Prince of Peace

Council Meeting Minutes August 20, 2024

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Present: Pastor Chad Brekke, Pastor Natalia Terfa, Mike Isenberg, Nate Boucher, Rachel Henderson, Patti VanLiew, Cathy Krogstad, Pam Eliason 

Absent: Ann Maczuga 

Call to Order: Mike called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm 

Opening Devotion: Patti led us in devotions/prayer. 

Adoption of the Agenda: Cathy made a motion to adopt the agenda. Pam seconded the motion. Motion carries. 

Approval of Previous Minutes: Cathy made a motion to approve minutes from the July 16, 2024, council meeting. Pam seconded the motion. Motion carries. 

EXECUTIVE TEAM REPORTS: 

President’s Report – none 

Vice President’s Report – none 

Treasurer’s Report:

Pastoral Report- 

August 2024 

Associate Pastor Natalia Terfa 

  • One more Faith on the Rocks left – 2-4pm on August 24 (still at Pocket Square) on the topic of Faith and Finances. This might be a really great one for our council leadership to plan on attending! 
  • I’m still looking forward to some kind of book study in the fall – one with an in-person gathering on Sundays and also an online gathering, plus groups can use it too – so there will be lots of ways to connect and participate. I’m currently trying to decide which book to do (there are SO MANY OPTIONS!), but I think I’ll do a Sunday morning education hour, a Monday evening digital option (both every other week) and groups can use it as well, so there will be more than one way to connect into a study together. 
  • The Ministry Fair at our Fall Kickoff is always a great way to help people learn about ministry areas – I’m planning to create some kind of passport or stamp system for our congregation members to incentivize coming around to the different ministry team tables! Start thinking about what you want your table to look like now! 
  • As we move into this time of transition, one of the easiest things we can all do is begin to ask questions about who we are and where we want this community to go. Having your own answers to this question and every person doing their own discernment is key to a healthy process. I believe Prince of Peace can do this well if we stay committed to our core values and to each other. 
  • Upcoming ¾ Time Off Week Schedule: Chad: September 9-15, September 30-October 6 
  • Natalia: September 16-22, October 14-20 
  • And as always, in the interest of clearly communicating my availability – here’s the link to my digital calendar scheduler. Anyone can find a time to meet (in person, via zoom, or on the phone) with me at: https://calendly.com/nataliaterfa 

Ministry Team Reports: 

Congregational Care – 

Area of Ministry: Care Team From: Pam Eliason 

Here is the Mental Health Connect report: 

MHC has been quiet throughout the summer, working on planning for the fall. We are planning a joint meeting in October for Ambassadors, Navigators and leadership from Collaborative churches. Navigators have spent the summer focusing on communication with collaborative churches to help them understand the best ways to refer clients to the navigator hotline. The Navigator hotline has seen an increase in calls since May when we had the Stories of Hope breakfast. 

Rachel has also spent the summer doing extra training to become a Mental Health First Aid instructor and will start to offer classes this fall for collaborative churches. 

Rachel is working on planning an “enrichment series” for the fall with a RedCross CPR/First Aid class and Mental Health First Aid courses at PoP. 

***Nothing to report currently from the Quilters, Care Team, and Library. 

~Pam 

Outreach Report – 

Area of Ministry: Outreach Ministries From: Pam Eliason 

CEAP—Jeanne Hanson 

Avenues for Youth—Amy Kust 

Park Brook—Jodi Spoden 

LSS Refugee Services—Jodi Spoden 

Highway Cleanup—Melissa Johnson 

Hearts & Hands—Terri Revell 

Tanzania—Pr Chad 

One question was asked by Jodi on the Outreach Team: 

“I would like an update on the plans for Rally Sunday. Historically groups such as Outreach have been given space to promote our activities and sign-up volunteers. I’m assuming this will be the case again this year but want to confirm”. 

No concerns or questions from the other groups for the council at this time. 

~Pam 

Property Team and Sunday Morning Experience – 

Area of Ministry: Property and Sunday Teams From: Cathy Krogstad 

Building Team (Stan McFall) reports the men’s retirement group volunteered on Wednesday, August 7th with 7 men along with myself working on several projects – repairing Broadway side sign (lighting), changing oil in boiler room compressor, trimming trees in preparation for snowplows in winter, and replacing light bulbs. 

From Stan’s side of things: 

– we are processing building use reservation requests; 

– renter moved out of office space by day care/music school entrance; 

– we are adding this room (to be used as a lounge area for employees) to the day care lease (begins Sept. 1 at $200 a month); 

– we are exploring selling or donating excess inventory (office and av equipment) in order to clear out space and generate some revenue; 

– meetings and discussion around Hispanic church lease with a few changes from prior lease; 

– acquiring additional estimates on roof unit repairs. 

The Gardening Team would like to give a big “thank you” to Pam for all the hours of work and bug bites that she has dealt with in doing an awesome job cleaning up the gardens! 

Nothing to report currently from the other Property and Sunday Ministry Teams: Ushers, Altar Guild, Coffee, Music, and Tech. 

~Cathy 

Staff Reports: 

Youth and Childrens and Family Ministry – Katie 

PRAISES from PAST Events 

  • Summer DayCamp is in its last week and it has been a great Summer. I had three young women on Staff this Summer with only one of them working full-time. They were very professional and a great team who covered for each other with very little help or assistance from me. This allowed me to stay more behind the scenes making sure that everything was purchased/organized and ready to go 
  • Middle School Ministry has been a blast this Summer. I have gotten valuable input from participants on what they have liked, and what they haven’t. I will also be gathering input from those that weren’t able to/or chose not to participate. We ended up doing 4 service days through Service Learning Camps and 4 fellowship days 
  • We continue to get new younger families in our doors on Sunday mornings because they are hearing good things about Prince of Peace. 
  • WAPO was another wonderful week/weekend of learning how God’s love is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever. Our numbers saw an increase over previous Summers – especially in our SEEDS (1st-3rd Graders) campers 

CURRENT UPDATES 

  • With the exception of the final week of DayCamp and one more Middle School Fellowship Day, all Ministry areas are on “break” until the week of September 15th. The plan for this School Year is to follow the same format as last year – Childrens Ministry MOST Sundays during Worship, continuing to follow the Lectionary (Starting September 15th) – Middle School Ministry on Wednesday nights, continuing to follow the Lectionary (Starting September 18th) – High School Ministry every other Sunday night (Starting September 15th) 
  • At the beginning of September I will be reaching out to all potential Affirmation of Baptism participants to encourage them to start working on their Faith Essays. Afffirmation of Baptism Sunday will be October 27th 
  • With Fall just around the corner I will be working on gathering volunteers for the Outdoor Activities on Fall Kick-Off Sunday 

LOOKING AHEAD 

  • I will be attempting to take as much time off as possible the week of August 26th-30th. Will plan to attend Staff Meeting, but will do most of the other work from home as much as possible 
  • During September and October we will have quite a few Milestone Events – September 14th: Welcome to Childrens Ministry Event – October 5th: Affirmation of Baptism Retreat – October 6th: Bible Sunday/2nd Grade Bible Milestone – October 20th: Affirmation of Baptism Rehearsal and Dinner – October 27th: Affirmation of Baptism Sunday 

Media & Tech – none 

Music – none 

Unfinished Business: 

Pastor Chad will speak to congregation about the financial stress of Prince of Peace. This year giving is down 17%. We have big items that need replacing (heating units costing $20,000) If we can all increase our giving a small amount it will be a step in the right direction. 

This month our Council Connect/Coffee with Council is the Town Hall meeting right after our service on August 25, 2024. The council will listen to what our congregation feels, likes, wants to change about Prince of Peace and their thoughts and vision for Prince of Peace. 

The Council is keeping an eye on the Trash situation by our church parking lot. 

New Business: 

For our “Fall Kick Off” Katie has plans for Kid’s activities outside. Inside PoP there will be Ministry tables. Please let Natalia know if you would like a table 

Council met for an hour after meeting to discuss the transition of Pastor Chad retiring and what our leadership will look like. 

Next Meeting: September 17, 2024, at 7:00 pm via Zoom 

Adjournment: Nate made a motion to adjourn. Patti seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 9:02 pm