Annual Meeting Minutes

Genesee Lutheran Parish

Annual Meeting

January 18, 2015

Jennifer called the meeting to order at 11:45

Prayer was led by Jennifer to get the meeting started.

Committee Reports:

Building and grounds: Doug gave a report of Building and grounds-It has been an easy year when it came to maintenance with the Parkin’s taking care of the grounds out at the Valley church and Pastor Dave taking care of them here in town.

The biggest problem is going to be the sewer here at St. John’s Doug and Brent did a report on what that is going to entail. Roaches construction came and cleaned out the pipes for us and did and estimate on what it is going to cost to fix it. Everyone agreed that we should get a second bid ad make a decision after that on which company we will have fix it.

Education: Kaycee Gregory is heading up Sunday School and doing a very good job.

Activities: Different activities that we have ongoing are Inspire, Theology on Tap, Bible Study, Youth group, Young Woman’s group with many other single activities throughout the year.

Worship: Music-Pastor Dave comes up with the focus for each Sunday, then Patrick and the other musicians come up with music according to that focus.

Outreach: Habitat for Humanities- we have provided lunches and are in the process of gathering kitchen supplies and other essentials for the new family that is moving into the home. Verna and Rosanna are helping to put together a couple of quilts aslo.

Cemetary: Holly Sampson has been taking care of the St. John’s cemetery and Dan is not sure she is going to want to continue so if there is anyone who would be willing to do it, there is an application process to go through. The Parkin’s family is taking care of the one out at the Valley church.

By Law Changes:

We would like to change the by law’s from having to have three quarterly and one annual meeting each year to just having to have one annual meeting a year and calling special meetings when necessary.

Gayle Rossebo moved to change the meeting requirements to only one annual meeting a year. Susan Riggs seconded.

Discussion opened, no one had any discussion. Put to vote and passed unanimously.

The bylaws change

a.      The annual meeting of the congregation shall be in January between the dates of January 15^th and January 31^st.

b.      Quarterly meeting of the congregation will be help in the months of April and October. (this line is now being eliminated from the bylaws)

The second change we would like to make, to change the required number of council members from nine to seven.

Current reading:

1.      The Church Council shall consist of nine (9) members elected for a term of three (3) years but elected in such a manner that after the first election one-third (1/3) are elected each year, No members shall be eligible for more than two (2) successive terms in the same elective office.

Proposed change would read: seven (7) members elected for a term of three (3) years’…and continue as previously written.

Our current council consists of the following members:

Pastor David Deckard

Jennifer Parkins (Chair)

Susan Riggs, Treasurer (term ending this meeting)

Linda Chilson, Secretary

Gayle Rossebo, council member (term ending last year)

Doug Cartwright, council member (term ending this year)

Patrick Adams, council member (Term ending this year)

Courtney Scharnhorst, council member

Amy Peterson, council member

Dana Carter, council member

Jennifer explained that we are currently having trouble filling the council with nine members and that we have four positions that are being vacated this year.

Linda Chilson moved we change the number of required seat to seven. Tezra Barnes seconded.

Discussion opened with no discussion, voted and carried unanimously.

From this day forward we will only be required to seat seven members on the council.

Patrick has offered to fill the positon of treasurer. Floor opened to others who would like the position of treasurer.

Verna Studer moved to name Patrick as the new treasurer and Rosanna Cartwright seconded. Motion carried unanimously. After this meeting Patrick Adams will be our new treasurer.

Benevolences:

Christmas Eve offering went to the Emergency Fund

Easter offering: Suggestions for offering benevolence:

Lutherhaven, Emergency Fund, Lutherhaven Scholarship, Alternative’s to Violence, and University of Idaho Campus Ministries.

Verna Studer moved to give the Easter offering to these five projects.

Marilyn seconded

Opened to discussion, no discussion.

Motion carried unanimously

Pastor’s Report:

Talked about the BINGO card we did in church was to show what all we have been doing and how so many people have been involved, and how our passion (the whole congregation) brings it together with our passion. We just need to keep this passion going and keep furthering our mission.

BIG PICURE!!!

Financial: Funding our mission

Susan Rigg’s presented this past years financial report and this next year’s proposed budget.

We were $24001.08 short this past year so we are taking some out of savings to cover this amount. That will leave us with $24000 in savings.  We have 41 households with 84 members, if 30 families could increase offering by $67 per month we could be break even.

Pastor Dave’s medical insurance is requiring him to put $214 a month into a Medical savings plan. This will come directly out of his pocket. Susan purposed that we increase his pay by this amount each month to help cover the cost.

Tezra Barnes moved that we approve the budget with the increase to Pastor Dave’s salary of $2568 annually be included in it.

Dana Carter seconded. Opened to discussion it no discussion

Motion carried unanimously

The BIG PICTURE is that we need to come up with some better ways to fulfill our mission and not just pay our bills. 

Susan Riggs has volunteered to fill a new position as Fund Raising Coordinator. There are three projects already in the works for this coming year.

Some future projects are:

An Appeal Letter to the Community

Bake Sale at Easter

Garage Sale in August

Any and all suggestions are welcome and open to consideration.

Meeting adjourned with the Lord’s Prayer

Annual Church Meeting Minutes Jan. 27, 2013

Genesee Lutheran Church Council
Minutes for January 27, 2013 Meeting

The meeting was called to order by Jennifer Parkins, followed by the singing of the Doxology. Jennifer then read the minutes from last year’s annual meeting.

Committee Reports:

Education Committee:
Dana Carter: The Sunday School Christmas program was wonderful, and she thanked Patrick Adams for providing help with the music. She explained that the leaves on the construction paper tree in the fellowship hall were to represent Sunday School attendance. The Sunday School teachers are currently working on the upcoming Easter program, as well as thinking ahead to Vacation Bible School in June. The hope is to have another church in town step up to lead that program this year, although there will still be a need for volunteers and donated snacks from our church members.

Worship Committee:
Jennifer Parkins: Phyllis Kanikkeberg would like to step down as chair of this committee. She suggests that anyone who is interested in this position talk to her, Pastor Dave or Phyllis about what this would entail. Also, another person is needed for the Lent planning committee.

Buildings & Grounds Committee:
Jennifer Parkins: Due to recent improvements, electrical efficiency has improved and utility bills have been lower. Doug Cartwright reported that the front steps of St. John’s will need to be redone. He will be researching a more concrete-friendly method of de-icing as well.

New Business:
Council positions: Shelley Renton is stepping down from her council position, Courtney Scharnhorst and Jennifer Parkin’s terms are up. They are both willing to continue their positions for another term. With no other nominations made, it was moved by Rosanna Cartwright that Amy Peterson complete Shelley’s term (one more year), with Linda Chilson joining the council to complete Amy’s position as secretary (one more year), and Courtney and Jennifer re-elected for another term in their current positions. The motion was seconded by Randi Adams. The motion passed unanimously.

Jennifer Parkins: The Christmas Eve benevolence offering was donated to the Sandy Hook, CT PTO following the school’s recent tragedy.

Patrick Adams: Encouraged comments on the church’s online blog, which is no longer being moderated. Anyone can post a comment, even anonymously, if desired. Also, Patrick will set up a PayPal system for members to make donations online rather than writing a check. Beginning Tuesday, January 29th Patrick will be in the chapel from 7 – 8:30 p.m. for anyone wishing to join him in working on their musical skills. This is not a rehearsal for Sunday, rather, it is meant to be a time to get together and enjoy playing music. He is willing to do this on a different week night if it works out better for others.

Old Business:
None

Financial Report:
Susan: Provided a budget handout. We have met all financial obligations to date. Discussion followed about ways we could make up our deficit (example: if 12 families gave $44 more per week). The point was made that we can sacrifice a bit more, because Pastor Dave and his family do make the sacrifice for the good of the church by his declining a raise again this year, and also by not taking his budgeted auto expense reimbursement, and by paying for extras for the youth out of his own pocket.

Pastor Dave: We currently have about 60 families who are members of the church that attend on a regular basis, with about 20-30 more who attend less regularly.

Pastor’s Report:
Pastor Dave played a video that he made entitled “The Importance of a VISION”.  He says that other than financially, the church “is in a really good place especially in the past 3-4 years”. Great energy has been built up, and now it needs a vision. Vision looks forward and outward, not backward and inward.

A good vision:
1) Meets needs
2) Serves the community
3) Defines and grows us

Three things people look for in a church:
1) Good music (We have had a ‘musical revolution’ in the past year!)
2) Good with kids
3) Giving/receiving help

The video showed a small representation of Genesee youth who happened to be present during the filming of the video, although there are many more than those 17 shown in the video – all are welcome. They come to the church/parsonage to enjoy snacks, get support, have fun, and learn who God is by feeling welcome, while in a safe environment. Currently, and up until now, they meet at the Pastor’s home. He said he gets calls and texts daily from the kids and that they are always welcome.

Issues with this have become:
1) Lack of space which means being forced to limit the number of people invited to an event.
2) Youth events in the Pastor’s home interfere with his family. It creates a stressful feeling for Pastor Dave when he has to ask Careen and their own children to find another place to go during these events.
3) The Pastor cannot keep “spinning gold out of straw”. He needs more help to serve the youth.


We’ve been built up for a reason:

THE VISION

The parsonage becomes a multi-purpose center. Pastor Dave and his family would move to a different home.

  Step 1: Address the deficit
  Step 2: Prepare finances
  Step 3: Renovate the parsonage and enjoy

Stewardship will be the focus this coming year.

The meeting was concluded with the Lord’s Prayer.

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. – Mission statement: Genesee Lutheran Church

October Quarterly Meeting and Council Meeting Minutes

The October 21, 2012 quarterly meeting and October 10, 2012 annual meeting minutes have been posted.

Monday Morning Sermon: Miracles of Transformation

Our sermon text for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany was the first 11 verses of John, Chapter 2:

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

On Sunday we talked about how important this text is for our church at this particular time, with our Annual Meeting/Potluck coming up next Sunday following worship.  If you know anything about the Gospel of John (as opposed to his friends Matthew, Mark, and Luke) you'll know that what actually happens is less than half the story.  John is all about what events symbolize and mean.  An otherwise simple story about a wedding being saved by the miracle of water to win carries plenty of significance for us today.

You know John is starting out big when the event happens "on the third day".  On the third day of what, exactly?  He doesn't say specifically--likely the week--but it hardly matters.  You just need to remember that other thing that happened on the third day:  Jesus rising again to announce our salvation and a new beginning.  Jesus' first miracle--this wedding event--is the sign of a new creation, a new time, the beginning of the world changing.

We, too, stand at that time as a church.  We've spent the last few years gathering energy and confidence, getting to know each other, exploring the Spirit.  We've done well, I think.  But it's time to start looking forward instead of just backwards or inwards.  We have this energy, creativity, this wonderful, percolating community.  What are we to do?  This is our third day.

If we shy away from that journey in favor of staying safe--slinking away from the wedding, so to speak--we'll not be able to preserve what we've discovered.  Turned inwards, that energy dissipates.  It becomes more about us as individuals--our generation of church members or whatever--than it does about the space between us and the ideas and service that happen in that place.  In scientific terms, the potential energy of of church needs to become kinetic energy, expended in service to God and community.

But note that Jesus' first miracle didn't begin with a bang.  It began with an, "Awwwww...we're out of wine." Every change happens this way.  We perceive a need, a lack, and we have a choice how to act.  Like the Israelites in their wilderness journey we can complain or we can move.

The natural response to the shortcoming at the Cana wedding would have been grumbling.  Wine prices are too high, nobody can get enough anymore.  The steward should have planned better.  The bridegroom is too cheap.  The bride invited too many people.  We deal with life's imperfections by finding someone to blame for them and then moving on.

Instead Mary and the servants called upon God and laid out their issue.  He said, "Trust me and fill up those jars."  Then he made it better.  We are called to see shortcomings in our life--individual or communal--as an opportunity and/or challenge.  Otherwise we never see God's miracles even when they occur.  They're drown out by the chorus of moans.  (17 kids, most of which aren't associated with our church, show up for an impromptu youth event, for instance, and we complain about the snow tracked onto the entryway carpet. And so on.)  Shortcomings aren't a cause for complaint, they're a sign we need to move.

And notice that the move in John's gospel here is forward, not backwards.  The jars in which Jesus worked his miracle were meant for a specific purpose:  the ritual of transformation.  That was set in stone...literally!  (The jars were stone, you see.  Ha ha?  Never mind.)  Jesus did his thing and all of a sudden they became the world's biggest wine decanters.  How in the world did they even pour the stuff anyway?  Did they have to get wooden buckets?  Something else to complain about, I suppose...

Our human instinct tells us to look backwards for answers.  Whenever creativity is called for in a church setting the first answers our of our mouths always involve, "Well, we used to..."  That's great, actually!  We used to do many wonderful things!  But the implication of this kind of answer is that our former community had nothing to do with the people participating in it, its time, its culture, the surrounding circumstances.  The whole reason things used to be good was this awesome trick we used to employ, some program or method which made everything perfect just because it existed.

Obviously this was not the case.  Those "used to" ideas really were great...probably the best ideas possible at the time.  It's not like newfangled ideas are automatically better.  They're just different.  And they're different because all of those other factors--people, relationships, culture, needs, circumstances--are also different.  Programs and ideas don't work because they're magical or even right.  They work because they fit with the environment in which they operate.  Something that was absolutely proper--ideal, even--30 or 10 or 5 years ago may not be right anymore.  That's why we're called to look forward in our vision, considering our goals and who we're serving today instead of looking backwards at all the successes we used to have in a completely different environment.

There was nothing wrong with those stone jars, nor with the ritual of purification.  It was just time to put them to a new use.

What's more, this new thing turned the expectations of the world upside-down.  Note the steward saying, "Everybody serves the good wine first, then the inferior when the palate is dulled, but you've done it backwards!"  This was probably not a real practice.  Likely it's in the story to make this very point.  If you just go by your own expectations or those of your society you will not be led to the same place that trust in God will lead you.  In fact sometimes trust in God means doing the opposite of what "makes sense".

Naturally all of this evokes fear and nervousness in us.  And for good reason!  These miracles are not without cost.  If the transformation into WINE--foreshadowing Jesus' own blood poured out on the cross and through communion--isn't enough for you, note his response to Mary's request:  "My hour has not yet come."  When John says, "my hour" he means his death, his crucifixion.  Note the famous prayer in John 17 which begins, "Father, the hour has come..."  The very next thing that happened to him was his arrest.

The emphasis in his statement here falls on the "yet".  He knows his hour is coming.  He knows these steps forward lead into sacrifice and cost greater than anyone could imagine.  That's what moving forward means and that's why we fear it.  But he also knows that this is God's calling.  To refuse the miracle in order to keep himself feeling safe and secure would be unthinkable, a retreat into a slow, inertial death in order to avoid the sacrifice that leads to new life.  So Jesus follows God, pays the cost, takes the chance, performs the miracle.

Plenty of churches end up like those Olympic show horses, running just fine until they get to the bar they have to jump.  Then they balk, shy away, and their rider goes flying.  Sometimes we'd rather get God off our back (and out of our church) than change.  This will not do.  Yes, steps forward involve cost and sacrifice...sometimes great sacrifice.  But they're not optional if we're to fulfill our calling.  We, too, pay the cost, take the chance, follow God, and live out the miracle.

We do this because we know how the story ends.  This particular story in John ends with the wedding going on, not just with a few cups of wine but with somewhere around 150 gallons of the best wine imaginable!  THAT is a party!  God gives us more than we ever anticipated.  We also know that Jesus' own story didn't end in death but in life everlasting and the redemption of the world.  That's the ironic thing about the show horse refusing to jump.  The other side of the bar holds wonders so great as to make this side look like a wilderness desert.  Being human, we're always tempted to hold onto the desert we know instead of finding the lush valley we can only see through trust.  But that's a temptation we must resist.

It's time to run.  It's time to jump.  It's time to journey onward to our next incarnation of the promised land in Genesee.  The annual meeting begins after worship next Sunday.  There will be a potluck and plenty of news and excitement.  Please come and begin to explore your part in the next big thing at the Genesee Lutheran Parish.  See you there!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Annual Meeting January 27th: A New Vision

Our congregation's annual meeting will be held Sunday, January 27th following worship.  A couple things to know:

1.  It's a potluck this year.  Bring food if you can.

2.  This will be the most important annual meeting we've had in a while.  We're going to discuss some ideas, visions really, for moving forward with our mission.

It may not seem like it on the surface, but we're at a critical juncture at our church.  We've spent the last few years figuring out who we are, building up energy, supporting each other.  We've done a good job of that, I think.  We've got vibrant things going on in youth, music, Sunday School, and small-group ministries.  Worship is diverse and interesting.  Most of all, we've got a warm, family feeling.  People enjoy seeing each other and doing ministry together.  Our church family has discovered that we're strong and Spirit-filled.

Add together all of that and you've got a big ball of energy sitting in our midst.  But unless that energy is directed towards something, it will eventually dissipate.  This is the mistake many churches make.  They go through a feel-good cycle and assume that feeling good is its own purpose.  They don't make the connection that we're given Spirit and energy so we can go out and do something with them, channeling God's gifts into service.  Failing to follow the Spirit into vision, they begin to associate the good feeling with themselves: their people, their programs and projects, their "church".  Those people and programs, the church as an institution, become the center of mission.  People end up doing church for its own sake, trying to protect what they have instead of letting it evolve.  But then people move away, programs get old, the good feeling slips, and all of a sudden everybody's living in the past instead of anticipating the future.  The energy departs.  Sometimes there's another boom cycle but sometimes the church just dwindles.

The corrective to all of this is a vision for the future...a place to invest the energy, a purpose beyond ourselves.  Vision unites us--and many more people beyond the borders of the congregation--through what we do together.  That's not only a better use our Spirit and energy, it's a stronger bond.  Without vision we're stuck in the present, looking towards the past and keeping it alive.  With vision we're always moving towards God's future.

We've done well over the past few years, but it's time.  We're gathered, we've been equipped, we feel strength from each other.  Our work over these years has not been to make ourselves feel better or to look good.  We've been preparing for a journey.  The first steps will hopefully come from this annual meeting.  Adopting a new vision will be the tipping point that frees us from what was, gets us looking beyond what is, and propels us into the things God would have us be.  We have plenty of work ahead of us.  It's time to take it up and follow God's Spirit into the future.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Annual and Quarterly Meeting Minutes

The April 22, 2012 quarterly meeting and January 29, 2012 annual meeting minutes have been posted.