Ministry council Minutes – July 15, 2010
20 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
Ministry Council Meeting – Regular Session
Thursday, July 15, 2010
FIRST TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH
Attendance:
Present: Pastor:
Rev. Charles Whited
Marlene Carr – Treasurer
Leo Figini – Secretary
Jonathan Morris – President
Jim Passage – Vice President
Joel Rockensuess – Member at Large
Jenny Cascio – Member at Large
Excused:
Kim Kwietniewski
DEVOTIONS:
The meeting was opened at 7:00 PM with devotions by Jon Morris.
APPROVAL:
Motion by Jim Passage and seconded by Jenny Cascio to accept the minutes of the joint Ministry Council and EMT meeting of June 1st, 2010. Approval to accept the minutes as presented was passed unanimously.
PASTOR’S REPORT / GENERAL DISCUSSION:
Report re-printed herein as follows:
Pastor Whited’s Report To God be the Glory
Ministry Council July 15, 2010
The mission of First Trinity Lutheran Church is to transform our world one life at a time through the power of God’s living Word.
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Sundays 2007 2008 2009 2010
Total 10,327 10,891 11,253 10,820
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Official Acts since last meeting:
Baptisms: 3 “He who has believed and is baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” (Mark 16: 16)
Funerals: 1 – “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
Weddings: 1 “Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Matthew 19:6)
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Staff Changes:
The hiring team has recommended Jubal Myer as the Director of Contemporary Worship. No one. else applied for the position. I have not yet notified Jubal. I will talk to him after the next Ministry Council meeting.
Bekah Freed was installed as our D.C.E. intern. She has hit the ground running. We had a nice meet and greet at our house for her and the senior high youth. Twenty-four youth attended. There is also an event planned for the college age group.
Jason Christ was installed as Director of Attract and junior high ministry. He has presented his short range and long range plans for Attract.
Jason, Sue and Bekah will all be attending the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans.
Capital Campaign:
So far, $534,583 has been committed for our campaign, “The Lord Builds.” So far, $73,179 has been received. Now the process of determining how to best use that money since some of our plans will have to be scaled back.
Communication Plan:
We are receiving a lot of positive feedback on our new logo. For some, it has taken a little bit to get used to it, but everyone seems to like it and it has been a great talking point.
Our next move is to reduce the paper we use in our worship services. We can project most of the service and announcements on the screen.
Attendance:
Attendance is down because we ended our Saturday night service. The reason we chose to end it is because attendance was starting to average 17. The people that were coming were also coming to Sunday morning. So the service was not reaching the unchurched as at first. In fact, it wasn’t reaching many. Most of those who came were serving in the band, sound, projection, usher and myself. We made up the majority of the service. In fact, if you add that average, our attendance would be up.
Having said all of that, June’s attendance was lower than last year. In any case, I don’t like lower numbers. July is back on track and even better than last year. I feel a little better about it. Still, I am anxious to consider what we can do to reach more people. Jason, as Director of Attract, and I are talking about trying a mid-week worship. That would be helpful for those who are gone on the weekend. Also, we have a couple of thoughts about some new out reach events.
Don’t forget to check out my blog: chuckwhited.wordpress.com
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
FINANCIAL REPORT:
Capital Campaign funds have been transferred from the Income Section of the P&L to the Designated Funds section of the Balance Sheet to more accurately reflect our financial position.
- Net Income is now a Net Loss because of the transfer of the Capital Campaign Funds.
- Giving is down by 5.7%
- Retreats and Trips for crossroads HS Ministry is overspent by approx $7K.
- Based on the annual budget and if there isn’t any mort spending on this line, it will be overspent by $4.7K for 2010.
- Pre-School is currently overspent by $9.7K. Kevin Cross and I will discuss the deficit with the pre-school and recommend that the donations/fundraising be used to help offset the deficit.
- Stewardship is over budget by $50K. I need to investigate the details of that line.
- Maintenance is under budget by $7.6K.
- Mortgage Payments (interest only) are under budget by $23K.
- The 6% loan with the Lutheran Church Extension Fund has been paid off.
- The 2009 Financial Review will be completed soon. At our accounting firm’s request, I have begun reviewing the bank statements after Kathy Passage has reconciled them.
- Tim Hartnett will file a mid-year property tax exemption with the Town of Tonawanda for exemption status for 201 Glennhurst. If this is not accepted, we will be liable for school taxes on the property in October. This property will be exempt beginning in 2011.
- Recommend that Kevin Cross be appointed as an Assistant Treasurer. Kevin remains as legal counsel to the church. He is also still involved in the investments, property issues and insurance for the church.
A motion was made by Marlene Carr and seconded by Joel Rockensuess to appoint Kevin Cross as Assistant Treasurer. Motion was accepted and passed unanimously.
Financial reports from January through June 2010 are available and attached for review.
NEW BUSINESS:
For the upcoming year, the Ministry Council Meetings will be held at council member’s homes, instead of Church as in previous years. The Council Members thought this change of venue was a great idea. Jon Morris held our first initial meeting at his home in July.
- Jim Passage, presented the following Orientation guideline’s he felt we should consider implementing to familiarize new members on the Council to the policies and procedures of the Ministry Council as well as understanding the Governance Policy model we follow our Constitution and By-Laws. See Below.
First Trinity Ministry Council Orientation
New Ministry Council member orientation should happen before the new member’s first Council meeting and will be conducted by the President and Vice President. It will take approximately 2-3 hours. The orientation will include:
- A conversation regarding the function of the Council to include:
- Governance (Council) vs. Operations (Staff)
- Policy-making
- Relationship of Council to Senior Pastor
- Flow chart of the whole Ministry of First Trinity to include:
- Ministry Council
- Senior Pastor
- Executive Ministry Team
d. Ministries under ACTS and MOM
- Going through the policy manual (ask the new member to read the manual before the orientation).
- Going through the calendar of the year, including;
- Council Meetings
- Council Executive Ministry Team meetings
- Congregational Meetings
- Going through ways the Council works together
- Devotion and prayer to begin each meeting, led by the President (should we be taking turns at that?)
- Confidentiality
- Being united in decisions and backing the decision made by the Council, once made (in response to the rest of the congregation).
- Committed to making meetings
- Speaking honestly with each other
- Parliamentary Procedure (or whatever-the process for voting)
CLOSING PRAYER:
- Pastor Whited closed the meeting with prayer. Next scheduled meeting is Monday, September 13, 2010 at 7PM at Marlene Carr’s home.
Respectfully Submitted,
Leo Figini
Ministry Council Secretary
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