Minutes from September 2011

Trinity Church Council Meeting
September 19, 2011

Attendees: Charlie Yund, Pastor Larry, Sue Kaiser, Bob Kaiser, Jan Garrison, Gail Conschafter, Liz VonWald, Mark VonWald, Sheila Rader, Chris Hipp, Ginger Mason, Jim Tamsen, John Jones

Charlie opened the meeting with the unison reading of the proposed mission statement.

Discussion on the proposed mission statement followed the reading. Charlie prayed.

Changes to agenda; CE would like to report.

NEW BUSINESS
Vision Statement Thematic Goal was addressed by Pastor Larry. The thematic goal would change periodically to capture everything that is in the mission of the vision. (once a year) It is not an alteration, just a re-capture. Building Bridges to the Foot of the Cross is that theme. There has been positive feedback on that.

Calendar Rally Day was Sept 11 – good participation and help. Great job!
Fall Festival – Sept 30 – YOUTH music
Oct 1 – Activities
Oct 14 – 15 – Women’s Retreat
Nov 4-5 Retreat with Sr. Mary Jo at Stella Niagara
Concerts – there has been talk about not doing a concert with not having a Director of Music in place.
All Women’s dates are on the calendar.
December 10 Kris Kringle kid’s shop and gift wrap for all.
Mark presented activities:
1. Trunk or Treat – Saturday, October 22 approximately 4- 6 PM. The girl Scouts would like to do a spooky basement to supplement the Trunk or Treat. More cars this year would be great. You can decorate your trunk and hand out candy to the kids. Each troop would be responsible for having ONE car. Publicity is the key!
2. Christmas Play – incorporated into the Sunday Service. Suggested date – December 18 at the 10:30 service. Time frame would be no more than 20 minutes. Sacred dance is no more than 5 minutes perhaps on December 11 – during Introit.
December 25 – there will be ONE service at 10:30 AM.
December 24 – services will remain the same as in the past. (5:00, 7:00, and 11:00 PM)
Advent Dinner – Ellie Robinson suggested December 7 at 5:30 hosted by Women’s’ Group.
• Larry commented that all activities need to be reviewed as to purpose and why we do what we do. This is to avoid doing the same thing again and again.
• Ginger commented on the fact that perhaps there should be some sort of a “paper trail” following an event…. To evaluate the event and its success and did it meet the goal of the event. Sheila suggested that a form to be filed after the event.
50th Year Celebration October 11, 2015
Ginger commented that Historic Trinity did an excellent job in representing the church a
when they presented a few years back.

Attendance Trends
8:00 Service – avg 22
Comtemp. – 48
Traditional - 126

We have seen a drop over the past years. We have done a number of things to try to increase attendance.
Larry commented that the reality is we have 300 people that consider this their church home and come to church on a “significant” Sunday. The objective is to make those come on a more consistent basis and want for them to be here. If we want to see the 300, we need to increase the base of 300 to 400. There was discussion about doing something for the young parents that drop their kids off for Sunday School. We should probably get attendance figures for all Sunday School classes. Charlie will talk to Linda about getting a universal book for all Sunday School attendance.
The trend is not where we want it to be. We need to move in a positive direction. Ginger posed the question “What drew US into the fellowship of the church?” Bob suggested we ask the most recent members as to why they joined. Charlie commented and asked if we welcomed a new face.

Budget Trends
We need to come up with $30,000. (shortfall) We have had this problem when we have had an associate pastor. Sue questioned as if we could/would have a “make up the difference” campaign. People have actually given more money than they pledged, but expenses are higher than we expected. Giving in the last quarter has dropped off. There is no connection to the number of people in the pews and the money brought in. We need to look at our spending. We are paying for things that we used to do with volunteers. SPRC will look at all aspects and evaluate each one. We have added services over the past years and are paying for them. Energy usage is being looked at. There may be some difficult decisions to be made. Staff related expenses are 2/3 of the budget. At this point we are not paying apportionments to make up for the shortfall. We paid our apportionments in full last year. Our staff is larger than other churches of similar size. Charlie will go through all items and report back to us with a recommendation by October’s meeting.
Bob commented that we might need to reassess our basic philosophy. When we made the additions to the budget earlier this year, we were looking at the increase in revenue that was projected. (The revenue predictor indicated that we would be ok.) We were over optimistic and now need to re-evaluate. There was a suggestion made that the fundraising group tithe back to the church. This makes it a pattern of practicing what you preach. Charlie’s goal is a balanced budget for next year.

October 10 – Council meeting with district superintendant.

SPRC – Compensation package (see blog) Motion to approve Larry’s package was made by Jan Garrison and seconded by Sue Kaiser. Motion passed unanimously. Ginny has not been replaced and Nate has taken on some of the Youth responsibilities. Nate will be taking over the parsonage that Ginny will be vacating. The insurance decrease is a trade off. Motion to approve Nate’s package was made by Chris Hipp and seconded by Sheila Rader. Discussion followed. We need the two appointed compensations approved by Oct 10 when DS Butler comes. There was a question as to the increase in utilities for the parsonage for the upcoming year. Larry commented that we COULD wait until we have a better idea about next years’ budget. Discussion followed. Motion passed unanimously.

Trustees Report
A new roof has been installed on the gym at Historic Trinity. Looks good. Cost: $13,750, less insurance payments (for the wind damaged half of the roof) of $6100.

A direction sign pointing the way to key places in both church buildings is ready for installation. It is expected to be in place beside the driveway, near the sidewalk to the front of door of Historic Trinity, by this Sunday. Total cost: $200.

A 20’ x 40’ tent was bought and used for Rally Day and is planned to be used for the Fall Festival on Oct 1. Cost: $2300, paid from a Memorial Fund donation in memory of Jan Hughes.

More than fifty Women of the Word held their first weekly meeting here this past Thursday. This is being treated largely as if it were a Trinity in-house program. A donation of $1200-$1300 is anticipated from W.O.W.

Prayer Ministry Report
The Island Prayer Group has continued to meet over the summer, for two of those months, with the Lighthouse Fellowship. Their pastors, Gerard and Maureen Haberstro, and a small group of parishioners met with us one time, to recreate their weekly prayer service. Beryl Kinney and I were warmly welcomed and prayed over and personal as well as Island spiritual issues were prayed for. On the second evening, Pastor Dan Stinson and his wife, Linda, who have a house church in their home on Baseline Rd. met with us. Dan is especially trained to work with drug and alcohol concerns and has been working with the Middle and High School, Young Life and with GI town folk on such issues. Dan is also part of the GI Ministerium.
Some of my time was spent in meeting with the new pastor at Island Presbyterian and having some conversations about whether we as churches could lead a service of remembrance on 9/11 but it seems there was not time and interest to do that. At least I talked to someone at the DeGlopper Post and they too were involved in helping the NF Air Show that weekend.
We followed a lead from Linda McGuire to have a prayer garden set up in the prayer room on 9/11 for those who might want to light a candle for someone special or those who were lost. That was set-up but not well enough publicized or recognized from the pulpit and competing with all the other things going on – Rally Day – it was used by only a few. Unfortunately other competing meetings or activities for our pastors had been made far in advance so no participation was possible.
As we begin the fall program season there will be a trial period when two prayer groups will meet in the evening...with Lani Burkman taking leadership in on Monday, this month on the 19th and 20th ...to accommodate different people’s schedules. Next month we may be meeting at the Episcopal Church for at least one night and hope to attend other churches to experience their prayer practices. Our expectation is to return to the second Mon. Tues. schedule in Oct.
Hopeful that others will join us, both pastors and lay persons when we will continue to pray for the Island and our lives together.
I have personally taken a break from teaching an adult Christian Ed class on prayer this fall. Some future plans for more prayer in and after worship are still in the planning stage.
With prayers for our life together here at Trinity and our new pastoral team of Rev. Baird and Rev. Lange and their families. Prayer Ministries Coordinator, Rev. Sue Kaiser, retired

CE Report
This year for Sunday School there will be a Junior Elementary class (Grades K-2) taught by Jeri Wright and Mary Von Wald. This will be held in the classroom next to the lounge. There will also be a Senior Elementary class (Grades 3-5) taught by Nikki Fidel, Keira Hayes, and Judy Johnson. This class will be held downstairs in the Kidzone. The curriculum for both classes is Rock Solid.
This year Kidzone will also be split in Junior Elementary and Senior Elementary. The Senior Elementary group taught by Mark Von Wald and will continue to be held in the Kidzone. The Junior Elementary group taught by Liz Von Wald will be held in the classroom next to the Christian Education office. There will also be one adult volunteering with both groups on a rotating basis. Kidzone will continue to be run like a Junior Church with worship, bible lessons, drama, and interactive crafts and activities. Kids will continue to be signed in before the service in the Family Room and will attend the first ten minutes of the service with their teachers.
Rally Day was a huge success with 26 children registering for Kidzone and Sunday School. There are still several families that have yet to register. We have also called and invited children who attended VBS without a home church to join us.



Pastor comments:
“Be of good cheer.” Larry has been reviewing past decisions. WE have about 300 people that really do care about this church in some significant way. That is a good critical mass for a church this size. We are still at a point where recovery is not too hard. WE need to think about faith and nurturing peoples’ faith and how it impacts their everyday life. The tendency to fix the budget is to cut. IF we have to do this, please, let’s do this strategically. Churches that are focused on faith issues and practice tithing, are growing today. Tithing goes with nurturing of the faith. We need to be focused on our mission statement and our vision statement. Larry does not preach from a manuscript and has been asked for copies of sermon. What will be done is to offer a sermon summary.

Ginger shared she had a phone call from a person who raised her kids in this church. She was invited to attend WOW. It brought to mind that brought up the question: “when was the last time WE invited someone to here or any of our activities.”

Approval of June’s Minutes tabled until next month.

Next meeting October 17, 2011 at 7 PM
Closing prayer by Pastor Larry
Meeting adjourned at 9:20 PM

Respectfully submitted,
Gail Conschafter