NewSong Board of Elders

Minutes of September 13, 2003 Meeting

The NewSong Board of Elders met Saturday morning, September 13, 2003 from 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM at the new church office. All members were present: Dave Allen, Brent Orr, Brian Brown, Michael Smith, Curt Sloyer, and Tom Frederick and Steve Jackson

After a devotional and extended prayer time led by Dave Allen, the meeting was called to order.

Steve Jackson began with the Pastor’s report and said everything has picked up dramatically since we made the turn from summer break to back to school time in August. Our average attendance remains at 160 for the year to date. Our current membership statistics include 53 member families.

Our offerings were great during August. We began the month almost $5000 below budget on giving and ended the month $6,000 "over." This is partially to there being 5 Sundays in the month and we got two "first-of-month" offerings. Also, one member made a substantial gift during the month towards their estimated annual giving. Total offerings for the month were $34,810.69. We paid a $3,481.07 benevolence to the Place and our offerings still exceeded expenses by $17,955.85 for the month.

Central Plaza is still not ready. Steps remaining include installing the appliances and the final setting of the plumbing and electrical fixtures.

Steve also reported that our staff is one of the finest around and they have had two very productive staff meetings.

Vicki Eitel has taken a volunteer staff position as our "Ministry Area Facilitator." Vicki's main job will be to help us formulate a workable, balanced platform for ministry. She will work with all the Ministry Group Leaders and with the Senior Pastor to recruit for, structure and plan the ministries of the church. If someone comes forward with a new ministry idea we will send that person to Vicki so she can help that person ascertain the viability of that particular ministry and to help plan it.

Steve voiced a concern about our men's ministry (or lack thereof). Possible ideas discussed were a men's basketball team, accountability groups, and a Promise Keepers group.

Others items discussed were:

• Dave Allen will be teaching CLASS 201 during the fall.
• Brian Brown reported on the 2004 International Mission trip. Brian and Dave are going to call a meeting to see if enough interest is there to do a trip this year. At present we don’t have a leader for the trip and planning needs to begin shortly for a trip in the spring of 2004. Brian has been in contact with ENLACE, the organization we helped last time. They have sent us a questionnaire, but we can’t fill it out until we gauge interest. Brian and Dave will hold a meeting after church on Sept. 28^th in the new space to see how much interest there is.
• Dave Allen discussed a planned Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 15^th from 10:30AM to 4:00PM. This event would be a fund-raiser barbeque and fun day for the 2004 mission trip. Details include BBQ, a chili cook-off, bake sale, crafts, games, moonwalk, and more.
• Steve will be doing a series of sermons from Oct. 5 to Nov. 23^rd similar to the Purpose Driven Life last year where all five purposes will be discussed along with prayer and stewardship. We hope to incorporate a small group emphasis, ministry fair, and our stewardship campaign in this, with Nov. 23^rd being celebration Sunday where all our commitments are recorded and prayed over. We would also hold a church-wide meeting (our annual meeting) that Sunday.
• Disciple Bible Study starts Sunday night.
• Elder devotional time to begin at next meeting (Brian to lead)
• Scheduling conflicts with new space will be handled initially thru Mandy and then thru Vicki Eitel if needed.

Next meeting will be Saturday, October 4 at the new office