Agenda and Notes on First New Council Meeting November 30, 2006
(Notes are in italics.)
Get Acquainted (led by Pr. Evelyn – 10 min.)
□ Tell us a little more about yourself, especially previous leadership experiences
Dan Scoggins – Member of St. Paul’s for nearly four years; currently on Council, served as president for two years, now is treasurer; lives in Holland Nbrhd. near St. Paul’s and served on board of Holland Neighborhood Improvement Assn. and Northeast Community Dev. Corp.; feels called to the New Council because of mission and vision.
Frank Newman – Member of Emanuel for over seven years; lives block from Emanuel; served on Pastor Evelyn’s Call Committee; currently on Council and is president of congregation; feels strongly about opportunities for leadership in church and neighborhood.
Marilyn Peterson – Member of Holy Triune for about 11 years; had family ties to Immanuel (one of three congs. that formed HT); lives in New Brighton; currently on HT Council; owned real estate company and had managerial duties; eager to contribute however she can.
M
arko Fields – Member of St. Paul’s for over three years; lives three blocks from St. Paul’s; served on faculty committees at Concordia University; was youth director at both large and small Lutheran churches; served on Long Range Planning Team at St. Paul’s that generated idea of consolidation.
Heather Fokken – Member of Emanuel for over two years; lives a few blocks from Emanuel; currently serves on Council; not many leadership “positions”, but is attorney and works on employment law.
Adelheid Koski – Member of St. Paul’s for 1 years; currently serves on Council; lives about five blocks from St. Paul’s; has done nonprofit work before having two children; has historical family connections to the formers of another church, feels a call to serve in forming this new church.
Tom Fischer – Member of Emanuel on and off for over 50 years; served on Council there; lives near Emanuel; honored to be asked to serve on New Council and didn’t take long to say “yes”.
Pr. Evelyn – Has served Emanuel for seven years; lives in Roseville; has been in discernment since last January and feels that she is called to be part of the new church.
Pr. Craig – Has served St. Paul’s for 4 years; lives nine blocks from St. Paul’s; has also been discerning call and could have used this as a “jumping off” point but feels called to serve the new church.
Kathy Munson and Joe Tricola, both from Holy Triune, were unable to attend the meeting.
Discussion about tasks of the New Council (led by Pr. Evelyn – 15 min.)
□ Review and discuss New Council Work Plan
New Council briefly reviewed the work plan, which includes proposed tasks and timelines. It was agreed to devote significant time at the next meeting to the work plan. Adelheid suggested a worship planning component be added since that will be such a significant part of the new church. Pr. Craig suggested the naming process begin quickly for planning and public relations purposes. Marko suggested that “instant runoff voting” be used to make the name selection so that it doesn’t go on indefinitely.
Vision and Mission of the New Congregation (led by Pr. Craig – 15 min.)
□ Review and discuss vision page from the JET report to congregations
New Council reviewed the vision statement page from the JET Recommendation Report as a starting point to begin to refine the vision and mission. Two “purposes” of the new church were reviewed – Worship and Service. To see the Vision Statement click on Our Vision to the left above.
Worship – A new church should be more aware of gender equity and language; Pr. Evelyn said the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnbook should move more in that direction; statement should emphasize music and liturgy that reflects our diversity rather than “diverse cultures” – in other words, diversity that is represented in the congregation and in the immediate neighborhood, not do “diversity” that is not authentic; say that in time we will offer two or more services, not just traditional or contemporary, and may have midweek services or smaller occasional services; we should begin to pursue a partnership with a large suburban church who could offer worship and other resources.
Service – A new church should not just resond to “physical and spiritual needs”, but also should consider emotional and psychological needs; adjust “meeting short-term needs and providing long-term solutions” to ”seeking long term solutions” – we can’t do it alone, will need to partner with other agencies and churches to provide solutions.
New Council will review the purposes of Fellowship, Discipleship and Evangelism at the next meeting.
Reports on communications with Synod, ELCA: (led by Pr. Craig – 5 min.)
Pr. Evelyn and Pr. Craig have had initial assessment interviews with Richard Mork, ELCA Region 3 Mission Director, they will have follow-up interviews next week with two additional interviewers – the purpose of the interviews is to determine gifts, strengths and growth areas; other sources could be helpful to assist the pastors in identifying their specific roles and responsibilities in the new church, including the wisdom and experience of Pr. Ken Defor (interim pastor at Holy Triune); Pr. Evelyn talked with Bishop Craig Johnson of the Mpls. Area Synod two weeks ago and he was very excited and affirming about the consolidation process – other urban churches may be able to learn from our experiences.
Preliminary discussion of pastoral calls, staffing, job descriptions, budget: (led by Pr. Craig – 10 min.)
Pr. Craig said that the New Council would have to take primary responsibility for handling the call process; they could decide whether or not to have a full-blown interview process or just call Pr. Evelyn and Pr. Craig; New Council could appoint itself as the Call Committee if it chose that approach; Frank asked how that might best happen and it was suggested he contact Pr. David Wangaard of the Mpls. Area Synod for advice.
Staffing, job descriptions – This would soon follow the call of the pastors; Marko suggested that the pastors should have input as to the makeup of the staffing configuration; Heather offered that she would like to be involved in the writing of job descriptions; suggestion to write job descriptions for specific ministry needs rather than trying to tailor them to specific people.
Budget – will begin to be addressed next meeting; there are some people within each church who have skills in budgeting, and Dave Raymond has done a projected budget that could be a good starting point.
Other items, next steps: (led by Pr. Craig – 10 min.)
□ Other New Council member concerns, questions
□ Review future meeting dates, times
□ Specific future agenda items?
Discussion of how to order the work of the New Council (Robert’s Rules, consensus, etc.), suggestion that Robert’s Rules are not ideal but may work best for our purposes; suggestion that a chairperson for the New Council be selected at the next meeting, if possible.
Adjourn, Closing Prayer