Disciples Church Springfield is a public, not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and registered as a religious institution.

It was officially incorporated on 17 December 2010.

ACN: 147 916 818

Disciples Church Springfield is a member of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches.
www.fiec.org.au

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It is with much thanks and praise to the Lord that we have the privilege of presenting the 11th Annual Report for Disciples Church Springfield. Thanks for taking the time to have a read. We hope you will find this report of our church's activities in the 2021 calendar year encouraging and inspiring.

God has certainly provided for us and protected us during another year where world events were dominated by efforts to control the coronavirus pandemic COVID-19. The protectionist approach adopted by the Queensland State Government saw our state borders locked down for large parts of the year. There were fewer lockdowns than in 2020, with the big emphasis on getting everyone vaccinated before the year's end when borders would be opened up again.

Owning our building once again emerged as an advantage in 2021, and resulted in only a minimal number of Sundays where we had to revert to online services.

What encouraged us more than anything else was to see evidences of spiritual maturity developing in the lives of our people, consolidating much of the Gospel application endeavours we have been focussing on in recent years. This gives us confidence that seeing the multiplication of some of our Missional Community Groups is not far away, which will increase our capacity to minister to more people into the future.

At the same time, growth in our children's and youth ministries is auguring well for the possibility of a "harvest" among our young people, which again is something we have been praying for.

We look forward to meeting together for our Annual General Meeting on the 21st March, where we will seek to glorify God for His amazing faithfulness to us.

God bless you,

The DC Elders.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and it feels like the world is no better prepared to face what's coming next than we were back in the beginning!

The sermon series from the Book of Revelation in term 4 of 2021 helped us to put it all into some perspective. We are living in "the Last Days," and until Christ returns, we are going to see the "seals", the "bowls" and the "lamps" having their way in the world. At the same time, the Holy Spirit and the Church continue the work of the "harvest", as the number of those being saved are added to the Kingdom.

No wonder that John says:

The pandemic has been a great reminder for us to focus on the things that are really important. The things of the world - both good (material things, achievements, etc) and bad (pandemics, wars etc..) - are not going to last. So, as followers of Jesus, we want to make the Kingdom of God our focus, because it will last into eternity.

Seeing that "bigger picture" is so helpful in how we evaluate the effectiveness of the ministry of the Church, and the ministry of our own personal lives.

Grace and peace,

In 2021 the Elder Board was made up of the Chairman, Pastor Greg Gardiner (BMin), and Pastor Anthony Sligar (BTh), David Machin (BSc), and Nathan Rule (BRTP). We have three men on an Elder preparation track and are praying that we will make further additions to our Elder Council in the years ahead. Hannah Simpson served as our Company Secretary.

While 2020 was the year of lockdowns, 2021 became the year of vaccinations as governments turned their attention to vaccinating the population. International travel was not possible, and interstate travel was often restricted. In Queensland, the border remained closed for most of the year. As a result, there were very few outbreaks of the Coronavirus, and so there were only a few Sundays across the whole year where we were directed not to meet and where we resorted to online content instead.

While we were able to meet most Sundays we had to operate within the State Government mandated COVID-Safe Plan, which meant that if anyone had any COVID-like symptoms their whole family could not attend services. This meant that Sunday attendance figures varied quite markedly from month to month, and meant that our average attendance declined for the second year in a row. This did not represent a loss of people from the church family as our total number of active people remained stable across the course of the year.

In an attempt to better prepare newcomers to DC (from other churches) for participation in one of our Missional Community Groups, we introduced a new process in 2021. This process involved being part of what was ultimately referred to as an "MCG Prep Group" which was led by Greg & Fiona Gardiner. The content and structure of the group was refined across the course of the year, and we had our first graduates at the end of term 3. By the end of the year, Prep Group evolved to include (i) a Gospel review by going through "A Cross Centered Life", (ii) an understanding of MCGs by watching a series of Soma School videos, (iii) an overview of MCG life by going through the "MCG Launch Guide", and (iv) working through our Membership Info Session videos. In future, it will be possible to complete this content in 6 months (2 terms), with on-ramps available four times a year (at the beginning of each school term).

In 2021 we realised our long held ambition to consolidate our loan funds into the Bendigo Bank loan, paying out the $150,000 loan from the Marbeh Trust. The consolidated loan with Bendigo Bank has a loan term of 15 years.

Despite all the continued economic uncertainty brought on by the COVID pandemic, we recorded another strong year of growth in our tithes & offerings, which increased by 10% compared to 2020. This was a major blessing and enabled us to increase the remuneration paid to our pastors to almost a full-time salary. This has been one of our recent goals, and so to make some significant progress on this front is tremendously satisfying, and for which we give thanks to the Lord for the faithfulness of our members.

We finished the year with a technical surplus of $63,693 which was used to pay down the principle on our mortgage. At the end of the year our (consolidated) loan amount stood at $848,870.

Body Corporate expenses rose in 2021, and will rise again in 2022 as the centre continues to deal with the fallout from the hail storm damage in 2020 and the subsequent effect this has had on our insurance premiums.

During the course of the year, we contributed funds towards Nations Church Forest Lake for operating expenses, and to The Fields Church (Bowral, NSW) for new chairs. We also provided "in-kind" support to Nations Church Forest Lake and Restoration Church (formerly The Project Church) in Toowoomba.

In November we participated (for the first time) in the National Church Life Survey. The results of this survey will be available in 2022.

While we carry the responsibility to oversee the life of the church corporately, it is never far from our minds that Disciples Church would not be able to do anything without the active participation of its members. We ask you to diligently pray for us, that the Lord would grant us the wisdom and guidance to shepherd the people of our church faithfully and well.

The Elder Board.

In some respects, it has felt a little quiet on the church planting front. The restrictions brought on by the COVID pandemic have meant that there has been little opportunity for conferences and travel generally, so some of the usually encouraging events around church planting have not been possible for almost two years.

And yet, there are churches in the Acts 29 Church Planting Network that have been planted even during COVID. It hasn't been an easy road, with momentum hard to come by. But God has been faithful to see new works established and primed for more active outreach once the pandemic restrictions ease.

For Nations Church in Forest Lake, the timing of the COVID pandemic could not have come at a worse time. And yet, a faithful core group has persisted through all the challenges of getting established, and they finished 2021 in a solid position, ready to engage with more people as restrictions allow.

Our financial support for Nations Church came to a conclusion at the end of June. This was an extension on the original timeframe to factor in the effects of the pandemic on the church's projected growth. With thanks to the Lord we can report that Nations Church finished the year in a sound financial position.

They now meet in the Forest Lake State High School after moving on from the Salvation Army facility they launched in, which was sold.

At the Leaders Retreat in August the Elders decided that future church plants within a reasonably short driving distance from Springfield should start as Missional Community Groups that become a separate church once numbers have reached a viable point.

If life in our Missional Community Groups through the week is "the cake," then our corporate gatherings on Sundays really are the "icing on the cake"!

We are well served by our Worship Collective bands, who bless us each week leading us in song. We were encouraged with a range of new music across the year, as well as some of our traditional favourites.

We continued with our 8:30am and 10:30am service schedule, and increasingly we are seeing the cross-over time between services becoming a time of rich fellowship.

Staff and Elders spent some time earlier in the year exploring what other options existed in Springfield that might allow us to have everyone together for just one service on Sunday morning. The auditorium at the University of Southern Queensland campus was a strong option, however they were not able to provide enough ancillary spaces to cater for our relatively large (and growing) number of children, so we did not take up this option.

We have resolved, for the time being, to continue with our present building at Spring Lake Village for Sunday services until a better option comes along.

Average attendance at Sunday services dropped in 2021 by 9% compared to the year before. This was the second year in a row where we recorded a drop in attendance numbers. We are confident that this decline is solely due to issues around restrictions and sickness caused by the COVID pandemic. In the same time, the number of people on our "active" database has remained stable, and our income has increased, so this would suggest we have not lost people.

Our preaching series in 2021 consisted of the following:

• Psalms - our ambition is to preach through the entire 150 Psalms over the course of several years. We added 9 sermons to this series in 2021.
• Faith Foundations - during terms 1 and 2, Pastor Greg Gardiner preached through the book of Romans.
• Supreme & Sufficient - in term 3 Pastor Anthony Sligar preached through the book of Colossians.
• Revelation - in term 4 we tried something new, using video sermons from Pastor Matt Chandler (Acts 29 President and Lead Pastor of The Village Church in Dallas Texas) from the Book of Revelation. This was received very well, and although we have no plans for more video preaching in the near future, it certainly did not put us off the possibility of doing so somewhere down the line.
• Unexpected Christmas - this was the theme of our Christmas services in 2021.

There is some excellent ministry going on in our Missional Community Groups. However, we seem to be struggling in our desires to develop new leaders so that we can increase our number of groups. For some years now we have had five groups, and that's the number we finished with in 2021, not counting the new MCG Prep Group.

In 2020 we identified discipleship as one of the key areas that needed attention, if we were to develop future leaders who could lead new groups. While we have endeavoured to prioritise "life on life" discipleship since Disciples Church was planted, what we have lacked was a systematised form of reproducible discipleship. That is, discipleship that could easily move from one generation to the next.

In 2021, we introduced a refined discipleship structure, redefining the DNA acronym to stand for Discover (God's Word), Nuture (your heart), and Act (in repentance and faith). Our Missional Community Group leaders were trained in leading discipleship DNAs, and encouraged to see people in their groups equipped to lead their own DNAs. The aim is to have multiple discipleship DNAs running in every group. The idea is that people who become skilled at leading a DNA are possible future MCG leaders.

But of course discipleship is only one part of the life of any Missional Community Group. We also strive to be doing Outreach (where we share the Gospel with those who don't yet know Jesus), and Care (where we love each other well). In 2021, our groups once again demonstrated practical love and care for one another during the pandemic, and dealing with other life crises. And they continued to maintain and develop connections with many not-yet-Christians, building relationships by engaging in ongoing social interactions that we pray will develop into opportunities for sharing the Gospel and people ultimately coming to faith in Jesus.

Playgroup happened on the first Thursday of the month throughout 2021. While mums with bubs and toddlers have opportunities to meet in their MCG groups in other weeks of the month, Playgroup affords them the chance to all meet together at the DC Building for a time of play and fellowship.

Creche runs during each Sunday service as essentially a child-minding service for those aged 1-ish up to the time when they would start Kindy.

DC Kids ran during both Sunday services each week for Kindy age through to Grade 6. We are thankful for the many people who serve faithfully on rosters each week to provide this ministry to our young children. We continue to use the Gospel Story Curriculum, and 2021 saw the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament studies.

Four kids finished up their time in DC Kids at the end of the year and move onto youth group participation in 2022.

As always, participation by DC Kids in the Christmas Eve service was a highlight at the end of the year.

There were some exciting developments in the Disciples Church youth ministry in 2021 when, for the first time, we were able to achieve the offering of both strands of youth ministry which has been our ambition since the church was planted.

CLUB ran on Friday nights during school terms, mostly at the DC Building. This is for any High Schoolers who want to attend and aims to provide a fun, friendly, safe environment where the Gospel can be heard and mentoring relationships established. Momentum for this program built across the course of the year, and it was encouraging to see many of our "church kids" feeling comfortable and excited about inviting their friends from school to come along.

4Real is the discipleship program for our youth and happens via Zoom for those kids who are keen about following Jesus and wanting to study and learn from His Word more. Online ChildSafe protocols were developed for this program and sessions for boys and girls were run each term.

Camps - the year started with our traditional summer camp at the Luther Heights camp at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast. Matt Price from Nations Church was the keynote speaker for the week.   

All four of our regular Biblical Conferences went ahead in 2021. In February we held Biblical Marriage featuring Adam & Kristina Ramsey (Liberti Church Gold Coast) as keynote speakers. In May we ran Biblical Womanhood with Beck Sligar and Fiona Gardiner presenting keynote talks on the topic of being "Beautifully Distinct." "Men of God" was the theme for our Biblical Manhood conference in August with Greg Gardiner, Anthony Sligar and Nathan Gilmour (Restoration Church Toowoomba) as our keynote speakers. Our final conference for the year was Biblical Parenting in November with Greg & Fiona Gardiner our keynote presenters for the day.

Occasionally, people experience issues that need a little more intense follow-up than what is offered in our Missional Community Groups. This is when our pastors and their wives offer Biblical counselling. At the heart of Biblical counselling is the task of helping people to apply the truths of the Gospel to their specific circumstances.

In August 2021 we were back to the Mount Alford Lodge Christian Retreat Centre for our annual leaders retreat. This was a rich time of encouragement, planning and prayer. Elders were able to review multiple policy issues, staff were able to plan ahead for 2022, and our Missional Community Group leaders burned the midnight oil praying for each other and for fruitful Gospel ministry in our groups.

The Springfield Carols made a welcome return to Robelle Domain in 2021. After the online version in 2020 (again, due to the pandemic restrictions) we wondered if it might take a few years to build the crowd numbers back up. But no, it was the biggest carols ever with an estimated 8,000+ people in attendance. The theme was Absolutely Everybody and Alabaster Theatre was engaged to provide the nativity story. A new production team significantly increased the production standards, and a Gospel message was preached at the end before the big fireworks finale.

We have audited the attached special purpose financial report of Disciples Church Springfield for the year ended 31 December 2021. The Committee is responsible for the preparation and presentation of the financial report and the information contained therein, and have determined that the basis of accounting used is appropriate to the needs of the members. We have conducted an independent audit of the financial report in order to express an opinion on them to the members. No opinion is expressed as to whether the basis of accounting used is appropriate to the needs of the members.

The special purpose financial report has been prepared for distribution to the members of the Association for the purpose of fulfilling the Committee’s accountability requirements. We disclaim any assumption of responsibility for any reliance on this report or on the Financial Report to which it relates, to any person other than the members, or of any purpose other than that for which it was prepared.

Our audit has been conducted in accordance with Australian Auditing Standards. Our procedures included examination, on a test basis, of evidence supporting the amounts and other disclosures in the Financial Report, and the evaluation of significant accounting estimates. These procedures have been undertaken to form an opinion as to whether, in all material respects, the Financial Report is presented fairly in accordance with the requirements of the Associations Incorporation Act.

The audit opinion expressed in this report has been formed on the above basis.

As is common for organisations of this type, it is not practicable for the Association to maintain an effective system of internal control over Tithes and Offerings until their initial entry in the accounting records. Accordingly, our audit in relation to fund raising was limited to the entries recorded.

In our opinion, subject to the effects of such adjustments, if any, as might have been determined to be necessary had the limitation discussed in the qualification paragraph not existed, the financial report of Disciples Church Springfield. presents fairly the financial position at 31 December 2021 and the financial performance of the Association for the year then ended in accordance with the basis of accounting described in Note 1 to the financial statements.

RAJ PRABHU
Director - Audit
CPA, Registered Company Auditor

Date:  17 January 2022

This financial report is a special purpose financial report prepared for use by the members of the committee.

The members have determined that the entity is not a reporting entity. The financial report has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the following Australian Accounting Standards:
AASB 1031: Materiality
AASB 110: Events Occurring After Reporting Date

No other applicable Accounting Standards or mandatory professional reporting requirements have been applied.

The statements are prepared on an accrual basis. They are based on historic costs and do not take into account changing money values or, except where specifically stated, current valuations of non-current assets.

The following specific accounting policies, which are consistent with the previous period unless otherwise stated, have been adopted in the preparation of these statements:

(a) Revenue Recognition
Revenue is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable. Amounts disclosed as revenue are net returns, trade allowances, rebates and amounts collected on behalf of third parties.
Donations are recognised as received from the Church members. No receivable exists for donations.

(b) Income Tax
The activities of the entity are exempt from taxation under Sec 50-5 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

(c) Cash and cash equivalent
Cash and cash equivalent includes deposits held at call with financial institutions , other short- term , highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and which are subject to an insignificant risk of changes in values, and bank overdrafts.

(d) Property, Plant and Equipment
Property, Plant and Equipment are stated at historical cost less depreciation. Historical cost includes expenditure that is directly attributable to the acquisition of the items. Subsequent costs are included in the asset’s carrying amount or recognised as a separate asset, as appropriate, only when it is probable that future economic benefits associated with the item will flow to the association and the cost of the item can be measured reliably.

Depreciation has been charged on the Building at 2.5% during the year.

(e) Goods and Service Tax (GST)
Revenues, expenses and assets are recognised net of the amount of associated GST, unless GST incurred is not recoverable from the taxation authority. In this case, it is recognised as part of the cost of the acquisition of the asset or as part of the expense

We start with thanks to the Lord Jesus, our Redeemer and King, who loves His bride the church so much that He came, died and rose again so that she might be holy.

We thank all our members for their willingness to serve and to give so that Disciples Church may exist and  be a vibrant witness of the Gospel to the Greater Springfield community.

We want to particularly acknowledge the following people who served us well in 2021:

Emily Berlin - officially came on to staff in 2021 as our Events Co-ordinator. This made official a role that Emily has been serving in for sometime, always working to ensure that a great environment is created for our special occasions.

Nathan & Georgie Rule - have hosted our DC Life podcasts for two years, interviewing our pastors and others from across the church every week so that we might learn more about Disciples Church and its people. Thanks guys for a big effort.

Vanessa White - has experienced some truly debilitating health issues over the last little while, and yet (with the constant help and support of Andy) she has soldiered on to keep our children's ministries running smoothly.

Our Youth Team - special mention of the youth team this year for their great work in building the youth ministry across 2021. Your devotion to the task is only matched by your love for our youth. Great work team!

When a farmer does all the work to prepare the soil and then plant a crop, there's a period after that, before the harvest, where patience is required. God's Word speaks of this in James 5. A significant part of the Christian life is patience. It's a feature of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in someone's life.

For many of our Missional Community Groups, much work has been done to connect with people who don't yet know Jesus. When these people then show little or no interest in the Gospel, it can feel like a wasted effort. But just like the farmer doesn't harvest a crop the day after he plants it, maybe there is some time involved in the evangelism process as well... and we just need to be patient, and persevere.

And we pray. Pray that we will see a harvest of souls for the Kingdom. For people who turn to Jesus in repentance and faith. And lives being transformed by a relationship with the Saviour.

Of all the things we could want for the future, a discernible increase in the number of baptisms at Disciples Church would be high among them.

And while we exercise patience and perseverance, we want to continue to encourage and equip everyone at DC to throw off the sin that so easily weighs us down, and to focus more and more on making the Kingdom of God our primary focus.