NewSong Board of Elders

Minutes of May 13, 2006 Meeting

 

The NewSong Board of Elders met on Saturday, May 13, 2006 from 9:00 am to 11:45 a.m. at the Church office. All Elders were present and participated: Dave Allen, Brian Brown, Steve Jackson, Brent Orr, and Curt Sloyer.

 

Brent Orr opened the meeting with a devotional based on Genesis 41:25-30 (Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream) called “Forewarned=Forearmed.” The gist of the devotional was the importance of the interplay between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. At some point there comes a time for action. Like Pharaoh, many times we have God’s warning that it is time to make a decision or to change something, but we ignore the warning. Pharaoh did the right thing by heeding Joseph’s interpretation of his dream and by appointing Joseph as second-in-command of Egypt. Has the time come for some decisive action on our part as Elders? Have we been “forewarned?”

 

The meeting included the following discussions:

 

Pastor’s Report

Pastor Steve reported that April (and all of Lent) went well at NewSong. He sensed spiritual growth in the congregation and the congregation responding positively to the preaching and teaching going on as we built towards Easter. Activities in April included great services and participation during Holy Week (helped in part by the NewSong Singers singing at several of the services).  Our two Easter Services were attended by a total of 259 people. On April 23rd we celebrated our sixth birthday as a church with dinner on the grounds after church. Prayer nights continue to go well with a small but dedicated group continuing to meet to pray each Friday night. Our adult mid-week Bible study on Romans wraps up on May 24th after meeting for 17 weeks.

 

Average attendance through April ended up at 163. We had a high Sunday of 259 on Easter and two fairly low Sundays of 131 and 138 on 4/23 and 4/30. The encouraging news is we’re running slightly ahead of last year’s attendance at this point in time.

 

Current membership statistics as of April 30th are 54 member families, 94 full (adult) members, 78 preparatory members and 38 constituent members for a total of 210 people. No one has joined recently.

 

Financially speaking, our revenues for the month of April were $20,852 and expenses were $27.216 for a monthly “loss” of $6,364. The year-to-date figures are revenues of $85,286 and expenses of $96,970 for a total YTD loss of $11,684. Our Fidelity account balance at the end of April stands at $13,821.We have not had to dip into that account so far this year to cover current expenses.

 

Old Business


Old business included a discussion of our property/location. Our current lease expires in October, 2006. We have the option to renew for three more years at the current 2% per annum rent increases. The lease requires us to let the landlord know if we want to renew the lease by 90 days from the renewal date.

 

Pastor Steve suggested that perhaps the fact that we have had no clear word from the Lord on a new location, and no success at all finding another location, that perhaps this is God’s way of telling us to stay where we are. Pastor Steve suggested a four-fold plan:

 

  1. Make a commitment to stay at Central Plaza (with no looking back). We sink or swim at Central Plaza.
  2. Develop a budget that incorporates our current level of facilities expenses and then go to the congregation with a stewardship campaign to raise the necessary budget (including staying at Central Plaza).
  3. Pray about and then come up with three or four (at most) areas where we would like to develop “flywheel” momentum (e.g. men’s ministry, missions, Bible Study).
  4. Pray about and then approach three or four specific leaders to lead those areas and then support them fully (get the right people in the right seats on the bus).

 

After discussing this plan the Elders decided not to adopt Steve’s plan. The consensus among the group was that a move definitely needs to happen. While the group acknowledges a move will not correct all the problems we perceive at NewSong (lack of passion and excitement, lack of growth), they do believe a move would relieve our financial burden. Dave Allen has been investigating an existing facility near the outlet mall in Dawsonville which the Elders plan to look at within the week.

 

A second old business topic was a discussion of our church budget. We all are in agreement that we need to get a budget together. Dave asked Brent if it would be possible to put something together by the June meeting and Brent agreed to do so.

 

One final old business topic was the current staff openings we have in our children’s and youth ministry areas. Dave asked Steve to put together job notices and to advertise these positions on whatever websites and other outlets he could find. Steve agreed to do so.

 

New Business

There was no new business discussed.

 

The Elder of the month for May is Brent Orr

 

Our next meeting will be Saturday, June 10th at 9am at the church.