Prince of Peace

Council Meeting September 2015

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DRAFT

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

Council Meeting

September 15, 2015

Present: Pastor Chad Brekke, Pastor Natalia Terfa, Sue LaGue, Christina Jobe, Julia Sevald, Rachel Henderson, Richard Habstritt, Jeff Amstrup, and Linda Forkey

Absent: Tim Marker, Jeremy Hanson, Chuck Krych, and Ryan Ohm

Call to Order: President Sue LaGue called the meeting to order.

Devotions: Sue LaGue led us in devotions.

Adoption of Agenda: A motion was made by Rachel Henderson and seconded by Linda Forkey to adopt the Council agenda. Motion approved.

Approval of Previous Minutes: A motion was made by Rachel Henderson and seconded by Linda Forkey to approve the minutes from the August 18, 2015 Council meeting as written. Motion approved.

Highs and Lows: Linda, Richard and Julia shared.

Reports of Officers:

Treasurer’s Report:

  • For the month of August, receipts were more than expenses. The general/building fund activity for the month was a loss of ($1,931). This is on budget and similar to prior year.
  • Total August offerings were favorable to budget by $7,431 and to prior year by $9,359. Other receipts for August was lower than both budget and prior year.
  • Overall, expenses are unfavorable to budget and prior year. The unfavorability to budget is mainly related to timing of benevolence disbursements and copier lease payments in the month as well as increased repairs expense in the month.
  • August YTD, receipts are less than expenses by $13,407. This net loss is $13,420 better than budget but unfavorable to 2014 by $21,915.
  • The general fund cash balance available for use is $34,679 at the end of August.
  • The designated funds with significant activity in August were Adult Mission Trips and Summer Day Camp.

President’s Report:

Sue requested feedback from Rachel and Jeff regarding Volunteer Spot. Sunday Morning Experience is easing into using Volunteer Spot. The transition has not yet occurred church-wide. Volunteer Spot has an option to sign up a “supply drive.” This could be another type of use to transition to Volunteer Spot. Staff/members have used Google Docs in the past for this type of use. Training could be helpful for staff and committee leaders. We’ll have Rachel demo it next Council meeting.

Vice-President’s Report:

In Tim’s absence Sue presented the request for Leave a Legacy funds of $1600 to cover scholarships for the summer Day Camps that occurred at PoP. A motion was made by Richard Habstritt and seconded by Jeff Amstrup to approve the request. Motion approved.

Secretary’s Report: None

Ministry Team Reports

Property Report

(No report. Jeremy Hanson was absent from meeting.)

Spiritual Development 

  • Volunteer Spot can do things that the other system (like Google Docs) can’t, such as tracking hours. We want to use that tracking in a positive way when approaching volunteers, such as “we need xx number of hours for this ministry, can you help?” versus “you have pledged xx hours…”. We want to make sure it’s encouraging and not a gotcha.
  • The Spiritship committee is pondering questions regarding the “Called” series. Should the paper flyers and the Welcome Center set up continue? Maybe mix that up with some video spots? Continue it monthly or bi-monthly?
  • There is a “Find Your Fit” logo for Sunday the 13th Rally Day. Some of this cost should probably come out of the Spiritship budget along with some of the other committees’ budgets for Rally Day.

Sunday Morning Experience

Conducted SME Meeting August 17th in the Welcome Center

    1. Attendees were: Karla Frederick, Laura Erickson, Chuck Krych, Chuck Dube
    2. Key Topics: Rally Sunday and Volunteer Spot “Revisited”
    3. Poster Board Development –
      1. From the Street to the Seat, Communion Server Pictures, Coffee &Cookies
        1. Staffing Table
      2. Welcome Center Coordinator Discussion
        1. Revise Responsibility list – Welcome Center Host, Check In of Volunteers, Assign Greeters
    4. From the Street to the Seat, Communion Server Pictures, Coffee & Cookies
    5. Spiritual Development Team Idea – Dube to follow up with idea of “bingo” card visiting each Council Teams table for free drawing to Bakers Square
    6. Next SME Team Meeting will occur on 9/09/15 at 6:30 pm

Congregational Care   

  • Trifold brochure has been created for the various areas of ministry.
  • Inviting current members to join in the lunch for the new members Oct 4 and Oct 11 at 11:45                                       

Outreach

Regular Outreach Meeting held in September. Next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 6.   A list of completed and upcoming events and projects the Committee is working on:

  1. On August 24 we assisted in serving a free meal at Lord of the Master church in Brooklyn Center. At the meal in March, we fed 90 people with 6 volunteers from PoP.
  2. On September 2 Richard attended the Park Brook Open House with Katie Rykal. We promoted Rally Sunday, Trunk Trick or Treat, and Day Care.
  3. The Outreach Committee has taken over the Mobile Blood Drive and set Monday, September 28 for the next date at PoP.
  4. On September 4 Loaves & Fishes free meal was prepared and served at River of Life Church. We served and prepared meals for 182 adults and children with 16 volunteers from Prince of Peace.
  5. Our next Highway Clean Up “Junk and Jeans” will be Sunday, September 20.
  6. We are working with Katie Rykal, Rachel Henderson, Jeff Amstrup, Lynell Keller and others on Rally Sunday, September 13. Our emphasis will be the Ministries tables in the Welcome Center and supporting the cost of the omelet breakfast.
  7. Starting in September, we want to heavily promote collection of the following supplies for Brooklyn Avenues:
  8.            Toothpaste, toothbrush, bar soap, body wash, and shampoo
  • We’ve had some volunteers weeding and preparing the community garden for next spring.
  • PoP hosted the Sept monthly birthday party on Sept 1. Jodi Spoden is working on securing donations form Cub for the cakes and Target for the gift cards.
  • On September 22 Richard and Brent Haglund will attend the meeting at City Hall on the first six month of operations at Brooklyn Avenues.
  1. We are planning to have a joint event with the Cancer Support Group at Hope Lodge in October.

Community Life                                                                                  

  • We had a great turn out on Rally Day. All in all, I think the whole process went very smoothly and I am hearing good feedback about the event. We served approximately 120 people (inside) this included all the volunteers that helped in the kitchen and with the cooking! The response was well received and several people learned more about things going on at Prince of Peace, and we got some good interest and volunteers for several events—especially Outreach! The extra, unplanned benefit of the event was a lot of great networking and mingling among members at POP who normally do not stick around during fellowship hour!
  • Looking forward, Community Life is again teaming with Spiritual Development to provide the meal to confirmands and their families on September 22.

Pastoral Reports:

Pastor Chad’s Report:

  • Pastor Chad will be attending the Bishop’s convention at the end of September in Brainerd.
  • Pastor Chad will be having lunch with the Bishop to celebrate Chad’s 25th anniversary of ordination.
  • PoP will be receiving a donation of $50,000 from benefactors of our church to be used toward the Syria refugee crisis. (Benefactors wish to remain anonymous.) Pastor Chad will bring a proposal to our Bishop to challenge the congregations in our synod to raise funds for the refugee crisis. PoP will then use the $50,000 donation to match those funds raised.
  • The money in our Africa fund is mostly designated to finish building a school in a remote region of Tanzania. A synod in Nebraska is the sister synod to this region of Tanzania. Pastor Chad will bring a proposal to the Bishop of the Nebraska synod to challenge the congregations in that synod to raise funds to finish building the school. PoP will then match those funds raised, using another generous donation from our anonymous benefactors.
  • Chad will visit Tanzania in January.

Pastor Natalia’s Report:

  • Summer worship services were great and filled with amazing Holy Spirit moments, both on Sundays and on Wednesdays. I’m sad that summer is officially over, but I’m also loving the excitement around here as we all gear up for our kickoff to the program year.
  • GroupLife is in the middle of leader recruitment and our leader training will be on Wednesday, September 23rd at 5:45pm. We kick off another year of GL the first week of October and I’m excited about the TED talks that are on tap for the fall session. They are sure to inspire and bring up very interesting conversations.
  • I’ve been working with the Cancer Support Group as we meet regularly again and plan for our Cancer Support Sunday on October 11th. We meet monthly, at 6:30pm on the 2nd Wednesday of the month.
  • Once the craziness of September and October settles down (I have weddings three weekends in a row and a Marriage Retreat in there too) our Congregational Care Team is going to do another training/information session. We’re planning on brunch (quiche potluck yum!) and a chance to connect people into all of our caring ministries (Prayer team, visitation, befrienders, etc).

Unfinished Business: None

New Business: None

Action Items:

  • Nikk to set up the screen for Volunteer Spot demo at the next Council Meeting. Invite others to come who might want to see it.
  • Need to inform Lynell of new write-ups on the ministry areas for the phone directory. Sue will coordinate.

A motion was made by Julia Sevald and seconded by Rachel Henderson to adjourn the meeting. Motion approved. Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Christina Jobe

Council Secretary