The 2000 Annual Report
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First Church Congregational PO Box 326 4 Georgetown Road Boxford, Massachusetts 01921 the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. II Corinthians 13:14 1 Page 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 Agenda 5 Warrant 2018 5 Warrant 2017 6 Minutes of Previous Annual Meeting Reports 7 Report of Pastor 9 Report of Associate Pastor 10 Report of the Itinerant Pastor to the Elderly and Unchurched 12 Report of Minister of Traditional Music 13 Report of Moderator 14 Report of Church Clerk 15 Report of Church Historian 21 Report of Financial Secretary/Collector 22 Treasurer’s Reconciling Balance Report 23 2018 Operating Budget 25 Endowment Secretary’s Report on Special Funds for 2017 Board of Elders 28 Report of the Elder to the Congregation 29 Report of the Elder of Christian Education 31 Report of the Elder of Community of Care 33 Report of the Elder of Facilities 34 Report of the Elder of Finance 35 Report of the Elder of Missions and Outreach, Outreach Financial Report 38 Report of the Elder of Music and Worship First Church Ministries 39 Report of the Women’s Fellowship 39 Report of the Ladies Benevolent Society 40 Report of Four Mile Village 41 Report of the Food Pantry 42 Report of the Nominating Committee 43 Notes Page 3 ANNUAL MEETING January 26, 2018 AGENDA Call to Order Moderator Ian Fitch Opening Hymn Opening Prayer Pastor Andrew James Annual Business Meeting Ian Fitch Closing Hymn Closing Prayer Pastor Andrew James Page 4 Warrant 2018 First Church Congregational, Boxford, MA January 15, 2018 This is to inform you that the Annual Meeting will be held on Friday January 26th, 2018 at 7:00 pm in the Family Life Center. The following items are to be voted upon: Acceptance of the minutes of previous Annual Meeting held on January27th, 2017. Acceptance of the Reports contained in the Annual Report. Adoption of 2018 Budget. Election of Officers and Elders as reported in the Nominating Team Report. New business to come before the meeting for discussion only. In His Service, Ian M. Fitch Moderator, First Church Congregational, Town of Boxford, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Warrant 2017 First Church Congregational, Boxford, MA January 13, 2017 This is to inform you that the Annual Meeting will be held on Friday January 27th, 2017 at 7:00 pm in the Family Life Center. The following items are to be voted upon: Acceptance of the minutes of previous Annual Meeting held on January29th, 2016. Acceptance of the Reports contained in the Annual Report. Adoption of 2017 Budget. Election of Officers and Elders as reported in the Nominating Team Report. New business to come before the meeting for discussion only. In His Service, Ian M. Fitch Moderator, First Church Congregational, Town of Boxford, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Page 5 FIRST CHURCH CONGREGATIONAL of BOXFORD Minutes 2017 Annual Meeting January 27, 2017 7:00 pm Sanctuary CALL TO ORDER: Noting a quorum present, we sang the hymn “I Love Thy Kingdom Lord”. Gerri White accompanied on piano. Pastor Andrew James opened in prayer Ian Fitch read the warrant for the meeting that was posted on January 13, 2017 Acceptance of minutes of previous Annual Meeting held on January 29th, 2016 A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes of the 2015 Annual Meeting. The minutes were accepted unanimously as presented. Acceptance of the Reports in the Annual Report: A motion was made and seconded to approve all the reports as published in the Annual Report. The motion passed unanimously. Acceptance of the Budget for 2017: A motion was made and seconded to accept the operating budget for 2017as presented on pages 27-28. The vote was unanimous. Slate of Officers and Elders: A motion was made and seconded to accept the slate of officers as outlined in the report on page 45. The vote was unanimous Nominating Team: A motion was made and seconded to accept the slate of the nominating team as presented on page 45.The vote was unanimous. Pastor Andrew James closed us in prayer Meeting adjourned 9:25 pm. Respectfully submitted, Susan Moniz, Clerk Page 6 Report of the Pastor This year has been a great joy! I thank God for His continued faithfulness in our midst. I praise God for all of you. This has been a year of transitions and new beginnings. His grace has been evident through it all. I want to start my report by highlighting two key beginnings on a staffing level for our church. In September of 2016 we began our search for a new associate pastor. This process had many twists and turns as we sought the Lord for His man for this job. Then finally in mid-summer of 2017 we had come down to three qualified candidates. In the midst of those three candidates one man truly stood out. We saw in Tom Fagan a clear heart for God, a teachable spirit, a gift with youth and an excitement and willingness to serve the Lord in many ways. Thus, with joy we extended the offer to Tom in July and with joy, Tom accepted the offer. I am so grateful for the Lord's leading in all of this. I have thoroughly enjoyed the last six months of partnering with Tom in ministry. We firmly believe the best is yet to come! Tom has a steady hand of confidence in God which was so needed for this season as we establish this role in the midst of many unknowns along with rebuilding and starting afresh. I am grateful for the good work he is doing in building up our youth program as well as contributing in key areas of preaching and pastoral care/hospital visits to our congregation as a whole. I am grateful for the work that Walter Woodward did in “standing in the gap” after Mike Haddad's departure from contemporary worship as we sorted out who would fill in this key role long-term. For over a year, Walter did a good job of leading worship and working with a team. We knew when Walter started that it would be a temporary season as he sorted out his future. We began the process of helping to transition him to the next season to which the Lord was leading him, while also giving us the time to sort out what was next for FCCB. In this process I asked a good friend of mine who is a pastor, for recommendations of solid worship leaders whom he may know. This pastor didn't hesitate and said: “Steve Kercher.” Therefore, Steve became one person in this process of searching for who the Lord was raising up to fill this key worship position. We knew we were looking not only for excellent musical ability, but also a spiritual leader who could lead a congregation in musical worship to our Lord. The more we got to know Steve, the more we realized that he was one who was clearly qualified in both of these areas! Steve has been with our church for the last three months and I praise God for all He has been doing in and through Steve as he leads us. Steve will eventually establish a worship team as he settles in more and will continue to lead us “to the heart of worship.” Thanks be to God! Obviously, both of these searches took a lot of my time. So much of this last year was trusting God and helping people transition into their roles and learn the lay of the land as well as begin to build a cohesive team. I praise God I am seeing that unfold and I look forward to a season that is moving more into stabilization and then building into what is next. The Lord is growing me and teaching me what it looks like to build and lead a team and trust His hand through it all. I enjoyed growing through preaching this year as the Lord taught me many things. I consistently say, “if someone gets something out of the messages that is great! But I know that I need that time and prep and preaching for my own life, so if I am the only one :)...” We did a preaching series through the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew in the beginning of the year. We looked at the “Lord's perspective on everything.” We covered this from January-March. Then I preached from some passages in Luke through the end of Lent and Easter. Then I did some “one off” messages for awhile. Starting in June through the beginning of September we covered the Book of Joshua as looked at what it meant to have courage in God and to trust Him through many challenges. At the end of September into December we Page 7 looked at Gospel stories. The last week in January we will begin a sermon series in John which I look forward to! In terms of outreach, I was delighted to see how everyone was reaching out to the community. For the Apple Festival we had quite a parking team (thanks to Ron Giovannacci for the cool blue shirts and leading this effort)! We had five different “touch points” to the community “FLC (waters/bathrooms, Sanctuary (historical tours), outside the store (apple food), booth outside church (waters/material, smiling faces), and parking. We truly were the church to the community that day and so many commented on this. Amazing connections were made- many good times to come! The Topsfield Fair was a joy as always, despite the torrential rain! Many solid Gospel connections were made.