Meeting Notes

2023

December 7

The Treasurer and Sunday School Director attended the meeting. The Elders and the Sunday School Direction discussed the 2024 Ft. Wilderness scholarship and getting kids signed up and the upcoming Christmas Eve church program. Discussion was also had concerning the worship service within our Sunday services.

The Treasurer and the Elders discussed the end-of-year financials and the Benevolence Fund, including additional opportunities for donations to the Benevolence Fund in the upcoming year.

The Elders discussed a number of health and personal needs within the body.

The next church quarterly meeting will be on January 28, 2023, and the next Elder’s meeting will be on January 11, 2023.

2022

December 6

A member attended the meeting to discuss issues with the Elders, who appreciate and welcome this input.

The Treasurer provided the YTD financials, which were reviewed at the meeting. The Elders and the Treasurer worked on the annual review of the Church budget. The updated budget will be presented to the church body at the January 2023 quarterly meeting to be voted on.

There are a number of health and personal needs within the church body that were discussed by the Elders.

Moving into the new year, the Elders are and will be working on short-term and long-term planning for the church.

September 23

Several members attended the meeting to discuss issues and concerns with the Elders. This input is welcome and encouraged. The Elders take this input very seriously and thank these members for their heart for the church.

Various physical needs of members of the church family were discussed. The Treasurer provided the 3rd quarter financials prior to the meeting, and the Elders reviewed these reports and discussed. There were long discussions concerning many aspects of the church, including discussions on the input provided by the members. The Elders look to share many of these discussions with the church body at the next quarterly meeting (October). Tym Sauter was elected to be Chairman of the Elder Board. Many thanks to Tim Thuemling for his service as Chairman.

The Elders are unified in their love and concern for the church body during this transitional time.

2021

November 9

There was continued discussion and planning for the future sale of the existing church building. The Elders have been in regular contact with the realtor. Additional conversations have been had with the town to confirm our usage of the Sloan center following the sale of the church building.

Work was done on the 2022 budget. This budget will be presented at the January quarterly meeting. The 2022 budget is being developed with the expectation that the church will be moving into the new building mid-year. As an example, anticipated costs for the nursery are being included in the 2022 budget.

The preaching schedule has been set through mid-January. Please see the bulletin for additional details.

There will Christmas caroling on December 19th. For additional details, please contact Mrs. Calhoun.

There was discussion concerning and prayer for the needs within the church body.

The next elder meeting will be Nov. 30th.

October 19

The elders met with the Parish Nurse concerning questions and comments she brought to us.

There was much discussion concerning the building project in relation to the potential sale of the current building. These discussions will be part of the presentation made to the church body during the upcoming quarterly meeting. This presentation will be made prior to the vote.

The preaching schedule was tentatively laid out through the end of the 2021 and into 2022.

There was discussion concerning specific needs within the membership.

The next elder meeting will be Nov. 9th.

September 14

There was discussion concerning the various needs and health concerns within the church body.

If you can, please plan to attend on Sunday, Sept. 19. Following the morning service, the Elders would like to get feedback from the church family concerning the future plans for the current church building.

August 30

The Elders have met with the outside counsel and have received his recommendations concerning the church’s constitution, bylaws, and statement of faith. These recommendations are being reviewed and considered as revisions to these documents as they are being developed.

The preaching schedule through the end of November was tentatively laid out.

There was discussion concerning the future of the Missions committee. Without a Chairperson, this committee will need to be disbanded at the end of September. The responsibilities handled by this committee will be absorbed by the Elders until such time that the Missions committee can be restarted.

The Elders met with the Sunday School Director concerning scope of responsibility and budgetary issues. These budgetary changes are based on feedback and experience with the new Children’s Sunday School program that was started earlier this year and will be introduced into next year’s budget. This led into a “big-picture” discussion concerning the future Nursery program and its budgetary needs. If the church is going to be moving into the new building next year, then the Nursery will need to be included in next year’s budget that is to be voted on in January (‘22).

There is going to be a work day on Saturday, October 2nd, from 9AM to noon to deep-clean the current building and property.

There will be a fellowship meal and ministry update with Pastor Daniel and Ericka Kaggwa on Wednesday, September 22 at 6PM at the church.

The next Elder’s meeting will be September 14.

June 29

The Elders had discussions concerning recent visitations with members and physical needs within the body.

There was continued planning for the upcoming annual church picnic that will be held at the new church property this year on August 1.

There was continued work and discussion on the church budget. A “first-pass” church budget has been put together, and work will continue to finalize this budget for presentation to the church body at the July quarterly meeting. Additionally at the quarterly meeting, there will be a vote on approving changes to the church’s constitution and bylaws regarding a church budget. Presently, the church’s constitution and bylaws do not address the subject of a church budget (the responsibility for, oversight of, church body approval/voting, etc.).

There was discussion concerning the church’s constitution and bylaws. The Elders are working with outside council concerning these documents. Once the work on the proposed church budget has been completed, the Elders are planning to focus on working on these documents. Any and all proposed changes would be presented to the church body for discussion and vote.

The next meeting is on July 13.

June 8

The Transition Team gave an update concerning their work and there was discussion concerning the next steps for the Transition Team. While the search for a new pastor has been put on hold for now, the Transition Team is focusing on defining the administrative aspects of the church.

A report was given concerning the Children’s Church Sunday School. This Sunday School was started as a six-week trial to test if this style of Sunday School could work (and work well) in our current building. The past few weeks have shown great excitement and enjoyment from the children, parents, and teachers for this Children’s Church. The Elders consider this Sunday School a success, and the Children’s Church will continue past this six-week trial and through the remainder of the summer.

Our annual church picnic will be held at the new church property this year on August 1! A large tent will be set up and several men from the church body will be running the grills. Please make plans to attend for the good fellowship, good food, and to see the progress on the new building.

There was continued work and discussion on the church budget. The work on the budget parallels the work the Transition Team is doing with the administrative aspects of the church. The proposed budget is still expected to be presented to the church body at the July quarterly meeting.

The next meeting is on June 29.

May 25

The Elders engaged in discussions with the Church Treasurer concerning a church budget, and began laying the groundwork for this budget. A proposed budget is expected to be presented to the church body at the July quarterly meeting.

There was much discussion on the affairs of the church, including concerning revisions to the by-laws/constitution/statement-of-faith, the upcoming snowshoe baseball season, visiting with members, and the building project. Several members had sent in questions/concerns and these were discussed as well. An Elder will get back to these members concerning these issues.

Next meeting is June 8, 2021.

May 5

The Elders elected Tim Thuemling to the position of Chairman of the Elder Board. The Elders feel that Tim’s experience and availability make him the best choice to serve the people of our church in this capacity right now.

The Elders have had ongoing discussions concerning pastoral candidate, David Haase, since his visit; and these discussions continued in this meeting. A church member attended this meeting to be involved in these discussions, and the Elders thank him for coming and for his input. The Elders will present their hearts concerning Dave and the direction of the church at the congregational meeting following the service on May 9th.

There was much discussion on the general affairs of the church.

March 9

The property tax exemption paperwork for the Hwy 47 property was filed with the local tax assessor.

The Elders voted to establish a Transition Team. Kay Guthrie and Tim Thuemling are currently part of the team, and they will be adding two more members for a total of four. The team has two purposes: (1) to assist the new Pastor (when he is found) and his family with getting established in the area, and (2) to define the behind-the-scenes structure of the church. The roles of the Pastor, Elders, Deacons, and officers of the church are defined in the Constitution and Bylaws, but there are many other areas of the church that have not been defined. This team has been tasked with defining these “who turns the lights off” tasks, which includes defining the roles, responsibilities, and authority of all active committees.

The Elders voted to nominate two men to the Elder Board. These names will be announced in the coming weeks with a congregational vote to be done at the quarterly meeting in April. More information to come…

January 12

The Elders have tentatively set up the preaching schedule from March 7th-May 2nd. When this is finalized, it will be posted in the bulletin. If a prospective pastoral candidate is chosen, he will have priority within the preaching schedule.

There will be no AWANA or Children’s Sunday School this spring (2021). We are tentatively expecting that AWANA and Children’s Sunday School will start again in the fall.

We are working on paperwork to get the Hwy 47 property and future church building tax exempt.

Church cleaning will no longer be done by volunteers within the church body. We have hired someone to do the weekly church cleaning.

Counselling will be available, if there is a need within the congregation.

The CCLI license has been modified to allow us to stream our music services on YouTube. We are also adding an annual subscription service, SongSelect. This service will allow our musicians to easily obtain the sheet music and chord charts they need, at no cost to them.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, financial giving has declined. In order to meet our quarterly missions pledges, $600 was authorized from the general fund to the Mission committee.

Next meeting scheduled for February 9, 2021.