NewSong Interim Council

Minutes of March 3, 2003 Meeting

 

The NewSong Interim Council met on Monday, March 3, 2003 from 7:00PM to 9:30 PM at the home of Pastor Steve (due to his surgery). All Interim Council members were present and accounted for except Brent Orr who was traveling. Those present included: Dave Allen, Rebecca Brown, Tom Frederick, Steve Jackson, Curt Sloyer and Michael Smith.

 

The meeting opened with prayer and a discussion of how everyone thought things went while Pastor Steve was out with his hip surgery. Everyone was in agreement that everything went very smoothly. Dave Allen singled out Michael Smith saying he distinguished himself with his extra effort on behalf of the church in Steve’s absence.

 

Old Business

 

1.      We reviewed the February 2003 attendance and offering numbers. Our attendance for the month was 168, down from 176 the previous month. It was pointed out, however, that our attendance remained strong despite the fact that Steve was out. Our YTD average weekly offerings are $3,269.99, which is up substantially from last month. There were no membership gains or losses since the last meeting. We have a good number of prospects for membership, and are getting together a group right now to take CLASS 101 in late March.

 

Financially speaking for the month of February (and YTD) we couldn’t say much except our total offerings to date are $26,159.88. We can’t say much because we had a hard disk failure today at the office. Michael Smith has repaired the system and Steve promised everyone the numbers shortly.

 

2.      The next item was a lengthy discussion about the Proposed 2003 NewSong Budget.  After discussion and a little tweaking the, budget was unanimously approved by the Interim Council. It was further agreed that we would ask the congregation to vote on this budget on Sunday, March 30^th at the culmination of our Stewardship Campaign. A copy of the budget as approved is attached to these minutes.

 

3.      Next we discussed the “Seeds of Faith” Stewardship Campaign.  Steve will be preaching three stewardship sermons on 3/9, 3/16 and 3/23. The congregation’s estimates of giving will be turned in on 3/23 and we will have our Celebration Sunday on March 30^th to celebrate reaching our goal of $220,000. We also agreed to put a copy of the plans for the Central Plaza location on an easel at our worship center, to have powerpoint pictures showing the building and to have prayer on the property on our Celebration Sunday. We also discussed having testimonials and offering other encouragement for our congregation to give as God leads us to give.

 

4.      Other Old Business talked about included: an update on Small Groups.  The people who have been meeting recently to start one or more new small groups have decided to start two groups lead by the Eitels and the Tidwells. Approximately six families are involved in each of the two new small groups. This is wonderful news.

 

5.      Next Dave Allen talked a little about thoughts concerning a Welcoming Newcomer Callback Team. Dave and others see a definite need to have this. Steve said he could provide all the information we needed to follow up with the folks and that the Council should not feel guilty about not doing this. Steve also said the best thing the Council can do in this regard is to get to know who the newcomers are by name, and then to seek them out on Sundays and personally welcome them.

 

New Business

 

1.      Turning to New Business, the lengthiest discussion of the night centered on Selecting an Elder Nominating Team. Dave Allen had compiled a list of everyone who had been suggested as possibilities for the Nominating Team. We discussed each person individually and emphasized that the two key characteristics for such a person should be their spiritual maturity and how well they know the people of the church. We eventually settled on asking two couples to pray about which one of them should be on nominations, the Williams family and the Eitel family. We will also ask Jim Stockdill. If one or more of these does not agree to serve we will ask Scotty DePriest and then the Tidwell’s. Dave Allen will ask the people. We also discussed that we should probably not override the “one year” rule in the Bylaws that states that for someone to be an Elder he/she should be a member of NewSong for at least one year.

 

2.      Steve then provided a copy of a Servant Evangelism Report from BJ and Tiffany Fisher. The Fisher’s did a great job although participation in the event was sparse. We all want to encourage the Fishers and we hope to do another Servant Evangelism event in the spring. 

 

Dave Allen then closed the meeting in prayer and the meeting was adjourned at 9:30PM.

 

The next regular monthly meeting is set for Thursday, April 3, 2003 at 7:00pm at the church office.