Mount Tabor Lutheran Church
Agenda for Annual Meeting
January 26. 2014
- Devotions
- Approval of the Minutes from the 2013 Annual Meeting(January 27, 2013)
- Pastor’s Report
- Review of Reports
- Election of New Congregational Council Members (3 open positions)
- Election of 2014 Nominating Committee (Total 4 members with one an outgoing member of the current council)
- Unfinished Business
- New Business
- Nomination of Synod Assembly delegates (one male and one female)
May 8 – 10 in Denver, Colorado
- Earthquake Insurance Discussion
- Approval of Updated Constitution and By-laws
- Other
- Presentation and Approval of 2014 Budget
- Closing Prayer
Table of Contents
Vision, Mission and Core Values at Mount Tabor 3
Minutes from 2013 Congregational Meeting4
Pastor’s Report5-6
Council President’s Report 7
Vice President’s Report and Financial Secretary 8
Social Action 9-10
Financial Secretary and Scholarship10
Communications & Outreach,Congregational Lifeand Altar Ministry11
Worship and Music12
Building and Ground and Earthquake Insurance13
Youth and Family and OAKS14
Women of the ELCA and Women of the ELCO15
Membership Report 16
Membership Roster Changes17
Endowment and Memorial18
Audit19-21
2104 Budget Notes22
Proposed Budget for 2014 23-24
Treasurer’s Report
Education
Synod Summary Report
Vision, Mission and Core Values at Mount Tabor
Mission Statement
“An inclusive, compassionate community living God’s love in the world.”
Vision
A vibrant urban church
centered in enthusiastic and inspirational worship,
grace-filled service,
and rich opportunities for spiritual growth.
Our Core Values
We live God’s love in the world by:
Growing in faith through worship, study, solidarity with the poor and the marginalized, prayer, and fellowship
Risking innovation and Spirit-led change
Anchoring ourselves in Christ’s love, hope, and joy
Caring for all with compassion and respect
Excelling in service
Mount Tabor Lutheran Church
Annual Congregational Meeting Minutes
January 27, 2013
Opening Devotion
Approval of Minutes
Shayna Wyasket moves to approve the minutes for the previous annual meeting. Stephanie Wilson
seconds, motion passes.
Pastor’s Report
Election of New Council Members
Departing Council Members: Jean Stephenson, Steven Sue, Lanea Brown
Nominees: Kathleen Zwanziger, Alice Lingen, Rebecca Noonan-Heale, Norma Ramon, Susi Schubert
Results: Kathleen Zwanziger and Alice Lingen are elected as council members. Rebecca Noonan-
Heale and Norma Ramon are tied in votes, and Rebecca Sue steps down so both may serve.
Lawrie Allred stepped down so Susi Schubert may serve.
Nominating Committee
Departing Members: Chris Jensen, Dan Wall, Jennifer Miller-Smith, and Sue Workman.
New Members: Barbara Cochran (volunteered), Jean Stephenson (volunteered), Shayna Wyasket
(volunteered), Lanea Brown (nominated by Paul Moore)
Budget Approval
Casey White moves to approve the 2012 budget proposal. Shayna Wyasket seconds, motion passes.
Blue Sky Proposal
Presentation: provided by Dan Wall
Motion 1: Lawrence Allred moves to add $1,650 to the budget, Michael King Seconds. Council objectson the basis of wanting money to be raised by fundraiser to increase congregation investment.
Motion fails.
Motion 2: Shayna Wyasket moves to hold a fundraiser to raise money for the solar panels. Stephanie
Wilson seconds, motion passes.
Closing Remarks: Charles Peterson was thanked for his input as building architect.
Synod Delegates
Pastor David Nichols recommends Bobby Brown and Lawrie Allred. Rebecca Sue moves to approve.
Barbara Cochran seconds, motion passes.
Adjourn
Annual Pastor’s Report
Rev.David Nichols
“Gratitude” is the word that comes to mind when I look back at our shared ministry last year. I think of how many times I heard from our mission partners, and members of our own congregation this past year, about how grateful they are for Mount Tabor. And I think of how blessed I feel to be a part of this congregation that God’s love has called together, and to share our mission together in such a diverse group of talented, fun-loving, committed, questioning, and compassionate people! Our LDS brothers and sisters sometimes describe themselves as a “peculiar people.” Well I think Tabor folks are mighty peculiar as well! And thanks be to God! I get emotional when I see our community side by side at the altar, receiving the meal of grace together. We are so beautifully diverse: from many cultures, ethnicities, generations, and orientations; from many professions, callings, and abilities. All believing in our heart of hearts that God loves the diversity of God’s creation, and celebrates with us when we are together as the diverse Body of Christ. When the Rev. Stephanie Quick-Espinoza preached here in October, she leaned over and said to me, “I love how inter-generational your congregation is; so many children!” As one who over-sees the challenge of renewal for many ELCA congregations in the Rocky Mountain Synod, she was commenting on how vibrant and alive she believes the Spirit is among us.
The longer I am in Utah, the more I understand how important it is to establish partnerships with our sister ELCA congregations. We are not only in the minority with respect to our LDS neighbors, we are also the minority with respect to our Missouri Synod Lutheran neighbors. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just the result of how we feel called by God to live out our faith in this “peculiar” way. And we are one of ten ELCA congregations in the state, each with their own struggles with human and financial resources for doing ministry. The more we get together and share resources, information, and support, the more we equip each other to fulfill our mission as the ELCA in Utah, and our mission at Tabor to be “an inclusive, compassionate community living God’s love in the world.”
For example, we hosted the Utah Conference Gathering in November with Bishop Jim Gonia, and mapped the assets of our individual congregations. Then we collaborated with at least one other congregation to pool our assets towards a common goal. Being an “activist” congregation, someTabor members chose to participate in the Medicaid Expansion rally at the state Capitol with other members of ELCA congregations in Utah. Yet another way we are collaborating as a Utah Conference of ELCA congregations is in the area of youth ministry. Lisa Mensinger is the youth director on staff at Zion. But Zion wants all congregations in the Conference to see her as the youth director for the Conference. So all of us work together to send youth representatives to the Sr.High and Middle School Youth Gatherings in Colorado, bringing our ELCA youth together as one delegation from Utah to each of these events. Eric Jensen and Kyle Brown were our representatives at the Sr High Youth Gathering. Jake Jensen, Angel Marshall, and Caleb Smith represented us at the Middle School Gathering. Together we do more than we can as individual congregations with limited financial and human resources.
This year we have also shared information and resources with Zion Lutheran as they explored the process of becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation, and also as they now look at installing their own solar energy array. Last summer, Michael King represented us as part of the delegation from the Rocky Mountain Synod to the Malagasy Synods in Madagascar. Collaboration for the sake of partnership in ministry is an important principle for being the ELCA in Utah, and I see us continuing to work hard at that in the coming year.
As I try and remember to say at the end of every Sunday liturgy, I am grateful “for all the ways you are living God’s love in the world.” So many, many ways. When Deng Hoth’s home flooded in late January, Lew and Linda Brown helped organize a response through our Wednesday Lenten offerings and through the many volunteers at Tabor who helped Deng with everything from storage to mortgage, until his home was rebuilt. When James Nichols faced troubles in his apartment complex, Team Tabor was on the scene to help out again. Gratitude for your gracious response continually fills my heart.
When I was hospitalized before Signe’s birth in May, the council worked with me to take sick leave to recuperate, and parental leave to help with the transition at home. As a result of that personal experience, I asked Pierre Pearson and Casey White to help me with our first ever Red Cross Blood Drive in August. When Crossroads Urban Center again issued their “Golden Celery” challenge to partnering churches in their July food drive, Mount Tabor collected over 2,400 lbs of food! When Bill Germundson suggested the idea of an Angel Tree for the children of the Salt Lake Dream Academy, you took every ornament off the tree and brought back beautifully wrapped Christmas presents for each child. When LSS of Utah went looking for a new president of their Board, our own Bill Besancon stepped forward. Gratitude for your faithful response to the community’s needs fills my heart.
And gratitude for the way you have responded to Creation’s needs as stewards of this building, also fills me. When we voted to “Go Green in 2013” at our last annual meeting, our Sunday School led us in a fundraising drive for 23 solar panels, helping us exceed our fundraising goals! Our theme in Lent was “Care for Creation” and we invited Lauren Degrado from Utah Interfaith Power and Light to lead a three week workshop on energy conservation. Our solar energy array was installed and dedicated in June, and the system was paid for by not only our funds but also a generous Blue Sky grant from Rocky Mountain Power that we received in September. And our efforts to live more harmoniously in our sacred geography through solar energy have inspired not only our sister congregations of Zion and Shepherd of the Mountains in Park City, but also our own Rocky Mountain Synod Office in Denver to each install solar energy systems in 2014. We continued to collaborate with Utah Interfaith Power and Light, hosting the first Solar Saints workshop in the state this fall, which brought together faith and community leaders from as far as Logan to learn from our experience and share their own insights from their context. Clean air is a priority for every resident along the Wasatch Front. And care for God’s creation brings us into collaboration with many other organizations, and helps identify our congregation as an active partner at the civic level.
I give thanks for the greatest resource God gives our congregation: the people of Mount Tabor who tirelessly give your time and energy both inside and outside our congregational life to the mission of living God’s love in the world. It feels like we are always saying goodbye to some dear friends, like the Luebke, the Matheny-Antommaria, and the Long-Gonzalez families, who moved from Utah in 2013; and to Linda Hansen who passed away in October. But God is good, and continues to send us the gift of new friends and companions in this journey of faith: Julie Bergene from Kansas City, Ben Kusserow and Brad Greenhalgh from West Jordan, Barbara Hayes from Stockton California, Kathryn (Teuscher) Cooke and her daughters LiliAna and Lauren from Salt Lake City, and Shawna Hershfield-Wagner from San Francisco. These wonderful bright souls have each chosen to shine their light among us, and continue to be the grace of God in our midst!
Gratitude for God’s generous providence and love is the feeling that comes over me when I look back at 2013. Gratitude for what God has given us, and through us, and gratitude for what God will do among us and in us in the New Year.
Thank you all for your partnership in the mission of Mount Tabor!
Congregational President’s Report to the Congregation for 2013
I really like Mount Tabor’s Mission Statement, “An inclusive, compassionate community living God’s love in the world.” It really describes who we are as a congregation.
We care for the least of us by donating to Crossroads Urban Center, sorting food at the Utah Food Bank, volunteering to build homes with Habitat for Humanity, preparing and serving meals for families participating in Family Promise, providing Angel Tree gifts to children who might not have a gift to open under the tree on Christmas morning. I could go on and on and on with the many ways we serve God and show God’s love in the larger community.
In 2013 we also showed we cared for God’s creation by installing our Solar Arrays. Thank you to all who donated their financial gifts towards our share of the cost and the committee who worked on the project: Pastor David Nichols, Lee Kreutzer, Dan Wall, and Charles Peterson for all of their work.
We showed our love to each other by providing scholarships to youth in our congregation who are furthering their education: Phillip Allred, Bobby Brown, Katie Shaffer and Audrey Stone each received $1000. I would like to thank Michael King, Barbara Cochran, Lee Kreutzer and the rest of the Scholarship committee for their dedication to those who are furthering their education in our congregation. And thanks to all who shared their financial gifts towards the scholarships.
Members also showed God’s love and care for Deng Hoth, when he was in need, the congregation rallied to help him repair his home and helped him refinance his mortgage.
In 2013, Mount Tabor had wonderful folks who were willing to serve and share their gifts in the ministry of Mount Tabor by serving on the Congregational Council: Kathleen Zwanziger, Susi Schubert, Rebecca Heale, Pierre Pearson, Alice Lingen, Norma Ramon, Mark Sweet, Lee Kreutzer, Bill Besancon, Barbara Moore, and of course our most truly awesome Pastor, David Nichols. Three of the members will be ending their terms on the council: Lee Kreutzer, Susi Schubert, and Dannie Gavros (Me).
If you have been approached by the nominating committee, have not served on council for a while or are a new member who would like to be on council. I hope you will prayerfully consider serving. The nominating committee this year is Jean Stephenson, Lanea Brown, Shayna Wyasket, and Barbara Cochran. I know they would love to hear from you.
Lastly, I would like for you to really study the proposed budget for 2014. While we were putting the budget together, Pastor David said something that really struck me. He stated that a budget is our ministry in numbers. How do we want to show God’s love in the world? How do we want to serve the Lord and the larger community? It really makes me prayerfully consider what more I can do. God has given all us wonderful blessings of time, talent and yes money. How do we show our thankfulness to Him?
It has been an honor to serve as council president for the past year. I have grown in so many ways.
Many Blessings,
Dannie Gavros
1
Vice President Report
I met Pastor David, Brenda, Harry, Gordon and Bobby once or twice over the past year to discuss their position and determine areas where additional support or changes may be needed.
Pastor David Nichols completed his third year of ministry with Mt. Tabor in November 2012. He continues to be a voice for all of us in the community and lead us in our spiritual growth. Like many of us he is saddened by the turnover of members at Mt Tabor but continues to be amazed at the resilience of our congregation. He feels blessed to be here among us and I assured him that we feel blessed to have him as our leader.
Brenda Wardle likes her job but does get stressed if a deadline is missed. We can all help by being consistent about meeting bulletin and Trumpet deadlines. Her health is pretty good overall but there are difficult days. She handles all of this with a spirit of optimism.
Gordon Smith continues to enjoy being our organist. He never has any complaints. I told him he has quite a fan club for the short post service “concerts”.
Harry Heightman continues to enjoy his role as choir director. He has two major goals as director. One, to make choir an enhancing, musical, social and spiritual experience for choir members. Two, to enhance the spirituality of the service for all members and visitors.
Bobby Brown is in his second year as our janitor. He has made suggestions on more effective and less expensive cleaning products. Occasionally there is a situation(s) after an outside group has met here but we have been able to address and remedy those. Bobby really appreciates the flexibility of his hours. It helps him keep all of his musical and educational commitments while earning a few dollars.
I’m so thankful for all five of these individuals. Please let them know you appreciate them too.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Moore
Council Vice President