Church Council
Meeting
Monday, April 28,
2014
Meeting opened
with unison reading of the TUMC Mission Statement.
Attendees: Jan
Garrison, Anne Hipp, Chris Hipp, Charlie Yund, Jessica Mazgaj( For John
Harbison), John Mason, Mike Fonte, Terry Bellanca, Laura Mason, Sheila Rader,
Paul Sipson, Pastor Larry Baird, Gail Conschafter
The meeting continued with a unison prayer.
God
Sightings: Jan Garrison was at
Assembly in Louisville, Kentucky with wonderful Godly people. Travel was safe.
Approval Of
Minutes: Add John Jones to Attendees. Minutes were unanimously approved
with the submission of Bob Kaiser’s policy. Discussion of Smoking in church
buildings was discussed. Motion to
approve the submitted Use of Building policy by Terry seconded by Chris
Hipp. The title of the position of the
office position is as submitted on April 2014.
Calendar of
Events:
Laity
Banquet May
18
Joyful
Noise Concert June 29
VBS July
27 – 31
Fall
Festival October
25 with set up October 24
One
Starry Night December
5 – 6
Discussion
on Graduation Sunday. June 8 is staff
recognition for those who are changing positions in the church. Nate will preach all three services on this
Sunday. He will not be here June 29.
Joyful Noise will be here June 29 for the 9 and 10:30 services with a lunch to
follow the last service. A date would be June 22. There are approximately 5-8
graduates from both High School and college.
In
terms of the summer, there are a few that like the outdoor service, but we
cannot do it the same way we did last summer.
Many of the older members were unsteady with walking across the lawn to
get to their seats. Larry will talk to the Praise band to see if they would be
willing to play outside for the 9:00 service.
Spiritual
Enrichment is done until the next round.
Finance: Chris reported: “ Through
March General Fund giving is $84k, vs. $83.5k in 2013. Spending ytd
is $82.3k, vs. $87.4k last year. This results in a positive $9.2k
balance, a $2.9k improvement vs. 2013. The Finance Committee agreed
to a monthly apportionments payment in April.
Our giving forecast model suggests that
we may finish the year with giving sufficient to pay apportionments at or near
our $46.6k commitment.
The Finance Committee supports the SPRC
proposal to create a 20 hour per week for the Administrative
Assistant position.”
To
date, we are about even with our budget items.
SPRC: From Tom Burkman’s email:
“ The SPRC is grappling with staffing
changes brought about by
1) Need
to strengthen our professional and volunteer leadership to effect the church’s
mission.
2) Church
financial constraints
The status of current searches for staff replacement:
Administrative Assistant to the Pastor. Hired Alice Mock , pending satisfaction of
background check.
Youth Ministry Coordinator. Applications will be received through April
30. Two candidates have been
interviewed. The intention is to decide
at the May 5 SPRC meeting.
Senior Adult Ministries Coordinator. Applications will be received during
May.
Sunday, June 8.
Departing staff will be recognized in three services, a reception
following the Traditional Service, and a tribute concert by the music ministries
at 12:15. Pastor Lange will preach at
all three services.
There
are a few candidates applying for the Youth Ministry position. Depending on who
we hire, the second parsonage may come into play. This would be a part time
position. Larry told the Praise Band
that he would be meeting with them as to how to continue to move forward. Larry
stated that he was pleased that SPRC is being careful and taking time to hire
the right person, which will hopefully longevity.
Missions:
Jessica reported that Mission is working on a Mission Booklet highlighting the
current projects the committee is working on.
There will be contact information available, along with needs for each
project. This will hopefully will be go into a June bulletin. The committee
would like to re-present the application process. There has been usefulness in this, but one
struggle was that it involved general fundraising. Missions feels this is not within the realm
of the Mission Committee. Charlie share his appreciation to the Mission
Committee in coral the efforts of the fundraising. Larry reported that Jessica has been both
tough and gracious at the same time, making the process so appreciated. Jessica asked that perhaps the new
Administrative Assistant handle the entire church calendar and the fundraising
efforts of the entire church. The Mission Committee will continue to handle the
Mission part of the fundraising, but the remainder of the fundraising events
will be funneled through the office and the Administrative Assistant. Jan
suggested that once a date request is received, contact Jan. She is able to check the calendar and put
something on the church calendar. Charlie
would like to see an annual calendar in the office and keep it current. It does need to be communicated to the
congregation that any person(s) wanting to do an event, must go through the
main office to make sure there are no conflicts. There was discussion about setting up an area,
and Jessica reported the committee has been in communication with Trustees on
that. Charlie will work with both
committees to see if it is a possibility.
Jan reported the Trustees would like to see the “blank wall” to be the
“missions wall.”
Pastor’s Comments:
Larry’s main objective now that
Easter is done, is to get a good staff in place and make sure our missional
objectives are met. A handout was distributed with the attendance numbers for
all three services for 2014. There are
more youth coming to the 8:00 service. See report for numbers. Mike Fonte
reported that we are about 18 people more than 2012. This is encouraging news.
Additional
Committee Reports: Laura Mason reported she has finished up the “max on
life” group. Attendance was good and
friendships were generated. There were 8-12 people that were consistent. Laura would like to do another series in the
Fall. Larry reported the Parenting Group
had a good turn-out. Out of that group,
some decided to do another series. The
momentum is moving in a positive direction. The Internet program makes it easy
to lead the series. Our new internet
service has been upgraded and is working well.
It has a tremendous amount of versatility.
Paul Sipson commented on the Main bulletin board. Chris Sipson is no longer going to do that
main bulletin board. She has done a
wonderful job on this, and Larry is confident that we will be able to find
competent people to update it with current events. Coffee hour transition has
gone well. There are a number of people that
has stepped up to the plate to cover all services. There was discussion about having an actual
fire drill during a service.
Charlie reported that he feels things are going well with
all the changes taking place. He has
heard comments that have been positive.
We want to make sure it continues to be a positive experience for
everyone. The office has heard nothing
but positive comments from those that have called or stopped into the
office. With Nate and Angie leaving,
there is a huge hole that needs to be filled.
We need to remain positive about this and keep the momentum going. Sheila
has heard that there are people willing to volunteer in the office. Perhaps a notice in the bulletin stating what
areas need those volunteers. Perhaps Alice, Jan, and Larry could assess the
need and let the congregation know what and when is needed. There was
discussion on the greeters. We have
fallen off getting greeters for each week.
Larry suggested that the greeters be a group of people that would
recognize a new face and welcome them.
Perhaps a group like that could be put into place for the 9:00
service. We all need to be aware of
those new people coming in, and go outside our comfort zone. Our hospitality is
the one thing we need to kick up a bit.
New shirts have been purchased for “team Trinity.” Whoever is behind the visitors center should
have one on. Hopefully the ushers as a team, coffee servers, and key people
should wear them.
Terry commented that when we hired Frank and Edward, the
committee asked them to come to a youth event.
This gave the kids a feeling they were important, and their input is
wanted and appreciated. Kingdom Bound is an upcoming event that the kids might
get involved in.
There was a question as to whether new members are listed
in all bulletins? Larry stated we need
to continuously think through the three services and how all are affected by
students/new members/ ect. We need to
keep updated on our website with new members, baptisms, confirmations,
graduates/ ect. If we are going to grow,
we need to be a whole-hearted team in this area. “How do you do church “well”
today during today’s culture?” We need
to find pockets where new people will feel welcome and fit in. How do we create
more small groups? The more we have, the
better we are – we are serving more and more people. Spiritual growth will
build the church, not programming!
Next Meeting: Monday,
May 19 – 7 PM in Historic Trinity.
Closing prayer by Larry.
Meeting adjourned at 8:55 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Gail Conschafter
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