October Council Minutes for October 2012

Church Council Meeting

Monday, October 15, 2012

Charlie opened meeting with unison reading of the mission statement.

 

Welcome and Roll Call……… Gail Conschafter

Attendees:  Pastor Larry, Charlie Yund, Fred Claus, Liz VonWald, Mike Fonte, Anne Hipp, Chris Hipp, Jan Garrison, John Tomasula, Gail Conschafter, Terri Bellanca, Laura Mason, Liz VonWald, John Harbison, Sheila Rader, Sue Kaiser, Tom Burkman, Fred Claus, Bobbie Cap, Donna LaValle

Nate opened in prayer.

John Harbison shared his God sightings regarding the mission’s project.  Sheila and Jan shared the wonderful time shared about the women’s retreat over the weekend.  Tom Burkman shared that his son has been appointed Lay Leader in his district in Louisiana.  Fred commented on how good it was to see Tom in church on Sunday.  Bobbie shared of her experience while vacationing in Maine. 

Minutes from September’s meeting were approved as written. Motioned by Fred Claus and seconded by Laura Mason.

Changes to Agenda: Fred Claus would like to speak.

Calendar Events:

o   Taste of Trinity is set for October 20.  Liz asked if anyone might like to offer their trunk, we can use it.  Candy is also needed.  Drop off at the church office during the week.  Anytime before Saturday is fine.  Baskets are being collected in the church office. Nate has a copy of the kitchen schedule if anyone needs to see it to arrange for kitchen time.

o   One Starry Night is December 2.  Sheila Rader and Ellie Robinson are working hard to make this a huge success.  It will take part in every corner of the church.  It is a great community outreach.  We are moving ahead.  Four women have offered to do 2 more rooms.  Promotion is now a priority.  Men are needed to work in Santa’s workshop.  Liz suggested a trunk be decorated for One Starry Night….

o   ACE Seminar is February 9.  Tom Burkman is working on the theme of Forgiveness.  Dr. Timothy Chambers has agreed to be a speaker.

o   Shrove Pancake Tuesday is February 12, 2013.  This is sponsored by the Bell Ringers.

o   December 16 Christmas Concert with meal between service and concert.  Concert is scheduled for 12 but may be moved to 12:30.  Kid’s performance will be at both 9:00 and 10:30 services. 

o   Youth Fundraisers are in progress but no dates are available.  Nate reported that they are contemplating selling wreaths again this year. 

o   Possible Prayer Vigil to be held on Election Day.  Sue will take care of publicity and sign up for this event.  (This Friday is Tidings deadline!)

o   Question about New Year’s Eve Service.  We have time to decide.

Charlie commented on keeping reports crisp and to the point.

Finance Stewardship focus update:  Chris Hipp reported:

      From the blog:

           
Through September General Fund income is $262k vs. $260 in 2011. Spending is $265k vs. $279k last year. The income model we are using forecasts income at year-end to be about $350k vs. a budget of $379k. Spending is, however $14k below 2011 pointing to a shortfall of $10-20k. Apportionments were inadvertently not paid in September, but will be paid along with the October portion.

We support a proposal from Pastor Baird to change the Stewardship process for 2013. We will seek pledges which represent the giver's commitment as a Christian to the life of our Church. These will be collected and kept unopened, to be returned to the giver at mid-year to enable the giver to monitor progress toward the commitment. A budget will be assembled and progress toward meeting it carefully monitored. Spending changes will be made as necessary to meet our financial responsibilities.

Communications are key to making this new process successful. This will start with a letter outlining the planned process to the congregation, to be mailed by month-end along with 3rd Quarter giver's statements.

Commitment Sunday will be December 2nd.

Four quarterly letters will go out in 2013 to report progress.

Our annual Church Charge Conference will be November 17th. Since this is early in out Stewardship and budgeting cycle we will again present only the Ministerial compensation packages for approval at this meeting.

Chris feels this stewardship campaign will be an exciting process.  A question was posed about salaries.  “What is the goal?”  Goal is to connect behavior to expectations… for both the spender and the giver.  We are going to a line by line budget review to make each committee aware of what is there.  Charlie spoke on priorities such as spiritual growth, youth and young families. Adult ministries will continue to be supported financially.  Another approach is the Right Now series.  Has this been tried somewhere else?  We are entering into the cutting edge of church stewardship.  Most comes from the Alban Institute and a book called Creating Congregations of Generous People by Michael Durall.  There are multiple checkpoints during the year where adjustments can be made.  This has been tried extensively on the Cornerstone District.  They led the conference on meeting their apportionments during this time. Pastor Larry read a paragraph from the book about “giving to the budget.”   Pastor Larry has had experience with this and had the wonderful experience of exceeding their budget each year.  He admitted it is a bit frightening.  The letter sent kicks off the campaign, but it does not end with the letter.  People are still going to be invited to submit a pledge.  The finance will only be able to track it on a weekly basis by what’s coming in on a weekly basis.  It’s asking the congregation to give in a way that will stretch their stewardship while we are doing this discipleship training.  Roughly 50% of our congregation pledges.  This is not a mandate, just a strong suggestion from the senior Pastor. 

 Church Charge Conference is Saturday, November 17 at 4 PM.  Pastor’s (both) compensation packages need to be in place by this date.  We will not have a budget ready, and will defer that to a January meeting.  Charlie asked that all would attend the Charge Conference meeting.  Charlie also asked if we might like to meet after the Charge Conference as a Council instead of meeting on Monday.  For the time being, we will keep the two meetings separate until further notice.

What information is available about the stewardship program?  There is nothing in writing as of yet.  Council has to approve the new procedure before anything moves forward.  This program makes givers look at their giving in regards to their relationship with God.  It makes it more personal.  The numbers from this years’ budget will be rolled over and then closely monitored and compared to what is actually coming in. 

Tom Burkman moved we adopt this program and Sheila Rader seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 

Missional Event Scheduling

Charlie reviewed what the process is for outreach efforts and the scheduling of such.  There is a calendar that has been created.  Thank you to that committee; especially John Harbison and Jessica Skelly that put that calendar together.  Charlie asked that the process be evaluated at the end of 2012 as stated in the letter that was circulated among all committees. John shared his frustration with only giving a project only one month.  There are several missions we support as a church.    There may be several components to one particular project, which makes it difficult to target all the fundraising in a month.  To focus on a project in one month is ok, but we cannot limit the fundraising for that event to only one month.  We were trying to avoid having several groups raising funds all on one Sunday.  Nate reported that the Youth Committee is working on putting a calendar for fundraising and present it to the Mission Committee.  Fred reminded us that Trunk or Treat is not a “fundraiser” but a community outreach.  No money is raised.  Discussion followed on the process.  A suggestion was to put a sign by Mission Central to inform anyone and everyone as to what is going on in the life of the church – whether you are interesting in fundraising or giving!

 Trustees are encouraging us to set aside some specific area for missions and collections.  We find there is congestion when it comes time to fundraising.  Perhaps an area can be set up for the “giving,” ect.  Trustees and Missions should work together on this.

Right Now – “The Power of a Whisper”

Fred Claus shared how is using this.  He has been asked to put together a men’s group of fathers of school aged children.  He is using Right Now to watch a weekly installment and then communicate weekly by e mail and then get together about once a month for an activity.  This is the ideal use of the program.  Nate shared that if you have not looked at this; please take some time to do so.  He is using it with the MS and HS programs.  The response has been very positive.

A portion of the excerpt was shown.  We were encouraged to log in and watch the rest of the video to see the outcome. 

One of the focal points is to develop disciples and follow Jesus.  This series helps us do both!

 Committee Reports:

 Is the nominating committee in position to fill vacant positions that are upcoming?  SPRC and Trustee committees have vacancies and need to be filled by the Church Charge Conference meeting.

The Bill Hybel series is the beginning for our evangelism committee.

      We also need a technical group with all the technology that is up and coming.  This may be the beginning of a new committee with everything that is happening. 

Pastor Larry announced that Tom DeLoughery is the conference Adult Ministry coordinator.

 Summary:

      Larry remarked that as we get used to him as being our pastor, we are going to be “tossed” some new approaches to some issues.  There may be mixed feelings about these, but new ideas will always be in the works.   All items will coincide with our mission statement.

Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 19 at 7 PM

Larry closed in prayer.

Meeting adjourned at 8:55 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Conschafter