Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Church Council Meeting Minutes (Retreat)
April 20, 2013
This meeting was called to order at 9:15 a.m. by President, Marla Davenport.
Council members in attendance: Pam Klingsporn, Linda Molitor, Marla Davenport, Tom Nun, Charlene Nun, Debby Dellis, Sheila Morrow, Jammie Klingsporn, Kristin Duffy, Pastor Anne Hokenstad & Melanie Accola.
Guests: Sue Megrund, Lynea Geinert, Bob Neibuhr
Pastor Anne opened with a sharing exercise. She asked us to introduce ourselves and to describe what kind of person we see Holy Cross as, i.e. family member, friends, etc.
Marla solicited for additional agenda items. Added were:
Facebook page for Holy Cross
Jammie motioned to approve the agenda with addition. Cindy seconded the motion. Motion passed.
The minutes from the April council meeting were reviewed. Sheila motioned to approve last month’s minutes as written. Linda seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Old Business Items:
Process for Calling a New Pastor – Next Steps: Bob Neibuhr explained the next steps we need to take in calling a new pastor. The first step of calling an interim pastor has been completed. The next step is to form a Transitional Task Force Team. People on this team should be analytical and good listeners. This team will identify who we are as a church, our expectations, and convey this to potential new pastors. The team may consist of members of the congregation (new member, old member, young, and old), staff, and council members, ideally 6-7 people. This team’s work should take approximately 6 – 9 months to complete. Upon completion of the task force team, the next step is to form a call committee. This would consist of 5-6 members. Both of the teams need to consist of Holy Cross members and need to be approved by council and the congregation.
There is a Synod Re-tooling event on Saturday June 15th for congregations. We can have 8 people attend – 4 workshops with 2 per workshop able to attend. It was suggested that if we have the transition task force in place by then that they could possibly attend this event.
New Business Items:
Facebook Page for Holy Cross: Kristin presented the idea of a Facebook page for Holy Cross. Council members seemed to be in agreement that this would be a good idea. Some cautioned that we need to be careful of privacy and suggested that there is some type of social media policy that we would need to have in place and follow. She will follow up with the ELCA National office to see what the guidelines are. She was asked to put a group of people in charge of this and to come back to council with a plan. It was also suggested that maybe we could put a committee together that would be responsible for all types of website, constant contact, Facebook, twitter, etc. for Holy Cross.
Operational Business:
Financial Reports – Char & Debby:
The council reviewed the reports submitted by Debby and Char.
Jammie motioned to approve the financial reports as submitted. Char seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Growing in Faith (Youth) – Melanie shared:
- The Children, Youth and Family task force continues to meet. They have reviewed the surveys and have scheduled focus group meetings for 4/23, 4/28, & 5/1. Each group is limited to 10 people. They continue to solicit feedback and brainstorm but the process has been slowed down with the transition and departure of Pastor John;
- Sue Megrund’s contract will go through May;
- First communion workshop was held on March 26th led by Sue for 7 youth and their parents. This was followed by the Passover/Seder Meal for 60 youth, parents, and congregation members;
- The 9th grade confirmation retreat was held 4/13 and confirmation for 12 youth members is on 4/28;
- Coming up are year-end parties for Sunday school, H2H, and the Rock;
- VBS has been scheduled for July 14th – 18th in the evening;
- Registrations have been/are being submitted for Camp Wapo – we are in need of at least 4 scholarships for youth interested in attending camp this summer and;
- Shared hopes & dreams for the future – hiring a permanent staff person – Director of Children, Youth and Family, exploring different ways and ideas to get more youth in our church, modify youth fundraising, set up and maintain individual youth accounts for longer term to be used for camp or other events/mission trips, etc. in the future, worship changes, such as the “Creative Kids Corner” during worship (this will consist of coloring, crafts, etc. and will have an adult present to monitor kids) and possibly offering something to keep senior high and young adults interested and involved.
Melanie motioned that the Children, Youth and Family Team will explore more efficient fund raising policies to track kids fund raising accounts. Char seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Melanie motioned that the offering collected on Confirmation Sunday will be used to cover scholarships for camp Wapo. If not enough is collected then the balance will be covered by monies in the designated funds in youth. Debby seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Melanie motioned to proceed with the Creative Kids Corner in church for a designated time during the church service effective beginning Sunday April 28th. Debby seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Property – Tom shared:
- Spring cleanup scheduled for Saturday April 27th from 9:00 am to 4 pm;
- Roof leaking – will be contacting Fairchild Roofing about the recent flat roof leaks as soon as weather permits;
- Siding repair/replacement – numerous woodpecker holes around the building on wood exterior siding. – short term he will cover a large hole on the east side of the building and several other smaller holes but long term we need to look at a capital campaign of some sort to replace bad wood siding boards or cover with vinyl or similar siding;
- Kitchen – looking at having the vinyl floor replaced in the kitchen and also possibly having the current dish sanitizer replaced with a dish washer;
- It was suggested to Tom that we hallways could use a fresh coat of paint and ;
- There are numerous cracks developing in the parking lot that should be filled by a professional driveway service to prevent further damage – he will check in to some bids for this.
Serving God’s People – Linda shared:
- During Lent the coin boxes again were handed out and used to collect for World Hunger. Short films were also shown during the offering on Sundays highlighting stories of people helped by this fund. This year we raised $663.80 compared to last year of $229.14;
- Loaves and Fishes served 116 people on Monday April 1st with a larger than usual group from Holy Cross serving;
- April Showers Drive - we will again be collecting diapers and baby items for families through the Tubman Center. This will be a one month collection (month of April) of items in the back of the church;
- The schedule for April did not work for Tanzania Sunday so they are looking at having it in September – we are budgeted for $1,680 in support and;
- There is a cluster meeting Sunday April 21st at 6:30 pm.
Welcoming Ministry – Jammie shared:
- Recent news: we said goodbye to Pastor John and his family and have since welcomed Pastor Anne Hokenstad as our interim pastor;
- The Connect Team met April 18th and the next meeting is scheduled for May 16th. The Men’s Club and the Connect Team have joined up to coordinate an outing to a Minnesota Twins game which is scheduled for Saturday June 1st;
- Future planning ideas – will send around the clip boards again for another round of soliciting email address, Summerfest parade in June, Rally Day – help spread the word and make it a community event, advertising – who can we work with to get Holy Cross’s name out and about in the community?
Worship Ministry – Kristin shared:
- The sanctuary projector has been consistently working since we have been using Lynea’s laptop which leads to the conclusion that the sanctuary laptop was the problem with the flickering and needs to be replaced;
- The outdoor worship at Oakdale Summerfest is moving along nicely – the date and time of June 23rd at 10:00 a.m. has been confirmed with Sue Barry (City of Oakdale). Two items concerning this worship service are offerings received that Sunday and promoting/advertising the worship service. After discussion it was decided that all loose offering this Sunday will be donated to a community charity to be determined and member envelope offering will go to Holy Cross as usual. Kristin will give a Temple Talk on Mother’s Day to inform people of the service and is looking at possibly sending a letter to surrounding churches inviting them to participate, article in the Oakdale Patch, putting it on the sign outside of church for the two weeks prior to that Sunday and having flyers to hand out at the parade on Thursday evening;
- The committee has been discussing changing worship service schedule for the summer to one service on Sunday and one service on Wednesday evenings and;
- It was brought to her attention that we are in need of Worship Coordinators. She received from Tammy Hirsch a list of people who had been coordinators and she will be contacting them to confirm if they are still doing this.
Kristin motioned that effective Sunday May 26th through September 2nd we will have one worship service on Sunday’s at 9:30 a. m. and one Wednesday evenings – time to be determined at a later date. Debby seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Growing in Faith (Stewardship) – Cindy shared her Future Planning:
- Cindy is still looking at the possibility of electronic giving. She has reached out to Easter Lutheran (Eagan, MN) to understand the approach they took when it was first introduced to their congregation. They offered to spend some time with Holy Cross to talk about how it was perceived, demographics of electronic giving, etc.;
- Spring/Summer giving – this topic was discussed earlier this year and she would like to bring it back to the committee to see if there is an opportunity to determine our budget/project/maintenance needs for 2013 and beyond;
- Mission Minutes – dates are still open – up until now, this has been done by council member, thoughts about extending this to the members of the congregation and;
- The next Stewardship meeting is May 9th – items to be discussed are Time & Talent, determine an approach for spring giving, mission minute, and survey outcome and next steps.
Agape Report:
Lynea presented to the council the “Welcome To The Cross” plan for 2013-2014. She is asking for an affirmation (blessing) of this plan.
For 2013 they will begin to integrate Welcome to the Cross into the ministries on Holy Cross Lutheran Church. They have created a new logo and plan development. Arlan Teitel will present a Temple Talk in May/June to talk about rebranding. They will then present the logo/plan to the congregation as a message one Sunday in May/June – this worship service will be led by the Agape Team. They plan to form a team to begin the process of making our church more welcoming to our guests. This fall they plan to have a sermon series on what it means to be “people of the Cross” and also will work with ministry leaders on integrating Welcome to the Cross into ministries. This will be an ongoing process.
In 2014 they plan to work with the Property Ministry Champion to form a team to develop more welcoming signage for the exterior and interior of the building and redecorate the hallways and Sanctuary. There will also be YES Teams which will look at Youth, Engaging the community, and Seniors.
Kristin motioned to continue the mission of the Agape Team. Debby seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Marla asked that we make the next council meeting on May 7th be the planning portion of today’s agenda because of time constraints.
Pastor Anne asked each committee team person to send her schedules and dates of their meeting dates and times.
Next council meeting will be Tuesday May 7, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.
Jammie motioned to adjourn at 12:05 p.m. Linda seconded the motion. Motion passed.
We closed with the Lord’s Prayer.
Respectfully submitted;
Pam Klingsporn
Council Secretary
|
