Council Minutes from May 2013

Genesee Lutheran Parish Church Council Minutes

May 14, 2013

In attendance:

Pastor Dave, Gayle Rossebo, Patrick Adams, Amy Peterson, Jennifer Parkins, Susan Riggs, Doug Cartwright, Linda Chilson

Amy did devotion on Stewardship.

Doug reported on buildings and plans. They are planning on weed & feeding the lawns. There was a discussion on replacing the steps at St John’s.

Pastor’s report-

First Gospel group was at Patrick’s house, he found this to be very helpful. Theology on Tap went great. Youth will be attending the new Star Trek movie on the 16^th.

He will be gone some Sundays this summer so will be looking for people to help with services.

First Sunday in June church will begin at 9:30 through the summer at Valley Lutheran.

Pastor hired a couple of kids to mow the lawn at St John’s.

Rosanna asked to use the Fellowship Hall at St John’s on May 25^th for graduation party, this was okayed by the council.

Ole suggested recycling the can to get the youth a soda maker. Pastor donated a buffet warmer.

June 9^th there will be a showing of the Sunday School movies.

Pastor gave a report on Synod conference and came back with some ideas for Stewardship.

This summer we will be getting some books and dvds by Mark Allen Powel for the council to pass around to read and watch to help us come with how we want to handle it here at Genesee. When we come back in September we will discuss what we have gotten from the books and dvds.

There is going to be a workshop on Stewardship at Moscow Emmanuel Lutheran, will get more details on that for us.

Pastor is going to be working on having church’s from our cluster doing some things together. The first one he would really like to work on is inviting them to attend and be involved in Rock-N-Roll Sunday in September.

Another is to have a Good News Evangelism workshop on some of the things we do differently here and that seems to be working. ie: Theology On Tap.

One Celebration Sunday we may have a bus for us to go to another Church in the Cluster and celebrate with them.

Next meeting will be in September.

Council Minutes from April 2013

Genesee Lutheran Parish Church Council Minutes

April 9, 2013

In Attendance:

Patrick Adams, Susan Rigg, Courtney Sharnhorst, Amy Peterson, Jennifer Parkins, Linda Chilson, Gayle Rossebo, Dan Carter, and Pastor David Deckard

Amy will do devotional next month.

Susan went over the Budget report and let us know she will transferring one of the CD’s into the general fund.

We discussed what is going to happen with Vacation Bible School this year, there was someone who was going to coordinate it but she had to back out due to other obligations.  The theme this year is Code of Armor. Pastor Dave felt as long as we could get people to help out he could come up with a plan so that we will have VBS. He will report back on how he is progressing with that.

We moved on into the Pastors report-

Pastor reported on how well Easter services went and thanked everyone for helping with services and music.

There will be a monthly meeting with any Parishioners that would like to come help work on sermon ideas for the month.  

Pentecost Sunday is May 19^th and would like ideas on how we want to celebrate it this year.

Services move out to the Valley Church May 5^th and will continue at 10 through May and change to 9:30 in June. The 28^th of April is the last day for Sunday School for this year.

On Saturday soon he would like to get people to come help clean up the yard and take down lights at St John’s.

We need to come up with guidelines for how the church will help with funeral services and meals. Susan said she will help organize meals unless anyone else wants to do it. We do need to get names and phone numbers of people who are willing to help out with the meals.

Next month we will work on our Mission Statement

The Most Important Christian Discipline

Somebody asked me the other day what I thought the most important Christian discipline was.  I actually kind of hate that sort of question because faith isn't about tips and tricks, nor going through a handy list of "things to do".  You can be technically good at a lot of things that look holy and still not be very faithful.  Thus the injunction in Matthew, Chapter 6 where Jesus says, "When you fast and pray, do not...(etc.)".  Nevertheless I want to honor the question, so here you go.

I think the most valuable Christian discipline a normal person can pursue is one suggested by Martin Luther in response to the commandment about bearing false witness.  As part of following this commandment he urged people to explain the actions of their neighbors in the kindest possible way.  Whatever your neighbors do or say, interpret it in the most charitable way possible and react accordingly.

This seems easy, but it actually requires you to exercise most of the major faith muscles.  It involves forgiveness, reaching out to understand and care about others, sacrificing oneself and one's prerogatives, abandoning the "holier than thou" and "my way or the highway" attitudes, sharing Good News instead of bad, viewing others with graceful eyes, and trusting in God and the people around you.  Just doing this one thing you learn to do just about everything needed to witness the life of faith.

Conversely failing to do this thing reveals a lack of trust, a willingness to promote oneself at the expense of others, a tendency to regard one's own opinion and outlook as the definition of "right" and "good", failure to recognize that God has made us important and beautiful, grasping at that importance and beauty through other means, defining others by their shortcomings, holding grudges, and making the world worse by bringing it down to the lowest possible definition.

How you interpret, explain, and witness about your neighbors' actions says far more about you than it does about them.  It reveals the core of your faith and your relationship with God in a way that no amount of fasting or church attendance (or any other discipline) can change.  The litmus test isn't whether you're right about your neighbors or faith or anything else.  None of us is ever completely right.  The test is what you'll do  in your not-right state.

Will you continue to be graceful to others, pouring as much love, understanding, and forgiveness into your relationships as possible, binding people together despite their shortcomings and differences?  Or do you prefer to define people by those shortcomings and differences, explain things in the worst way possible, and drive folks apart?

In the very next chapter of Matthew, in verses 7: 1-2, we read:

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

It doesn't say we're never to judge anything.  It says the way we judge other people (i.e. talk about and interpret their actions) is also the way God will judge us.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking charitable is the way to go here.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Events Tonight and Saturday!

Our re-scheduled Gospel Group meets tonight at Linda Chilson's house at 7:00 p.m.  This group is designed to examine the Gospel readings with an eye towards providing deeper insight for sermons.

Our final Theology on Tap meeting is this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at the parsonage!

Hope to see you there!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)