Garryl is married to Louise and has four children. He joined Church Growth Trust in the summer of 2018 following holding a senior management position in Christian youth charity in the Northamptonshire, and a background in the banking finance sector. He is involved in his local church and leads the worship team in this growing Pentecostal church. In his spare time, he enjoys being with his family, walking and making use of many musical instruments that fill his house.

John Duffield – Property Manager

Jonny Heaney - Architect

John is married to Caroline, a water colour artist, and they have two married sons and two young grandchildren. He is a qualified Chartered Surveyor and most recently worked as Development Manager for a FTSE 100 company. At his local church he is involved in home group leadership and playing the piano or organ most Sundays. He loves sport (watching rugby and following American football – the New York Jets), playing golf off a 26 handicap and swimming. He also enjoys walking, listening to music and reading.

Jonny is married to Emma and they live in Ketton, Rutland along with their cocker spaniel Clyde. Jonny is a Chartered Architect. He attends his local Church in Ketton and is involved with the village volunteering scheme. In his spare time Jonny enjoys hill walking with his wife and dog, as well as going on trips together in their camper van.

Mandy Harris - Administrator

Mandy has worked as Administrator for CGT since 2010. She has two grown up children and lives in Rutland. Mandy is a member of a community choir, who specialise in African music and perform for charity and at local events.

Sharon Short – Communications Manager

Sharon is married to Andrew and lives in Rushton, Northamptonshire with her 2 daughters. She coupled her love of writing with marketing and has spent more than 20 years helping a wide range of organisations enhance their marketing and communications efforts. More recently, her experience within the marketing sector led her to run her own consultancy business. Understanding the independent church community is a critical part of Sharon's role as it helps us to continuously improve our services and resources. Sharon also loves sharing the good news about the work we are doing! Sharon enjoys reading, live music, swimming, and interior design in her spare time. She attends her local church in Rushton and volunteers as a governor at the village school.

Elaine Roberts – Property Administrator

Elaine is married to David and has grown up twin children. She has worked as an administrator for many years, most recently within HR and the learning and development sector. Elaine and her husband are pastors of the Kettering site of a large, lively charismatic church based in Northampton. She is also involved in women’s ministry for her church. In her spare time, Elaine enjoys going to dance classes, learning the piano, trying out new cooking recipes and taking her cockerpoo, Tilly, on long walks.

Carol Brown – Cleaner/Administration support

Carol is married to Bernie and together they have two adorable cats...she loves her cats! Initially, Carol joined CGT to fulfil the role of Cleaner when the office moved to Seaton, as she was looking for work having just moved to Corby. In the past Carol worked in various Administration Assistant positions and is currently enjoying working part time with us as an assistant to Mandy, helping out with general admin duties. Carol and her husband attend a lively Pentecostal church and they enjoy helping out at some of the various courses and activities that are run there. They lead the Refreshment Team on a Sunday every week and they are responsible for the volunteer rota. She enjoys taking photos, making greeting cards, drawing, making up personalised poems and anything crafty!

DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES

The Statement of Faith, to which all trustees express commitment, is contained in CGT’s M&As and is set out as follows:

We believe and promote the following doctrines:

1. The Scriptures – The Divine inspiration of the Bible and its consequent entire trustworthiness and supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. (The Biblical injunction and model for marriage is a relationship given by God, reflecting the relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church for the good of mankind as laid down in Genesis 2:24, Mark 10:6-9, Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Timothy 3:2 and elsewhere in the Bible and it is restricted to the union of one man and one woman who commit in love to one another to the exclusion of all others.)

2. The Godhead – One God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – eternally existing in three distinct but equal persons. The sovereignty and grace of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, in creation, providence, revelation, redemption, sanctification, and final judgement.

3. The Lord Jesus – The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God was born of a virgin. His death on the cross and the shedding of His blood were substitutionary in character and constituted a propitiatory sacrifice. His death is the only ground of reconciliation and redemption from the guilt and power of sin and its eternal consequences. He was raised from the dead in bodily form and has ascended into heaven where he presides as head of the church and ministers as high priest for His people. His personal and visible return in power and glory will consummate the believer’s salvation and establish His glorious kingdom.

4. The Holy Spirit – God the Holy Spirit illuminates the believer. He is responsible for the work of regeneration and sanctification. He indwells every believer and this begins at the time of conversion. He empowers for godly living and spiritual service. It is the responsibility of every believer to be filled with the Spirit.

5. Man – Man was created sinless but through temptation by Satan became sinful and thereby brought the whole human race under the just condemnation of God and eternal separation from Him. Eternal salvation for mankind is through repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ. Justification is by grace alone.

6. The Church – The priesthood of all believers in the Lord Jesus who are members of the one, eternal and universal church, which is the body of which Christ is the head. The church is committed by the command of Christ to proclaim the gospel throughout the whole world.

Trustees would be expected to support certain church practices, which are set out in CGT’s M&As as follows:

The Practices – Each local church is composed of professed believers and is autonomous in government. It has as its model the New Testament practice of plurality of leaders equipped with appropriate spiritual gifts.

There are two ordinances of the church, these being the baptism of believers by immersion on personal confession of faith in the Lord Jesus, and the remembrance of Him in the regular observance of the Lord’s Supper, in obedience to his command.

The widespread distribution and exercise of spiritual gifts; regular meetings for worship, prayer, teaching, and fellowship; outreach to the locality; and involvement in world mission.

APPENDIX 4 – STAFF AND TRUSTEES’ SKILLS MATRIX

1 Some basic knowledge (and possibly some minor practical experience).

2 Practical experience and understanding of area

3 Professional qualification/good experience.