NewSong Board of Elders

Minutes of February 11, 2007 Meeting

 

The NewSong Board of Elders met on Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2007 from 4:00 to 5:15pm at the Church office. All Elders were present including: Brian Brown, Jerry Cauley, Ed Densmore, Vicki Eitel, Steve Jackson, Brent Orr, and Curt Sloyer.

 

After opening with prayer Pastor Steve began the meeting by revisiting the role of the Elder. Steve went over the duties of Elders as described in our bylaws and gave us a few questions to ponder as we prepare our hearts to meet each month. We agreed that Elders are responsible for the spiritual oversight of the congregation and therefore we should give our collective attention to…

…concerns about weak, divisive, or nominal members. 

…the evaluation of local ministries and prospects for missions work both at home and abroad.

…higher level administration issues.

…big picture budget concerns. 

…prospects for the development of leaders in the church and future Elders.

 

As for the questions to consider as we prepare to meet. These include:

  • Are we on a true course biblically?
  • Are our members being appropriately shepherded?
  • Is the body being fed through insightful and accurate biblical teaching?
  • Is the life of the church being well managed with the assistance of other competent and godly leaders?
  • Are we (the Board) praying for the sick?
  • Are we praying for our pastor and other staff?
  • Are we guarding the body against harmful influences?
  • Are we confronting those who are contradicting biblical truth or who are continuing in a pattern of sinful behavior?
  • Do we have general corporate matters to attend to?
  • Do our bylaws need revising? Are we governing the church according to our bylaws?
  • How are we doing in terms of spiritual formation, a missional focus and kingdom relationship-building?

 

After that we had a more extended conversation concerning our role as Elders in terms of church discipline, i.e., what to do with divisive members or members who are contradicting biblical truth or who are continuing in a pattern of sinful behavior. Pastor Steve explained that it is better for us to discuss this at this point in time, when we don’t have such a situation on hand, rather than waiting until we do have a particular person or situation to address. The consensus of the Board was as follows:

  • Discipline is vital, both for the purity of the body and for our testimony in the community.
  • All discipline should be restorative, or redemptive, and not punitive. Every effort should be made to restore the straying member.
  • As for when to intervene—what particular issues or persons may require discipline—it was agreed that when the time comes we will know it. God will let us know when this kind of situation arises.
  • It was also discussed that we should also make discipline a lifestyle issue and embody Christian character in all that we do as Elders.

 

After this discussion, Pastor Steve asked the board to have an extended period of prayer and reflection before we continue our meeting. We began by ministering to each other and to praying for one another and for the flock. This was a blessed prayer time and many needs were lifted up before the throne of God.

 

After the prayer time Pastor Steve mentioned his Pastor’s Report for the month of January. Since this report had been previously emailed to the board Steve simply summed up the report by saying he sensed things were still going well at the church. He added that even in the services that morning he sensed a strong spirit of unity and purpose in the congregation. His report is included below in its entirety.

 

Pastor’s Report

January 2007 at NewSong was a month of mixed blessings. On one hand the month got off to a great start with the consecration of three new Elders at NewSong on the first Sunday of the year (Jan. 7th). We also held a benefit concert the first Sunday night of the year with Chris Cauley and Chinua Hawk raising over $4,000 for the Bill Hoover fund. On the other hand, that same day, January 7th, we lost one of our beloved members, Diane Allen, who succumbed to cancer that morning. Diane’s memorial service was held at the church on Saturday, Jan. 13th. Other activities during the month included the resumption of our men’s group breakfasts, with our first event of the year with that group on Jan. 20th where Ed Densmore was our speaker. We also held a fellowship event that night, a family movie night at the church. A new men’s small group started meeting during January studying the book “Every Man’s Battle.” This group has grown to over ten men who meet weekly. A new handyman’s ministry led by Dan Bennett started up in January as well. Sunday Night Fellowship also resumed in January after a break for the holidays. The adults are studying the book of First Corinthians this time around. Our two adult Sunday School classes began new studies. The Eitels’ class is studying the NOOMA film series by Rob Bell and Pastor Steve’s class is using John Ortberg’s book “If you Want to Walk on Water You Have to Get Out of the Boat.” Both classes are averaging about 15 each Sunday. We also held our second round of FEAST sign-ups with those groups slated to begin meeting together in February. Our sermon series for January was titled, “How to Have a Happy New Year” and we talked about ways to make 2007 our best year ever as individual believers and as a church. We interrupted the series on Jan. 28th for Jerry Cauley to present a very powerful message about a marathon he ran out in Arizona for cancer. Jerry had his “hero” Mikaela Beck and her mother with us in worship that day along with some other cancer survivors and everyone was deeply moved. Jerry did a great job. We had fairly good worship attendance throughout the month although looking back we are running consistently below our 2006 levels at this time of the year. All other groups (SNF, Youth, Children, SS, etc…) had good attendance and participation as well.

 

Average YTD worship attendance for January was 148. We had a low attendance Sunday on the 21st of 139 and a high of 165 on Jan. 14th. As noted above, our average attendance is running below our Jan. 2006 average which was 159.  

 

Current membership statistics as of the end of January remain unchanged except for the loss of Diane Allen and a few constituent changes. We now have 54 member families, 94 full members, 74 preparatory members and 37 constituent members for a total of 205.   

 

Financially speaking, January was an okay month. Revenues for the month were $16,665 and expenses were $18,864 with expenses exceeding revenues by $2,199 for the month. Of course our YTD numbers are identical with our January figures. As for our tithing our offerings, we gave $795 to The Place in Jan. and have set aside $529 for the Ghana mission and $336 for El Salvador for a total missions tithe of $1,660 for the month. We were also able to put $22,000 aside in our Fidelity account (our “savings” account). The balance in that account at the end of January stands at $36,349.

 

The meeting continued with a discussion of the following old and new business items.

 

Old Business:

  • Elder of the Month – We made a correction in our EOM schedule. We were unclear about how we got “out of order,” We agreed to continue our rotation with the following revised schedule:

Feb. – Jerry Cauley

Mar. – Ed Densmore

Apr. – Vicki Eitel

May – Brent Orr

June – Curt Sloyer

July – Brian Brown

Aug. – Jerry Cauley

Sept. – Ed Densmore

Oct. – Vicki Eitel

Nov. – Brent Orr

Dec. – Curt Sloyer

  • Hoover Van – Curt has checked into the Hoover’s current van and it appears there is no way out of the loan without defaulting, which we agreed was not an appropriate Christian response. Steve will check with Gene Ellington (attorney) to see if he has any other ideas short of defaulting on the debt.
  • Building Leak – Steve said the leasing agent of the building reports that the owner has approved reroofing our part of the building, especially after the latest leaks were worse than ever. The roofers are supposed to start this coming week. The building owner has also agreed to replace the damaged ceiling tiles and to check for any harmful levels of mold or mildew in the building.
  • Fidelity Signature Cards – Steve advised that Fidelity wants a bunch more information in order to add additional signers to our Fidelity account. Steve passed around sheets for everyone to complete.
  • Directory – Steve said he was at a standstill with the church directory from Olan Mills and that he is going to seek help from the congregation to get this wrapped up.

 

New Business:

  • Children’s Ministry – Pastor Steve reported he has met with Edith Banta, Shuri Orr and Rhonda Sloyer and together they are going to try to get the children’s ministry more organized and have better communication within the group. Edith Banta is calling a children’s volunteer meeting on Feb. 25th. Rhonda Sloyer is starting a fellowship ministry for the children and working on a summer camp for the children. Shuri Orr is working on a flier for the visitor packet which will also be converted to a web page for the children on our website. Brent Orr added that he would appreciate our continued prayer about the children’s ministry because there is still much to be worked out there.
  • Mission Team Meeting – A meeting will be held on Feb. 18th for anyone interested in going on a mission trip.  So far interest has been expressed in El Salvador, Ghana, and a gulf coast Katrina relief trip. Interest and information on these trips will be gathered and distributed at this meeting.
  • Financial Request: Reaching Nations – Steve advised he had received a request for $5,000 to purchase sound equipment for a ministry called Reaching Nations led by Charles Taylor. Charles came and spoke to our church one time at the invitation of Vicki Eitel. This mission is located in the African Nation of Malawi. The board decided we needed to pray about this request since we did not have it in our budget or plan for mission funds there. We decided it could be something the Lord is inviting us to invest in, or it may not be. Discernment is called for. We will all pray about this and then have an email exchange about it by next weekend.
  • Women’s Ministry – Steve said he feels we may need to consider something for women’s ministry since we had so many people interested in that area during the ministry sign-up last October. Our  men’s ministry seems to have taken root and is growing. Vicki Eitel said she and another NewSong member had actually already had a conversation about calling a general interest meeting of the women to see what exactly the women of NewSong are most interested in doing in this area. Vicki said a tentative meeting date of March 17th had been set. Vicki will check the church calendar with Mandy.

 

There being no further business before the Board, Pastor Steve closed with prayer and the meeting was adjourned.

 

The next meeting of the Board of Elders is scheduled for Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 4pm at the church office.