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February, 2006 Joint Information Meeting
| | On February 26, 2006 members of all three churches met to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of congregational merger and consolidation. Holy Triune hosted this gathering, Emanual provided a delicious lunch, and St. Paul's led the program. Members of River of Life in North Minneapolis shared information about their consolidation, and there was time for questions and answers. |
June, 2006 Exploring the Future Together In early 2006 St. Paul's Lutheran Church adopted "Vision 2010", a plan for the future that called for the congregation to again become a "magnet for the community". One action step in this plan called for St. Paul's to explore the potential for joint ministry with two similar nearby ELCA churches, Emanuel and Holy Triune. St. Paul's and Emanuel were already cooperating in their confirmation program and lenten services, and Holy Triune and Emanuel shared pastoral leadership from time to time, so exploring further possiblilities for ministry together was a logical extension. While joint ministry might take a variety of forms, St. Paul's was especially interested in studying the concept of consolidation. A church consolidation occures when two or more congregations join together to intentionally form one new congregation. Consolidation is similar to merger, but in a merger the emphasis is more on maintenance. Merged churches sometimes hyphenate or adapt their former names, for example, while churches that consolidate deliberately take a new name and new identity. In January members of St. Paul's Long Range Planning Team met for coffee with lay leaders from Emanual and Holy Triune. The three churches then jointly sponsored an information meeting in late February to inform and involve members (see right). In early 2006 all three churches held congregational "town hall" meetings to give members a chance to talk about working together with the other congregations. The three churches joined together for Lenten suppers and worship. Emanuel and Holy Triune held congregational visioning sessions using the same visioning process that St. Paul's had used earlier, which allows the three churches to compare their sense of purpose as congregations along with their hopes and dreams for the future. The councils of the three churches then appointed 4 members each to a Joint Exploration Team to study joint ministry together and then report back to the congregations. The first meeting of the Joint Exploration Team was on June 21. |
September, 2006 The Joint Exploration Team Recommendation At its meeting on September 14 JET unanimously recommended that Emanuel, Holy Triune and St. Paul's consolidate in joint ministry. The team prepared a 4-page report explaining its recommendations and describing the potential of a new consolidated church in Northeast Minneapolis. October, 2006 All 3 Congregations Vote to Go Forward with Consolidation Holy Triune and St. Paul's Lutheran Churches held special congregational meetings on October 8th to vote on the Joint Exploration Team's recommendation that the three churches consolidate in joint ministry. The results of the paper ballot votes were: Holy Triune: Yes – 41; No – 1 St. Paul’s: Yes – 45; No – 3; Abstain – 1 Emanuel Lutheran Church voted on the same resolution at its annual meeting on September 24th. The 40-45 people at the meeting voted unanimously by voice vote to proceed. It appears that there were a few abstentions but no one voted "no". Worshiping Together in November, 2006
November, 2006
Consolidation Update In June the councils of Emanuel, Holy Triune and St. Paul’s each appointed 4 members to a Joint Exploration Team, often called JET. JET’s charge was to examine the advantages and drawbacks of consolidation and then make a recommendation to the churches. On September 17 JET presented a 4-page Recommendation Report that encouraged that the three churches to consolidate into one new congregation. By October 8th all three churches voted (with 93% in favor) to proceed with consolidation. To move this process from exploration to implementation, JET proposed that JET be disolved into two new groups. The first, a Transition Task Force (TTF), would be responsible for the temporary site, asset and property matters, heritage and celebrations and similar matters. The second group, the New Council (NC), would be responsible for establishing and developing the new congregation, including the name, call committee, program, vision and outreach and similar matters.
In November the three councils approved this proposal and appointed members to these new groups. On November 30 the Transition Task Force and New Council met for the first time. The plan is to have the New Council become the first church council for the new congregation, so the members of the New Council will be voted on at special congregational meetings on December 10th.
December, 2006 Special Congregational Meetings On December 10th all three congregations held special congregational meetings after worship to give members a chance to learn more about consolidation and get their questions answered. Members voted on resolutions to appoint the New Council members and to approve the temporary site recommendation. The votes to elect 9 members, 3 from each church, to the Joint Council were: Emanuel: 41-yes; 1-no Holy Triune: Raise of hands with 1 no vote St. Paul's: 42-yes; 0-no JET recommended that the building at 697 13th Avenue NE, which is now Emanuel, be used as the temporary site. The votes on this recommendation were: Emanuel: 41-yes; 0-no; 1-abstain Holy Triune: Raise of hands vote with only 1 yes vote St. Paul's: 33-yes; 9-no; 1-uncertain
There was a long discussion of these meetings at the December 14 meeting. See the notes from that meeting (linked to the left) for notes on that meeting. Click here to see the Resolutions. February, 2007 Vision and Mission Forum  Members of all three churches gathered in St. Paul's Fellowship Hall after joint worship on Sunday, February 18 to talk about hopes and dreams for the New Northeast Congregation. Pastor Craig Pederson asked two questions: - What would you personally like to see happen at the new church during the next five years?
- Think of your friends, relatives or neighbors who do not attend church. What would they like to see happen at a church that might interest them enough to check it out.
Click here for a Report on the Vision Forum
Three Sundays of Joint Worship February 4th at Holy Triune About 125 people braved the cold on Super Bowl Sunday (February 4th) to worship together at Holy Triune. Pastor Ken DeFor warmly welcomed us, and Pastor Evelyn Dahlke preached about second career missionaries and second and third “career” churches. After worship we enjoyed coffee, juice and treats downstairs. Frank Newman, the president of the New Council of the New Northeast Lutheran Church, led us in devotions and introduced the members of the Transition Task Force and New Council. The Naming Team explained how everyone can participate in choosing a name for the new congregation. Frank talked about the proposed constitution and then responded to questions from members. Pastor Craig Pederson closed the gathering with prayer. Photos from this service are to the left below. Sunday February 11th at Emanuel
More than 140 people gathered for worship at Emanuel on February 11th, followed by a delicious lunch, fellowship and a silent auction. Pastor Craig Pederson preached about what it means to be blessed and how Jesus is calling us to be blessed and a blessing to others. Sunday February 18th at St. Pauls
About 125 people worshiped at St. Paul's in the third joint service. Pastor Ken DeFor's sermon was based on the Luke 9 text when Jesus, Peter James and John went to the mountain to pray. Peter wanted to build dwellings, but Jesus led them down from the mountain to continue his ministry. Pastor DeFor related this to the new congregation. A dwelling for a church is far less important than the ministry of the church, which is often ouside its doors. March, 2007 All 3 Churches Vote to Proceed in March Each of the three churches held special congregational meetings in March to vote on a resolution to dissolve the current churches and transfer members and assets to the New Northeast Congregation. A total of 132 members voted at the 3 churches, with 90% voting yes overall. Holy Triune and Emanuel voted on Sunday, March 4th. The vote at Holy Triune Lutheran Church was 33 in favor of dissolution with none opposed. One person in attendance did not cast a ballot. At Emanuel Lutheran Church all 44 members in attendance voted yes. St. Paul's held its meeting on March 18th, and 78% of the St. Paul's members present voted to dissolve the congregation and transfer its assets to the New Northeast Congregation. There were 54 voting members present, and the vote was Yes - 42; No - 10; Abstain - 1; and Blank Ballot - 1. The next step is a joint meeting on Palm Sunday, April 1, which will be held after joint worship at St. Paul's. The purpose of that meeting is to select a name, and call pastors for the new congregation, which is scheduled to start on May 6th. The new congregation will be temporarily located at 697 13th Avenue Northeast, across from Logan Park in the current Emanuel location. April, 2007 Palm Sunday Joint Worship and Meeting On Palm Sunday 153 members of Emanuel, Holy Triune, and St. Paul’s worshiped together at St. Paul’s in their last pre-consolidation joint service. After worship, members moved to the fellowship hall for refreshments and a congregational meeting led by New Council chair Frank Newman.
The gathering started with a prayer by Pastor Ken DeFor. The first order of business was to vote on the name for the new congregation. A total of 82+ name suggestions were submitted by members and people from the community. The New Council and Transition Task Force narrowed that list down to the 4 that appeared to both have both broad appeal and conformance with the name criteria. The winner in the instant runoff voting was Northeast Community Lutheran Church.
The second order of business was a vote to direct the New Council to appoint Pastors Evelyn Dahlke and Craig Pederson as interim pastors of Northeast Community Lutheran Church. That vote, by show of hands, was enthusiastically unanimous or very close to unanimous. Pastors Evelyn and Craig will serve as interim pastors from April 30 until NECL can hold an official membership meeting to formally vote on the calls. That meeting will be held on May 20. 
Photos from Joint Worship on February 4th:
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