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Council > Council Meeting Minutes > April 20, 2006
MGLC Council Meeting Minutes
Members Present: Todd Treml, Steve Hanson, Steve Wagner, and Shelly Halverson
Members Absent: Dave Palm, Patty Branch, Geoff Jones, Jennifer Martinson, Sue Schwedler, Laura Winge, Kathy Bruha, Erik Scott, and Mike Eggers
Staff Present: Pastor Durk and Pastor Chris (after 1st communion class)
Guests: Dave McCarty, Dean Gulstad, Mike Gronholm, Jeanne Gronholm
Shelly opened the meeting in prayer.
President’s Comments
Due to travel, illness and busy schedules the council did not have a quorum. The meeting will be held and discussion happened on all of the agenda items. Because some items needed council approval prior to April 29 (the date the documentation must be provided to the congregation prior to the congregational meeting) voting would be done by e-mail for this month.
Dave McCarty—Seminarian Update
Dave advised that it is going well. He enjoys classes and attends part-time. He is finishing his first year. He is currently taking a class in Church Leadership, Rural Ecosystems, and his 2nd Preaching class. He has to give four sermons – Gospel, Old Testament, Epistle and Topical. He has been doing this at Jordan New Life. He has felt called for some time, he has prayed a lot about this and there is more confirmation when you begin to accept the call. He still needs to take Greek and Hebrew classes – prayers for these courses would be good. He is comfortable sharing with people what he is doing now, even though he is not sure where God is leading him with it for certain. He would ask for continued prayer support. He commented that MGLC council should consider ways to support church vocations and help identify a path or direction to support that process. Of course, dollars is one way, but to help people identify and encourage them to pursue those calls. The business world is very good at doing that, but it seems there are many hurdles in the spiritual world. Dave commented that he had been invited to give the sermon at MGLC but the timing didn’t work. Pastor Durk advised that he would be given the opportunity again, hopefully on a Sunday morning.
Communications—Dean Gulstad
Dean advised that the Communication Team of Laura Winge, Elizabeth Redman, Pastor Durk and some input from Sue and Kurt Schwedler helped to develop this new logo for MGLC. He presented us with copies of the new design. It is very family oriented, centered on Christ, conveys energy, has a polished, professional look. He suggested that we use the same typeface on all of our publications. He would recommend a standard logo on Microsoft Word that would be compatible for those doing things outside of the office. He discussed the website and showed us a sample idea with the new logo. The website’s purpose if two-fold—a resource for current members, a resource for seekers—needs to look inviting and exciting.
Question was asked if we google MGLC do we come up. Dean advised that we do— we have a good name.
He would love to include photos on the website of worship, activities, involvement, etc…Question was asked if we need to seek permission to use people’s photos. We may wish to do this and may need to develop a policy. If it is public event it is open to be photographed.
Dean’s main focus will be the Messenger, website and other publications—like the church brochure through Lifetouch that he is working on right now. Dean wants to start building the new website.
Question was asked about info@mglc.org who gets those e-mails. Dean receives them and passes them on to the proper person. Dean will continue to maintain our website. A huge thank you to Jeanne and Mike Gronholm for helping to keep our website going for the last two years!!
Dean will send a PDF copy to Todd so he can send it to council for a vote.
Personnel Update—Steve Hanson
The Personnel Team met last Tuesday. Sue Hanson has joined the team of Sharon Spindler, Bonnie Marten, Steve Hansen and Durk Petersen. They will continue to evaluate over the next few weeks what makes sense for the front office. Sue has been collecting information from Jeanne and Tanya. Asked Jeanne how it was going since she was present—she advised that there is still a lot to figure out. We thanked her and the entire staff for enduring a lot during the transition. Personnel will make a recommendation for the council to vote on at the June meeting on how to proceed with front office staffing.
Question was asked if we are looking to past and future in this process? Are we staffing for growth? Pastor Durk advised that we are currently staffed ahead of the curve.
Worship Coordinator Position—A candidate was interviewed by Pastors, Steve Hanson-Personnel and Patty Branch-Worship, Music and Arts. The goal is to hire the right candidate. The interview team recommended this candidate to executive and council. Job applications of the candidate were made available to the council. Todd will send this information out for an e-mail vote.
Job descriptions will be provided to current staff members so it is clear what this function takes care of. Ken put together a beautiful flow chart of the tasks in this area.
2005 Pastoral Review process has been completed. Good reports and many positive comments were received for both pastors. We are all so glad they are at MGLC.
Steering Committee/Facility Team
Todd gave a brief update. A brokerage agreement with Collier has been signed. They are very involved in Maple Grove development. They will receive a 4% commission. When there is a buyer/offer it will be brought to the council to approve and then to the congregation to approve.
Facility is close to finalizing a contract with the architect. A meeting will be held on Saturday to begin the design process. Teri Johnson will give an update to the congregation on May 7th.
Pastor’s Reports
Pastor Durk highlight on behalf of Pastor Chris:
- New small group ministries—Bible studies/fellowship groups/support groups
- Putting together a small groups team
- Marriage enrichment will be done again this summer
Pastor Durk highlighted:
- Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast—May 4—seats still available
- Our Wednesday Worship band will do pre-event music at the Mayer’s Prayer Breakfast
- MGLC on front page of Star Tribune on Saturday 4/15/06
- New Orleans Mission team left today—return next Tuesday
- 3rd Anniversary at MGLC for Pastor Durk
- Staff meets weekly
- Appeal is at $893,000
- Next Thursday a meeting will be held with Dick from Kairos and Steve, Todd and Laura to see how to make it to the goal. Follow up appeal/requests, when construction begins, etc…
- FT program staff to relate to new structure—which committees to partner with “staff partner”
- Foundation—see website link—kick off event October 8—Jack Weber asked to be a part of the board.
- Cross of Glory 50th Anniversary
- Marriage prep—about the same number as last year
Nominating Team Update—Steve Hanson
All positions have been filled!
Council:
- Past President – Todd Treml
- President – Steve Hanson
- Vice President – Rick Moulton
- Treasurer – Steve Wagner
- Secretary – Shelly Halverson
- At-large 3 year terms – Jon Brandon and Peg Turnquist
- At-large 2 year term – Laura Winge
- At-large 1 year team – Jim Vaughn
Committee Chairs:
- Worship – Suzanne Wimer – 2 years
- Discipleship – Jamey Larson – 3 years
- Parish Life – Jennifer Martinson – 3 years
- Outreach – Mike Eggers – 2 years
- Caring Ministry – Mary Monge – 1 year
- Operations – Sue Hanson – 1 year
Pastoral Review Team:
- At-large – Brad Stamas and Doug Hum
All of these nominations must be voted on by council—Todd Treml will call for an e-mail vote. At the congregational meeting three at large volunteers will be needed for Nominating Committee.
Laura had commented to Pastor Durk how hard it is to transition during the summer when everything gets quiet. We should be highlighting the teams in the fall.
May 7th Bi-Annual Congregational Meeting
Reports are still needed. Shelly will send another e-mail reminder. Shelly is not able to be present at this meeting due to chaperoning a senior class trip. Someone will need to take minutes and Shelly will identify whom that is.
Financial Update—Steve Wagner
We are currently 15-20% behind on pledges. Catch up Sunday planned for May 7—already in Ministry Notes. It will be verbally highlighted this Sunday. Hopefully a postcard reminder will be sent and encourage the Simply Giving program.
There was one area in the financial report that seemed off—Steve checked on this and we paid our benevolence to the DR missionary in one payment. It was due to a timing issue.
We currently have $368,000 in cash with $354,000 being for designated accounts for a $14,000 cash balance in operating.
Big issue going forward is the building. The interest rates we are really battling. Rates today are at 7¾. We need to be cautious that we consider what we can continue to support with our payments versus what the bank says we can borrow. Reminder our debt balloons in August of 2007. It is a council decision to decide what we can afford. Facility is already talking about a phased approach. The congregation needs to be reminded that this is a continuous process. We will have successive capital appeals. We have to plan without the knowledge of selling the land. It was encouraged that Steve should talk about this at the congregational meeting and needs to be added to the agenda. We are hopeful in the future that capital appeals have a mission focus too. We want to get several people involved in the functions of the finance piece—so there is more cross reference and not just one person knowing it all.
New Business
Jeanne asked if we needed to vote on the new members in class right now. We do and she will forward bios to Todd to forward to council to vote one.
Dean’s company, Polymer Studios, has a Dell Server that they can return or sell to someone at the buy-out cost of $600. It is new $4,000 worth of equipment. It would give us MS Exchange, Microsoft Window Server 2003, back up ability on tape, firewall, we could do scheduling on Outlook, web interface, etc. It is from a 3-year lease and we could probably get 4-5 years from it. Dean will send specs to the executive committee.
Minutes from March meeting
Minutes from March 2006 meeting will be voted on via e-mail. Sue Schwedler asked via an e-mail that one change be made on page 2, bullet #12 – take out the word NOT – Sue S said that we need to make sure we don’t ask for more from those pledged yet. The minutes will be voted on via e-mail.
Discussed future meetings
- Council was to meet on Thursday, May 11, but new council/committee chairs will be voted in and with new format/structure this may not make much sense.
- Current council will have a final meeting on Thursday, May 4 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at MGLC.
- Congregational Meeting—Sunday, May 7 at Noon at MGLC.
- New Council and Committee Chairs and Staff will meet on Thursday, June 8 from 6:00 – 9:30 pm. Pastor Durk will provide dinner.
Meeting adjourned and closed with the Lord’s Prayer.
Respectfully submitted,
Shelly Halverson
Next Council Meeting: Thursday, May 4, 2006, 7:00 – 9:00 pm at MGLC
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