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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH (U.S.A.), LAS CRUCES, NM
STATED SESSION MEETING
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18,
2014
Moderator Reverend Dr. Norm Story
convened the meeting at 7:00 PM and Elder Susan Grandle of the
Christian Education Ministry Team opened it with a prayer.
Elders Present: Lyn Ames,
Lon Anderson, Corina Armendariz, Brad Class, Blaine Goss,
Susan Grandle, Nancy Johnson, Jacqui
Jones, Bill Kuyper, Winnie Quinzi, Roger Sellers,
Greg Sherman, Stephen Taylor and Dennis
Thomas.
.
Elders Excused Absence: None
Guests: Deacon Moderator
Bill Haynes and new Elders elect Susan Carlson, Danielle Gurnea,
and Kat Marlowe.
Establish Quorum: The Clerk of
Session established that a quorum was present.
Approval of Agenda: The agenda
was approved as published.
Pastor Dr. Story welcomed the new Elders
elect and asked for a motion to extend the privilege of the
floor to them. The motion was made, seconded, and approved
by acclamation.
Pastor’s Report: Pastor Dr.
Story advised the Session that the members of La Iglesia del
Pueblo are still maintaining their church commitment, and their
attendance numbers are remaining stable. He has
established a worship schedule whereby they worship with the
English speaking members on the 1st & 2nd
Sundays of the month and then separately as a Spanish speaking
congregation on the next 2 Sundays. He has arranged for a
Spanish speaking Pastor and his wife, to come up from Juarez,
Mexico and conduct those services in Spanish. They are
still trying to get their feet wet with the many parts of our
organized Presbyterian Church structure and assuming the various
leadership roles to make it work successfully. Rev. John
Himes continues to visit our shut-in members and serve them
Communion once a month while waiting for the formal approval of
his Parish Associate position by our Presbytery. He told the
Elders that there are some problems with our Shepherd program
and it needs reworking to improve it.
Rev. Dr. Story took advantage of having
3 new Elders elect in attendance by conducting an impromptu
Examination of them along with a commentary about what the
Elders moving off Session have learned and their “words of
wisdom” for the new Elders. Danielle Gurnea introduced
herself as a History Teacher at Mayfield H.S. and a longtime
member of the church. Kat Marlowe introduced herself as
someone who was born & raised in Southern NM. She was
raised as a Baptist and has experience in Missions. Susan
Carlson is new to NM, having arrived here about a year ago from
Southern Illinois. She came from a small Lutheran church
and has noticed the organizational differences between the
Lutheran & Presbyterian churches. She is very excited to
see the new & younger families that are coming to our church.
The Elders rotating off the Session advised the new Elders to:
Focus on the Spirit, Pray a lot, Get more training whenever you
can, Take advantage of meeting a lot of new people and Learn as
much as you can about the church & how it works, Wear sunscreen,
Maintain the warm & friendly atmosphere of the church and
continue working hard to keep everyone informed about what we
are doing and trying to do. A motion was made and seconded
to declare the new Elder Examination closed satisfactorily and
welcome the new Elders to the Session at the regular meeting in
January 2015. The Motion was approved by acclamation.
Rev. Dr. Story advised the Session that
we do not have the annual income to hire any new staff such as a
Youth Director. We are doing much of the Church’s work
with volunteers who are working many hours with little or no
pay. Michelle Osborne is handling our Salt & Light
Program, while Greg and Kelly Temple are handling our Youth
Ministry and Faith & Fellowship Programs as volunteers with
minimal financial support. The demands for commitment of
time and sometimes money on members who volunteer for some
leadership roles in our church are also forcing some members to
back away taking on the responsibilities of some leadership
roles. One of the primary tasks for every Ministry Team
Moderator is to make sure that they have a complete and
comprehensive Job Description of what their job as Moderator
entails. It is essential to making sure that members who
volunteer to serve as Elders on Session know what that job
entails, so that part way through their term, they don’t resign
and say “I didn’t sign up for this, or No one told me that I
would have to do that”. The job of the Buildings &
Grounds Moderator are so labor intensive, and/or costly to hire
qualified maintenance personnel that we must start looking at
how to get the most maintenance out of the available money and
manpower resources.
Clerk’s Report: The Clerk’s
Report was as written in the meeting agenda and was on the
CONSENT DOCKET.
a. The inspection of our church record
books is on hold pending additional guidance from the Stated
Clerk of our Presbytery
b. The Clerk received a motion by email
to call a Special Congregational Meeting for after Church
services on Sunday. 11-23-14. The purpose of this special
meeting is to correct the Nomination Committee’s report
presented to the Congregation at the Called Congregational
Meeting on Sunday, October 26, 2014. The Nominating
Committee’s report did not include the name of Gracia Class as
Deacon. The Called Special Congregational Meeting will
allow the Congregation to vote on the election of Gracia Class
as Deacon. Seconds and votes to call the Special
Congregational Meeting were received from a Quorum of the Elders
on Session, and the Motion was approved by acclamation.
c. The Clerk is in the process of
contacting approximately 41 members who have either moved away
from Las Cruces or have not attended or supported our church
over the last few years, in order to get their input about
remaining members of our church. These contacts have been
by both letter to their last known address (6), by email to
their last known email address (30) and telephone calls to their
last known telephone number (1). The correspondence to all
members asked for their response back to our church by November
26, 2014 in order to advise the Session about their membership
status at the December 16th Session meeting. To
date we have identified 7 members who have new church
affiliations, have indicated they wish to be removed from our
rolls, or who we are unable to contact because their old contact
information is no longer valid. The Clerk requested a
motion for Session approval to remove Lyn Boberg (#4496), Ann
Blakely (#4663), Sue Ann Collins (Hanning) (#4578), Abe
Hernandez (#4711), Carol Peterson (#4194), Michael
Peterson (#4561), and Clinton Woodward III
(#4629) from our church rolls. The Motion was made,
seconded, and approved by Acclamation.
Approval of Minutes:
The Clerk’s Report and the approval of the Minutes of the STATED
SESSION MEETING on October 21, 2014, CALLED CONGREGATIONAL
MEETING on October 26, 2014 and the MEMBERSHIP COMMISSION
MEETING on November 16, 2014 were on the Agenda Consent Docket
and were APPROVED BY CONSENT.
Deacon’s Report: Deacon
Moderator Bill Haynes reported that the Deacon’s were meeting in
2 days, on November 20th, and he would distribute
written minutes after that meeting.
Committee Reports:
Administration: Moderator
Ames reported that so far the Stewardship Campaign has been
disappointing as the number and amount of Pledges we have
received to date are 85 Pledges totaling $267,000, while last
year we received 101 Pledges totaling $305,000. He
cautioned the incoming Ministry Team Moderators to expect their
Budgets to be about the same as last year or lower. He
also said that all Team Moderators who have employees that they
monitor, should formally evaluate their staff and send their
evaluations to him as soon as possible. He offered to
supply the appropriate evaluation forms to anyone needing one.
Buildings and Grounds:
Written with no action items. It was noted that it cost us
$200 to have a Plumber repair a water leak in the Kitchen
dishwasher area, and we do not have the expertise to properly
service and maintain the 24 AC/Heating units in the 4 buildings
on our campus. The Team is looking into contracting out a
regular quarterly maintenance program on these units at a cost
of approximately $3,000 per year.
Christian Education: Written
with no action items.
Congregational Life and Outreach
Support: Written with no action items.
Missions: Written with no action
items. They announced that Tom and Judy Harvey, who were
teaching Missionaries in Singapore, would be here on November 23rd,
and they will provide presentations during the Adult Sunday
School class, the Sermon’s Minute for Mission, and the 12 PM
Sermon discussion time.
.
Music and Worship: Written with
no action items.
Foundation: No meeting,
therefore no report.
Financial Report for Oct 1 - Oct
31, 2014
Oct (Actual) Oct (Budgeted)
YTD (Actual) YTD (Budgeted)
Income
$27,837.84
$315,769.21
Expense $30,527.42
$304,351.32
The Consent Motion to receive all
Committee Reports and accept the Financial Report was approved.
Old Business: At their
October 21, 2014 meeting, the Session deferred the discussion
about how we can get more church-wide participation and
involvement in Church activities like Adult Sunday School
classes; fellowship and leadership activities; Stewardship; and
recruitment of new members of all ages until the December 16
meeting.
New Business: Elder Bill
Kuyper commented that he would like to get a better
understanding of our relationship with the Presbytery and why
the Elders have a negative attitude toward it. He
asked about the upcoming April 2015 Presbytery vote on the
General Assembly recommended changes to the PC USA Constitution
and how the Commissioners to Presbytery vote. Elder Blaine
Goss asked if we can get some information about how the
Presbytery spends the money that we send it. Pastor Dr. Story
said that he would invite our Commissioners to Presbytery to the
December 16th Session meeting to discuss these
questions, and asked Elder Goss to email him the financial
questions that he would like to be answered.
The next Stated Session Meeting will be
Tuesday, December 16, 2014 at 7:00 PM. The Congregational Life &
Outreach Support Ministry Team will be responsible for opening
prayer and meditation.
Adjournment: Reverend Story adjourned
the meeting with prayer at 8:35 PM.
______________________
___________________
_____________
Carlton Connor
Rev. Dr. Norm Story
Date Approved
Clerk of Session
Moderator
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2014-12-20 16:54:58