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“I’m so grateful that God lovingly and intentionally planted me at LIFE Church. It didn’t take long for me to feel at home, and in my first year of being part of this church, I can genuinely say that God has blessed me with great spiritual friends that I now call family.”
Kristina Macapagal, LIFE Central
“When our family joined LIFE Adelaide, we were blown away by how welcoming, fun, and relevant the Sunday service was. Since, we have personally been involved with the weekly mum, baby, and preschooler playgroup, where I have made friends and felt supported. I also had the wonderful experience of being baptised, which was a huge part of my faith journey, and our family has been welcomed into a lovely connect group full of other believers that we can do life alongside. We have always felt supported and welcomed here at LIFE Adelaide, and we are so proud to be continuously involved.”
Kat Bottrell, LIFE Adelaide
“I came to Life Church three months ago and had prayed not only for a church but for a community. Since serving on Café, I have had so many great conversations with people, learned lots of names, and made friends! I found we all have a love for Jesus, we all care about each other, and there is a sincere love that people have when they talk or pray for you. That type of friendship I never expected from serving, and it has made my journey with God even better.”
Alexandra Teeuwsen, LIFE Melbourne
"I had a particularly difficult day so to arrive home today to a Christmas box on my doorstep really brightened my day. As I said, it's the sentiment and support that speaks volumes. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Sam, Christmas Box recipient
“Kindness can make a real impact in our community. I decided to serve in hopes of making a change in someone’s life through doing God’s work. It is fulfilling to be able to give and see our locals coming back weekly, with smiles as big as my own.”
Liza, LIFE Community Kitchens Volunteer
Through LIFE Venues we have been able to offer a range of modern multi-purpose event locations across Auckland with high-capacity seating, extensive staging, high-spec audio-visual platforms and outside broadcast capabilities.
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Our Kingdom focus at LIFE embraces a heart for the bigger picture of what God is doing, and wherever possible we will invest into helping the wider body of Christ.
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2022 has been yet another incredible year at LIFE despite the various challenges of Covid and the economy. We have so many things to be thankful for as we reflect on God’s goodness in another year in seeing the amazing impact and change in so many people’s lives through the work of each of our four focuses as we have outlined in this year’s annual report. Some of the key financial highlights of 2022 have been:
Giving – We have continued to see people’s faithfulness and generosity in giving with over $23m given through tithes and Expansion offering across LIFE.
Expansion - Through expansion offering (total received for 2022 $3.4m) we were able to contribute $1.8m into funding the growth of our own Community initiatives impacting thousands of people including Christmas Box, LIFE Community Kitchens and The Giving Store. Also $400k to Kingdom, $500k to funding the set up and operation of two new campuses in West Auckland and Tauranga, and $2.2m to the initial phases of construction of our new Melbourne campus.
Community - Our impact through LIFE Community continued to grow rapidly to the value of $24.5m for 2022 including the value of volunteer time and sponsored and donated goods. A significant portion of this impact is through Skills Update, QES, LIFE Homes and Healthy Lunches where external funding (largely Government) not only funded the services we were able to provide to assist many people but generated a surplus of $1.2m enabling us to repay debt from the acquisition of Skills Update in 2021 setting a path for ongoing self-funded growth in the future.
Melbourne campus– Considerable obstacles around planning consents were overcome and construction commenced late in 2022 on a brand new campus for Melbourne including a 600 seat auditorium, kids facilities, foyer and kitchen. Funding lines are in place with CCFS Bank to settle the purchase of Sims Street in April 2023 for a total of $20.6m. Construction of the new campus is estimated at $9m and is targeted to be complete by October 2023 and is being funded through the incredible lean in and generosity of people giving to Expansion and support from NZ.
Total Income and expenses - Our total income was $49.5m with total expenses of $44.4m. Our net surplus after funding and depreciation costs across the whole of LIFE for 2022 was $5.1m with a $3.5m net surplus in Church, $0.1m in Business and $1.5m in Community. These surpluses were largely used to fund the development of the new Melbourne campus and repay debt from the acquisition of Skills Update within LIFE Community.
Balance Sheet – We are incredibly blessed to be in a very strong financial position at the end of 2022. Through the consistent generosity of so many people across LIFE and the growth in value of our property - our total assets were valued at $186.6m and liabilities at just $31.6m giving us net equity of $155.0m at December 2022.
Bank Loans – Of our total liabilities $21.0m was in bank loans. From a church perspective we became debt free on all our Auckland campus properties through Legacy at the end of 2020. Our borrowings as of December 2022 are specifically for Community ($8.3m) with the acquisition of Skills Update in 2021 and for Business ($10.4m) with the investment in a West Auckland fully tenanted property and the deposit on our Melbourne property ($2.3m). We continue to be very grateful and humbled by the faithfulness and generosity of so many people right across LIFE in their giving of time, energy, and resource to serve others through each of LIFE’s Four Focuses. We look forward with expectation and excitement to the year ahead!
Paul Schnell
General Manager at LIFE
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