A message from our Senior Pastor:

SIMON BENHAM

In October 2014 I completed seven years of being senior pastor of Kerith. I’m not normally big on thinking back over the

past, or stopping to celebrate anniversaries or milestones (you might want to com-

miserate with my wife Catrina over that one!), but for some reason this anniver-sary has caused me to spend much more time than I would normally reflecting on what has gone on over those seven years.First to say that it’s been a huge privilege to be involved in leading Kerith, such an active, vibrant, God filled, growing community of people, and to continue to build on the foundation laid by Ben Davies and all those who built with him.

In the last seven years we’ve seen God do some remarkable things. The growth we’ve experienced in terms of Sunday numbers, more meetings in Bracknell and the launch of our new site in Sand-hurst. The increasing impact we’re hav-ing in the local community through our growing range of social justice ministries, recognised through winning the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. The grow-

ing number of nations we’re involved with, and the increasing number of peo-ple and ministries we’re linking with around the world. All very exciting.

But I also reflected on things which wer-en’t so great. Many things which with the benefit of hindsight I wish we’d done differently. Allowing the busyness of ministry to rob me of time with God and with my family. Losing focus on some of the things I felt God called me to focus on when I started leading the church.

But as I look forward it’s with excitement as to what the future holds. We want to continue to grow, with plans for new sites in 2016 and beyond, plans for more meetings on our existing sites and plans to impact our own nation and the nations to a deeper level. We want to grow wider as we impact more people over a wider area, both locally and internationally.

But if I have one prayer for the next 7 years it’s that with our growing width comes an increasing depth. More depth

in our individual relationships with God. More depth in our relationships with one another, our vulnerability, our encouragement of one another, our courage in resolving conflict, our willingness to forgive, our honesty and our love for those in our church community. And more depth in our passion for those who don’t yet know Christ, that we would be known like Jesus as friends of sinners, that those far from God would see the love of God in us both in our words and actions.

I’ll finish with something Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus. This is my prayer for you in 2015.

Simon.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established

in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know

this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably

more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout

all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

(Ephesians 3:16-21 NIVUK)

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SUNDAYS

COURSES

AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE

2011(927)

2012(947)

2013(995)

2014(1003)

Largest Sunday

121922nd June

Baptisms and Canon Andrew White

374.5h total learning time!Alpha Course

Invest Parenting Children Course Parenting Teenagers Course

Freedom in Christ

Discovery Workshop CAP Release GroupCAP Money Course

Bereavement Course Baptism Preparation Course

CREATIVE ARTS

60Different worship

songs sung

66People in ourworship teams

120Hours of sermonpodcasts edited

9Sermon series

themed and designed

26Thank you cards

given to star creatives

68People in theCreative HUB

PRODUCTIONEVENTSMothers day,Easter and...

Willow Creek 2014

LIFE150-200Weekly attendance

2500Young people attended over 5 years

Albania and EstoniaNations reached by Life this year

13 local youth ministriesLaunched Next Level

Average number of children on Sundays160 at Bracknell21 at Sandhurst19 children at Bracknell and 8 children atSandhurst said their ABC prayer (said yes to following Jesus).Kerith kids leaders ran conferences in Lithuania and Albania.

KERITH KIDS

H20We started our H2O kids club in October and have had an average of 50 children attending.

Easter Egg HuntOver 100 children and families attended the Kerith Kids Easter Egg Hunt at Oakwood in April.

Baptisms5 children were baptised in 2014.

KERITH ACADEMY3 from the UK

1 from Zambia

1 from Poland

Five graduates from three countries:

507 hours of teaching

2730 hours of serving the church

55 packets of biscuits eaten

78 pots of coffee made

50,000 words written for assignments

CONFERENCES420 attendees and volunteers

377 attendees and volunteers

496 attendees

KERITH.CO.UKOur online presence

48%Traffic from

mobile devices

TOP COUNTRIES VIEWINGUnited Kingdom

USA

Brazil

Lithuania

945Facebook likes

576Twitter followers

173Daily Devotionalsubscribers

400Blog subscribers

MICHAELROSS-WATSON Simon Benham’s Blog

Total:51,625 views

SOCIAL JUSTICE

CHILDREN & FAMILIES

102 65

40 7914 25

£9308

15 9£60,00099

31399kg

Clients attended theCAP Job Club

New CAP debt clients

People attended the Fostering and Adoption

information event

Families supportedthrough Konnections

Lone parent familiesjoined One+

Adults with a learning disability provided with

accessible church

Raised throughfundraising

Volunteers trained to mentor ex-offenders

Sunday morningprison visitsTakings at K4

People helped throughSocial Justice Outreach

Food given out by Foodbank

FINANCESTotal Income

£1,271,584£1,113,700 budgeted

Total Expenditure

£1,257,656£1,113,664 budgeted

EMPLOYMENT COSTS 47%

OPS & SITE SERVICES 26%

RESERVE PROVISION 7%

MISSION/MINISTRY/COMMUNITY FUNDS

7%

CHILDREN & FAMILIES 5%

SOCIAL JUSTICE 4%

MINISTRIES & PASTORAL CARE 2%

CREATIVE ARTS 2%

£36,846

£185,428

£36,250

£140,148

1ST JAN 31ST DEC

2014 UNRESTRICTED MONEY IN BANK & CASH RESERVES

MONEY IN BANK

RESERVES

MIB TARGET £100K

RESERVES TARGET £250K

EMPLOYMENT COSTS 47%

OPS & SITE SERVICES 26%

RESERVE PROVISION 7%

MISSION/MINISTRY/COMMUNITY FUNDS

7%

CHILDREN & FAMILIES 5%

SOCIAL JUSTICE 4%

MINISTRIES & PASTORAL CARE 2%

CREATIVE ARTS 2%

£36,846

£185,428

£36,250

£140,148

1ST JAN 31ST DEC

2014 UNRESTRICTED MONEY IN BANK & CASH RESERVES

MONEY IN BANK

RESERVES

MIB TARGET £100K

RESERVES TARGET £250K

Pastoral Support in Estonia, Albania & Macedonia 4,500£ Estonian, Polish & Lithuanian Churches 6,000£ Albanian Youth Camp 3,000£ WCA (Willow Creek Association) 3,000£ CAP Bradford 8,500£ Social Justice Outreach 12,000£ Acts 2 Community (many individuals) 17,000£ Transferred to Tearfund for the Serenje Dormitory 209,000£

Total 263,000£

Gifts to: