January 15, 2019 Council Meeting St. Paul Lutheran Church COUNCIL MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE X Pastor Grant Applehans X Chris Clark, Member at Large X Tom Miller, President X Julie Hyrkas, Member at Large X Shirley Zierke, Vice President X Tyler Kroschel, Member at Large X Katie Fetterly, Treasurer X Arlie Post, Member at Large X Julie Coozennoy, Secretary X Jon Quale, Member at Large 26 Guests in Attendance (names below) Meeting called to order at 6:32 pm by Shirley Zierke and Pastor Grant opened meeting with devotions. Guests in Attendance: Scott Coozennoy Melissa Galatowitsch Jennifer Gilbert Cindy Gruett Diana Hubrich Sam Hubrich Kenny Hyrkas Andrea Klosterman Kathy Mills Pat Miska Jerry Nelson Dave Nordhausen Fran Nordhausen Janet Nutter Angie Olson Clara Olson Zella Oswald Darla Peterson John Peterson Darlene Petrey Carrie Reed Karen Rozeske Courtney Storlie Jan Taylor Rita Young Chris Zierke CONSENT AGENDA (Agenda, Finance & Last Month s Agenda Committee Reports) A motion was made by Arlie Post to accept the Consent Agenda (January 7, 2019 Special Session Meeting Minutes, January agenda, Finance & Committee Reports). Seconded by Jon Quale and unanimously DECEMBER COUNCIL MINUTES On December 27, 2018, via email, a motion was made by Shirley Zierke to approve the December Meeting Minutes. Seconded by Tom Miller and unanimously FINANCIAL REPORT As of DECEMBER 31, 2018 ACTUAL General Fund Offering $19,611.18 Total Revenue $29,756.22 Total Expenses (before mortgage) $21,876.53 Net Income (after mortgage payment) $2,570.90 Mortgage Balance $463,359.40 Edward Jones Balance $34,374.41 Matching Funds from Congregation $18,110.00
January 15, 2019 Council Meeting Minutes Page 2 PASTOR S REPORT Greetings in the LORD! This is a summary of my activity during the December/January period. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information. Worship: o Advent: we finished up advent with Christmas insights from Mikyoung Park and thoughts on how locations matters for us and for Jesus birth. o Christmas: we celebrated Christmas Eve with a 4pm family focused service with 12 presents for Christmas and a traditional service at 10pm. The first Sunday of Christmas, we celebrated with lessons and carols telling the story of the nativity. o On epiphany we celebrated our first Unity Sunday to great reviews, WAM will be considering feedback that we get in planning for the next Unity Sunday at the beginning of next month. o Band: We also celebrated the unity service with a new Praise Band! David Haugen (Bass/Guitar), Kim Clark (Keyboard), and Sean FraIey (Voice/Guitar) and I (Voice/percussion) and Rhonda Tillman played and sang that day, and were joined by Tyler Kroschel singing and a guest drummer by the name of Bruce. The band is still forming and developing patterns and so will likely have several changes before we hit our groove. I invite anyone interested to join us with the talents God has given you! We will make beautiful music together. The hope is to develop a rotation so that we always have a decent depth chart of practiced and ready musicians. o I still hope to form a preaching series team to discuss what might engage the hearts and minds of congregants and visitors. Education: is back in full swing. o Wednesday adult classes continue to follow the arc of the confirmation curriculum and this month we have spent some time digging into the life and times of Rahab and the what her story has to teach us about God s household. o The Sunday Evening group is doing a faith study on Dan Ariely s research driven book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. o Confirmation got rolling again on January 2nd with Samson with Ruth rounding out the era of the Judges. o Congregational Care continued with pastoral visits to homes, my office and over the telephone. During this time all direct requests for pastoral care were embraced, encouraged, and acted upon. Administration: o The Square credit card reader has been ordered and will hopefully be ready for the spaghetti supper to support this year s mission trip. o I have been meeting with the preschool board to discuss adding a new section to our programing. Both Kathy and Julie have agreed to teach the afternoon section, and details are still getting ironed out. We are currently taking enrolments for the spring. There was an error in rate of pay for Julie which has been rectified, with the anticipation that going forward we will have a form that clearly states start date and rate of pay and is signed off on by at least the employee and their supervisor. We are also discussing how to honor Patti Lichtscheidl for her time as director of All God s Children preschool. We are hoping to do so in the spring. Yours in Christ, Pastor Grant
January 15, 2019 Council Meeting Minutes Page 3 COMMITTEE REPORTS (as submitted by Team Leads) Administration: Please review and provide your responses on the following requests from congregational members or outside organizations. Thank you. 1. Dave & Mary Haselbauer would like to continue their winter collection box for donations to the Union Gospel Mission on a year-round basis. They have asked if they could make possibly quarterly messaging that would ask for specific types of donations (i.e. summer clothes, shoes, blankets in winter, personal care items, etc.). Please let Wendy know if you are ok with this and I will work with the Haselbauer's for ongoing communications. a. Council approved 2. Great River Greening has requested to use our parking lot on Saturday, Feb. 9th from 10am - 2:30pm. They have a local event where they need to shuttle their volunteers. They would like to use the very far end of the lot for approximately 50 cars. There would be two (2) shuttles bringing the volunteers to their destination in the a.m. and return them to the lot no later than 2:30 pm. This event would not interview with our spaghetti fundraiser later in the day. a. Council approved with Proof of Insurance 3. Troop 142 would like to do a thank you Pancake Breakfast this year and suggested possibly during our Feb.3rd Unity Sunday worship. Their contact, Abby, stated they didn't have as great of a turnout with the later service last year. They would like us to advertise it in our bulletins and have Pastor mention it during worship announcements. They also thought it would be helpful if the congregation knew the money is ALL donated back to the church as a thank you from the scouts. TROOP WAITING FOR IMMEDIATE RESPONSE so a date can be secured. a. The scouts also brought up their idea from last year for a Troop Garage Sale at the church, possibly in May. Church members could donate items and all funds raised would go to help children attend summer scout camp. Would need a date on calendar, as well as a collection date/plan for donations. An outdoor sale might be suggested. b. Council Secretary will follow-up with Scouts. Confirm date of Pancake Breakfast (February 3 or 10). Questions about the logistics of the garage sale. All God s Children Preschool Building & Grounds Children s & Youth Report Sunday School: Sunday School is for Children 4-4 th Grade, and takes place during 10:00 Worship on Sunday Mornings. o After a brief Christmas break, We are back in Sunday School. Jan 6, we had an Epiphany Party and talked about the Wisemen visiting the baby Jesus. We are back to this year s Curriculum, the Operation Christmas Child Curriculum, this past Sunday s lesson was on TRUST, and was three stories- The Widow s Offering, Jesus calling the first Disciples and the Loaves and Fishes. SPLASH 5/6: SPLASH 5/6 is kind of a "Pre-Confirmation" period for our 5th and 6th Graders, and meet most Wednesdays. o SPLASH is back from Advent Break. Our first lesson was thinking about our characters, and what we can control and what we can t control, and how to react to each. We did an evening about trust and believing what we can t see. We led each other around the church blindfolded and directed the blindfolded person making pb and j sandwiches. Confirmation: Our Confirmation Program is for 7th, 8th and 9th Graders in our Church. o Confirmation back from Advent Break also. I have made the Volunteer Calendar for this group through the end of April. Mission Trip: Our 2019 Mission Trip will be a return to Benton Harbor MI, (We went there in 2014) work dates July 7-12, so Trip Dates are approximately July 6-14. We have 14 Students and 4 Guides going on the trip this summer.
January 15, 2019 Council Meeting Minutes Page 4 o Our Winter Fundraisers will be January 25-26 MT Craft Retreat and Feb 9 Spaghetti Supper. We have had our Winter Mission Trip Meeting to vote for our Fun Day excursions, and discuss moving forward with the Spaghetti Supper. Communications Counters Global Missions Loaves & Fishes Martha s Servers Outreach Prayer Shirley opened the meeting with a prayer. Prayer Team assignments were made for February services. Read and discussed the topic "compassion" from Holy Ground: An Alphabet of Prayer by Julie K. Aageson. Ended the meeting with prayers of lament and intercession, followed by the Lord's Prayer SPPRT Visitation Worship & Music (WAM) See Pastor s Report on Praise Band OLD BUSINESS 2019 Proposed Budget o Good Neighbor Fund. Recommended to use monies in the outreach designated fund and reduce the number of vouchers per quarter to four vouchers. o A Motion was made to budget $400 yearly ($100 quarterly = 4, $25 vouchers) to be used for the Good Neighbor Fund by Tyler Kroschel, seconded by Jon Quale and unanimously Synod Proposal: We need to find out more information about what the commitment, time, process to have an outside mediator work with St. Paul Lutheran to mend the divide. o A motion was made to further look into a Synod recommended outside mediator, funds not to come from the church by Jon Quale, seconded by Pastor Grant and unanimously o Tom Miller will reach out to Bishop Lull to obtain additional information about the process. Annual meeting: discussion was held about the process for verifying voting eligibility to receive ballots, job responsibilities for council members. Roberts Rules of Order procedure will be followed for the meeting.
January 15, 2019 Council Meeting Minutes Page 5 NEW BUSINESS Conference Assemblies & Tool Kit for Congregational Leaders on Saturday, February 23, 2019 - Let council members know about this assembly. All council members are welcome to attend. Go the Synod website for more information. Janitorial Duties: Jon Quale has been meeting with the current janitors to work out procedures, volunteer schedule, etc. Education Team: Joanna Kroschel is putting together an education team for all aspects of education from Sunday School to Adult Education. She is still looking for volunteers. o Spaghetti Supper: Scheduled for Saturday, February 9. Julie Hyrkas will be purchasing the food for the event as she has the youth debit card. Volunteers have stepped up to cover this event. The ipad and Square Reader have been purchased and will be available for the Spaghetti Supper Auction. Frontier Bill: Received a large bill from Frontier for cancelling their service (we changed from Frontier to Midco). Tom Miller sent a letter disputing the expenses listed. Receive Member Petition: Jenny Gilbert spoke about a petition being circulated to oust Pastor Grant. The group decided to not present the petition to the Church Council, but present the petition to the Synod. o A motion was made by Katie Fetterly to table any further discussion about this petition until we receive information / direction from the Synod. Seconded by Shirley Zierke and unanimously Carrie Reed presented a list of fundraising ideas to raise funds to pay for the Director of Children s & Family Ministries position (see attached). The Council will review the fundraising ideas and respond to the group. Next Meeting: Tuesday, February 19, 2019 Devotions: Vice President A motion was made by Katie Fetterly to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Shirley Zierke and unanimously Submitted by: Julie Coozennoy Julie Coozennoy St. Paul Lutheran Council Secretary Summary of Motions Made at January Church Council Meeting A motion was made by Arlie Post to accept the Consent Agenda (January 7, 2019 Special Session Meeting Minutes, January agenda, Finance & Committee Reports). Seconded by Jon Quale and unanimously A Motion was made to budget $400 yearly ($100 quarterly = 4, $25 vouchers) to be used for the Good Neighbor Fund by Tyler Kroschel, seconded by Jon Quale and unanimously A motion was made to further look into a Synod recommended outside mediator, funds not to come from the church by Jon Quale, seconded by Pastor Grant and unanimously A motion was made by Katie Fetterly to table any further discussion about this petition until we receive information / direction from the Synod. Seconded by Shirley Zierke and unanimously A motion was made by Katie Fetterly to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Shirley Zierke and unanimously
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