December 14 Meetings

Notes on the December 14 Meeting

The December 14 Transition Task Force and New Council meeting started as a joint meeting with the 19 in attendance sitting in a circle. Pastor Craig introduced Marilynn Pavlak of St. Paul’s. Marilyn talked about her mixed feelings as a third generation member of St. Paul’s and the grief she is feeling as she thinks back at her memories of the congregation and the building.

With support from Pastor Craig, Marilynn has arranged for Pastor John M. Mann to conduct grief forums in all three churches. Mann is the Seminary Pastor at Luther Seminary. Marilynn suggests that two people from each church volunteer to arrange the meeting. These individual meetings might be followed by joint meetings, as the need indicates. There was general agreement that these forums will be helpful in all three churches along with appreciation for Marilynn’s efforts to arrange them. Council and TTF members from each church are identifying possible volunteers so these sessions can be help soon after the first of the year.

We then heard reports about the congregational meetings held in all three churches on December 10^th. There were extensive discussions in each church that reflected mixed feelings along with a clear commitment to proceed with consolidation. At Emanuel the votes on the resolutions to elect members to the New Council and to accept the temporary site recommendation passed 41 to 1. There were questions about what Emanuel is expected to “move out” of the building.

Holy Triune voted unanimously to elect the New Council and then voted almost unanimously to reject the temporary site recommendation. The votes were by show of hands. There was a lot of discussion about the meaning of these votes. Holy Triune members said that there is general support for consolidation, but at the same time there is grieving and strong attachments to the building. No one was able to say with certainty what the temporary site vote fully means, but there was consensus that concerns of Holy Triune members should be listened to, and that members may need more time for consideration and processing, Holy Triune also took a paper survey about consolidation after their votes and discussion. Almost two-thirds of those at the meeting said that they plan to join the new congregation. The survey also revealed concerns about transportation.

At St. Paul’s the vote to elect the New Council was 42 to 0. The vote on the temporary site was 33 yes; 9 no and 1 abstain. People talked about feelings of grief and of the need to move forward.

The joint discussion ended with comments about the need for more communication. The consolidation process has been very open, but people hear things that understand in different ways. There is also a need be intentional in listening to people, understanding their concerns, and responding to their feelings of grief.

Minutes of the Transition Task Force and New Council Meetings are below.

December 14, 2006 New Council Meeting

The New Council convened at approximately 8:15 p.m.

Present: Heather Fokken, Marilyn Peterson, Marko Fields, Adelheid Koski, Frank Newman, Kathy Munson, Tom Fischer

Regrets: Joe Tricola, Dan Scoggins

Because of time considerations, New Council agreed to skip “Devotions” and move right to “Vision and Mission.”

Vision and Mission of the New Congregation ( Pr. Craig – 20 min.)

Continue to review and discuss vision page from the JET report to congregations, with focus on purposes:

□ Evangelism

NOTES: New Council agreed to work on “Evangelism” during this meeting, move “Fellowship” to the Jan. 4 meeting, and “Discipleship” to the Jan. 11 meeting.

The “Evangelism” paragraph from the shared vision statement from the JET Recommendation Report of Oct. 8 was discussed, and amended to read as such:

“Our church will be open, welcoming and inviting to everyone. We will seek to understand their desires, needs and faith yearnings. Our church will be a place where people will feel accepted, comfortable, and where they can explore and develop their relationships with Jesus Christ.”

Timeline and Work Plan for New Council (Pr. Craig – 5 min.)

□ Brief look at timeline, where we are now, what is coming up immediately and further out

NOTES: Copies were distributed and New Council members were encouraged to become very familiar with this document before the next meeting.

New Congregation Naming Process (Pr. Evelyn – 10 min.)

□ Review copies of handouts

□ Form a Naming Task Force (?)

NOTES: Pastor Evelyn handed out six documents related to the process of selecting the new congregation’s name: “Developing Criteria for a Name,” “Naming Process Outline,” and “Naming the New Church” from Dave Raymond; also “What’s in a name? Try ‘Taco Bell Temple’ for your church”, “What’s in a Name? Mainliners Ponder Denominational Labels,” and “Leaders Insight: What’s in a (church) name.” This topic will be covered at the next meeting.

Update on Call Process (Pr. Evelyn – 10 min.)

□ Report from Frank Newman on contact with Mpls. Area Synod

□ Report from Pastor Evelyn and Pastor Craig about their assessment interviews

NOTES: Frank Newman left a message for Pastor Dave Wangaard of the Minneapolis Area Synod to ask about how to handle the calling of pastors given our unique situation. As of meeting time he had not yet heard back from Pastor Wangaard.

Pastors Evelyn and Craig have each had two “behavioral assessment” interviews with Richard Mork, Mission Director of Region 3 of the ELCA – the second interview for each included one other interviewer. Evelyn and Craig met with Richard to discuss the results, and he found a high level of compatibility in their gifts, skills, and ministry experiences. A written report will hopefully be ready to present to the New Council in January.

Protocol for New Council (Pr. Craig – 5 min.)

□ Robert’s Rules or other procedure for ordering our work and decision making

NOTES: New Council agreed to follow Robert’s Rules of Order.

Election of Chair, Secretary, other officers? (Pr. Craig – 10 min.)

NOTES: A short discussion was held as to whether or not to elect a Chairperson (President) and Secretary at this meeting or wait until January. The consensus was that these officers should be in place now.

Marko Fields made a motion to nominate Frank Newman as President, Heather Fokken, seconded. Newman was elected unanimously.

Marko Fields made a motion to nominate Dan Scoggins as Secretary (Dan had indicated interest in this office and asked to be nominated), Frank Newman seconded. Scoggins was elected unanimously.

Next Steps, Adjourn, Closing Prayer (Pr. Craig – 5 min.)

President Newman adjourned the meeting shortly after 9:00 p.m., followed by the Lord’s Prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

Pastor Craig Pederson

December 14 Transition Task Force Meeting

We met as a large group with the new council and engaged in a lengthy but healthy discussion about the recent congregational votes related to the election of the new council members and approval of the temporary site recommendation made by JET.

After this each group (NC & TTF) met on their own for the rest of the evening. TTF welcomed two new members to their group, Ruth Foster and Darrell Lind. We revisited our work plan, talking through our function and what areas we are responsible for. For now we have identified the areas of assets and property, financial, legal and organizational, heritage and celebrations, and membership care. We spent time processing what all this means for us as a task force and began to talk about what steps will need to be taken to complete these tasks. We affirmed the need to have opportunities extended to each congregation scheduled times where they could work with a facilitator around grief and loss feelings they are experiencing through this process. Members of TTF will contact two members in their congregations who will coordinate these meetings with Marilynn Pavlak who is a member of St. Paul’s. Members came with questions about the functions of the CPA and those questions were talked through and again affirmations were given for the hiring of the CPA. A letter from the CPA will be sent to each congregation January first.

Before our next meeting we will read through articles given to us related to naming a new church and will come to our next meeting with name suggestions for this new church in the northeast. Our work plan has many areas to work in (as stated above) but there might be other areas we are just beginning to realize. All of us are reflecting on this task force process and if there could be any areas that are currently not listed but are areas we should also be focusing on; we will bring these ideas to our next meeting. We have all been asked to come next time knowing what areas on the task and organizational list that they would be interested in leading. In November each of the three congregations asked their members to complete a “Talents and Tasks” form. Lori will gather these forms and we will designate someone from our team to compile the information from them so that will be available to all members of the TTF.

Our meeting ended in the praying of the Lord’s Prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Youngvorst