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MGLC Council Meeting Minutes
May 4 , 2006
Members Present: Todd Treml, Steve Wagner, Steve Hanson, Dave Palm, Mike Eggers, Erik Scott, Patti Branch, Jennifer Martinson, Laura Winge
Members Absent: Shelly Halverson, Sue Schwedler (resigned), Kathy Bruha
Pastors Present: Pastor Chris, Pastor Durk
Todd Treml called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm.
Laura Winge provided a devotion on change.
President’s Comments
Todd advised that this is the last meeting for some of you, but I hope you will all still remain very involved. As I reflect back on the last 12 months, it’s very gratifying to see the hard work and all the changes that have happened. Thanks to all of you for your hard work.
Twelve months ago we sat here and developed our purpose statement and it’s so gratifying to see how ingrained it has become in our church lives already.
Pastor Durk shared that he attended the Maple Grove Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast this am. There was a great speaker. All the politicians were there. MGLC had a table of 10. Our Wednesday Worship Band provided the pre-breakfast entertainment and did a fantastic job.
I also would like to thank all of you, especially Todd, for your work over these past 12 months. We’ve really followed through on things.
We’ve done more together in these last 12 months than I’ve seen some churches accomplish in 12 years, let alone 12 months. Some big highlights: building decision, purpose statement, capital appeal, and a new org structure.
We will be having new leader training for all new team chairs. They will be held on four Mondays, beginning in June and continuing into July. All new Committees will hopefully have all team leaders present. Will include a brief orientation and also a bit of team building. More on this will be coming.
Todd really wants each of us to encourage attendance at Sunday’s annual meeting. Make sure all your friends and committee members know about the meeting. We should really be encouraged by the direction our congregation is moving in regard to meetings, though. When I became a member here, we had maybe 30 people at these annual meetings. The last two meetings have been over 75 people. Thanks a great improvement.
Book Study – “A Story Worth Sharing”
Pastor Durk gave an overview – discipleship making – being shaped for sharing the good news. If you want to find out where your passion/gifts are, think about the best experience you’ve had at work in the last six months – what made it the best.
Evangelism is all about sharing the love of Jesus.
Pastor Chris commented that I hope you’ve all really looked at each chapter of the book and how it starts. Each chapter begins with a great story about people. Evangelism is all about people.
Nominating Committee
Steve Hanson said that the nominating committee has a full slate of members to fill all the new and vacant positions. Nominating does need a few outgoing council members to serve on next year’s nominating committee, plus we’ll need three at large congregational members, who we can hopefully identify at Sunday’s annual meeting. Are there any outgoing council members present who would like to step into this role now?
Patti B – needs to think about it.
Erik S – declines at this time – is going to focus on teaching Sunday school next year.
Next year the Nominating Committee will be responsible for filling the following Council positions: secretary, vice president, and one at large congregational member. In addition, the leaders for Caring Ministry and Operations committees will need to be identified.
Should be fairly easy to recruit for next year. Ideally recruitment would start November/December 2006 and have the five spots filled by March 2007.
We will have council orientation on the 2nd Thursday in June (June 8th). The outgoing council members don’t need to attend, but you might get a few questions from in-coming members in the coming weeks. We should also ask all new team leaders to attend this orientation – to help them understand how they will relate and report to council.
Financial Update
Steve Wagner financials for April were not too bad – an improvement over last month. Hopefully this coming “catch-up Sunday” will have an impact.
We are currently $2,800 year-to-date ahead on non-pledged offerings.
Overall big picture – we are ahead of budget by only $1,987, which is mostly attributable to personnel savings.
Capital Appeal Update
Laura Winge stated that pledges are currently holding at $895,000. Todd Treml, Pastor Durk and I met with Kairos last week to make sure Kairos remained engaged in the process and to continue to work on follow-up plans. A letter will go out tomorrow to non-pledgers – and that list is very surprising. There are some very involved people on that list, including people currently serving on the Facilities Team, and lots of very regular givers, who have not pledged.
In addition to this first follow-up letter, a special letter will go out to those who have said, “I’m waiting until the dirt flies.” And, Pastor Durk will also make some personal phone calls to some on that list. The real problem with these “wait and see” people are that we are planning our building and renovation on the funds we know are committed and without those commitments, we will have to do smaller initial phases.
Kairos still believes our original goal of $1.4 million is attainable.
New Organizational Structure Transition
Pastor Durk said there are lots of questions out there about the new org structure. People are saying, “What’s going to happen to my team?” We need to let people know that their committee isn’t going away – it might just have a new name – a team instead of committee.
Pastor Chris reminded us that they are working with staff now to determine who is going to relate to each committee and team. Sometimes, there might be as many as two-three staff relating to committees.
Todd Treml stated that we need to be listening out there. We want to build more teams and make it easier for people to get a team going and get involved. If that’s not happening, then we need to keep looking at this new org structure to make sure we’ve got it right.
Erik asked if there’s anything we could do to speed the transition that needs to be addressed. Council members drove committees and now council members are gone and we have a potential for a gap.
Pastor Durk advised that we looked at most teams and most had leaders in place already, or people who had been serving on the committee. Those people are not going away. We will work on training and initial recruiting this summer and then fall is a really good time to hit recruiting harder. We are going to make this fall all about the people.
Erik said he is afraid we are missing a chance to educate leaders and that we just need to make sure everyone knows what’s going on.
Todd indicated he would reinforce at Sunday’s Annual Meeting that everyone who is on a team is still involved.
Round Rabbits
Jennifer Martinson/Youth – Great news with youth fundraising –kids do not have to pay a penny out of their own pockets. We’ve even raised enough that we’ve cancelled a car wash.
May 21st we’re holding a graduation recognition event.
Todd’s doing a great job of bringing new events and ideas to the program. One thing he’s working on is a concert by Jeremy Sonoski June 9th. This is the day after school is out. Kurt Schwedler is working on creating a flyer and we will put them out in the community – not just in church. We really hope for a big crowd and that this will be a community event.
Todd also worked to start a senior high dinner club.
Youth Group did brainstorming on how to get more youth involved in the Cross-Eyed Worship Service.
Patti Branch/Worship - We are coming up to our summer worship schedule – 9 and 11 am. Also working on getting special summer music in place.
Pastor Durk advised that worship will have a big change coming up – a new worship book is set to be published in fall. Worship will need to decide when/how to implement. It’s the Evangelic Lutheran Worship book and it contains 10 different liturgical choices with some really nice options. Additionally, there are 678 hymns in the new book – many new ones.
Erik Scott/Evangelism - 3 things, in this, my last time speaking as Evangelism Chair:
1. Thank you – to all of you for working together. I’m looking forward to my next role of teaching Sunday school.
2. Challenge – Erik provided a handout showing the number of first-time visitors to MGLC over the past few years. In 2003, we had 150 first-time visitors. 148 first-timers in 2005, and so far in 2006 – only 37. If Erik isn’t here to hold up this chart of decline – will all of you be here for Evangelism, making sure those numbers keep going up.
3. Joy – This term on council has been the greatest experience of me being involved at this church. I’ve wondered how things would get done and I’ve been blown away at how God gets things done.
Mike Eggers/Outreach - Jordan New Life is doing very well. Their attendance is really up and their offerings have tripled.
We served 220 people at the last Loaves & Fishes event – all served by nine people.
The potluck for the Dominican Republic pastor went very well. We are currently working on setting up a computer lab in DR.
Received a letter from Mary Fenske on her way home from the New Orleans mission trip. It was quite an experience for her and quite a process of work they did while there. It was definitely a very memorable trip. Social Concerns is looking at the possibility of another trip right away in the fall.
Pastor Chris encouraged that we need to be sure to work this into worship – temple talks, etc.
Dave Palm/Properties - I’ve found the last year on properties and grounds to be a huge task – overwhelming at times. Working on creating outlines and grids of all the work that gets done and needs to be done – schedules of maintenance, etc. In addition, a list of people who know who can fix what, so there’s information for me to pass on to the incoming committee chair.
Pastor Chris/Speaking for Adult Ministries - Speaker on suicide awareness is in the works for May 23rd at 7 pm. Speaker addresses adult depression.
Planning for the fall is underway, but we’ve also got a great summer education hour planned. Hope you all will participate.
Approve April Minutes
Motion to approve the minutes from the April meeting made by Mike. Seconded by Patty. All approved.
Meeting closed with the Lord’s Prayer and adjourned at 9 pm.
The minutes were taken and drafted by Laura Winge (much thanks, Laura), reformatted and distributed by Shelly Halverson.
Next Council/Committee Chair Meeting: Thursday, June 8, 2006 at 6:00 pm with dinner.