NewSong Board of
Elders
Minutes of January
14, 2006 Meeting
The NewSong Board of Elders met Saturday, January 14, 2006 from 9:12 am
to 10:40 a.m. at the Church office. Elders present were
Brent delivered a devotional on fatherhood reminding us that many of the
Elder’s fathers are in the church, and asking us to reflect on our own relationship
with our fathers and to remember how important being a father is. He also
pointed to God’s fatherhood of each of us as our ideal model. The title of the
devotional Brent read was “All that matters fits on your Sealy” – a reference
to a father having his whole family climb into bed with him one Saturday
morning and how special that was.
The meeting included the following discussions:
Pastor’s Report
December at NewSong was a strong month financially allowing us to make up some of the ground on our deficit for 2005. We held CLASS 101 on the 4th and had three families present (Krauss, T. Porter, Banta). Our prayer nights at the Allens' were spotty due to holiday schedules but will resume with vigor on Jan. 13th. Our youth held their Christmas Party and the children celebrated a birthday party for Jesus. As always we enjoyed a candlelight communion Christmas Eve service at NewSong. With Christmas being on a Sunday this year we also had a service on Christmas Day that was a real celebration.
Average attendance for 2005 fell off to 145. Current membership statistics (as of Dec. 31) are 60 member families, 104 full (adult) members, 78 preparatory members and 54 constituent members for a total of 236 people. No one joined in the month of December nor did we lose any families.
Financially speaking, our revenues for the month of December were $32,162 and expenses were 26,631 for a “profit” of $5,531. Our final year end figures for 2005 saw revenues of $245,905 and expenses and benevolences of $268,949 for a “loss” of $23,044. We had to dip into our Fidelity Investment Account (Capital Reserve) for $1,000 to pay our staff year-end bonuses (this came before the “extra” money came in late in the year). The balance of our Fidelity account at the end of 2005 is $13,632.
I have asked the staff to submit budget requests for 2006. So far I have received feedback from Destiny Foltz who is requesting a budget for the children of $5,150 (copy available) and Jason Lee who has requested a youth budget for 2006 of $6,000 (copy available). I want to challenge the Elders to come up with a budget for 2006 as soon as is practicable.
The majority of the meeting was spent discussing Pastor Steve’s comments
about momentum and direction at NewSong—but this discussion was very important
and we needed to spend the time we did discussing it.
Old Business
Old business included our search for church land. The Elders appear to
be in agreement we must do something and that the best thing is to find some
land to purchase as soon as we can with the idea that we will most likely go
back into a school facility for a while (once we have the land) to save our
money so we can build a building on our own land. We feel it is not a good idea
to go back into a school if we don’t have land yet as this would be a step
backwards. We also feel that we cannot continue at the present location unless
1) our monthly rental is lowered, or 2) our offerings increase substantially.
New Business
We tabled the discussion of the budget to a later meeting due to
time constraints.
Pastor Steve said he would like us to consider having a church-wide
meeting in late January or early February to generate interest and momentum
in our vision which Steve hopes to be able to lay out succinctly in a series of
sermons in February.
The following Elder of the Month schedule was agreed upon for 2006
January –
February – Curt Sloyer August –
March – Brian Brown September
–
April –
May –
June – Curt Sloyer December
–
Concerning our Children’s Ministry, Pastor Steve advised the group
that Destiny Foltz was facing additional back surgery and will be incapacitated
for several months following the surgery. Steve feels that Destiny continuing as
our Children’s director would create additional strain and stress on Destiny
and her family and suggested we relieve her of her duties at a date to be
determined depending on when her surgery is scheduled. It was also agreed that
we should open the position up to our congregation for someone else to take the
position after everything is announced. It was agreed that Steve would talk
with Destiny and work out the details of her departure.
The meeting ended with prayer at 10:40 a.m.