NewSong Board of Elders

Minutes of October 14, 2007 Meeting

 

The NewSong Board of Elders met on Sunday afternoon, October 14, 2007 from 4:00 to 5:45pm at the Church. The entire Board was present including: Linda Blanchard, Brian Brown, Jerry Cauley, Ed Densmore, Vicki Eitel, Brent Orr, and Steve Jackson.

 

The meeting began with a brief prayer as we waited on some of the Board members to arrive.

 

After this time of prayer the Board discussed the following items.

 

Pastor Steve asked if there were any questions about his pastor’s report. There were none.

 

New Business

 

The Elders discussed that there are three major issues before the Board now that we need to address, tonight and in the near future:

1. How to implement our new mission as a church so that it doesn’t become merely a sign on the wall or another “program” of the church.

2. What are the major issues facing the church in 2008 that the Board needs to be proactive about and begin discussing and taking action on? These we referred to as the “big rocks” in our bucket for the coming year.

3. What to do about those who joined through the ministry booklet process and about those who have not turned in a booklet who previously were members.

 

We discussed these briefly and agreed upon the following:

 

As for the implementation of the new mission we agreed that we need to have a phased in process for implementing the vision, starting with the “love” portion as the first section, beginning as soon as possible. We also agreed we need to clearly define the “hand-offs” between each step of the process. We also agreed we need to have leadership training to encourage each leader to promote the new vision within their area of ministry, how to help with the hand-offs, and to encourage each member to greet newcomers. We also need to get to work on the grow portion (small groups) so we aren’t starting from scratch when we launch this phase of the new vision process. This work would include how best to implement small groups in the church, and the selection and training of leaders.

 

As for the “big rocks” discussion, we all agreed to begin praying immediately about what those big issues are for 2008. Possibilities raised at the meeting include:

 - Whether we should go to two services

 - Recruiting/Staffing issues. Should we locate and hire a Children's Minister, Worship Leader, Youth Pastor, others?

 - The nature and extent of our future involvement with Ghana.

 -  Facilities: do we need to restart our permanent facilities search?

 -  Other possible ministries that have been mentioned by congregants including:

    - Bible study for teen girls on purity, modesty and appropriate relationships

    - Mentoring/Accountability

    - Weekly Prayer Meeting

    - Counseling/Prayer Ministry

    - Local Mission Projects

    - Youth praise worship music ministry

    - Restarting the NewSong Singers

 

As for what to do about those who indicated they wished to join through the ministry booklet process as well as those who did not turned in a booklet but who were previously church members, the Board agreed on the following. We need to hold a membership class in which all the new people are given an overview of the new mission and an opportunity to sign up for ministry and to make a financial estimate of giving. For those who have not filled out a booklet, the Board agreed that Steve needs to make one final contact with each one advising that since they have not signed and turned in a membership covenant for 2008 they are being removed from the church roll.

 

Other Business

The Elders then worked out who would say what at the Annual Congregational meeting to be held later that evening. Pastor Steve will introduce everything. Linda Blanchard will talk about the new mission statement in overview. Brian Brown will discuss “love,” Jerry Cauley will discuss “grow,” Ed Densmore will cover “share.” Vicki Eitel will summarize the process and exhort those present at the meeting to link arms with us to make this new vision a reality. Brent Orr will present the 2008 budget for a vote.

 

As for the regular, ongoing business of the church for the month of September, the following is a summary of Pastor Steve’s report to the Board which was previously emailed to them.

 

Pastor’s Report

I am excited about what God has in store for us at NewSong in this new ministry year. Most of the new year ministry booklets have been turned in. As of Oct. 10 we had 65 ministry booklets turned in with estimates of giving for the coming year totaling $201,110. We have a new mission statement for the church and people seem to be getting excited about this new understanding of our ministry. This evening (Sun. Oct. 14) we will hold our annual meeting where we will hopefully approve our 2008 budget and really fire up the troops for what lies ahead.

 

Looking back, September was a good month at NewSong. Sunday School and Sunday Night Bible Study were restarted on Sept. 9th with good attendance and interest in both ministries. Jerry Cauley spoke for me on Sept. 2nd while I was in Los Angeles taking Amy to YWAM. Brian spoke for me on the 23rd and Vicki Eitel on the 30th as I was back in Ghana. Our Men’s and Women’s study groups continued strong through the month of September, as did the women’s prayer group, Praise Band, Men’s breakfast, and youth group.

 

Other Items

Our Average YTD worship attendance remained steady at 138. Attendance for the five Sundays was 115, 154, 143, 129, and 147.

 

Current membership statistics as of the end of September remain unchanged at 60 member families, 118 full members, 66 preparatory members and 32 constituent members for a total of 216.   I expect this will change as we process the membership renewals and new membership forms from the ministry booklets.

 

Financially speaking, revenues for the month were $19,206 and expenses were $20,682 with expenses exceeding income by $1,475 for the month. Our YTD numbers through the end of September are revenues of $194,167 and expenses of $177,854 with revenues exceeding expenses by $16,313. The balance in our Fidelity reserve account as of the end of September was $38,862.  Mandy is now sending $430.76 a week to the Fidelity account to cover the children’s director and worship leader salaries.

 

Coming Up:

 

As for my preaching I will continue preaching from the Revised Common Lectionary, hopefully with emphasis on our new mission statement. I need someone to speak for me on Sunday, Nov. 18 as I will be out.

 

Sunday School has resumed but attendance has dropped off from our great first few weeks. I don’t know why we’ve had this drop off. I would like your input on this.

 

Sunday Night Fellowship, newly renamed Sunday Night Bible Study, has also resumed with about 20 to 25 present each week. We are studying the book of Hebrews. We also are having a children’s time during SNBS led by Christina Krauss and Rebecca Brown, but they only have one or two each week (none last week).

 

Our youth will continue meeting on Sunday nights at 6pm. Attendance at youth has been really growing. They are averaging about 20-25 a week, mostly middle-schoolers. They had a parent’s meeting on the 22nd to explain more about the ministry. Those who complained earlier about the youth said things are “better” but they still have some concerns. Hopefully this will continue to get better.

 

Our Fellowship Ministry is planning an event at the Sawnee Mtn. Preserve after church on Sunday, Oct. 28th. They also have a large group (over 20) going to a Casting Crowns concert at the Arena at Gwinnett on November 23rd.

 

Our Women continue their new Beth Moore study called Believing God. They are led by Michele Green and meet on Tuesday nights at 7pm. Attendance in this group has leveled off to about 6-8 a week.

 

Our Men have begun a new study called “Faith Under Fire.” The men are led by John Krauss and meet on Thursday nights at 7pm. They average about 6-8 men a week.

 

There is a Bible Study group led by Casey and Heath Fenn studying the Book of Acts meeting on Tuesday nights at 7pm at the church.  

 

Next Meeting: The next meeting of the Board of Elders will be an extended meeting on Sunday, Nov. 11th at 2pm to discuss more fully the implementation phase of our new vision and the “big rocks” for 2008. All Elders are asked to be in prayer about this between now and then.

 

Elder of the Month for November – Linda Blanchard