To the Annual General Meeting of Members, to be held at the DC Building, 31 Springfield Lakes Boulevard, Springfield Lakes, on Monday, 13 March 2023, starting at 7:30pm.

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

Neumann & Turnour Lawyers
Level 2, 345 Anne Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
www.ntlawyers.com.au

KBP Audit Services
Suite G.8
1 Westlink Court
DARRA QLD 4076
www.kbpaudit.com.au

Welcome to the 12th Annual Report of Disciples Church Springfield.

In 2021 we identified some new goals that we thought would be good to see realised in the life and ministry of our church. The preface to our goals statement says we want to hold our goals lightly, knowing that God has the plan for our church, but recognising that having some things to aim for can be beneficial.

By the end of 2022 we think we can say that we are making some progress on a number of fronts, but there are still some areas where more progress is required if our goals are to be reached.

For example, our goal of paying our full-time pastors a full-time wage has been mostly realised, and by God’s grace we were even able to bring Callum Mansfield - our Worship Services Director - onto paid staff (part-time) in the second half of 2022.

However, more baptisms, and more growth from conversions than transfers is still alluding us.

Our goal to be a church that appeals to all people is being reflected in a growing number of people joining our church family who were not born in Australia. We now have over 20 different countries of origin represented across the congregation. We thoroughly enjoy this diversity.

We hope you enjoy reading through our reports from 2022, and that they will cause you to be thankful to our Heavenly Father, and to be in prayer for more of our goals to be realised in the days and years ahead.

In Christ,

The DC Elders

That's a fancy word for "system of government." While our Constitution requires the activities of the church to be reported to the members of the Church, it is the Elders who have the responsibility and authority to make decisions for the good of the whole Church. You can read how this is spelt out in our Constitution.

Greg Gardiner has served as the founding and Lead Pastor of Disciples Church Springfield since 2012.

Patience is listed as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. I’m pleased that this is the case because naturally I’m not a very patient person. I want outcomes that present themselves regularly and reliably, with minimal waiting time.

Sometimes, when you look back over a year of church life, there are many things that have happened that are very encouraging and for which we rightly should give thanks and praise to God. At the same time, there are things that don’t seem to change or grow very rapidly. Or things that qualify for the “two steps forward, one step back” descriptor. This is where my patience gets challenged, and I very much need the Spirit to be at work in me.

There’s always the option of spiritualising this, and giving it the tag of “holy discontent,” concluding that it’s a good thing that I want more baptisms, higher Sunday service attendance, more leaders, more Missional Community Groups and more resources. Of course we should want these things for our church to continue to grow and God’s Kingdom to have an ever increasing impact in Greater Springfield. But patience dictates that I have to be satisfied with God’s timing on this, rather than my own.

While it’s one thing to be impatient with slow moving statistical data, it’s another thing entirely to be impatient with one another. In his epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes against impatience, urging us to persist in helping one another to do what is right, and to build one another up in the Lord. The reward, he says, is unity and harmony, as we give praise and glory to God.

May the Holy Spirit help us all with the gift of patience.

For His glory,

We have four Elders who serve on the Board of Directors of Disciples Church Springfield. This is their report on the activities of the church in 2022.

In 2022 the Elder Board was made up of the Chairman, Pastor Greg Gardiner (BMin), Pastor Anthony Sligar (BTh), David Machin (BSc) and Nathan Rule (BRTP). Our Company Secretary is Hannah Simpson. Our Elder preparation process is ongoing, and we have one candidate who is progressing through our qualification requirements.

While much of 2020 and 2021 was spent doing everything we could to keep Covid-19 out of our country, 2022 was the year where restrictions were lifted and life started to get back to some semblance of normal. However, this meant that nearly everyone had the experiencing of contracting the coronavirus at some stage during the year. At the same time, all the regular cold & flu viruses and gastro bugs made an unwelcome return, which meant that 2022 was very much the "year of sickness." While one person spent time on a ventilator in hospital, mostly everyone in our congregation got through their Covid-19 experience without severe complications. We praise God for His grace to us in getting us through the acute phase of the pandemic.

Financially, we recorded a surplus in 2022 of $2,683. Our regular Tithes & Offerings giving totalled $370,014 which was a rise of 4% over the previous year. We raised $13,570 in the middle of the year for our Advance The Mission fundraiser. The effects of rising inflation and interest rates were beginning to be felt at the end of the year with significant increases in body corporate fees and housing allowances paid for ministry staff.

One of the significant achievements for 2022 was the successful refinancing of the loan we have on our building. Previously, our loan was through Bendigo Bank over a 15 year term. However, during 2022 we were able to negotiate a 30 year term through the National Australia Bank. The effect of the longer term was to reduce our weekly repayments by approximately 40%, which allowed us the funds to bring Callum Mansfield on to paid staff for the equivalent of two days a week. Callum is currently studying a Bachelor of Theology and aims to graduate at the end of 2023.

At the end of the year, Bendigo Bank ceased providing community sector banking services for not-for-profit organisations. This meant we had to seek another bank that would provide us with the means to remunerate staff who receive fringe benefits. Unfortunately, NAB were unable to help us, and so we ended up with Westpac for our general banking.

We continued to use our property at Spring Lake Village for Sunday Services and mid-week ministry activities in 2022. Given that Body Corporate expenses are a sizeable drain on our finances, we continue to consider what viable options are worth pursuing for an alternate venue. During 2022 we allowed a business networking group to hire our auditorium on Friday mornings. This generated income of $16,636, which helped offset some of the Body Corporate costs. While running two Sunday services means we are not facing capacity issues at our present building, the stewardship question of continuing to operate out of expensive retail space is a constant challenge.

At the end of 2021 Disciples Church participated in the National Church Life Survey. The results of this survey were released in 2022 and were positive and encouraging. Here is an example:

• 88% said the preaching at DC was usually helpful to their lives
• 84% said the music at DC was always appreciated
• 93% said DC was inclusive of different kinds of people
• 87% said they felt a strong sense of belonging
• 77% said they found it easy to make friends when they first came to DC
• 97% said DC has good clear systems for how it operates
• 77% said the leaders “inspire me to action”
• 38 years is the average age of attenders who were over 15 years old
• 33% of the congregation was born overseas

We count it a privilege to oversee the life of the church corporately, but 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 thank every member at DC for their ministry contribution in 2022.

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.

Disciples Church Springfield was planted in 2012 with a desire to become a church planting church. We want to see the Gospel go out beyond Springfield and to be active participants in God's redemptive mission.

Our policy is to devote 10% of our Tithes & Offerings income to external church related endeavours - primarily church planting. 2% goes toward the Acts 29 Church Planting Network for its administrative costs, 1.5% to our denomination (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches), and the balance directly to church planting endeavours.

In 2022 the church planting we supported included:

• Nations Church - supporting Matt Price
• Acts 29 Asia Pacific Churches - support to attend 2023 Church Planting Conference in Adelaide
• Risen Church Salisbury - an FIEC church plant
• Tongan Evangelical Church - to help recovery costs after the tsunami
• God’s Idea Fellowship - Aldo Wilson’s trip to Pakistan to investigate church planting opportunities
• The Gospel Coalition Australia

At the end of 2022 we made a two year commitment to Matt & Tiff Price to support their church planting endeavours in Oxley/Darra in the amount of $1,500 per month.

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the heart of all ministry at Disciples Church Springfield. Here is our report on ministry in 2022.

The words “refining” and even “pruning” feel somewhat appropriate as descriptors of our Missional Community Group life in 2022. During the year, health challenges for Vanessa White meant that leading an MCG was becoming too difficult, and so it was decided to disband their group and reallocate people into other existing groups. At the end of the year, the group led by Callum & Sara Trevorrow and Amy Machin was also disbanded as they needed some time out from the responsibilities of pastoral ministry. We are very thankful to all these leaders for the time they spent serving our church in these ways.

In the middle of the year we saw the Sligar’s group multiply, with Joel & Jess Hunsperger and Ben & Laura Logan taking on the co-leadership of a new group. So we ended the year with one less group than we started with, however the possibility of some further multiplications is high, and the groundwork has been laid for at least one, if not two, new groups in 2023.

There was a focus in 2022 on getting discipleship meet-ups happening more consistently within our MCGs, and seeking to become more proficient in our implementation of the DNA (discover, nurture, act) process.

Connections with "not-yet-believers" remained solid in most groups across the year, and so we are praying for some Gospel fruit in the days ahead.

At the end of Term 3 the Elders decided to implement version 3.0 of our assimilation process for those wanting to join the DC family. Prep Group was replaced with Newcomers Group which involves a revised curriculum and a duration of only one school term. There is also now an expectation that people will become members at the end of the Newcomers process, before we add them to a regular Missional Community Group. This worked very well in Term 4 and will be continued into 2023.

During 2022 we continued with our 8:30am and 10:30am service schedule. The cross-over time between services is a time of rich fellowship. In term 4 we introduced having the La Mattina Coffee van present for the cross over time, and this was well received.

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.

The effect of the widespread sickness that was experienced across the year was particularly felt on Sundays. Attendance was often significantly lower than normal, and last minute changes to Sunday rosters were commonplace. Our data showed that while our overall numbers rose slightly, Sunday attendance was quite fickle.

At the end of the year there was a noticeable increase in the number of visitors to our services. 

The Word of God is the sword of the Holy Spirit and it is our joy and our spiritual sustenance to sit under the teaching of God's Word each Sunday together.

Pastor Greg Gardiner serves as our primary preacher, with contributions made throughout the year by Pastor Anthony Sligar, Callum Mansfield, Nathan Rule and Callum Trevorrow.

There were four main sermon series preached in 2022:

• Jacob - God’s Chosen  (Term 1 & 2)
• The “I AM” Statements of Jesus  (Term 3)
• The Ten Commandments  (Term 4)
• The Book Of Psalms  (School Holidays)

Special topical sermons were preached for Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve.

In 2022, we had 80 children in our Creche and DC Kids ministries, which operated during the sermon time at all regular Sunday services. 39 people served on the rosters for these ministries, often serving more than once or twice a month to cover for the many who weren’t able to serve in any given week due to the high rate of sickness in 2022.

We continued to use the Gospel Story Curriculum and during 2022 we were in the New Testament phase of that resource. This was supplemented with video content and activities that complemented the passage for that week, and parents could follow-up through the week with the Old Story New devotional.

There was a special advent focus in the month of December, and the children prepared and then performed an item for the Christmas Eve service.

Our Playgroup ministry was not continued in 2022 as mums preferred to connect with one another in our Missional Community Groups instead, and this also allowed a more informal way of catching up with mums not involved in the church.

We continued to run the two "strands" of youth ministry at Disciples Church during 2022, which consists of CLUB and 4Real, as well as their corresponding camps.

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.

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.

Camps - the one event for the year that didn’t escape the effects of Covid-19 was our summer youth camp in January. It was at a time when our first “covid wave” was being experienced and so at the last moment, after lots of planning and organising, it had to be cancelled as the risk of an outbreak during camp was deemed too high. In the middle of the year we were able to run our first 4Real Winter Camp at Mt Tamborine. 

Our rhythm of four annual conferences continued in 2022. We started in February with Biblical Marriage and were blessed by video teaching from Matt & Lauren Chandler and Conway & Jada Edwards, and in-person teaching from Greg & Fiona Gardiner.

Our Biblical Womanhood Conference was held in May and featured video teaching from Jackie Hill Perry taken from her recently released book “Holier Than Thou.”

Biblical Manhood 2022 was held in September and used content from the Australian produced “The Men’s Series” covering anxiety & depression, sex & pornography, and men’s health.

In November we ran our Biblical Parenting Conference featuring video teaching from pastor and author, Paul Tripp.

These conferences are aimed primarily at our own congregation and are regarded as “pastoral care maintenance” to help our people bring the Gospel to bear on their key relationships, roles and responsibilities. 

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.

Biblical Counselling happens on an ad hoc basis as required by members of the congregation. The intention is that this counselling occur for only as long as it takes to see growth and transformation in the area of challenge.

Our annual Leaders Retreat was held from August 10 - 13 at the beautiful Mt Alford Lodge Christian Retreat. Once again we ran an ascending attendance format starting with Elders & Wives on day one, joined by Missional Community Group leaders on day two, and then Staff, Team Leaders and Emerging Leaders on day three. It was a valuable time of policy discussion, leader development, prayer and planning for the following year.

Our involvement in the local Greater Springfield Christmas Carols continues to grow. In 2022, Callum Mansfield took on a Creative Director role, adding to the work already done by James Simpson (Technical Director) and Greg Gardiner (Organising Committee). It was estimated that around 8,000 people attended the night. Other Springfield churches, especially Springfield Christian Family and C3 Springfield, help to make it happen, while sponsorship from local businesses and a grant from the Ipswich City Council covers the expenses.

Disciples Church Springfield runs a January to December financial year. Our Auditor is Raj Prahbu from KBP Auditors. Here is his report on our finances from 2022.

We have audited the financial report of Disciples Church Springfield, which comprises the Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2022, Income and Expenditure Report, for the year ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies.

In our opinion the financial report of Disciples Church Springfield, is in accordance with Division 60 of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission Act 2012, including:

• giving a true and fair view of the registered entity’s financial position as at 31 December 2022 and of its financial performance for the year ended; and
• complying with Australian Accounting Standards to the extent described in Note 1 to the financial statement, and Division 60 the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Regulation 2013.

We conducted our audit in accordance with Australian Auditing Standards. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Report section of our report. We are independent of the registered entity in accordance with the ethical requirements of the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board’s APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (the Code) that are relevant to our audit of the financial report in Australia. We have also fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with the Code. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

We draw attention to Note 1 to the financial report, which describes the basis of accounting. The financial report has been prepared for the purpose of fulfilling the responsible entities’ financial reporting responsibilities under the ACNC Act. As a result, the financial report may not be suitable for another purpose. Our opinion is not modified in respect of this matter.

The management committee have determined that it is impracticable to establish control over the collection of fundraising and donation revenue prior to entry into its financial records. Accordingly, our audit procedures with respect to these sources of revenue had to be restricted to the amounts recorded in the financial records.

The members of the committee of the Disciples Church Springfield are responsible for the preparation of the financial report that gives a true and fair view and have determined that the basis of preparation described in Note 1 to the financial report is appropriate to meet the requirements of the ACNC Act [and the needs of the members]. The responsible entities’ responsibility also includes such internal control as the responsible entities determine is necessary to enable the preparation of a financial report that gives a true and fair view and is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial report, the members of the committee are responsible for assessing the registered entities ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters relating to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the responsible entities either intend to liquidate the registered entity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial report as a whole is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with the Australian Auditing Standards will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of the financial report.

As part of an audit in accordance with Australian Auditing Standards, we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. We also:

• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial report, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the registered entity’s internal control.
• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by responsible entities.
• Conclude on the appropriateness of the responsible entities’ use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the registered entity’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial report or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the registered entity to cease to continue as a going concern.
• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial report, including the disclosures, and whether the financial report represents the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

We communicate with the responsible entities regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

Yours sincerely

KBP Audit Services
Raj Prabhu
Director - Audit

Date:  28 February 2023

The following statements report on our Income and Expenditure during 2022, and our Balance Sheet as at 31 December 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.

Each year, so many people deserve to be thanked for their ongoing commitment to the ministry of Disciples Church, and that is the case once again for 2022. However, it has been our habit to especially recognise the efforts of a couple of people who went above and beyond during the year, and to praise God for them.

We firstly want to thank Emily Oliver. During the first half of the year, Emily took over the role of our Financial Administrator. This role involves looking after our finances, accounting for income and expenditure, ensuring that wages and bills get paid on time, and managing the often tight cash-flow of our church’s financial situation. There is a certain level of constant stress that goes along with this position, and the need to exercise faith in the Lord’s provision. We are very thankful to the Lord for the job that Emily does.

Nathan & Zoe Logan have led our DC Youth teams for the last four years. At the same time they have managed part-time work, full-time study, getting married, and a few other challenges along the way. They keenly desire to see a thriving, fruitful, youth ministry at Disciples Church, and they pushed on in 2022 even when circumstances were tough. We are grateful for their commitment, and zeal for our youth.

Callum Mansfield joined the ranks of our paid pastoral staff in 2022. And we believe this is a great move. However, it was a big step of faith for Callum and Jasmine, and so we are thankful to the Lord for inspiring them to begin the journey down the vocational ministry pathway. We are thankful for the many years they have served our church family without being paid, and we look forward to how the Lord will continue to use their family for His glory.

We end our Annual Report with a brief look at the things we see approaching, and the things we are praying for in the year ahead.

By the end of 2022 the signs are already there that 2023 is going to bring some financial challenges. Higher interest rates combined with the highest level of inflation we have had for many years will combine to raise the expenditure required simply to maintain our current level of operation. We will need to see a good bump in our giving, or we may be required to make some cut-backs to weather the storm.

While we saw our number of Missional Community Groups shrink slightly in 2022, the prospects for multiplication in 2023 are looking good. We believe that we have tweaked our discipleship process such that it will be easier to identify and train people who are equipped to lead new Missional Community Groups in the future.

At the same time, our assimilation process has also been fine-tuned, and already this is proving productive in seeing Christians who have transferred to Disciples Church being integrated more successfully into membership of our church and the mission of our community groups.

While we believe we have many of the “fundamentals” right, the glaring area where results are not what we would like them to be is the conversion of new Christians. Not that we haven’t been active in this space - our Missional Community Groups are connected with many not-yet-believers - but we are yet to see the harvest of people coming to faith in Jesus. This is something we will be giving prayerful attention to in the months and years ahead.

The Elders have signalled an intention to diversify our church planting support in the future, supporting not only local church planting endeavours, but also something outside of Australia (especially where the exchange rate is advantageous). We are presently exploring some options and hope to settle on a church planting work to support in the near future.

We are currently exploring options for a new curriculum for our DC Kids ministry. The Gospel Story resource that we have been using has been very good, so we are keen to maintain a strong Gospel focus to the study of God’s Word, while at the same time embracing some newer material with better video integration, and more age appropriate activities and exercises for each grade level.