As we look towards our plans for the next year, we wanted to update you on our financial progress this year, and to reflect on our generosity and stewardship as a church
Review of 2023-2024 Financial Year
WHAT HAVE WE RECEIVED?
In our last financial year (September 2023-August 2024) City Church received a total of £575,000. This included £410,000 of regular giving (a 3.5% increase on the previous year), an incredible £43,000 in our March 2024 gift days and £100,000 of Gift Aid. In total we spent £534,000 against a budget of £542,000, meaning we ended the year with a surplus.
What have we spent?
Here’s how your giving was used in the year to August 2024:
Staff Team (including salaries): £313,000 - 60% of total expenditure
As planned, the majority of our spending has gone toward employing, training and equipping our staff team. People are central to our vision: from preaching and pastoring, to leading ministries and providing operational and financial oversight - our staff team is key to enabling everything we do.
Discipleship: £113,000 - 22% of total expenditure
We’ve spent £94,000 this year to make our Sunday gatherings possible. This covers venue hire, supplies and equipment, with the largest portion going towards the costs of the spaces we meet in each week.
We’ve spent around £8,500 directly on mission and discipleship. While this may seem like a small slice, much of the work of equipping and mobilising our church for mission is carried out by our staff team. This spending supports things like Alpha, marriage courses, and preaching. In addition we’ve spent £10,500 facilitating events such as Commission Festival.
Children, Youth, Students & Families: £11,000 - 2% of total expenditure
£11,000 has been invested into our younger generations. This includes the children’s ministry on Sunday, toddler groups like Little Elms, and major moments such as Newday.
Giving Away: £22,000 - 5% of total expenditure
We’ve continued to give generously beyond ourselves, with 5% of our total expenditure going to other churches and mission partners.
In Bristol, this has included supporting the work of Beloved caring for vulnerable women in Bristol, SixtyOne supporting prisoners and those recently released, and other local needs. Beyond Bristol, we’ve supported church plants, contributed to Encounter Camp, and given regularly to our wider Commission family of churches.
Office, Insurance & Governance: £54,000 - 10% of total expenditure
Finally, around 10% of our budget has gone toward administration and governance. This includes running our office at Fenton Court, resourcing our teams, and ensuring everything we do is safe, accountable and well-led behind the scenes.
This financial year
Gift Days - March 2025
We took up gift day offerings in March 2025 towards our vision of Helping Bristol Believe. One of the ways we will express this is to release 50% of Andy Cottingham's time to support and resource other churches that we have relationships with.
We’re delighted with the response to this, and we have reached a total of just over £70,000 including gift aid! Thank you to each one of you who gave a one off gift, or pledged to increase your regular giving. Each pound given increases our ability to resource other churches like Emmanuel Belfast, Anthem Church Leicester and the South Lakes Plant.
More widely, after two thirds of the year we have received £270,000 in regular donations, which is 1% behind our target for this time in the year.
Our expenditure for the year is on track with our budget. So with our excellent gift day, we expect to spend 2% more than we receive, against a budget where we expected to spend 9% more than we received.
Looking ahead
Each year our trustee team reviews our reserves position, and this is looking healthy. Therefore we are looking to set a budget for September 2025-August 2026 that will continue on the path we have started on.
Our budget plan is to increase our expenditure and respond to what God is doing amongst us. This includes plans to open a house with Hope into Action for vulnerable people, better resource our growing youth group, and to support outreach events at all of our sites.
PLAY YOUR PART
If you are new to City Church and would call this your church family, but aren't yet giving, please consider how you could play a part.
We encourage everyone who calls City Church their home to give as part of following Jesus. This isn't so much about the amount that you give but about your heart for God, and a desire for other people to come to know him.
You can find out how to give at citychurch.org.uk/give or by coming to the Welcome Desk on a Sunday morning.
If you have any questions about finance, or giving, please get in touch with our finance team:
Sarah Todd sarah.todd@citychurch.org.uk
John Cooper john.cooper@citychurch.org.uk
City Church Bristol is a registered charity, encompassing the three sites of City Church (Bradley Stoke, Cotham and Fishponds). Our financial year runs in line with the academic year; from the beginning of September to the end of August. Please note that this report is based on our unaudited accounts. A full audited report will be available later in 2025 when submitted to the Charity Commission.