Monday, November 15, 2010

Christian Ed. report

The CE depart is going well. We have recently added two new families who have been coming regularly to our services.

We also have been doing much for Gods kingdom recently we have partnered with the girl scouts to host a "Trunk or treat" Halloween event. Our church had over 100 trick or treaters on our property.

This past Saturday we had hosted a family movie day where we had over 20 kids in attendence, many from outside of our church who received info about our CE Program.

This past Sunday we collected shoeboxes full of christmas gifts for "Operation Christmas child". Our gifts collected will go to needy children around the world who would not recieve a Christmas gift if not for the generoursity of our Trinity families.

Upcoming events are only one for now. We are planning on doing a turkey bowl flag foot ball game the night before thanksgiving. We hope this will become an annual event for the kids to look forward to.

Once again it is an honor to serve as your CE directors.
Mark and Liz Von Wald

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Finance Report for November 2010

The November Finance Committee meeting was held on 11/9 at 6:30 pm in the Church Lounge. 2010 budget results through October were reviewed:


General Fund giving
2010-$305k
2009-$292.1k

Capital Fund giving
2010-$25.7k
2009-$36.8k

General fund spending
$297.6

General Fund balance
2010-$17.6k
2009-$-1.2k

Despite the $1.8k increase in combined GF and CF giving, we have been able to fully fund our Apportionments while increasing our GF balance by nearly $19k. There are two major reasons, a $20k reduction in utility costs vs. budget and receipt of an unanticipated $10k contribution from a family which recently moved from Grand Island. This has allowed us to anticipate an end-of-year budget surplus.
The Fall Festival generated $4.2k, $3.3k of which is allocated to the General Fund. The Fall Festival planning committee will be asked to designate a recipient for the remaining $1k.

The 2010 Christmas Offering will be treated similarly. $5.1k will be added to the General Fund as planned, with the remainder going to Missions.

Commitment Campaign results through 11/9 were reviewed. 50 pledges were received, totaling $159.4k. All pledges received were from 2010 pledgiers, permitting the following analysis:


No.of pledges
2010 - 50
2011 - 50

General Fund
2010 - $149.2k
2011 - $150.2k

Capital Fund
2010 - $8.2k
2011 - $9.2k

Total
2010 - $157.4k
2011 - $159.4k(a 1.2% increase

93 pledges from 2010 pledgers remain.

The Church Charge Conference is planned for 12/1. If 75 – 80% of anticipate pledges are received before then, a 2011 budget will be presented. If not, only the Pastor’s compensation packages will be given. The Associate Pastor will be presented as a 25% time position, with the intention of increasing this to 50% as soon as giving will permit.

The results of the Church Visioning Core Values Audit were presented.

Chris Hipp – Chair, Finance Committee

SPRC Report for November 2010

SPRC Report to the Trinity Church Council for November 2010

1.) The SPRC approved the 2011 Recommended pastor’s Compensation Package as recommended by the new Upper New York Conference. The package would increase expenses for conference cost, personal medical cost and include a 3% wage increase. The total compensation package is $75,660. Trinity does not qualify for a grant as previously thought. This will be presented at the church charges conference in December.

2.) Based on the continued positive financial results the SPRC will provide recognition awards to staff members in 2010.


3.) The SPRC will recommend 2011 budget changes based on actual recourses available. :.
a. Incremental wage increases of 3% to part time positions of office assistant, custodian, events person, supervisor of building and grounds, visitation coordinator and crib room.
b. Continuation of the health care allowance to the Christian education directors and youth coordinator.
c. Adjusting the Contemporary Worship leader position from ¼ to ½ time. This position would also receive a health care allowance.


4.) The Bishop has appointed Nathan Lange as a local licensed pastor at Trinity UMC. This would allow him to administer weddings, baptisms and communion here as well as Ontario St. Church.


5.) Anyone wishing to provide input to the 2011 church profile should provide the input no later than Wonderful Wednesday 11/17, 2010.


Respectfully submitted for the SPRC by Charlie Yund

Minutes from October's Meeting

Church Council Meeting
October 18, 2010

Nate Lange called the meeting to order at 6:05 PM with the unison reading of the mission statement.

Welcome and roll call by Gail Conschafter. Attendees: Bob Kaiser, Sue Kaiser, Ann Hippe, Chris Hippe, Nate Lange, Nancy Hayes, Sheila Rader, Jeff Childs, Gail Conschafter, Charlie Yund, Bobbie Cap, Paul Sipson, Judy Mauer, John Harbison, Nikki Fidel, Fred claus, Liz VonWald, Ginny Wilkinson Theis.

Opening devotions: Nate encouraged us to share our gifts to better the meeting environment. We are the body of Christ.
Laity Sunday was addressed. From the choir loft, very little was heard due to poor microphone or some other audio issue. Issue of sound in the sanctuary was discussed.

Changes to the Agenda: No changes were suggested

New Business: UM will be doing the PJ Bottoms again this year. This is in connection with the Neighborhood Foundation. We were asked to continue with what we have done in the past.
Fall Festival Report: Paul reported that the profit was about $4500. The turnout was a bit disappointing; quite small. There is a lot of work that goes into this, and with a small turnout, perhaps the format needs to be changed. There were new kids downstairs and new families may be coming to church. Kids were disappointed that there was not a hayride. Dinner was successful. Friday night brought in about 40 people. On Saturday before dinner, there were most likely no more than 100 people. Other options are being considered for next year.

Reports:
Missions:
The most important item is the Christmas offering will be divided into three parts:
• Local – The Shalom Zone
• National: The Missionary in Nome Alaska
• International: The Medical Clinic in Haiti.
o Thank you, John Harbison
Missions will decide as to how this money is to be divided. In years past, this money went to pay apportionments, but since we are doing well financially, this collection will not be needed to pay apportionments.
Finance:
Through September, the General Fund Balance is $17.7 K vs. $2.3 K in 2009, while our apportionment payments are fully funded. This results from $10K increased General Fund giving, the $11k lower spending vs. 2009, including perhaps $12k lower gas heating costs. Also, about $10k was given by a family which left Grand Island last year.

Our reduced spending budget combined with increased giving and lower gas costs have allowed us to fully fund apportionments while marginally increasing spending vs. budget.

Commitment Sunday for the 2011 Stewardship Campaign will be Nov. 7. It is important that pledges be returned promptly since the Church charge Conference is scheduled for December 1st.

The SPRC requests $2000 be added their budget to support year-end gifts and non-salaried staff. After discussion this motion was made by Charlie, seconded by Nancy Hayes and passed.

The process of assembling the candidate 2011 budget has begun.


Christian Education
What’s Going on with the Children

Sunday Mornings:
Sunday School and Kidzone are off to a good start. We are averaging over twenty children at each. We have also seen some new families. The curriculum we are using is Group’s Hands on Bible. It took a little getting used to but now everyone loves it. The children are doing a lot better with their memory verses this year as well. The Sunday School format has changed and we are holding a junior elementary class pre-k-2nd, and a senior elementary class 3rd-5th with three teachers per class.

Wednesday Evenings:
Wednesday programming is now called Impact Zone and we are doing Bible Trivia in a TV show format. We are averaging 10 children per week with half or more being children from outside our church. We feel that this program would draw in a lot more families if held on an alternative night. Wednesday has a lot of competing events.

Fall Festival:
The children’s activities at the Fall Festival went very well. We had over fifty children participate throughout the day. The youth did an excellent job working it in the morning. We saw many families from outside of the church. A couple families expressed interest in attending our church on Sundays.

What’s Coming Up?
We are doing a combined Trunk or Treat/Halloween Extravaganza with the Girl Scouts on Saturday October 30th at 4PM. We will also be continuing monthly Family Movie Days. Our Christmas Play will be Sunday December 19th.

SPRC:
Charlie reported the following:
1.) The SPRC reviewed changes to the 2011 Recommended pastor’s Compensation Package as recommended by the new Upper New York Conference. The package would increase expenses by approximately $800 per year. This cost is offset by a grant from the conference of about $9,000 in 2011.

2.) The SPRC has recommended 2011 Preliminary Budget changes to the finance committee for staff to include
a. Incremental wage increases of 3% to the full time staff positions of senior pastor, office manager and part time positions of office assistant, custodian, events person, supervisor of building and grounds, visitation coordinator and crib room.
b.Continuation of the health care allowance to the Christian education directors and youth coordinator.
c.Adjusting the Contemporary Worship leader position from ¼ to ½ time. This position would also receive a health care allowance.

3.) Based on the continued positive financial results the SPRC recommended to the finance committee and were approved to provide 2010 recognition awards to staff members.

4.) The Contemporary worship leader status should be continued with increased responsibilities to be defined by the SPRC and the senior pastor. The SPRC also recommends that Trinity request to the Bishop that Nathan Lange to be designated a local licensed pastor at Trinity UMC. This would allow him to administer weddings, baptisms and communion here as well as Ontario St. Church.

5.) New forms for Upper New York Conference (UNY Conference)
a.)SPRC Advisory Form
b.)Pastor’s Advisory Form
c.)SPRC – Pastor Covenant Form
d.)The church Profile
e.)The Pastor Profile

The SPRC is updating the church profile with input received from the congregation and leadership. This form is due December 1.

6.) Appraisals , reviews and 2011 goals are underway and be completed earlier this year so the results can be used to provide required assistance in a more timely manner and be used in the ongoing church visioning process.

Charlie motioned that we include the wage increases of 3%, continuation of health care and increase Nate Lange’s position from ¼ to ½ time position. Nancy Hayes seconded the motions. This will be recommended to the finance committee for the budget. Discussion followed. The cost of all changes is about $22,000 with the rebate of about $9000. Vote was called and passed unanimously.

Charlie reported that Nate is a licensed pastor only at Ontario Street Church. If he were a local licensed pastor for TUMC, he would then be able to perform weddings, communions, and baptisms. Nate commented that it would be helpful in situations where Jeff and other retired pastors are not available to perform these duties. Charlie recommended that SPRC send a letter requesting for Nate to be a local licensed pastor for TUMC. Judy Maurer seconded this motion. Discussion followed. Health insurance would be necessary if Nate were to be a full time pastor, even if it were ½ time at TUMC and ½ time at Ontario Street. The salary will not increase until 2011. The vote was taken and passed unanimously. Jeff asked the question as to Nate being the chair for Church Council, which will be discussed in the near future.

Charlie the distributed the church profile and asked for our help in completing it. Charlie has had no returns as of today and would like to hear from others as to what they have to say. The old document has been around about 10 years, and probably does not depict what we are about today. Any or all parts of the paper would be greatly appreciated. It is due by December 1st, and Charlie would appreciate our feedback by November 15. Reponses will be posted on the web site. The chairs of each committee will take some questions back to their respective committees.


Church Priorities, Goals and Strategy:
Priority Survey: Analyzed the votes in two different ways; total votes and number of people and how they voted. Total number of overall votes 1st. The priorities in order are:
1. Increase in church attendance
2. Making disciples
3. Younger families w/children
4. Growing Sunday school – targeting youth.
If we put all our effort into growing our worship, we may be putting the horse before the cart. Charlie read a part of the message by Rev. Slaughter. Spread the word, get out into the community and become more socially active to be better leaders. Discussion on what we should be doing to feed our congregation so we are prepared to go out and spread what have to offer. Nate commented on Program Driven Ministries. If we look at that, Nate questioned whether this would be the best case scenario. Once offered, any program would have to be sustained. If we make discipleship a priority and each of us found two people, not fully involved, and personally invested into these two people, we would have 60 new church leaders in a few years! This could have a ripple effect in four years. Discussion followed as to how to pick these people. Ginny commented on this concept and related it to Young Life. Nate’s vision is to look at Jesus as an excellent example. Peter, James, and John. These were the three that He invested His tine and efforts in, and expected more from them. Then came the twelve that were with Him. These all were invested personally. Discussion followed on these ideas. Nate asked us to think about the weakness in approaching program driven ministries, results in NEED based ministry, and gift based evangelism. We should actually be doing need based ministry and need base evangelism. If we could re-align the way we find our volunteers, we might get a greater response.

Charlie commented that we are really doing pretty well for all we have going on at TUMC. He commented on how he appreciates how seriously we all take our leadership roles in the church. We need to be intentionally in growing our spirits. We have six adult Sunday School classes – which is another positive thing at TUMC.

November 8, there is a conference in North Chili for leadership. Charlie is considering attending if anyone else would like to accompany him, please let him know.

Nate asked if we would continue to think about this, and be present at the planning meeting scheduled for November 6th at 9 AM.


Nate stated that next Sunday at 5 PM there will be a sneak preview of a new Sunday evening service. If at all possible, please attend and give feedback. It will be in the family room. The actual kick off date for the new service will be November 14th. There will be food as part of the evening and the hope is for this to become another option for people for their weekly Sunday worship.

Ginny motioned to pass the minutes from our August meeting, and Nancy Hayes seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

Nikki asked that an adult from the congregation come to Sunday school to participate in activities with the kids. She asked that leaders from different areas of the church come in and work with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Let Nikki know if anyone is interested.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:01 pm with Jeff closing in prayer.

Respectfully submitted,
Gail Conschafter