impact report

2015-16

Introduction
Our aim is to bring people into a vital relationship with
Jesus Christ. We do this through various ministries which
work locally, regionally and beyond. The church measures
progress in each area on at least three dimensions:
numerical participation, volunteer hours committed,
and financial growth and stability. Stirling Baptist Church
organises ministries based around the ACTS organisational
acronym. This document is to communicate to you the
impact of our activities over the last year.

Rev. Dr. Alasdair Black

thanks to all our

volunteers
The church could not deliver the range of activities
in furtherance of its aims without the consistent
and generous time committed by a large number of
volunteers. We estimate that at least 50% of adults
who regularly attend worship also volunteer in some
significant capacity and we are hugely thankful for all they
give.

Adults
Community
Teenage, Children & Students
Support

Adults
Through our adult ministries we provide opportunities
for people to worship and grow in their faith, engage in
spiritual reflection and reflect on their own beliefs. As with
all SBC ministries, our activities are open to all who wish
to join with us regardless of background, race, sexuality or
religion. There is neither charge nor a mandated offering
amount. We measure performance by consistency or
growth in numbers attending regular worship, and
numbers engaging in discipleship and personal spiritual
development activities.
Throughout the week there are many discipleship
focused activities which take place for adults. Over and
above our regular prayer triplets and 22 small groups, our
congregation also takes part in mens events, womens
events, book clubs, craft club and groups such as XS which
is for over 65s and has an average weekly attendance of
45.

sunday morning
average
attendance
2014-15
347 adults
sunday volunteers
amounting to approx.
2,500 3,000 hours
per year

2015-16
358 adults

Public Worship happens twice on each Sunday morning

and once each Sunday evening throughout the year.
We are extremely blessed to have so many volunteers
who support each service through being part of our
stewarding, musical, audio, visual, floral, creative, welcome,
prayer, communion and refreshment teams.

pastoral visits
We have a number of groups and individuals who commit
there are approx 1500
to pray and are part of our prayer ministry team, prayer
volunteer hours per year
chain and prophetic team as well as particular prayer
given by our 6 regional
initiatives which focus on our community and church.
pastoral teams

small groups
2015
255 people
2016
304 people

Community
We seek to build and strengthen community life and
to bless our city through a number of social action
programmes.
Lifeway is a worshipping community
for those with additional support needs
which meets each Sunday following the
second service, with an average weekly
attendance of 35. We celebrated its 50th
birthday this year!

50 years

The Haven serves the community living in the Top of the

Town area of Stirling, an area with recognised social need
and deprivation.
The Haven aims to support the community through: social
action initiatives, such as a fruit & veg barra, homework
club & breakfast club; community engagement through
numerous clubs for youth & children; spiritual care with
our midweek service and Alpha course. We believe all
three of these together are pivotal in giving hope and
transformation and have over 30 volunteers to achieve our
work engaging over 100 people each week.

backchat school
listening service
24 children
impacted
per week
Volunteers donate
165 hours each week
to the community,
or 8,000 hours each
year
Family Life Centre provides access
family life
to a range of support services for
centre
individuals and families including:
supports 150
individual counselling, marriage
people per
counselling, addiction counselling,
week
play therapy, vulnerable parents
network, creative expressions and more - often working in
partnership with other agencies.
City Centre Chaplaincy is a
contacts made
counselling/advisory/signposting
each week
support service for those who work
daily in the city centre, primarily
Average
those working in the retail trade.
50 people
This work is funded jointly by Stirling
Baptist Church and Workplace Chaplaincy Scotland and
operates 5 weekdays per week.

Regional and Overseas

Callander is a supported Regional Expression of the
church. With grant assistance from the Baptist Union of
Scotland for three years (commenced June 2014) we
appointed a part-time pastor to minister to the town,
working alongside members of the church and other
Christians living there. The group also meets regularly for
bible study, prayer and worship.
Refresh is a monthly series of
Refresh
lunchtime seminars open to all who
approx 50
live or work in Stirling, covering a
attendees
wide range of topics from global
per month
issues to personal health and
wellbeing; a sandwich lunch is
provided. The whole project is run by volunteers (approx.
20 hours per month).

We seek to support those called to work in the United

Kingdom and overseas to share Gods love for all
people and share the Christian faith. We support those
in fellowship with the church who are called to teach,
alleviate poverty, improve health outcomes, combat
people trafficking, etc.
Mission Partners are formally approved and adopted by
the membership. During 2015-16 the church supported 6
Mission Partners based in England, Wales, Africa, Thailand,
and Indonesia. In addition we supported 5 Mission
partners based in Scotland.

Corporate Partners are charitable mission or parachurch

organisations at home and overseas that the church
supports financially. During 2015-16 there were three
Corporate Partners:

Cambodia Hope Organisation (CHO)
Alpha courses are run annually in both Murray Place and

Baptist Missionary Society (BMS)
The Haven: numbers vary from year to year and in the year

Baptist Union of Scotland
2015-16 we estimate there were a total of 11 guests. This
was facilitated by a team of 13 volunteers who worked
54,972
around 600 hours leading, catering and supporting the 2
Donated
to national &
courses.
overseas ministries

Teenage, Children and Young Adults ministry

We see the under twenty-fives as a key area of our church.
We provide a regular, age-appropriate programme of
meetings, events and activities which seek to provide
children and young adults with opportunities to engage in
spiritual reflection and to develop and reflect on their own
beliefs. A weekly array of programmes are run for each age
group, 0-12s being part of our childrens ministry, 12-18s
youth, 18-25s, students and young adults.
Children
From Sunday morning worship programmes to mid-week
kids club and toddler groups, we desire to see our children
grow as individuals, both in faith and in life.

Volunteers donate
177 hours each week
to under 25s, or
6,000 hours each year

children &
young people
207 per
week

Each year we also run a Holiday Club during the summer

holidays (which is very much appreciated by the parents!)
During the course of the week we see around 60 children
attending each day. Along with subsidised places on
Scripture Union Holidays for children from the Top of the
Town, we want to encourage our children to develop a
personal faith in Jesus.
Youth
No matter how a young person comes into contact with
SBC, we want to make sure that they will be encouraged
and able to develop and grow in their faith.
Our weekly drop-in youth cafe, provides a home-fromhome for around 60 of our most vulnerable people per
week.
The Level One Surgery comprises a programme of courses
(e.g. Romance Academy, Youth Alpha) to encourage
teenagers to consider lifestyle, morals, ethical issues and
faith; depending on the particular programme we would
usually see 12 to 15 participants.
Through our discipleship focused small group programme,
we offer opportunities for our young people to mature
their spiritual understanding and commit to personal faith.

Support Ministry
Students
We believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each
students time here. We run monthly Student Collective
events to build community and allow students to begin
conversations on some of lifes biggest issues, as well as
making sure that students feel at home here, by providing
Host Families who help them integrate into the life of the
church. Students also contribute a significant amount in
volunteer hours to the life of our church.
level one - winner!
premiers love
britain & ireland
awards for youth
& childrens work
2015-16

most
youth
2015
youth

innovative
work in the
christian
work awards

sources of income

offerings 359,468
gift aid 73,419
charitable activities 32,026
donations & gifts 24,903
grants 23,058
other 6,652

total 519,526

Our Support Team are the (often invisible) force that

enables all of our other ministries to operate: we are
enormously appreciative of their contribution and can do
attitude. In addition to paid staff (office, finance, cleaning,
caretaking) we have a large force of volunteers who
undertake office and finance related work, decorating
and painting, catering, stewarding and more. Ensuring
that the church and all who use it are supported and
protected appropriately is a top priority: Health and Safety
Committee, regular plant maintenance and safety checks,
PVG (Protection for Vulnerable Groups) administration,
monthly management accounts, weekly news sheet,
website, lets and bookings management these are just a
few of the many, many areas of Support Ministry work.
2015-16

expenditure
staff costs 304,072
local ministries 92,748
property & resources 83,334
national & overseas 54,972
governance 5,166

total 540,292

Stirling Baptist Church

67 Murray Place
Stirling, FK8 1AU
t 01786 450581
w stirlingbaptist.org