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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH (U.S.A.), LAS CRUCES, NM
STATED SESSION
MEETING
TUESDAY, March 17,
2015
Moderator Reverend Dr. Norm Story
convened the meeting at 7:00 PM and Elder Lyn Ames of the
Administration Ministry Team opened it with a prayer.
Elders Present: Lyn
Ames, Susan Carlson, Brad Class, Larry Felhauer, Blaine
Goss,
Susan Grandle, Danielle Gurnea,
Nancy Johnson, Bill Kuyper, Kathleen Marlowe,
Winnie Quinzi, Stephen Taylor, and
Dennis Thomas.
.
Guest: Deacon Moderator
Bill Marlowe
Establish Quorum: The Clerk
of Session established that a quorum was present.
Approval of Agenda: The
agenda was approved as published.
Pastor’s Report: Pastor Dr.
Story told the Session that the basic problem in the
congregation is that no one notices when someone is
struggling or disappears. A single pastor can’t track
everything or everyone. He proposes to restructure our
Shepherds program around the following basics: 1) It
is expected that church officers would worship regularly 2)
The new list of members in the Shepherd program consists of
local church members. (shut-ins and homebound are
covered by the visitation program, and out-of-town members
will be on a separate list.) 3) Each Officer & Shepherd will
select who they will shepherd and the number of sheep they
can realistically shepherd; 4) The new Shepherd program IS
NOT a visitation or phone call program. It is simply a
program for the Shepherd to greet their sheep in church; 5)
If your sheep is missing for several weeks, let Pastor Dr.
Story know. The Shepherd may send the missing sheep a
short note or call then to ask them a simple “are you OK, I
missed you in church” don’t ask them “where were you”; 6)
Shepherd are expected to provide accountability of their
efforts by sending a brief quarterly report of their
shepherd contacts to Pastor Dr. Story. This report is
a critical part of keeping him informed of any problems or
issues that the sheep may be experiencing; 7) one helpful
way to contact your sheep is to wish them a Happy Birthday,
or send them a simple birthday note or card if you see their
birthday listed in their church bulletin; 8) as you become
more comfortable meeting and talking with your sheep, keep
building that personal relationship.
Pastor Dr. Story indicated that the
shepherds list will be a much smaller list. As a
church officer, each elder and deacon is expected to serve
at least one member. He planned to present our
restructured Shepherds program to the Deacons at their
meeting on March 19th.
Pastor Dr. Story reminded the
Session that he would be out of the office from April 6th
through April 21st and asked if there was any
interest in moving the April Session meeting to April 28th.
After a brief discussion a motion was made and seconded to
move the regular April Session meeting to April 28, 2015.
The motion was approved by Acclamation.
Clerk’s Report: The
Clerk’s Report was as written in the meeting agenda and was
on the CONSENT DOCKET.
a. At the
February 17, 2015 Session meeting the Clerk was
directed to send a letter to the First Presbyterian Church
Foundation requesting the FPC
Foundation to send the Church $6,000.00 to pay for the
drilling and installation of a new irrigation well to
replace the existing inoperable well & pump. The
letter was emailed to the FPC Foundation Board of
Directors on February 25, 2015.
b. Rev. Dr. Norm Story baptized
Nickoulas Ezekiel Pando during church services on Sunday,
March 15, 2015.
Approval of Minutes:
The Clerk’s Report and the approval of the Minutes of the
STATED SESSION MEETING, February 17, 2015, the ANNUAL
CONGREGATIONAL MEETING, February 22, 2015, and the ANNUAL
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CORPORATE MEETING, February 22,
2015 were on the Agenda Consent Docket and were APPROVED BY
CONSENT.
Deacon’s Report: Deacon
Moderator Bill Marlowe reported that Rusty Smith would be
acting Moderator in his absence. Moderator Marlowe
reported that they have been experiencing some problems
getting members to handle requests for emergency funding,
and have resolved that issue by breaking the Deacons into
teams of 4, with each team serving for 3 months. They
have revised their Deacon’s Handbook to reflect how they are
currently addressing the programs they handle, and the
problems they find. The Roadrunner Food Bank
distributed 6,700 lbs of food on Monday, March 16th,
but 2,600 lbs of that food were beautiful strawberries.
Committee Reports:
Administration: Written
with 1 Action Item. The Team discussed a request from
the Music & Worship Decorations Committee for the addition
of $800.00 to the M&W 2015 budget to cover the costs of
church decorations for the remainder of the year. This
will be tracked as a new budget line item, and will not
exceed $500.00 in the 2016 M&W budget. After a brief
discussion a motion was made to approve the $800.00 addition
to the M&W 2015 Budget recommended by the committee.
The motion was approved by acclamation.
Buildings and Grounds: The
Moderator advised the Session that the $6,000.00 requested
from the First Presbyterian
Church Foundation to pay for drilling the new
irrigation well was received and the new well was drilled
and placed in service.
Christian Education: Written
with 1 action item. The Team recommended approval of a
Youth lock-in on Saturday night, April 11th to
allow them to finalize their planning & preparation for
presenting the Sunrise Service on Easter morning.
Their recommendation was approved by Acclamation.
Congregational Life and Outreach
Support: Written with no action items.
Missions: Written with no
action items.
.
Music and Worship: Written
with no action items.
Foundation: No meeting,
therefore no report.
Financial Report for Feb 1 -
Feb 28, 2015
Feb (Actual) Feb (Budgeted)
YTD (Actual) YTD (Budgeted)
Income
$27,789.52
$59,495.17
Expense $28,949.03
$60,229.14
The Consent Motion to receive all
Committee Reports and accept the Financial Report was
approved.
Old Business: Elder
Susan Grandle reported that she was advised that the State
approval process necessary to open the Day Care is complete,
and they should be able to open shortly. The Bldg. &
Grounds and Christian Education Moderators will meet with
the Day Care owner prior to her opening to go over and
finalize any changes that may need to be addressed.
New Business: The
Session discussed several items that were brought up
during the Elder’s Retreat on Saturday, March 7th.
They are:
a) The
modernizing and updating the church web site. The
Elders attending the Retreat recommended that the
Congregational Life & Outreach Support Ministry Team be
directed to develop and implement a new website with a
target completion date of September 2015. The Session
was advised that Brent Brewer & Jonathan West had
volunteered to work on revising and updating the web site in
their spare time; and that as volunteers they cannot be held
to any specific completion date. The assignment of
this task to CLOS by the Session was intended to formalize
the web upgrade project and to ensure that all church
officers and church committees support their efforts by
promptly providing any information that Brent & Jonathan
need to accomplish the upgrade. A motion was
made and seconded for a target completion date of September
2015 for the church web site updating and revision.
The motion was approved by acclamation.
b) The Session also
discussed another issue brought up during the Elders
Retreat; how to improve our outreach to both our community
and our church members. In addition to our Good News
and The Lantern publications that are sent to our members,
the idea of using short “Minute for Missions” type
presentations at the start of regular church services was
discussed. These presentations would be limited to
upcoming church-wide events; but one problem with that idea
is that unscripted presentations tend to go longer than
anticipated. In order to ensure that special
pre-worship presentations are short and concise it was
suggested that this could be addressed by developing the
written script and submitting it to Pastor Dr. Story at
least a week in advance. It was pointed out that we
have historically used a “Minute for Missions” type
presentation to announce special church events such as the 1
Great Hour of Sharing, the Deacon’s Hamburger Fry, and our
Halloween Trunk or Treat event. There was also a brief
discussion about considering the use of special “Noisy
Bucket” Loose Change offerings to fund special events.
Although no decisions were made on any of these suggestions,
they will be revisited in the near future.
The next Stated Session Meeting will
be Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 7:00 PM. The Buildings &
Grounds Ministry Team will be responsible for opening prayer
and meditation.
Adjournment: Reverend Story
adjourned the meeting with prayer at 8:05 PM.
______________________
______________________
_____________
Carlton Connor
Rev. Dr. Norm Story
Date Approved
Clerk of Session
Moderator
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Last update
2015-04-24 04:35:51