Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 

Council Meeting Minutes 

DATE May 16, 2023 

Present: Pastor Natalia Terfa, Mike Isenberg, Nate Boucher, Patti VanLiew, Rachel Henderson, Kirk Sidlo, 

Absent: Pastor Chad Brekke, Frank Clinton, Ann Maczuga 

Call to Order: Mike called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm 

Opening Devotion: Mike led us in devotions/prayer 

Adoption of the Agenda: Patti made a motion to adopt the agenda. Rachel seconded the motion. Motion carries. 

Approval of Previous Minutes: Rachel made a motion to approve minutes from the April 18, 2023 council meeting. Nate seconded the motion. Motion carries. 

EXECUTIVE TEAM REPORTS: 

President’s & VP Report – none 

Treasurer’s Report Budget	Prior Year
MONTH	Actual	Budget	Favorable/	Actual	Favorable/
General/Building Fund:	Apr-23	Apr-23	(Unfavorable)	Apr-22	(Unfavorable)
Offerings/Receipts	68,590	59,542	9,048	57,657	10,934
Expenses	(71,958)	(60,920)	(11,038)	(76,347)	4,389
Net Gain/(Loss)	($3,368)	($1,378)	($1,990)	($18,690)	$15,323

Budget	Prior Year
YEAR TO DATE	Actual	Budget	Favorable/	Actual	Favorable/
General/Building Fund:	Apr-23	Apr-23	(Unfavorable)	Apr-22	(Unfavorable)
Offerings/Receipts	217,117	219,616	(2,499)	210,623	6,494
Expenses	(234,120)	(243,680)	9,560	(290,864)	56,744
Net Gain/(Loss)	($17,003)	($24,064)	$7,062	($80,241)	$63,238

Notable April Activity: 

• • For the month of April, receipts were less than expenses. o The general/building fund activity for the month was a loss of $3,368. This is unfavorable to the budget by $1,990, but favorable to the prior year by $15,323. 
• o The expenses are unfavorable to the budget but favorable to expenses of the prior year. The increase in expenses from last month and higher than budget reflects paying the mortgage out of the general fund (not borrowing from Endowment fund) and the necessary replacement of the worship center computer. 
• o Total April offerings were higher than the budget by $9,048 and higher than last year by $10,934. 
• o The increase in giving reflects several things: 5 Sundays in April; both Palm Sunday and Easter in the month of April, and a positive response to “Bridge the Gap”. 

• • For April year to date, receipts are lower than expenses, resulting in a YTD loss of $17,003. This is favorable to both budget and last year by $7,062 and $63,238, respectively. o Giving through April 2023 is up from last year and expenses are down from prior year. 
• • Cash balances available at the end of April were $1200. 

Submitted by Rachel Henderson, Treasurer 

PASTORAL REPORTS: From: Pr Natalia Terfa Nominating Team kicked off last week and I want to offer a quick shout out to Melissa Johnson for chairing the committee during my sabbatical. I’m so thankful for this team and their willingness to go with the flow in all things. 

My sabbatical will begin next Monday, May 22. I’m writing in May and August, traveling back to the Holy Land and Turkey in June, and July is my “month of no,” where I’m doing nothing but resting and renewing. Thank you so much for giving me this gift of sabbatical. I do not take it for granted. 

As you know, Pr Angela Denker will be preaching twice a month. If you are able to be in worship on one of her Sundays, I trust you as our leadership team will make her feel welcome and help her with anything she needs. 

Summer will cruise by, so I wanted to make sure you have Kickoff Sunday and the Fall Ministry Fair on your calendar/radar. It will be on Sunday, September 10th. If you’re connected to a group that would want a table, let Karina know and we’ll start making a list, and start thinking about what you want that table to look like! 

Ministry Team Reports: 

Community Life – none 

Congregational Care 

Care Team Report – Rachel Henderson 

As a subset of Care Team, we are partnering with Mental Health Connect to have a positive presence at POP supporting the awareness and availability of mental health resources in the church. We have built a solid team of Ambassadors to get this project started. We attended several meetings in the last couple weeks, including Ambassador training as well as MHC yearly fundraiser where we heard an exceptional keynote speaker and several stories that really stress the need for churches to be places that welcome conversations and provide resources for support of mental health and addiction struggles. We are excited to get this partnership off the ground and more announcements will be made in the coming weeks and months on how the congregation can be involved and offering resources for members and the community. 

Outreach 

Hearts and Hands for Jamaica – Terri Revell 

Marian Hutchens and I are going to Jamaica in September for our annual sewing clinic. We will be doing the larger group again in March and will start advertising in August. 

Park Brook – Jodi Spoden 

Park Brook Graduation Breakfast and Commemoration – Wednesday, June 7 There are sign-up sheets on the kiosk. 4-6 volunteers needed for both the morning and afternoon events. 

Girls on the Run event – Park Brook is looking for volunteers, Thursday, May 18 from 3:30 – 5. Volunteers are posted along the route to encourage the girls and make sure they are staying on the correct path. 

All-School Field Day – Park Brook also needs volunteers on Monday, June 5 from 9:00 – 3:00 to assist with the various events. 

Interested volunteers for any Park Brook events can call the school directly or contact me for more information. ~Jodi Spoden 

Caritas Concert – Sunday, June 4 at 3 pm at Prince of Peace. Joel and I have talked about the need for ushers for this event. But if you could remind him that we need 4 – 6 ushers that would be great. Please ask him to let me know the names of those volunteering. Also, the choir would like if the furthest left and right sections of the sanctuary be roped off and to encourage people to sit up close in the three middle sections. Please also remind the pastors to continue to promote this event in Sunday announcements. I will also ask Nikk to add a blurb to sanctuary screens, outside sign and social media sites. 

Jeans and Junk is this Sunday, May 21st after church. Please remind the pastors to make an announcement. 

Avenues for Youth – Amy Kust 

We will be providing a birthday recognition with cake, ice cream, birthday card with a Target gift card for one of the youth on May 26th. 

We continue our collection from congregants for personal care items as listed in the May PoP newsletter. 

The music ensemble, Caritas will have a fundraising concert on Sunday, June 4th at our church. Melissa Cuff from Avenues for Youth spoke in church on Mother’s Day and sold tickets for the concert before and after church. 

~Tickets are available on the Avenues website. 

CEAP – Jeanne Hanson 

Meals on wheels continues to go well. POP does deliveries every Thursday and Friday. We will be helping pack produce at Farm Fresh July 19 and August 23, 1-3 pm. We will be asking for 20+ volunteers for each of those events. If we can find enough help and some dollars, CEAP has asked POP to help with grilling hot dogs on the July 19 date. That would be from 3:00-5:00. (We have not committed to the grilling yet.). 

Property Team – none 

Sunday Morning Experience -none 

Staff Reports 

Children, Youth and Family Ministry – Katie Rykal 

I find myself wrapping up all different areas of ministry for the School Year before we jump head first into Summer. 

Some joys of the past year/5 months 

• • Seeing growth in energy (and numbers) on Sunday mornings. Many of the young people who are heavily invested on Sunday mornings are “new” to Prince of Peace. 
• • Adding 6th-12th grade to my job description has had its challenges, but all in all, I am excited for what lies ahead for the future. 
• • We had a Churchwide game night that focused on invitation and we had close to 50 kiddos here on a Wednesday night. 
• • I recently had a high schooler ask if him and his tennis buddies could come hang out at Church – and of course the answer was yes. 
• • While it happened in December, it was GREAT to have the Christmas program return to a December Sunday 
• • Added a Children and Prayer Milestone that was well attended and well received 

Looking Ahead 

• • Working with Mike and other Church leadership to enhance the partnership with the Boy Scout Troop that uses our space 
• • Working with the rental groups to clean up the storage areas around Church, and consolidating as much as we can to open up as much space as we can 
• • Continuing to partner with CEAP, Second Harvest, Avenues and other ministry partners to see how we can best work together moving forward 
• • I will be spending the summer looking at the entire Children, Youth and Family Ministry Umbrella and creating a streamlined document that hopefully encompasses everything: This may include some rebranding of Ministry areas and schedule changes 
• • Grad Sunday is on June 11th – Worship will be led by Graduating HS Seniors 

Summer Ministry Coming Up 

• • Summer Day Camp starts on Monday, June 12th and runs until Friday, August 25th 
• • Colorado Adventure Trip will be July 8th-16th 
• • WAPO Seeds Weekend is July 21st-23rd 
• • WAPO Youth/High School Week is July 30th-August 4th 
• • Weekly gatherings for Middle/High School will rotate between service, fellowship, and bonfire worship. 
• • Sunday morning opportunities for Sunday School age will be twice a month, and on weeks where we don’t pull kiddos out of worship, there will be bulletins and “recipe boxes” and other worship enhancements. 

Media & Tech – none 

Music- none 

Unfinished Business 

New Business 

Next Meeting – Monday, June 19, 2023 at 7:00 PM held at Prince of Peace 

Adjournment: Kirk made a motion to adjourn. Rachel seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 7:35 pm