Notice of Upcoming Church Council Meeting

I missed getting this in the Sunday bulletin so I am sending posting this here on the blog as a notice of the upcoming Council Meeting,

There will be a Church Council Meeting at 7 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of St. John's on Tuesday, March 13, 2018.

If anyone has anything they feel we need to address at the council meeting please free to email any of the council members or Pastor Dana. As usual anyone who would like to attend you are welcome to come join us. 

Congregational Meeting Minutes

All Congregational Meeting Minutes

Sept.11, 2016

11:15 AM

 

Council in Attendance:

John Marone, Patrick Adams, Linda Chilson, Jennifer Parkins, Alice Bevans, Dave Troy

John called meeting to order and opened with a prayer

John started out by pointing out the Call Process bulletin board. And explaining about how the call process works. Where we are at this point and how we moved forward.

Jennifer explained that Pastor Dean Stewart was supposed to be here this Sunday but had been called away to a family emergency. He and his wife will be gone from now until October 19. In the meantime we either have to continue to do services ourselves or bring in a Supply Pastor. In order to do communion we must have an ordained Lutheran pastor. Carla Newman Smiley from Lutheran Campus Ministries is willing to come and help out a few Sundays, she already does one Sunday a month in Troy and she is not ordained so cannot deliver communion. 

Verna asked who we have in case of emergencies. We would like you to call John for now at the church phone number. He will have the church cell phone with him to receive those calls. In the case of emergencies we have a few pastors in the area that can do hospital visits or funeral services if needed. 

Jennifer went on to recap our visit with Pastor Dean Stewart. Jennifer, Alice, Patrick, Linda, and Louise met with Pastor Dean Stewart on Thursday, Sept 8th. We were all impressed with his knowledge and his sense of humor. He is willing to come and do full-time while we are in the call process. He is anxious to do adult classes and other studies. While he is away he will look over their financial need and get back with us about what he would like in terms of salary. Patrick will go through our budget to decide what we will be able to pay him.

Karen asked what our plans are for the parsonage is. John explained that we are not sure at this point that Bishop Wells encouraged us to hang onto it until we know what a new pastor’s needs may be. In the meantime we need to do some work on it to get it ready for whatever we do decide to do. Patrick pointed out that whatever we do do with the parsonage the congregation needs to be in on that decision and that it will be voted on by everyone, it is not the council’s job to make that decision on our own. We just look at the options and then decide what we think are the best course of action and bring it back to the congregation.

Norma asked how much of an increase are we looking at for a new pastor’s salary? John explained that is not something we know at this point but that we are thinking rather than much of an increase we will need to look at someone with five years or less experience quite possibly even a new seminarian.  One of the steps in deciding what we can offer as salary is to do a financial review.  This is then put in a document that is sent to the synod, pastors searching for a new call also fill out a document and send it to the synod with what they need in terms of salary, housing and other factors. New seminarians will be available in October (which we are too late for), January and February. Bishop Wells advised us that this process will take us as long as we need it to.

Doug asked how soon will we pick a call committee and how do we pick the call committee.  John explained that we are not quite that point yet but are getting close. There may be some members of the congregation that are asked to be on the committee but also those that feel they would like to be on the committee may also put their name in and are encouraged to. There is a questionnaire that will be sent out in the next week that will help that call committee fill out the Ministry Site Profile that gets sent to the synod.  This profile is what the synod uses to match prospective pastors to us. Prospective pastors have a profile they fill out also and that is used by the synod to help match them up to ministry sites.

John then explained that we had two boards that we were going to ask people help us fill up.

We are asking what you would like to hang on to.  What are you willing to let go of?

In the process of trying to come up with answers it was decided we needed a third board for what we aspire to be.

The things we came up with that we want to hold onto are:

• Our relationships with each other
• Music
• Youth ministry-Sunday  School
• Pledging
• Wednesday morning bible studies
• Theology on tap
• Community service and events
• Children’s sermon
• Home visits
• Traditional liturgy/traditional and new
• Being faithful Christians
• Inspire group
• Welcoming and accepting of everyone
• Fun and loving

The things we are willing to let go of are:

• Our ideas of what youth ministry used to look like
• Holding onto traditional times for church and Sunday School
• Stringent and restrictive ideas
• Adiaphora-Greek for all the stuff that doesn’t matter and gets in the way of praising God
• Exclusionism

Things we aspire to be

• Invitational and inclusive
• Actively visit members and each other
• Good communication
  Email, blog, newsletter, phone tree, Facebook
• Prayer Chain-more ways to care for each other, add in the bulletin who needs prayers
• Financial stability-fund raising and community activities
• Being involved in all aspects of church needs to be all members
• We need to be better Evangelists
• Excited about God’s work and making church relevant to all!!

 

These boards will stay at the church for people to more comments on if they would like.

Meeting adjourned at 12:45

 

July Council Minutes

Genesee Lutheran Parish Council Minutes

July 7, 2016

 

Dave Troy, Patrick Adams, Linda Chilson, Alice Bevins, Jennifer Parkins, Dana Carter, John Marone, Pastor Dave Deckard

Meeting called to order at 7:00

Patrick gave the financial report

Pastor Dave announced that he would in likely be leaving; he has decided to accept a call at Sheppard of the Valley in Boise. They will probably be leaving in early September.  He is just waiting for the council and congregation to meet down there and accept it. He should know by Sunday, July 10^th before the end of services. Once he has the confirmation he and John will announce it at church that day.  They will be leaving immediately after services on the 10^th to go down and look for a place to live, and then continue on with their vacation.

He gave us ideas on how to fill the gaps and assured us the Synod will help us as move through the next steps to begin the call process in finding a new pastor for our church.

May Council Minutes

Genesee Lutheran Parish Council Minutes

May 10, 2016

 

Jennifer Parkins, Linda Chilson, Alice Bevans, John Marone, Dave Troy, Pastor David Deckard

Meeting called to order at 7:10

Jennifer gave devotional

 Approval of minutes from the April 12^th meeting moved by Jennifer and seconded by Alice, motion carried

 New business:

Lawn care-Need to spray for dandelions at both the Parsonage and Church

                Dave Troy has a tank and sprayer he would donate, Jennifer has an ATV to pull it, Pastor Dave

will talk to Doug about doing it and that we will pay him. If not Pastor, will check with Wilkes for getting it done.

We need to write a letter of thanks to Doug for the new mower.

The furnace at the Valley needs to be checked, it did not want to come on.

Summer worships are all planned and ready to go.

 Financial report:

Patrick was not able to attend but sent out a report on the finance report by email to all the council members; we operated in the black for the first quarter.

 Pastors Report:

Kayce is working on children activities and would like to have some money to help with costs.

Jennifer moved that we allocate a $200 discretionary budget for this

Dave Troy seconded.  Motion carried

Thrivent would like to bring in a representative to talk about what Thrivent is and how people can join.

 Synod Report:

Jennifer said they got a lot of information and would like to present it at a meeting to be set on a later date.

 By-laws:

Jennifer presented two copies of the constitution and reported that there were changes to the by-laws during the reconstruction that need to be changed to fit within the perimeters of the constitution.

Currently we have nothing on record with the Synod. We have by-laws for one parish with dual membership. She would like to set-up a subcommittee to go over the changes that need to be made and come back to the council with a report after they meet.

 

Adjourned at 8:25

 

Church Council Meeting Feb. 9th at 7pm

The first church council meeting with our new members (John and Dave) will be held Tuesday, Feb. 9th at 7 pm in the fellowship room at St. John's.

Announcements from the church council

The church council will be generating a lot of information in the next few months. Besides making announcements during a Sunday service, we will post on this blog and send out emails. It is important that we reach as many people as possible. 

The church directory is our source for contact information. Please be sure that you are on listed in the directory. You will find hard copies of the directory on the table in the back of the sanctuary. Contact me if you want to be added to the directory.

Message from the church council treasurer

Patrick Adams here. I'm your new council treasurer. I've had a couple of months to familiarize myself with the church finances. Our books have been loaded into the latest version of Quicken. I'll use Quicken to track our income and expenses, maintain the budget, generate reports, and reconcile our check book. I've also learned how to use our bank's website for paying bills and making deposits.

Please me know if you would like a copy of the 2015 budget that was passed at the annual meeting.

The 2015 GLP Church Directory is now available. Hard copies will be available in the narthex at St. Johns. Let me know if you would like a .pdf version. If you have any additions or corrections please email them to me.

If you have any questions about the church finances please feel free to send me an email or text message or give me a call. You can also stop by my house but be warned I may put you to work in the garden.

Peace,

Patrick

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 1^st. 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 3^rd-6^th 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 15^th 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.

How Blessed Our Church Is!

I just wanted to mention something today that goes unremarked through most of the year.  We have the most amazing church council and we're really blessed with the leaders God has sent to our community.

Last nights meeting involved the always-difficult subject of stewardship, particularly financial stewardship, which doesn't get talked about much in most churches.  It's one of those topics that almost leaves your stomach in a knot when you consider it.  As we talked about last Wednesday night at Lenten Evening Service, our culture thinks of money in such a peculiar (and jealous) fashion that we're caught in a trap with it.  We're up the creek if we talk about it, up a different creek if we don't.  It's a topic that can blow up in your face.

So here we are, as a council, negotiating these waters and it was such a wonderful, Spirit-filled experience. No kidding!  You wouldn't have believed it!  Everybody sat together and opened up about their thoughts on money, culture, faith, stewardship, theology, and what it all means.  It was like Theology on Tap without the beer!  There was such a level of trust in the room, plus commitment, plus drive, plus compassion and understanding.  We explored us and God, reaffirming the best in each other and in our church.

The result was the beginnings of a plan going forward, not to "get more money" but to alleviate the fear of this subject...a fear that threatens the bonds we've built together.  What we're really talking about is a chance to discover that we trust each other and God in every way, that what we're doing at church is real and transforms our whole lives...a chance to be free and live as God's children the way we were meant to.

Seriously, you would not believe this was a council meeting.

The wisdom, trust, honesty, and faith of our council members is incredible.  We should all realize how blessed we are to have them.  I've seen plenty of councils and I've not seen one like this.  Thank you to all our council members.  I hope we're all excited about taking the journey forward with you over the next few years.  I know I am.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)