Virtually all churches are charities (whether registered or not) and the people with day-to-day responsibility for running the church are the managing trustees, whether you call them deacons, elders, or the Leadership Team. They are accountable to the Charity Commission, as well as God and the fellowship, for their leadership of the church.

If your church owns a building, then you may have property trustees as well - sometimes called Custodian or Holding Trustees. HEBA acts as property trustee for a number of churches in our area, as do the Baptist Union Corporation.  In a few cases, churches have appointed some private individuals to be their Holding Trustees.

Whoever the property trustees are, they should be informed about building developments and any land transactions the church is considering so that they can offer approporiate advice and support.

Resources to help trustees in their work:

Baptist Union Corporation Guidelines  

A very useful set of resources covering property, projects, Charity Registration, health and safety etc.

Charity Commission   

The Commission are regulators for charities and also provide a wealth of information and advice.

Charity Commission - June 2010

The Commission has issued a warning about a scam involving people being telephoned by individuals claiming to represent the Charity Commission. In the phone calls these individuals claim to be from the "debt collection department" of the Commission and they demand payments (in some cases for thousands of pounds) for various services and advertisements.  The Commission have asked anyone receiving one of these calls to contact both the Commission and the police.
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Our_regulatory_activity/
Compliance_reports/Alerts/Bogus_calls.aspx

The Manse is Empty

A discussion document for churches.