MINUTES, ELDERS MEETING 10/2/2017

PRESENT: Mark Farran, Mike Stockton, Randy Crowe, Barry Krause, Hootie Decker

OPENING: Mike opened the meeting with prayer. Mark led a study of Nehemiah’s Prayer, Nehemiah 1: 1-11. We conducted a short impromptu assessment of things going on in our church as inspired by the bible study. Each agreed to read Nehemiah 1-2 multiple times and through prayer seek God’s guidance for direction in leading the church. We are to keep notes of our inspirations from the reading and prayer so we can compare and hopefully through consistency be able to discern God’s plan from our own plans.

MINUTES: Minutes from the 9/26/2017 meeting were approved by all.

TREASURE’S REPORT: No report requested for this meeting. We did discuss the need to get the budget prepared for presentation at the 11/12/2017 congregation meeting.

VOTES TAKEN: Based on our discussions with each other and with possible deacons over the last several weeks, Hootie made a motion, Randy seconded, and all approved the following deacons for ministry team leadership. Nursery – Jan Crowe; Children’s ED – Mendy Heintz; Youth – Janie Holzschu; Property & Grounds – Jeff Harrell and TJ Stockton; Missions – Paula Harrell; Connections – Briana Decker; Visitations – Ronnie Stockton; Worship – Donna Campbell; and Christian Fellowship – Sandy Stockton.

OTHER DISCUSSIONS:

  1. Policy and Procedure for Ministries:
  2. The phrase “and congregation vote” at the end of paragraph B. 1. will be removed from the policy. Our draft policy conflicts with the constitution. Deacon assignment is the responsibility of the elders and does not require congregation vote.
  3. As of this meeting we have receive no feedback from the congregation on the draft policy.
  4. Ministry oversight:Per our policy each ministry team has an elder assigned to keep in touch. These are the oversight responsibilities we agreed upon. Randy has Nursery, Property & Grounds, and Missions. Mark has Children’s Ed and Worship. Barry has Youth & Visitations. Hootie has Connections. Mike has Christian Fellowship and technical equipment advisory for Worship.
  5. Equipping of ministries:We had lots of discussion about execution of “equipping” ministries with various materials and equipment. It became clear we have different opinions on the authority of each ministry and the level to which the Property & Grounds team should be involved in each ministry’s equipping efforts. We decided this topic needed prayer and more time.
  6. Possible future discussions:
  7. Cindy wants to be baptized and Jeff Heintz wants twin babies dedicated. Do we need to develop a policy document for baptisms and baby dedications?
  8. Mark is planning on a 3 hour leadership training course for the elders and possibly deacons.
  9. Our Sunday morning classes could be considered “equipping classes” and there be a consistent curriculum across all groups with a focus on “Being the Body of Christ”.
  10. We may start an effort in December to increase the number of small groups.

NEXT MEETING: The next meeting was set for Monday, 16 October 2017 at 6:30 PM.

CLOSING: We closed the meeting withprayer.

hd