We, the members of the Genesee Lutheran Parish, in receiving God’s gracious gifts, are committed to be living examples of Jesus’ love by strengthening and encouraging each other. We commit to love every person and serve anyone we can through word and deed, following the example of our Lord.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Council Minutes for November

Genesee Lutheran Parish Council Meeting Minutes For November

November 12, 2013

In attendance: Patrick Adams, Susan Riggs, Jennifer Parkins, Linda Chilson, Gayle Rossebo, Doug Cartwright, Dan Carter, and Pastor David Deckard

Jennifer Parkins called meeting to order at 7PM.

Financial Report:
Susan Riggs gave a report on the financial status with cashing in the one CD that was not gaining any growth we are doing ok. Dan pointed out that from the financial report she gave us that it would seem that we are on track for doing somewhat better than last year. The shortfall this year is closer to $8500 rather than what it was last year. 
Susan and Pastor Dave are going to put together a narrative budget that will give a bigger picture of the services we get from Pastor Dave and other church members. This will show that not only are we receiving offerings but also the volunteer time many give to the church.
People seem to be doing better at turning in their receipts so that Susan can record those.

New/Old Business:
We discussed moving forward with getting a bulk mail permit. Pastor Dave reported that we would have at least 4 bulk mailings a year. Susan has used PNW up until now, we could continue to use them but it would also just be handier to have our own permit since the cost is minimal for the permit. After some discussion Dan Carter moved to get the permit and Patrick Adams seconded it. There was a unanimous vote in favor, Susan will now move forward with obtaining the permit.
Patrick Adams reported on his findings for getting a hotspot set up for internet at the church. Jennifer reported that at this point none of the Sunday School teachers would be using it since the curriculum they are using would not require any internet usage plus our numbers are pretty low in the middle group of Sunday School students that would be most likely to use it at this time. Pastor Dave mentioned also maybe checking into a router booster that could be used off of the parish internet. Patrick was going to do some more checking into it and will report back next.
Jennifer also brought up that we have not a couple of quarterly meetings and we discussed how we were going to do that since it is also so close to time for an annual meeting. It was decided that we would have a quick quarterly meeting consisting of a financial report at the beginning of church on the December 1st. The annual meeting with be on the last Sunday of January.

Committee reports:
Doug reported that the work has begun on the Community Garden that is located by the perish house.
Jennifer reported that Erica Grieser will not be continuing as worship committee chair, for now Phyllis will help with it but we do need to look for someone to take that position.

Pastors Report:
Both the girls and boys discussion groups did well with an attendance of 4-5 per group. He felt that they enjoyed it and would possibly encourage their friends to join them in the future.
He would like to look into getting a men’s group started after the first of the year.
There was also discussion on starting a youth group of 3rd-6th graders once a month on Saturday. Susan and Linda are going to look into getting this started. Susan thought that possibly some community services would be a fun thing for them to do as children of that age often enjoy doing that. They will also have some other activities that would hopefully draw some of the children in the community to join us. This will not be started until after the first of the year also.
Rather than doing the cookies as we have done in the past few years this year we are going to have a community concert and sing-a-long at the church on the 15th of December with a tentative time of 3PM.

Mission of the Church:
Jennifer came up with a mission statement for the church and council:

To support the ministries of the church
by celebrating the love of God
through giving of time, talents and monetary gifts.

We had a discussion on it and Patrick moved to accept this as our mission statement, Doug seconded it and it was voted in unanimously. 
Jennifer also gave some ideas on how we can maintain our mission:
To show our faith through giving that promotes the mission of our church
To feel connected to each other because what we give is celebrated
Focusing on giving as a way to honor what God gives to us
Provide scripture based guidance for monetary giving
Openly communicate the ways money in the church is used for the missions serving others.
As we all share we all connect and grow in our faith. No one greater than the other, each understanding the spirit of and the intention or purpose of what God is asking us to do.


Meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.

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