Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

Council Meeting

August 20, 2013 (Approved)

 

Present:   Bill Fredrick, Pastor Chad Brekke, AIM Natalia Terfa, Julia Sevald, Georgia Larson, Sue Johnson, Dan Cassada, Jennifer Follestad, Andrew Follestad and Morgan Holle

Absent:  Bev Alsleben, Melissa Johnson, Erik Hasse 

Guests:  Terri Revell, Brent Haglund, Katie Rykal, Nate Bergengren

 

Call to Order:  President Bill Fredrick called the meeting to order.

 

Devotions:  Jennifer Follestad led us in devotions.

 

Adoption of Agenda:  A motion was made by Julia Sevald and seconded by Georgia Larson to adopt the Council agenda with this addition.  Motion approved.

 

Approval of Previous Minutes:  A motion was made by Dan Cassada and seconded by Jennifer Follestad to approve the minutes from the July 16, 2013 Council meeting as written.  Motion approved.

 

Reports of Officers:

 

Treasurer’s Report: Notable July activity:

 

• ·        Total July offerings & receipts were unfavorable to budget by $7,418 and $4,822 unfavorable to prior year.  Disbursements are favorable to budget by $8,876 and to prior year by $3,760 for the month. 
• ·        The general fund activity for the month was a loss of $8,627.  This is slightly favorable to budget for the month and slightly unfavorable to prior year.
• ·        Year to date, we are still overall unfavorable to budget by $42,025 and to prior year by $30,743.  The Exec team continues to brainstorm on ways to turn this around, although this is really driven by a decrease in giving when compared against plan and prior year.
• ·        The cash balance has dropped to ($16,595), which means we are borrowing against our designated funds for normal monthly activity. 
• ·        Adult Mission Trip was the only designated fund with significant activity this month.

 

A motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report was made by Dan Cassada and seconded by Sue Johnson.  Motion approved.

 

 

President’s Report: No Report.

 

Vice-President’s Report:  No Report.

 

Secretary’s Report:  No Report.   

 

Student Report/Update from Brent:

• ·        Wapo – Another great week at camp! It’s a joy to see kids so fired up. Our TIM Teamers are: Caitlin Helm, Nicole Willms, Molly Schiro, Jill Kearney, Jamie Intihar, and Ryan Ohm. Their focus for the year is to grow personally in their Bible reading and leading prayers at Revolution and other activities (Grow Deep) in addition to ministering to their friends/teammates and being intentional about inviting/bringing others in to our POP community (Reach Out).

 

• ·        Fall planning
  • o        Bible presentation for all ages will be Sept. 15
  • o       Rite of Confirmation service will be Sept. 29 at 10:30
  • o       Axis begins Oct. 2 and will include a monthly family night.

 

 

Pastoral Reports: 

• ·        Pastor Chad’s Report:
• ·        August 28^th will be our final summer Wednesday service and September 1^st will be the last Sunday with one service at 10am.  Every service throughout the summer has been a wonderful experience with many visitors attending both Sundays and Wednesdays.
• ·        The food truck Sundays were great times of extended fellowship and fun.
• ·        Rally Sunday will be September 8^th when we also return to our regular Sunday schedule. There will be a blessing of Sunday School teachers and helpers on that day along with all the state fair theme related fun.
• ·        Confirmation Sunday will be on September 29^th.  This affirmation of baptism service has been moved this year from a stand-alone service in the afternoon to during the 10:30am worship service.  We want the confirmation service to have a deeper connection to the entire worshipping community at POP.  For this reason the sermon during both worship services will be a compilation of the faith statements of our confirmands.
• ·        Plans are underway for several upcoming adult education opportunities including Financial Peace University, Graceful Journey, and GroupLife.  Participation in these events by our council leadership sends a positive message to the congregation.

 

 

AIM Natalia’s Report: Video presented by Nick Tasler. We have to define our “one thing.” We are a community of faith.

 

Council Reports

Each ministry team is to submit a written report each month.  These will be attached to the official minutes.  Highlights will be included in these minutes.

 

Executive Team:  No Report.

 

Spiritual Growth: No Report.

 

Sunday Morning Experience:  The team discussed feedback given during the WE Team Ice Cream Social in May. Some takeaways included:

• o       Creating and using a sanctuary diagram for head ushers to explain where WE members should process to collect offering and help with communion
• o       Including head ushers in weekly WE team reminders so they know who is volunteering
• o       There is a list of people who have been CPR trained from WE teams and staff.
• o       Invited council to join in the CPR training in September or October.

 

• ·        An existing diagram of the sanctuary has since been put in place near the church office and WE team materials.

 

Also discussed were the following upcoming events and goals for the fall and winter:

 

• CPR training in September for staff, nursery volunteers, Sunday school teachers and interested WE Team members. Council members are also welcome to take part in the training. The cost is about $40 a person and is the chief expense budgeted by the SME Committee.  
• Prepare for Veteran’s Sunday in November.
• Print large-scale color maps of the church to include safety devices and exits. (A smaller scale model has been produced, so it mainly needs to be enlarged at a print shop.)
• Enhancing look of windows in fellowship hall with window paintings. The group will need to contact some people who have helped with this in the past and recruit volunteers to help.
• Begin developing an “Ambassador” position in which out-going connected individuals in the church would work to greet visitors, tell them about the Prince of Peace’s ministries and introduce them to other churchgoers.
• Produce “Grow Deep Reach Out” t-shirts to be sold to members at a reasonable price and given away in gift bags to visitors.

 

 

Congregational Care:  No Report.

 

Outreach: No Report.

 

Community Life:  No Report.

 

Modern Worship Arts:

• ·        Key Area:

10:30am Worship Gathering

• o       Building acoustic absorption panels for drums and guitar amps (on going…)
• o       Setting up new Media Shout presentation computer in Worship Center with Nikk VanLiew–much better machine (completed)
• o       Looking forward to 10:30am starting back up
• ·        Summer Worship in CLC
  • o       going very well
  • o       Any way to continue through the year?
• ·        Website
  • o       Making subpages for 9am and 10:30am worship services (in process…)
  • o       Cleaning up Main Navigation (Top Bar… About – Worship – Community – Reach Out – Grow Deep) (completed)
  • o       **NEED** to update Council picture page with a current Council pic
• ·        Social Media
  • o       Stepping up Twitter content
  • o       FB LIKES up to 332 (gained 200 likes in 1.5 years
  • o       **SHARE** our FB activity when you can

 

Children and Family Ministry:

• ·        Current Programming Updates
  • o       WAPO Week was a great week of learning about ordinary people, and our Extraordinary God. Pictures from SEEDS, Youth, and TIM Team are on Shutterfly sites.
  • o       One more week of Sunday Morning DIG before we dive into Sunday School
  • o       Children’s Activity Bulletins (on NON-Dig Sundays) have been a hit as well
  • o       Activity Tables on Wednesday nights have provided an outlet for children as well
• ·        Looking Ahead
  • o       Starting to work on the 2013-2014 School Year Calendar for Sunday School
  • o       Working with the Community Life Team to put our Great POP Get Together into action. Many things have already been ordered
  • o       Possibly getting an intern (unpaid) from Augsburg – Have interest from at least one person. Working on setting up a meeting with her in the next week or two
  • o       Switching gears and kicking Sunday School prep into high gear: lesson planning, recruiting teachers, collecting registrations, preparing classrooms, etc…
  • o       3 Year Old Welcome to Sunday school event on Sept 7^th
  • o       First official day of classes is September 15^th
  • o       Bible Sunday on Sept. 15^th for 3 year olds, 2^nd graders and 7^thgraders
  • o       Teacher orientation/Child Safety training on September 4^th and 5^th
  • o       Looking at offering some “Schools Out” programming for times like MEA, Presidents Day, etc
  • o       Looking at the POPers schedule/program for the 2013/2014 year. Looking to add a short bible study component to the events as well as really pushing the invitation piece for those events
  • o       Once the school year gets underway I will be focusing a bit of time on the Birth-3 Year Old age group – is there more we can be doing for them?
  • o       Really promoting the Nursery as more than just childcare.
  • o       Have had a brief conversation with Georgia Larson about doing a program called “My Church” for children right before they enter Sunday School.

 

Unfinished Business:  None

 

New Business: Seeking team members for the Giving Team. We will eliminate the Chair position and the President/Vice President will lead the meetings.

 

Real, intentional, reaching out: Make flyers about POP and distribute to the neighborhood. We need to be faithful in inviting others.

 

Peace Feast – are we seeking the neighborhood and those in need. We can continue to recruit families from Park Brook. We have a presence to Park Brook and we should be able to get more families to come from there. 

 

Keep doing your ministry group and keep inviting children into Sunday school. We need to do the right thing.

 

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

 

Respectfully submitted,

Melissa Johnson

Secretary