Ministry Council
March 3, 2005

Present: Ken Fong, Maria Fornof, Randy Dunn, Janet Forbes, Pam Rowley, Chris Wilterdink, Jerry McLeland, Jenita Rhodes, Lynda Fickling, Lisa Hijek, Martha Boon

Martha opened the meeting in prayer.

Reports

Finance- Martha will get a report from Finance and email to all.

Communications:

Lisa presented the draft of the new calendar-two sided, one month on each side, with highlights for the third month in an upper corner. This calendar will not include monthly or weekly meetings, but special, major events. This will be published on the Web, in the Chronicle and be available at church on the information wall. It will be reprinted every two months.

Lisa, initially, will update this calendar, with the goal of printing an April/Mary version to go into April’s Chronicle. Once we get the updates for this first publication, then it is hoped that Bonnie can forward new events that are scheduled to the calendar coordinate. Janet will follow up with this and staff will review the events on the May/April calendar and make any additions or changes by March 15, the Chronicle deadline.

Evangelism Team

Working on the Invitation Card to use Easter Sunday. Ken plans to put upcoming events on the back and distributed a list of events- April-Nov. to be included. He asked for updates and Janet asked that we add a “Thanksgiving for the Animals” which we scheduled for Oct. 2 at 4pm. This will be an outdoors activity. We also set the date for the Ministry Fair for Sept. 11.

Events on the list:

April 22 Children’s Dinner Theatre

May 1 Youth Sunday

May 7 Jazz at St. Lukes Concert

June 8, 15,22 Wacky Wednesdays

July 13, 20, 27

June 27-July 1 Vacation Bible School

July 21-25 Family Camp

Sept. 11 Ministry Fair

Sept 24 2nd Annual Invit. Golf Tournament

Oct. 2 Thanksgiving for the Animals

Nov. 4-6 Fiddler on the Roof

If there are other events that should be added, please contact Ken.

Bulletin- ET has turned this project of evaluating and recommending changes over to Communications.

Ken then reported on the work he and Lisa have done on publishing the Sunday sermons. Lisa has laid this out in booklet form. They plan to have the last three available unless it is a longer series and then the entire series will be available until it’s finished. Lisa will do the first few then recruit someone to take over this job. The goal will be to start this Palm Sunday, March 20. Nice work Lisa and Ken!

Missions- Marie reported that they collected for One Great Hour of Sharing on Feb. 27. April 3 is scheduled for Missions Sunday, and Tapiwa Mucherara will be preaching. They will also have representatives at tables from many of the organizations that we support. They have bookmarks to pass out.

She also reported on the scholarship funds that we have been collecting for the Cambodian children. The community center in Seim Reip does not have a system for distributing these, so the Missions committee along with the donors will determine how to use these funds.

Missions will be collecting school supplies this fall, with St. Lukes families invited to assemble the materials. Jenita reported that SS will be making Hygiene bags for the homeless, and it was suggested that SLY Jr and the Youth have a table at the Missions Fair to promote their mission projects as well.

Stephen’s Ministry Program

Pam reported that 5 individuals will be attending the train the trainer program in April. They are Sherry Merrill, Sue Townsend, Salle Subie Long, Pam and Doug Rowley. These individuals will then offer the 50 hour training to others in August here at St. Lukes. Pam also described for us the function of a Stephen Minister. It is a lay person giving ministry; a working relationship with another adult that may last 1 month to 2 years. It is a one on one relationship with someone of the same sex and involves approximately one hour /week. A Stephen’s Minister may have 1-3 contacts at a time. Pam is very excited about this program how it will serve as an extension of our staff Pastoral office.

SPRC

Randy Dunn, our new chair of SPRC, reported that they are in the process of a search for a Youth Minister Assistant.

Children’s Ministry

Jenita reported on a program she attended. “Bondage to Understanding” It was put on by the Mental Health Agencies to the Faith Community. She is now in the process of starting a Respite Program here at St. Lukes. This is a 6 hour, once a month program for disabled children and youth, that then allows the parents time away. There is a grant program that may fund this, and the Director of Easter Seals will help in writing the grant. Our commitment would include the facility & Jenita’s time. Volunteers would provide food. Individuals in the public schools who are training to work with kids with special needs and require contact time would run the program. This would start for kid’s 4-18 years of age. She is working with Tri County Health and hoping to get other churches involved.

Youth

Chris reported on the 1st joint youth group activity with St. Andrews. It was at their new CoffeeHouse, LifeSpot and went very well. He encouraged other groups to think about ways that we can continue to build the bridge between the two churches.

Capital Campaign

Janet reported that she is interviewing two potential groups to lead us in a Capital Campaign to reduce debt. “We can’t be about vision until we free up some resources.” We currently have a yearly budget of $228,000 for our mortgage payment. After Janet completes these two interviews, she will be making some recommendations to the Executive Board.

Visioning

Janet then led us in some exercises. Her sense and MC’s, is that our Mission statement and Core Values (IRM) are congruent with who we are. However, this will need to be continually tested. The piece missing is Vision and that’s what we will be working on, with a goal to have a Mission/ Vision clearly in place so that we can be working out 3-5 years.

She had us begin to explore this by asking the question, “What are our real needs?”

We each worked on the question, “What do we want from life?” shared these responses and then brainstormed as to what we heard about the “Signs of the Times.”

We will continue with this Visioning process at the next MC meeting.

Next meeting, Tuesday, March 22 7 PM.

We closed in prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

Martha Boon