Present: Pastor Chad Brekke, Pastor Natalia Terfa, Melissa Johnson, Mike Isenberg, Richard Habstritt, Rachel Henderson, Lori Clausen, Frank Clinton, Jim Fodstad, Sarah Hetz, Kirk Sidlo
Absent: Frank Clinton
Call to Order: Melissa Johnson called the meeting to order at 7:02PM
Opening Devotion: Melissa led us in opening prayer
Adoption of the Agenda: Mike made a motion to adopt the agenda. Lori seconded the motion. Motion carries.
Approval of Previous Minutes: Rachel made a motion to approve minutes from the February 15, 2022 council meeting. Kirk seconded the motion. Motion carries.
EXECUTIVE TEAM REPORTS:
President’s Report
None
VP Report
None
Treasurer’s Report
2022 2021
Offerings/ Receipts January $50,753.77 $51,484.15
February $46,905.26 $48,963.77 Total $97,659.03 $100,447.92
Expenses January $69,711.20 $67,823.25 February $72,658.64 $69,248.17 Total $142,369.84 $137,071.42 Gain/Loss January ($18,957.43) ($16,339.10) February ($25,753.38) ($20, 284.40) Total ($44,710.81) ($36,623.50)
Offering/Receipts decrease in 2022 from 2021 ($2,788.89)
Good portion of the increase relates to Property $2,609.12
Expenses increase in 2022 by $5,298.42 compared to 2021.
Losses for 2022 increased by $8,087.31 compared to this time in 2021.
Other receipts in 2022: $14,613.49 compared to 2021: $12, 218.01
Cash Balance as of 02/28/2022 $46,635.49
Secretary’s Report
None
PASTORAL REPORTS:
Pastor Chad’s Report
The season of Lent began at Prince of Peace with a moving Ash Wednesday worship experience. There was an additional poignancy to the music, message and liturgy of the evening service as it was the first-time conditions allowed for going mask optional and inviting worshippers to come forward to receive the imposition of ashes along with holy communion. I left that service feeling blessed to be part of such a faithful, creative, and generous worshipping community.
It was some of these same attributes that the most recent group of new members identified when they shared why they have chosen to join Prince of Peace. Another common theme that emerged as these folks shared some of their experiences visiting churches that led them to PoP, was a sense that this congregation advocates and responds to social justice issues and the needs of suffering people near and far. I left that new member orientation feeling blessed by the life stories, gifts and enthusiasm of each of the people who shared their search for a church home so openly.
Last night was our third Wednesday eve service this Lent and Paul picked up on our metanoia theme with a thoughtful reflection on the place of the older sibling in the famous prodigal story. He wrote an amazing original song connecting to his message and Amy also performed a hauntingly beautiful song that she wrote. Natalia welcomed everyone into the worship and she also sang and Brent read scripture and offered prayer.
And I sat in the fourth row.
I left that service feeling blessed that PoP is the kind of place that people as faithful and gifted as Paul and Amy and pastor Natalia and Brent and so many others feel comfortable sharing their gifts and faith.
In any faith community of this size and complexity moving forward into a culture experiencing profound change and transformation, there are going to be friction points. Our congregation is neither ignorant of nor in denial of the glacial trends impacting the church throughout the country. There will always be a longing for days gone by among those who would like to turn the clock back. This has been true since the earliest days of the church.
But metanoia is a call to move in new directions. The gospel is always calling us forward into a future that promises only God’s presence and redemption. God is there where we have been, she is here with us now, and promises to be there to welcome us when we arrive.
What a blessing to be surrounded by people working to explore and share this good news with the world.
Ash to ash, dust to stardust
From a billion years of life, We are us
The resurrection of what came before us
Made from dirt and of divine
We are great love come to life
In the gardens that we tend
May we grow a medicine
When consecrated back to earth
May it be another birth from
Ash to ash and dust to stardust
Ash to ash, dust to stardust
From the song Dust, by Amy Courts
Pastor Natalia’s Report
We have had three Sundays of increased worship attendance, and the joy in the room, despite the exhaustion and anxiety that seems to follow us everywhere, is palpable. I’ve been encouraged that a majority of our members continue to wear masks, even when they aren’t required to, thank you. AND I can hardly handle the many baptisms we’ve had over the past month. It feels like a tentative hope.
I’m looking ahead to our post-Easter GroupLife and hoping for a return to meeting for a lot of groups who have taken time off during the pandemic. I’ve been pondering a few options for this session but don’t have them planned yet. Stay tuned! Spring GroupLife will start the week of May 1st and continue to Memorial Day.
I have loved our Lent worship services so far. If you haven’t been able to come to one, make sure you try it out sometime. The theme has been really great and hearing from all the staff members is a weekly reminder how lucky we are to have this particular set of gifts together in one place.
My call at POP also includes a call to the “big C Church” and this month I was honored to participate in the Stop Asian Hate Event in Minneapolis with our soon-to-be sabbatical interim pastor Jenny Sung. Pastoral presence in this moment, especially by a white lady pastor, is significant and important and I was glad to represent POP there. Can’t wait to have Pr Jenny with us this summer, and we have such great plans ahead!
Thank you to all of you for reading the article I had Rachel send with the council reports this month. I have found Dr Zscheile to be speaking the truth right now in way that makes grand and complicated topics much more approachable, and I am looking forward to our conversation that follows.
Lastly, thank you to all those who have reached out and have spoken words of support and encouragement over the past few weeks. It was needed, and much appreciated.
Pastoral Acts (February 15-March 15): Funerals: 0 Weddings: 0 Baptisms: 3
Ministry Team Reports:
Community Life
- • Coffee, lemonade and cookies will restart Palm Sunday April 10th. Refreshments will be available after services.
- • Congregational Game night is being planned for Friday May 20th. People will be asked to bring a snack to share. Start time is 6:30.
Congregational Care
None
Outreach
Brooklyn Avenues update:
1. Our Outreach committee has teamed up with Brent and our PoP Youth to sponsor our ongoing support of birthday celebrations for the youth at Brooklyn Avenues.
Our liaison at the house asked for decorations and cupcakes for a combined January/ February party for 2 birthdays. We have also given a card and a gift card for Target. So, that was delivered on Friday, February 25th.
We also have a partner in Brooklyn Methodist Church who expressed an interest in co-sponsoring youth birthdays, so they took care of the March youth birthday.
We will be contacted when the next celebration will be. Special thanks to PoP youth for taking on this wonderful and meaningful service project.
2. Avenues for Youth Building on Dreams event:
Prince of Peace and Outreach have been one of the sponsors of this event for several years. This gala has evolved from an in-person breakfast surrounded by educational speakers who talk about homelessness, to board members, to home sponsors, to youth who have set goals and achieved great success through Avenues for Youth.
Because we are a sponsor for this event, please consider joining the virtual event on April 27th from 8:00-9:00 AM, Simply sign up on their website: avenuesforyouth.org
Register and when asked for organization, reply Prince of Peace. There is a live event the day before which is now filled up. All of this information was shared in our March e news.
3. The Caritas concert was postponed and rescheduled for Sunday, May 15th at 3:00 .
This a wonderful fundraiser that Prince of Peace has hosted before Covid and are happy that it is returning to benefit Avenues. Our PoP member, Katie Hines is a member of this vocal ensemble. Katie, Jodi Spoden and Amy Kust met on Zoom to discuss any planning and organizing that needs to be done in preparation for this event. Because it is not a new event, much is already underway. We agreed to meet with Melissa from Avenues to finalize all needs in April. Much of the advertising and social media in promoting the event is done
by Avenues. Outreach will have information out to our congregation via April e news and ask staff if it can be promoted during Sunday services.
- • March Food Share Donation Drive
- o Collection dates – Feb 28 through April 10 – Any product or cash donations will be matched by MN Food Share
- o Food needs – Jeanne received this list from Jack. Karina printed flyers for Welcome Center kiosk.
- o Donation bins – Delivered 2/24.
- o Drive-by Donation (Stuff the Truck) event, Wednesday, March 9 from 5-7 p.m. Lenten service starts at 7 p.m. o CEAP will have a representative and truck at the event
- o Volunteer needs – Amy and Jodi will be there to help. Jeanne to recruit the ushers to help also. Volunteers should arrive a few minutes before 5 p.m.
- o Enews articles/other promotion – Jeanne sent an article for the March eNews and asked for it to be promoted on the POP website. She will also ask if we can promote the event on the Marquee.
- • CEAP 50th Anniversary o Established 50 years ago as part of the Older Americans Act, signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson.
- o Does CEAP have an organizational wish list? Potential use of some CEAP designated funds in honor of 50th Anniversary. Amy to ask Steve next time she volunteers at CEAP.
- • Meals on Wheels – Meals on Wheels is going well. When someone needs a sub, another driver steps up. Rachel Franklin’s replacement has not yet been announced.
Other Projects
- • Second Harvest Heartland – Jodi o We selected Wednesday, April 20th from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. for our volunteer shift. We reserved 15 volunteer slots
Property Team
Wednesday workgroup hoping to start back at on a more regular schedule now that it is safer to gather
Sunday Morning Experience
None
Staff Reports
Children and Family Ministry
I want to go on record as saying I fully support the work that Pastors Chad and Natalia have done during this Pandemic, the leadership that they have provided has made me proud to be working here at Prince of Peace. While some people think they aren’t doing enough, or are doing it wrong – I wholeheartedly believe that not to be the case.
Working towards Palm Sunday being a “big” day for Childrens Ministry as we will welcome our young people up front for Kids Time (assuming numbers stay favorable to that) and I am hoping to have enough participants to do our Palm Sunday Song “Hosanna Rock” which has been missing for the past two years.
This years’ 6th and 7th graders have been invited to create a Faith Stepping Stone – a project that they would have done in 5th grade. We will have it set up on a Wednesday night, as well as on Sunday, April 3rd. I will also invite the 5th graders to participate when they come for their Communion Milestone discussion.
We are moving our Communion Milestone back to Maundy Thursday. We include our current 5th graders and any 6th and 7th graders who have not yet participated in that milestone. Our discussion class will be on Sunday, April 3rd (with make-ups being scheduled if needed)
The Plant Sale is up and running for our Summer Ministry participants. Packets and forms are due back to Church by Wednesday, March 30th. Delivery weekend is Mothers Day Weekend
This Summer our Day Camp is going to be going “Around the World” as each week we visit a different country. We will spend time digging into Bible Stories that go with the curriculums or movies that have been chosen for those weeks, but we will also spend time exploring the culture of those countries. We will learn how to count to 10 in those countries native languages, we will learn about the clothing, food, dance/music and other cultural differences. Some of the countries we will be visiting include Tanzania, Colombia, Peru and MORE! We will kick off our Summer with a Food Truck Party as we “Hit the Road with God”
This Summer we will also be doing an Advent/Christmas in July Week that will culminate with a Christmas in July Christmas program on July 24th.
Youth and Young Adult Ministry
Axis – We are in mentoring for Lent! Always fun to see the pairs around the building & know those that need to are meeting on their own time.
Revolution- We’re close to filling our Boundary Waters trip for August 8-13
(I’m talking to Paul about Leave a Legacy funds for assistance for this & our young adult trip.)
And just my full support for the pastors and all of you in leadership in dealing with the letters and difficult conversations.
Media & Tech
None
Unfinished Business:
Delegate names were presented to attend the Minneapolis Area Synod in April 2022. Delegates are: Mike and Allison Isenberg, and Rachel Henderson along with Pastors Chad and Natalia.
Mike made a motion to accept the slate of names. Jim seconded the motion. Motion carries.
New Business
There is a new church looking to move into the tire shop building on the corner; they have approached us asking if they could use some of our parking spaces; they would like a written/binding agreement. There are a lot of factors to take into account—both legal liabilities as well as potential for us to use the spaces in the future; at this point, council feels that we should hold off on any sort of legal agreement, keeping our options open for PoP potential use as the need arises.
Easter will have 2 services-we are seeing a rise in attendance and believe there is both benefit and capacity for that Sunday. Based on the current attendance as well as moving toward the summer schedule, we will continue to have one service at 9:30 for the other Sundays -we will reassess attendance numbers after the summer to decide on schedule of services for Fall 2022. We are also looking forward to enjoying some outdoor services this summer.
We had a really great group of new members last month-members who are excited about what they see at PoP and where PoP is going in the future.
Discussion on articles by Dwight Zscheile and Michael Chen: They May Not Come Back and Faithfulness in a time of collapse: If we continue to recreate old church ways in the current reality of authenticity culture of the church-we will just be spinning in circles. We cannot force the new system into the old model. The key is to think in new ways, wonder and imagine together, and focus on the core reason or purpose of church activities vs the activity itself.
Next Meeting: April 19, 2022, 7:00PM
Announcements and Action Items: None
Adjournment: Mike made a motion to adjourn. Jim seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 7:57PM