Finance Report for 2025
Doing church costs money. There are the obvious things that feel ‘churchy’ - hiring the hall for the Sunday Service, running a soup kitchen, supporting missionaries, youth work and so on - and then there are very mundane things that have to be paid - insurance, police checks, stationary, batteries for the PA system. These don’t seem very spiritual but are essential to continue to do what we do.
All our income comes from members of the church, so we think it’s important to share how the money is being used, how this connects with our purpose and vision, and any needs we might have. This report is to allow donors to know what we’re doing with their giving and also, I hope, help people who might not currently contribute to the running costs of the church think about whether they might want to start.
Income and Expenditure Since 2020
Income
Our income for 2025 was £138,040. This was marginally up on 2024’s income of £134,650. The majority of our income comes as Gift Aid donations, which are from individuals who have registered with the Gift Aid scheme, so we also receive the income tax on the value of their donation. We received £102,210 as Gift Aid donations in 2025 and it meant we received an extra £25,570 from HMRC.
The rest of the income was £2,550 from non-Gift Aided donations and £7,705 as miscellaneous income, which includes bank interest and payments for activities and such.
Expenditure
Our total expenditure for 2025 was £132,270, so we had a net income of £5,770.
To help us have a clear understanding of where we’re spending our money we categorise our spending into five areas. These are explained in more detail below, but here’s how the different areas make up our expenditure.
Employees - £84,160 or 64%
The reason our expenses chart looks like a Pacman is because our staff bill is by far our biggest expenditure. Currently we employ me (full-time) and Sarah (2.5 days a week) as pastors, Adam Porter (1 day) as Assistant Pastor and Ken Brown (6 hours a week) as Finance Officer. Rachel Cock worked for 2 days a week as our Operations Manager until the middle of October.
Since Rachel left we have less than 2 full-time equivalent staff and this does impact what we’re able to do. Our plan for 2026 is to recruit Associate Pastors instead of continuing the Operations Manager role. This change will mean that more administration will have to be shared among the staff, but we believe a role that is more ministry focussed will help us do what we’re already doing better as well as take hold of new opportunities. There’s more about this in the ‘Looking Forward’ section.
Church Activities - £24,760 or 19%
This category is for the costs of doing ‘churchy’ things we want to do - the Sunday Service, developing and supporting leaders to lead Hubs and run ministries, children’s and youth work and so on.
The Sunday Service is our biggest cost, including things like hiring the school, the refreshments and equipment. This year we had to replace the projector for the Sunday service at a cost of £2,900 (although it does have a 10 year life span!) We also spent £750 replacing worn out PA equipment and £260 upgrading the software we use in the Sunday Service. We also include the cost of editing the video resources for Hubs into the Sunday Service cost and in 2025 this came to £1,280.
Here is a breakdown of some of the costs in this area:
Sunday Service £12,270 (includes school hire, hospitality and equipment)
Children’s Work & Messy Church £2,750
Youth Work £3,370
Leaders’ Development & Support £1,750
Website & design costs £780
Charitable Contributions - £14,180 or 11%
These are funds we give away to individuals or organisations who are doing works that align with our charitable aims. We aim to give away at least 10% each year.
This includes the 5% of our income that goes to Vineyard Churches for training and church planting. This 5% contribution is a requirement for all Vineyard Churches.
In 2025 we also supported the Dugmore family in their work with YWAM in Southern Africa and the Wisbey family for their work with Wycliffe for community development in Asia. Locally we gave financial support to Exeter Foodbank, CARRIE (the Refugee House project we do with Network Church and Belmont) and Exeter YMCA.
We spent £1,300 on food and equipment to run the Monday night Crossline team serving the vulnerable and homeless community.
Legal & Financial - £5,220 or 4%
These are the costs associated with compliance and includes the cost of our annual accounts, bank charges, the costs for doing police checks on children’s helpers, and payroll services. We spent £1,940 on the insurance we need to cover our activities.
Church Admin - £3,950 or 3%
This category is for church things that happen behind the scene - stationary and printing costs, phone bills, office supplies. This year we needed to replace a laptop that was so old it had stopped working with Google Drive, an essential digital tool we use.
The Budget and Plans for 2026
As the trustees prepared the budget for 2026, the big decision was to fund the post of Associate Pastor. Reshaping our staff team like this has been something we’d been talking and praying about for a while and this felt like the right time.
As this is a bigger role, with more hours and greater responsibility, even without the wages for the Operations Manager role, the cost will be higher than last year. We planned the budget with the most costly possibility (the most hours and to start as soon as possible) and the 2026 budget has a deficit of £14,000.
It’s great we finished 2025 with a net income of £5,770. This adds to our ‘savings’ - the reserve we hold in the bank. At the end of 2025 we had just over £40,000 in general fund reserves. We are required by charity law to have enough for three-months essential running costs, which is £24,000.
The trustees aim to prepare the budget with a mix of wise financial planning and faith in God’s provision. We head into 2026 planning to dip into savings and with just enough in reserves to cover the two-year contract on the Associate Pastor post.
This choice has impacts on what else we do. There are certain core elements that are hard to change - the Sunday Service, staff wages, insurances and so on. We then have to make choices about activities, their priorities and cost to make a plan for what we will do and the budget. We really feel the Associate Pastor role will help us move the church forward - improving what we already do and taking hold of new opportunities.
But this does mean there are no funds for some things we might like to do - staff training, church parties, leaders’ retreats, youth weekends - and also for some things we always try to do - for example, we usually give staff an inflation linked pay rise, but this is on pause for now.
I think we’re running a really efficient church. The fact that only 7% of our spending goes on Administration and Legal costs shows how focused everything is on ‘doing’ church. I just checked the figures for 2016 (they happen to be the oldest I have on my computer) and that year our Administration and Legal costs were 14% of our expenses. This was because we had an office, a photocopier lease, and utility and broadband contracts. In 2025, working with less money (our 2016 income was £163,370), we’ve tightened our belt and reduced costs to ensure we use our resources for the purpose God has given us.
Our Income and Giving
Over 2025 our Gift Aid income came from 35 different donors (some of these may represent a couple). Every penny donated is gratefully received and is used for the church, but these numbers do indicate that there are a number of people who make no financial contribution to the work of the church.
We’ve never made donating a condition of membership (and never would), but if you feel you benefit from being part of the church family and don’t currently give, maybe you could think about why this is and consider contributing?
If you already give, as we step out in faith for the next chapter of Exeter Vineyard, perhaps you could prayerfully consider your giving. Maybe God will nudge you to contribute a little extra and, if enough people do this, we might be able to move more comfortably through 2026 and be better placed to support what we already do and also to do new things as God leads.
Jesus consistently says our attitude to money and our ability to be generous is an indicator of the condition of our heart. Sometimes we might not feel like giving away our ‘hard earned’ cash or we might be afraid of going without, but it is often through generosity we increasingly learn to trust God with finances and experience his provision.
Giving can be in any method. You can give with cash or cheque at our Sunday services - put it into the black box (ask if you can’t find it) - but the simplest method is by online bank transfer. If you would like our bank details please click here or ask on a Sunday Service.
You can give regularly - many people do it monthly by bank transfers - or on an ad hoc basis. If you want to give by Standing Order get in touch.
It is really helpful if you can let Ken Brown, our Finance Officer, know if you make any donations or changes. You can email him on finance@exe.vin
If you give and are a UK tax payer, but aren’t signed up with us for Gift Aid then registering will increase your donations by 25%. This is a really helpful scheme and you can register very quickly online by clicking here.
If you have any other questions, comments or suggestions about the church finances, feel free to get in touch.
A note about the figures in this report: All the values in this report are taken from our bookkeeping software and rounded to nearest £10. Every year we have our accounts independently examined for the Charity Commission and you can see these professional prepared accounts on the Charity Commission website. However there is a 9 month delay on this document. This report is to give a timely overview, ordered in a way that makes sense of the church activities