Prince of Peace

February 2012 Council Minutes

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Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

Council Meeting

February 21, 2012 (Approved)

 

Present:  Tom Heinrich, Bill Fredrick, Pastor Chad Brekke, Dan Ficken, Julia Sevald, Mary Gilleshammer, Bev Alsleben, Charlie Olson and Chuck Krych. Absent:  Chris Fearing, Dan Cassada andAllan Grant. 

 

Call to Order:  PresidentTom Heinrichcalled the meeting to order.

 

Devotions:  Tom Heinrich led the opening devotions.

 

Adoption of Agenda:  A motion was made by Chuck Krych and seconded by Mary Gilleshammer to adopt the Council agenda.  Motion approved.

 

Approval of Previous Minutes:  A motion was made by Bill Fredrick and seconded by Dan Ficken to approve the minutes from the January 17, 2012 Council meeting as written.  Motion approved.

Reports of Officers

Treasurer/Director of Operations:  The budget for both the general fund and building fund were approved as presented at the annual congregational meeting held on January 22, 2012.  Budgeted receipts of the general fund for 2012 are $751,300 and budgeted disbursements are $766,058.  Budgeted receipts for 2012 of the building fund are $172,200 and budgeted disbursements are $177,959. 

 

January receipts were unfavorable to budget by $10,035; however January disbursements are slightly favorable to budget.   General fund receipts for January are broken down as $49,436 of pledged offering and $11,751 of unpledged offering. 

 

A motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s Report by Bill Fredrick and seconded by Chuck Krych.  Motion approved.

 

President’s Report: 

 

  • April 21 Council and staff Saturday morning retreat will be held in the CLC.  The goal is to continue to build bridges and help understand what our ministry leaders do and what we can do for them.

  

Vice-President’s Report: 

The Leave a Legacy committee reported that they still have funds available for the 2012 disbursement period.   

 

Secretary’s Report:  No Report

 

Pastor’s Report:

 

Pastor Chad: 

Pastor Jim has been approved for disability.  The congregation’s responsibility for the compensation will end officially February 25, 2012.  We will run it out through the end of February.  PastorChadmet with Pastor Jim, the Bishop, and Glendy Ose to show our support and discuss the next steps.  He welcomed Jim to continue to come and worship with us.  The ELCA will keep him on the roster as a pastor.  The Synod is supportive as we move forward and will help find resources if we need some part time pastoral staff.  Currently, we are not feeling as though we need that right now and can make it through this transitional period with the current staff.  Pastor Jim’s tasks have been divided amongst the current staff.  Natalia is moving into a ministry role on the preaching rotation to help with this transition.

 

New member process was great and it was wonderfully organized.  Second class was just the new members.  We will keep this format for future classes.  Two families that joined were first time visitors on the first week of New Member classes and decided to join that day.  There will be 35 new members introduced this Sunday.

 

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:  The Executive Team’s ministry goal for 2012 is to support the five areas of ministry.  The Council retreat on February 11th provided for great discussion on these topics.  The audit of the church’s financial records has been completed with no issues.  Tom & Julia met to discuss the monthly format of the treasurer’s report and changes were implemented.

 

Spiritual Development:  The team is discussing the format and structure of the bible studies at Prince of Peace.  The Men’s Ministries is participating in the Feed My Starving Children event and will be submitting a schedule to Lynell to publish.  The Young Adult Ministries is going to discontinue the Sunday morning program and is looking into doing some web conference chats to entice participation.  “What I wish I would have known” will be done in March.

 

Sunday Morning Experience:  The team is working on serving a meal for the Lenten services, filling each pew with needed materials, they also reported on the welcome cart and the visitor bags.  They are working to find ushers for the Lenten services.  An ice cream social will be held in the spring to thank the many volunteers working to make the Sunday morning experience at POP an enjoyable and meaningful experience.   

 

Congregational Care:  The team reported that the new member classes that were held in February were a success.  The Fellowship Friends worked well.  There are 35 new members that will be introduced this Sunday. 

 

Outreach: The team is doing the Hunger Initiative Saturday inMaple Grove and 45 POP members have committed.  The church is going to do to this quarterly.  The team has started attending some Family Table events (theAnokaCounty meals) to get further information.  The team is also going to visit some of the churches and will bring back information to try to start something similar here.  Lisa Stordahl will be attending Youth Night Out and bring back some pictures/information for us to see what is happening in our community.  TreeHouse is in need of certain items and information will be posted to make the congregation aware of TreeHouse needs.  Outreach is in search of more committee members and would like to add a youth to the team. 

 

CEAP Sunday will be April 29th.  Brian Laher from CEAP will be the speaker that day.  During March, there will be bins in the Welcome Center to collect food for Minnesota Food Share. 

 

Community Life:  No report.   

 

Unfinished Business: None

 

New Business: 

 

  1. 1.       Lenten offerings:  Discussion was held regarding the allocation of Lenten offerings.  A motion was made by Dan Ficken to direct 15% of the total offerings taken in during the Lenten services to be designated to 363 Days and the remaining 85% designated to CEAP.   This motion was seconded by Chuck Krych.  Motion passed. 

 

  1. Repurposing Thrivent Choice dollars:  In February, Prince of Peace received approximately $6700 of Thrivent Choice dollars.  A motion was made by Dan Ficken to forego the application of distribution of the funds recently received by a corporate donor for the following funds; Sunday Morning Experience, Spiritual Development, Community Life, Outreach and Building Improvement.  Further, the requirement that such adjustment take effect in six months from the date of passage by the council is waived.  This motion only applies to the current $6,700 (approx.) funds available for distribution in February 2012.  The motion was seconded by Bill Fredrick.  Motion approved.

 

  1. Server bids: Charlie Olson has gathered information and bids from our current IT company for a new server, installation, migration of information, etc.  This bid was approximately $16,000.  He also received a bid from the IT company who is taking over our monthly service contract on March 1, 2012 (INEO), which was $10,000 for server, installation, migration, etc.  There was some discussion regarding the benefits to leasing vs. buying the server.  It was determined that it was in the best interest of the church to purchase the server.  A motion was made by Mary Gilleshammer to purchase the server now based on this recommendation.  This was seconded by Dan Ficken.  Motion approved.  The council thanked Charlie for his work in researching the options.

 

  1. Leadership team Lenten Supper:  The council will be hosting the Lenten Supper on March 14th.  It will be a baked potato bar.  Bev Alsleben and Julia Sevald will take the lead in organizing the supper.  Help from council members will be greatly appreciated. 

 

A motion was made by Dan Ficken and seconded by Bill Fredrick to adjourn the meeting.  Motion approved.  Meeting adjourned.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Julia Sevald

Treasurer