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NewSong Board of Elders

Minutes of June 24, 2007 Meeting

The NewSong Board of Elders met on Sunday morning, June 24, 2007 from 9:00 to 10:00am at the Church. Elders present included: Vicki Eitel, Brent Orr, and Steve Jackson. Brian Brown, Jerry Cauley and Ed Densmore were not present.

After prayer Pastor Steve began the meeting by giving his pastor’s report. The following is a recap of that report:

In May at NewSong 16 of our men went on a retreat on May 4-6 to Strong Rock Camp in Cleveland, GA. Jerry Cauley preached for me on May 6^th. On the 13^th we celebrated Mother’s Day by recognizing our mothers with flowers and a bookmark. On the 19^th we had a men’s breakfast. On the 20^th we held our FEAST finale, with everyone who had been involved with FEAST this year coming together for a meal at the church. On the 26^th our El Salvador Mission team held a car wash and raised over $1000. May closed out on the 27^th with a great Pentecost service. The Elders then had lunch together at the Browns’ home that day. The women of NewSong continued their Tuesday night study on “Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.” Our men continued their study on “Being God’s Man” with their study titled, “Being God’s Man By Finding Contentment.”

Other Items

Average YTD worship attendance at the end of May declined by four people to 140. Attendance for the four Sundays was 97 (Men’s retreat weekend), 139, 133, and 114. The summer drop off in attendance has really hit with a vengeance. Let’s all make a point of keeping the momentum through the summer months.

Current membership statistics as of the end of May are the same as at the end of April, we have 60 member families, 105 full members, 78 preparatory members and 37 constituent members for a total of 220.

Financially speaking, May was another good month. Revenues for the month were $20,664 and expenses were $17,855 with revenues exceeding expenses by $2,809 for the month. Our YTD numbers through the end of May are revenues of $112,834 and expenses of $92,476 with revenues exceeding expenses by $20,357. These YTD numbers are slightly deceiving because we had not paid out the money we had received as donations to El Salvador at the end of May. As of the date of this report (6/19/07) our net income is $5,722. The balance in our Fidelity reserve account at the end of May stands at $36,946.

Coming Up:

As for my preaching this summer, I am preaching stand-alone messages based on the Revised Common Lectionary.

Sunday School has taken a break for the summer (eff. 06-10).

Our Children will have VBS from July 23-26 here at NewSong with a western theme this year called “Avalanche Ranch.” Rhonda Sloyer has also planned a few activities for the children in the upcoming weeks including a “Picnic and Pool Day” at a local subdivision pool and a tubing trip to Helen, GA.

Our youth will continue meeting on Sunday nights and just returned from their Big Stuf” retreat in Panama City on the 21^st. They are also doing a local outreach project next week where they go and stay in a church and go out each day to do mission work. Attendance at youth has leveled off at about 8-10 per Sunday night. We have a good group of rising 6^th graders that will boost attendance if their parents will bring them.

Our El Salvador team returns from Las Delicias on the 24^th. 7 people attended. I’m hoping they will do a presentation next Sunday in worship (July 1).

Our Katrina Relief mission has finally been planned. Dawn and Chuck Kirkland have agreed to lead a team to the Gulfport, Mississippi area to work with the Gulf Coast Baptist Association rehabilitating homes. The trip is planned for August 1-5 and we’ve already had a fair amount of interest in the church in going.

Our Fellowship Ministry has slowed down their activities with everyone being on vacation, etc…

2007-08 Church Year – I have already begun doing some planning for the upcoming church year, which seems to mirror the academic year in terms of activity levels. The program year begins again in August, with new ministry positions, etc… starting in October. I plan to hold meetings with all our ministry leaders, do some scheduling of dates and activities, etc… I’m hopeful that our reading the Simple Church book as Elders will stimulate some good thinking about next year for us as Elders which I can then feed back to the general leadership of the church.

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

Elder Study – Pastor Steve has selected a book for us to read together as Elders, Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. Steve asked the Elders to have this book read by July 15^th. As you read, please take notes and jot down questions and observations you have. We will have one or two meetings the last two weeks of July to discuss the book as a group.

Elder Nominations – Pastor Steve announced that of our 8 potential Elder nominees, 2 have said they are willing and able to serve if elected: Linda Blanchard and Corky Green. Steve will publicize this for the next two weeks in the newsletter. Announcements will also be made at church. It was agreed that we should allow the election to take place on both July 1 and July 8 because so many people have been out on vacation, etc… lately.

Following the old business discussions the Board moved to new business items.

Vicki Eitel stated she’d like to start a prayer time for the Elders and their families.

After some general discussion talking about our children’s ministry, refreshments at worship, and the issue of maturity in leadership at NewSong, and the status of several of our members with medical and other needs the meeting Pastor Steve prayed.

The Elder of the Month for July is Brian Brown.

Next Meeting Date – our next meeting date is tentatively set for Sunday, July 15^th at 9am at the church. Note change in starting time.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00am