Church Council Meeting
September 16, 2013
Charlie opened with the unison reading of the mission
statement.
Attendees:
Larry Baird, Charlie Yund, Fred Claus, Chris Hipp, Anne Hipp, Laura Mason, Sue
Kaiser, Jan Garrison, Debbie Lavalle (for Tom Burkman), Sheila Rader, Mark
VonWald, Gail Conschafter, Mike Fonte, John Jones, Terri Bellanca.
Prior to the showing of a video, Larry opened with
prayer. Video was shown on Worship. Laura shared about her experience at a
seminar and recommitted her life to Jesus Christ. It was an amazing experience! Charlie shared an experience at a workshop he
attended, and the importance of giving your struggles to Christ at the foot of
the cross. Sheila shared the connection
between her search for her classmates for her reunion vs. those that we should
be searching for in our own church if they have been out for a while! Mark shared the success of VBS and how some
of the families have joined us for worship.
Charlie stated that Mark and Liz and team have been a huge positive
impact on the growth of the church!
Minutes for August and June were approved as
corrected. Motion by Chris and seconded
by Sue Kaiser. Approved unanimously.
Nate will be here next month to report on his items.
Calendar: Oct 11 & 12 Asbury Retreat Center
October
13 Crop Walk
October
19 Fall Festival w/ Trunk
or Treat
October
26 UMW Chicken Dinner
December
6-7 One Starry Night
Jan
10 – 11 Confirmation
Retreat
Feb
2 Souper Bowl
April
18 Good Friday Fish
Fry
April
20 Easter/Confirmation
Finance: From the blog:
General Fund giving
is $206.9k, vs. $227.6k in 2012.
Spending YTD is $223.2k vs. $236.5k
last year.
This leaves a $6k deficit at August
month-end, despite underfunding apportionments by $25.9k YTD.
Giving in August was about equal to
2012, and giving generally increases for the remainder of the year.
It is anticipated that we will
finish the year with a positive GF balance but will not be able to fully fund
apportionments. Having a successful Trinity Fair and Christmas offering
would help close the gap.
We will have a fall Stewardship
Campaign. Planning is underway on a contingency budget, should it be
necessary to balance the 2014 budget while fully funding apportionments.
Having only one worship service in the summer, decreased
our overall attendance. Jan reported
that the weekly givers, usually get their pledges in by either mail or drop
off! We do have a committed group of
givers.
Pastor’s Comments: Larry presented a few areas:
1.
Budget realities. Larry thanked the finance committee for a
wonderful tracking of all the money that comes in and goes out! Larry is gratified by the number of people
that have increased their pledge as we have lost some substantial givers. The leaders of the finance committee have
been attuned to the demographics of our congregation. Stewardship plan is under
discussion by finance. Larry has
contacted a friend (Stewardship consultant) to assist/suggest ideas for this
year. It has been shown that pledge
cards are not as effective as we think.
If we are going to use pledge cards, it should be viewed more as a
“partnership” card to focus on why people need to give as individuals…. Don’t
stress giving to “negatives.” Show them
visually the successes we are having!
Share short term victories as to what God is doing and celebrate those
things. People do Not give to budget,
but will give to a vision they can connect to.
It is not a good idea to go after your best givers. The middle group should be your target! The
group that is low in giving may move, but will not tithe due to one
campaign. A program, “Dare to Dream” is
being developed for us. Using this plan,
the author’s church has increased by 35% in giving! We do have a contingency plan in place should
we need it. Details will be shared if
necessary! Donna shared that we have not
met our apportionments in years. She
stressed that this is our responsibility and the committee is working on
putting a positive “spin” on this.
The “Nominations Committee”
which is now called the Lay Ministry is now looking for candidates. Larry is looking for new people that are new
to leadership. We need to develop people
that have the willingness to work in leadership development. Core teams needing members are SPRC and
Trustees. If anyone feels they know of
anyone that might fill these positions, please let Larry know. It is far more and more important that
filling officers and/or positions.
It has become obvious to some
that we need separate service teams for the 9:00 and the 10:30 service. There needs to be some alternative methods to
put into place so that the absence of a few would not alter the service
itself. Extra help is needed for praise
team and the tech team. It was suggested
that we have a training session on the sound board. We are hoping to offer that on October 3. Charlie said the three areas of concentration
are Worship (all three services!), build and support the 9:00 service,
Hospitality, and Evangelism. Mark
commented that it needs to be a mindset that we automatically step forward and
take a step to introducing ourselves and find something out about them. There was discussion on how to showcase some
of the leaders of the church for all to see. It was suggested by Larry to
contact some new people that have recently joined the church to ask them what
was helpful to them as new attendees.
Committee Reports:
Jan Garrison reported that Trustees have not met, however the work
has been done on the Parsonage. There
was a foundation issue, but has been taken care of. There was a problem with the foundation
separating, and the company has taken care of this. The capital fund funded the repair, and it
has a 15 year warranty.
Next meeting is October 21 at 7
PM.
Meeting adjourned after Sue
Kaiser closed with prayer.
Respectfully submitted,
Gail Conschafter
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