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NewSong Board of Elders

Minutes of March 11, 2007 Meeting

The NewSong Board of Elders met on Sunday afternoon, March 11, 2007 from 4:00 to 5:30pm at the Church. Elders present included: Brian Brown, Jerry Cauley, Ed Densmore, Vicki Eitel, Steve Jackson, and Brent Orr. Curt Sloyer was not present.

After opening with prayer Pastor Steve began the meeting by going over his report. The following is a recap of that report:

February at NewSong was a good month in most aspects. We were definitely active. On Sunday, Feb. 4^th Exaltation, a singing group from Berry College came to sing for us. That afternoon I had a meeting with Shuri Orr, Edith Banta, and Rhonda Sloyer to discuss the children’s ministry of NewSong. As a result of that meeting a general children’s meeting has been called for March 25^th at the Banta’s home. On the 11^th we held a church-wide meeting to approve of the corporate changes we voted on in our January meeting. We also held a very fun “chili cook-off” where we had a dozen entries and awarded several prizes for the best, worst, hottest, etc…chili. On Saturday the 17^th we held a Valentine’s banquet with a fifties theme which was a great fellowship event. On Sunday the 18^th we held a mission team meeting where anyone interested in going on a mission trip from NewSong was invited. We had 18 people present and there was a lot of interest for all three possible trips (Ghana, El Salvador, and a Katrina relief trip to the gulf coast). Other activities during the month included a prayer service on Ash Wednesday to observe the beginning of Lent. Dan Bennett was our speaker for our men’s breakfast on the 17^th and our men’s small group wrapped up their study of the book “Every Man’s Battle.” The men will be starting another study during March. Our Sunday night fellowship Bible study, youth, and Sunday School programs continued with strong attendance and interest. We also began our Lenten sermon series on the 25^th called, “The Path of Discipleship.” The negative I perceive has to do with attendance as detailed below.

Other Items

Average YTD worship attendance at the end of February has dropped to 142. Worship attendance continues to be a concern of mine, even though I realize “it’s not about the numbers.” Attendance declined through the month with the four Sundays being 159, 141, 128 and finally 115 in attendance. We began the month averaging 150 per Sunday and ended the month 8 people off that mark at 142. We do seem to have several new visitor families who are attending and our “prospect list” now contains the names of 22 families/individuals. The problem seems to be getting our members to all attend regularly. We typically have 10-12 families out per week (21% of our membership). I’m not sure what to make of that. Perhaps 80% is good, but 80% of our constituency would be 166 people and we’re well off that mark.

Current membership statistics as of the end of February reflect the gain of two families: Dan and Catherine Bennett and Reni Perry joined the church on February 11^th. We now have 56 member families, 97 full members, 74 preparatory members and 37 constituent members for a total of 208.

Financially speaking, February was a good month. Revenues for the month were $20,467 and expenses were $18,878 with revenues exceeding expenses by $1,589 for the month. Our YTD numbers are revenues of $37,133 and expenses of $37,742 with expenses exceeding revenues by $609. As for tithing our offerings, we gave $1,307 to The Place in Feb. and set aside $402 for the Ghana mission and $331 for El Salvador for a total missions tithe of $2,033 for the month. The balance in our Fidelity reserve account at the end of February stands at $36,486.

Following the pastor’s report the following old business items were discussed:

Fidelity Account – All the paperwork we did to have all the Elders as signers on our Fidelity Account had to be redone because they said we used the wrong forms (forms which they sent us!). This has been done and hopefully the account will be correct shortly.

Building leak – Our building leak has apparently been fixed as the landlord re-roofed our portion of the building and there have been no leaks since despite fairly heavy rain at times. We will continue to monitor the situation. The ceiling tiles have also been replaced and we are to be reimbursed for them.

Church Directory – Steve has turned the church directory over to Rebecca Brown to finish up getting it back to Olan Mills. Hopefully this will be done soon.

Malawi funds request – A request was made last month for $5000 for a sound system by Charles Taylor of Reaching Nations Ministry in Malawi. After prayer, discussion and emails since last month’s meeting we decided this is not a ministry where we feel led to partner at this time. Rather than dilute our existing partnerships we elected to not send any funds.

Mission Team(s) update – Our mission teams are still in flux about who is going where and what dates are involved. There are still tentative plans on the table to go to take teams to Ghana, El Salvador, and the Gulf Coast this year.

Following the old business report the following New Business items were discussed:

Holy Week & Easter Plans – Steve discussed he was feeling led to not have either a Maundy Thursday or Good Friday service this year at Easter. After talking it over it was agreed that perhaps we should have a simple service of prayer on Good Friday night. We will be having an Easter sunrise service, pancake breakfast (Dave Allen), and regular worship service on Easter.

Attendance issue – Steve mentioned that even though our number of member families has remained fairly constant over the past 3-4 years, our attendance is off from a high in the 170’s back in 2003 to our current average attendance of 140 or so. This despite the fact that we are having plenty of visitors at the present time and, in fact, have 22 families/individuals on our “prospect” list. The board discussed this at length and the following came up as possible explanations: First, while the number of families may be approximately the same, there is a big difference in a family of four as a “family unit” versus a family of one or two joining which seems to be our most recent trend. This points to the possibility of families with children drifting away from our church while singles and older couples may be on the increase. Another possibility mentioned was that even though we are averaging 140 in worship, our worship center feels fairly full on Sunday mornings. Perhaps part of the reason we’ve “shrunk” is because we have less room in our building than in the high school auditorium where we were meeting when our average attendance peaked. Also, the auditorium was dark and offered places to “hide” while our current facility is bright with no place to “hide.” A third possibility offered relates to the perceived “winnowing” God seems to have been doing over the past couple of years at NewSong where our ministries have been dramatically cut back. It was mentioned that perhaps God is trying to prune us back to get us ready for some new thing he is about to do in our midst. One final possibility mentioned was that it could be that there is some problem such as unconfessed sin, or disobedience by the church. The board agreed that we knew of no such situation however.

After the board encouraged Pastor Steve by saying that no one on the board feels like the lower attendance is a problem at the present time, or feels that he is personally doing a bad job leading us, the discussion ended. We agreed we should keep this before the Lord in prayer however.

Elder of the Month – Our upcoming Elder of the Month for April is Vicki Eitel

Next Meeting Date – our next meeting date is set for Sunday, April 15^th 4pm at the church.

Following the new business report the board took prayer requests from one another and then closed in prayer both for ourselves and for the congregation.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30pm..