Charity Lutheran Church

Charity Lutheran Church Vision Council Minutes Tuesday November 17, 2015 – 5:30 p.m.

Members Present Staff: Doug Leet, Pastor Scott, Pastor Randy, Pastor Sam Vision Council: Don Nordquist, Cheryl Voll, Kent Farley, Aaron Edland, Dallas Sailer, Nancy Jensen, Rob Bauer, Barb Weaver Special Guest: None

Don called the meeting to order. Pastor Scott opened the meeting in prayer. The meeting agenda was approved.

1. Prayer Requests The following existing bulletin prayer list was approved:  Thank and praise God for His generous outpouring of love on His people of Charity…..for making Himself known through His son Jesus; for the provision of our wonderful pastors and staff; for the tithes and offerings that enable us to be debt free and support our ministries and missions.  Thanks for the new families and individuals joining us at Charity and for the many members who serve quietly and generously.  Ask the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us in every decision made at Charity including the development and implementation of a Vision that places Charity on the road whose course is set by our Lord.  Holy Spirit, we welcome you. Make us into the Church you want us to be so that all may know Jesus and His love.  Thanksgiving for safety during Charity’s youth trips and events.  Pray for the success of ongoing congregational and youth events.  Lift up new Charity disciples and pray for good stewardship in church growth.  Offer congregational prayers for the changes in our State and communities concerning growth and the changes occurring in recent years.  Pray for enduring unity of our staff and continued growth for all our worship services; especially Traditions and Quest.  Pray for guidance for the congregation and our leadership as we submit to the Great Commission in all ways including ministry support, community outreach and continued assistance for Surprise.  Prayers for the Long Range Planning Committee …that the Holy Spirit would guide their discussion and decisions regarding Charity’s future direction.  Pray for the Life Long Learning small group ministries getting underway this fall including Alpha, World Religions, and finance classes; for the leaders and all participants, that they will be positively impacted by these ministries.  Pray for the persecuted church around the world! 2. Staff Reports a. Pastor Randy – i. The pastors/staff are seriously considering starting a second duplicate WOW service on Sunday nights in place of Quest as an alternative to going to Legacy. There would be a meal, youth time, etc. the same as the Wednesday WOW so participants will not miss any of the benefits. ii. The staff will meet to evaluate alternative schedules for Sunday morning to accommodate more people. iii. There has been very good feedback on the Sunday Luther series. People are going out and buying or renting the movie to watch with their family. Randy is considering renting a theater at the Grand to show the Luther movie. iv. The Christmas service schedule is set. The times will be 12:30, 2:00, 3:30, 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. Randy will preach the first three with a theme the “Prodigal Christmas Pageant”, Sam will preach at the 5:00 with the theme of an “Old Fashioned Christmas”, and Scott will preach at 10:00 and that service will include Communion. b. Pastor Scott – i. Scott has been working with Evangel on “Surviving the Holidays” workshop. ii. There will be a Healing service at Charity on December 20th in the afternoon. iii. Starting in January 2016 there will be a 13 week session of Grief Share as a support to the community, not just for Charity. Scott is working with Evangel and two other churches to establish a year round Grief Share class coverage. iv. The staff is planning more frequent healing services; every third Sunday of the month. c. Pastor Sam – i. November 23 will be the last session of Fall Small Groups. The feedback has been outstanding concerning the content and the connection people are experiencing in the groups. ii. Winter Buster classes are planned. Randy will do a class on his book, “The End is the Beginning”. In addition, the “Daniel Diet Plan” and “Love and Respect” will be the other options offered. Information about the classes will be published shortly. iii. Melissa, Chara and Jess are doing an outstanding job handling the children’s ministry and helping with the Monday night small group childcare. iv. Concerning youth, Julie and Sam have 60 kids signed up for the summer Minneapolis Mission trip already. There will be a strict policy this year on the sign up and the deposit will be the only guarantee to hold a spot on a trip.

3. Financial and Administrative Report a. Treasurer’s Report: Dallas gave the report. $133,536 income for October with 2,737 people in attendance Sundays. $39,722 income over budget for the month. Actual income over expenses was $34,617 for October. Currently Charity is at $14,978 budget over income year to date and actual income over expenses is $19,527 year to date.

4. Administrative Report a. Communications Director Search: Sue Balcom has accepted the position and will start December 1st. She will be an employee of the Church rather than an independent contractor. b. Staff Evaluations: i. Staff evaluations are complete except for Randy, Scot, and Doug which will be scheduled and completed soon. 5. Old Business a. Approval of Minutes from October 20, 2015 Meeting: Approved by e-mail. b. 2016 and Beyond Staff Proposal: Randy thought it would be best to hold off on the staff vision proposal for now while working with Living Stones as the two will have to mesh together. i. Nancy proposed to have the staff include a synopsis of the staff vision in the annual meeting. Scott will do a summary for the annual meeting and Randy will publish an article in the January newsletter concerning the staff vision. ii. Sam mentioned that the staff needs to provide more vision for the congregation; seeing the problems, coming to solutions and establishing communication. iii. Dallas commented that future communication should be done at services and not during an open forum, since very few people come to those meetings. c. By-Laws Changes for Voters Assembly – Don handed out the proposed changes. One change is concerning the Voter’s Assembly Order of Business and the other two are from the Finance Committee “audit”. Nancy made the motion to submit the recommended bylaws changes to the Annual Voters Assembly for approval, Aaron seconded and approved by all. d. Living Stones Proposal – The group discussed the Living Stones Integrated Planning Consultation proposal. i. Scott mentioned that the staff would really like clarification of what is provided in the proposal. i.e. Will Living Stones perform investigation with the City concerning parking, zoning, etc. regulations? Also, how much will they walk with Charity through the plan vs. just handing it off to implement? Overall the staff is supportive of moving forward with Living Stones. ii. Rob B. mentioned that it would be ideal for Living Stones to give us what they’re not going to do as well as what is included. Aaron proposed to compile questions concerning the proposal and consolidate them to send to Living Stones. The questions are due Friday. iii. The group atmosphere in general was positive concerning moving forward with Living Stones and to provide the option for a congregational vote at the Annual Meeting. iv. Don and Dallas discussed the funding of the consultation. Dallas recommended using the treasurer discretionary/reserve fund for the consultation fee. The group agreed. e. Compensation Guidelines – Don handed out the “Guidelines – Salary Administration” policy that was developed by the Staffing Committee. The group discussed. Barb made a motion to include the policy in the Policy and Procedures Handbook. Seconded by Nancy and approved by all. f. Finance Committee Report – There were 13 recommendations by the Finance Committee based on their review of Charity’s financial practices. Don recommended including those items for the attendees of the Annual Meeting. All agreed. g. 2016 Budget Discussion – Doug spoke to a 8.77% increase over 2015 budget for 2016.

6. New Business a. Dates for Congregational Meetings: Sunday December 20 at noon. The Open Forums will be Sun. December 6 at 9:30 a.m., Tues. December 8 at 7 p.m., and Sun. December 13 at 10:30 a.m. in the Fireside Room.

The meeting ended at 7:45 p.m. There will be a VC potluck for the next meeting now scheduled for December 15th at 5:30 p.m. Thereafter the council went into executive session.

Respectfully Submitted, Aaron Edland - Vision Council Secretary