Ministry Council
March 22, 2005

Present: Jenita & Dave Rhodes, Lynda Fickling, Fred Venable, Janet Forbes, Karen Wesson, Sherry Merrill, David & Marie Fornof, Jim & Cheryl Wolff, Doug Wagner, Pam Rowley, Ralph Lawrence, Lisa Hejak, Martha Boon, Ken Fong, Sandy Larson

Martha opened the meeting in prayer.

Ministry Team Reports

Worship

Cheryl reported that 60 new Bibles are in and ready for dedication on April 17. This is a result of the drive Diane Stephens ran for new Bibles. Women of Note have two concerts, one in March and another April 26. Worship is looking for a new Acolyte coordinator for the fall and currently a new Greeter coordinator.
Jim reported that ET is helping the Worship team by recruiting small groups to handle Greeting & Coffee Service on Sunday mornings. Each group would take 1-2 Sundays a year. This would also give the small group several Sundays to promote their programs. They hope to start with Home Improvement group.

Education

Adult- Sandy reported that they will be starting the Christian Believers Class. They plan to ask for Grant money for training for this class. Their goal is to provide training for all Adult SS class facilitators. Youth- Confirmation Class just completed their retreat. Confirmation Sunday is April 17. The Senior Hi Mission Trip, due to increased attendance, needs additional funds in order to keep the trip cost at $700/person. Total per person before help for the PP funds and other fund raising is $1300.
Chris is in the preliminary stages of setting up a Mentor program for the youth. He hopes to use UMM & UMW.
Children- Easter Fun day last Saturday had 300 children and 100 of those were new to the church. Ken asked, “What got these children there?”This question wasn’t answered, but it was discussed that in the future we use this event to promote other events/program and to educate parents as to what is available.
Summer SS- July & August will be an intergenerational /family SS at both 9:30 & 11. Theme is Holy Land Adventure. They will organize in tribes with families rather than classes.
Respite Program- Jenita again reviewed the plans for this program, where parents of handicapped children will 5-6 hours of care for their child so that they can have some free time. Jenita is getting help in writing a grant, which is due April 1. We will hear back by May 1. The goal is to start in September, offering this one time a month on a Saturday.

Fellowship & Support

Sherry reported on discussions with Janet about the splitting of Fellowship & Support into two Ministry Teams. Also reported on discussion regarding the Advocate role in general and how we can develop better job descriptions. Janet announced that she is planning a meeting at her home after Easter for past & current Advocate to explore this topic.

Ministry Development Team

Doug reported that this team has been out of action for the past two months.

Operations

The Communications Team plans to meet to work on streamlining the bulletin-one goal being to add more white space and highlight what is new. Jim Ramsey is the new staff liaison for Communications. Lisa Hajek it the lay liaison, so please contact Lisa with Communications issues. This team plans to start publicizing monthly calendars. They will be two sided, one month per side, highlighting events and programs. It will be available in the narthex and in the Chronicle.

Missions

April 3 is Missions Sunday. They will have tables between services representing many of our Missions. They are still planning a backpack and school supply collection in the fall. Janet would like to coordinate this with a blessing of the backpacks The 2nd Sunday in August seemed to be a good Sunday for this.

Finance

Janet reported that our giving level is good, whether it is enough to meet our needs is still the question and too early to know. John Merchant has stepped down as Finance chair and Lay Leadership is recruiting a new chairperson. Janet is also bringing the financials in house as a staff responsibility. Our staff finance team will have reports for the April MC meeting. Our lay finance team will not be responsible for reports or maintaining the financial records as we move forward.

SPRC

Karin Wesson reported that we have hired a new Associates Youth Director, Ann Smith. She starts on April 4.

Evangelism Team

Jim reported that they are revisiting their SWAT. One goal is to give high visibility to the small groups. One method is their involvement in the Sunday morning Greeting as previously reported.
Jim also reported on the “Feeding the Need” plan, where grocery certificate purchases could be automatically withdrawn from an individual’s checking account. You would pick up your prepaid certificates at church. Our Finance team will evaluate this program and assist in initiating it.

Pastors/Staff Report

Pam reminded us that the Stephens Ministry training in St. Louis will be April 10-17. Five members are attending.

Visioning

Janet proceeded with our discussions of Vision. We talked about different church sizes, the attributes of each and where we would fit.

If you missed this meeting, please pick up the handouts in the office.

Questions to ponder for our next meeting:

What does it mean to be an inclusive community of faith, seeking to meet people where they are, growing together toward full humanity, through living the teaching of Christ: love, acceptance, justice and hope?

Janet commented that we do love and acceptance well, but what does it mean to live out justice and hope?

If we were to live that mission, what would it look like?

What does it mean to be a member?

What is unique about being a member of the St. Lukes family (vs a constituent)?
 

We are using the following with new members:

St. Lukes UMC is a Covenant Community of Grace.

We worship regularly

We continue to grow in our faith by participating in a small group

We serve God with our hands, by volunteering in service to the family and the world.

We care for one another.

We give in Proportion to our income.
 

We are a people of three books.

We explore faith through scripture, experience, tradition and reason
 

We believe the life of faith is a jounrey of grace: prevenient, justifying, sanctifying and perfecting grace.

We shape our life together by grace.

What does this mean and what’s missing in this list?

Fred closed the meeting in Prayer.

Next meeting will be Monday, May 2. The last Monday in April is the dedication of St. Mark’s new church and leadership from St. Lukes will be attending.