First Presbyterian Church
Las Cruces, NM
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First Presbyterian Church
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FIRST
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.), LAS CRUCES, NM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19,
2013
Moderator Reverend Norm Story convened the meeting at 7:00 PM and Austin
Breck of the Administration Ministry Team opened it with a meditation
and prayer.
Elders present:
Lyn Ames, Lon Anderson, Corina Armendariz, Austin Breck, Brad Class,
Blaine Goss, Janet Loman, Kate Puckett, Roger Sellers, Greg Sherman,
Stephen Taylor, and Dennis Thomas.
Elders Absent:
Jacqui Jones, Lloyd Kirschenmann, Richard Paul, Winnie Quinzi and Nora
Yaryan.
Guests:
Rev. Carrol Blevins, Deacon Moderator Don Behnke, and Deacon Irene
Kouna.
Establish Quorum:
The Clerk of Session established that a quorum was present.
Approval of Agenda:
The agenda was approved as published.
Book
of Order Training:
Moderator Rev. Story tabled this training due to the length of his
Pastor’s report.
Pastor’s Report:
Pastor Story thanked all of the Elders who attended the Elder Retreat on
Saturday, Feb. 16th
and said that the work they did would be useful to him during his July
Sabbatical. He plans to use the time to read and focus on developing a
plan that will allow our church to use the resources we have (members,
financial support, church facilities, location, community connections,
etc.) to grow our ministries and move us forward over the next 5 to 10
years. He asked the Elders, and will also ask the Deacons at their next
meeting, to email their lists of “what they think that our church has
going for us” so that he can incorporate everyone’s perspectives in
his plan.
He
asked the Elders to consider reducing the size of the Session from 18
Elders to 14 Elders. This change will make it much easier for the
Nominating Committee to find members willing to serve on Session. Under
this change, the Administration and the Music & Worship Ministry Teams
would continue to have 3 Elders each on their Teams. The Buildings &
Grounds, Christian Education, Congregational Life & Outreach, and the
Missions Ministry Teams would move towards a composition of 2 Elders on
each of their teams. It was felt that the complexity and the number of
unique details and requirements associated with the Administration and
the Music & Worship Ministry Team Elders need a 2 year training period
in order for their Moderators to successfully learn all of the duties
and responsibilities of their jobs. The learning curve for the
Moderators on the other 4 Ministry Teams is probably not nearly as
rigorous. A change in the number of Elders on Session will require a
change to our By-Laws that has been approved by the Session and then by
the congregation. The discussion about this change to our By-Laws will
be announced to the congregation at the next Congregational meeting on
Sunday Feb. 24, and if approved by the Session it will be voted on at
the following Congregational meeting.
Pastor Story reminded everyone that we are hosting a “Meet & Greet”
meeting of the churches in our Southwestern Cluster of our Presbytery on
Saturday morning, February 23rd
from 10 AM and is expected to run about an hour. It will give us a
chance to meet and get acquainted with leaders from the Deming and Santa
Theresa Churches. He invited anyone interested in attending the meeting
to join us in the Jones Hall Library at 10 AM.
Rev.
Story advised the Session that we have been approached about a 10 week
seminary intern from Columbia Seminary. The prospective Intern is from
South Carolina and is the daughter of a Minister friend of his. She
speaks Spanish and is very interested in working with Rev. Hawkins and
his Iglesia del Pueblo Spanish speaking congregation. She would also
work with Rev. Blevins and her visitation ministry as well as help us
with our vacation Bible School and other summer children’s programs. The
cost of supporting her would be approximately $3,000 plus providing her
with food and lodging at some member’s home. The Session voted to
provide up to $3,000 in financial support for the Summer Intern.
Clerk’s Report:
The Clerk’s Report was as written in the meeting agenda. The Clerk
requested permission to remove Janelle Woodward (#4480), David Henderson
(#4740), Thomas Todsen (#1333), Rena Schell (#4677), and Mary Kammann
(#4626) from our rolls for the reasons listed in the agenda. The request
for a motion to do so was made, seconded, and approved by acclamation.
The Clerk reported the results of Session email votes on 2 motions that
required Session action before the regularly scheduled meeting on
February 19th. The motions and the results of the resulting
actions are:
·
After
the Presbytery meeting in Alamogordo on January 25th & 26th
it was suggested that we host an informal "meet and greet" gathering for
the churches in our Southwestern Cluster on Saturday, February 23, from
10 AM to approximately 1 PM. In order to plan for this gathering, the
Elders on Session were contacted by email and asked for a Motion,
Second, and their votes in favor of hosting this meeting. A quorum of
the Session discussed which Ministry Team would host the gathering,
serve refreshments, and pay for the refreshments, but after
clarification of the low number of people expected to attend, and the
refreshments being defined as “coffee and donuts”; the motion was
approved.
·
The Congregational Life and Outreach Ministry Team emailed their Motion
and Second requesting the Session Approve their request to ask for
Free Will donations at their Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper to
be held on Tuesday, February 12, 2013. The donations will be used to
defray costs of the supper and any remaining proceeds will be used for
Easter and/or banners. The
Elders on Session were contacted by email and asked for their votes to
approve this Motion. A quorum of the Session
voted to approve the Motion.
·
The B&G Elders on Session met in committee and Made & Seconded the
following Motion: “In order to fund the replacement of the dead or
dying Plum trees on the Southwest side of our property (along the
irrigation canal), fund the redesign and upgrade of the water irrigation
system for these replacement trees, as well as the trees in the church
courtyard and the pine trees along the North property line; we request
approval to establish a Memorial Tree Fund and request approval to
solicit Donations to this fund. All monies donated to the Memorial Tree
Fund will be restricted to the removal of the dead or dying trees along
the canal and the planting of suitable “Memorial” trees. Individual or
family donations of $500 increments to the Memorial Tree Fund will
enable the donor(s) to designate 1 or more of the “Memorial” Trees in
honor of a person or family of their choice, depending on the donation
amount. Monies donated to the Memorial Tree Fund will also be used to
fund the redesign and installation of upgrades to the courtyard
irrigation system; as well as the irrigation system upgrade redesign and
installation for the pine trees along the Church’s North property line
and the Youth fire pit on the Northwest corner of our property. Any
remaining monies will be used to improve other area of our property
landscape”.
The
Elders on Session were contacted by email and asked for their votes to
approve this Motion. A quorum of the Session
discussed the funding of the improvements proposed in the Motion and
after agreement that all improvements in the Motion would be funded by
the donations received in the new Memorial Tree Fund, they voted to
approve the Motion.
Approval of Minutes:
A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the January 15,
2013 Stated Session meeting as written with the following corrections:
The next to last sentence in the Deacon’s Report was changed from “He
said that it costs us $250 per month to purchase the 500 lbs of
food that is broken down into 50 lb packages that we distribute.”
to “He said that it costs us $250 per month to purchase the
5000 lbs of food that is broken down into 50 lb packages that we
distribute.”. The corrected minutes were approved by
acclamation.
Deacon’s Report:
The
Deacon’s Moderator Don Behnke reported that the Roadrunner Food Bank
distribution occurs on the 3rd Monday of each month. Members
of Rev. Hawkins Iglesia del Pueblo church distribute 50 lbs of food per
family on a “first come, first served” basis to 100 families registered
to receive Food Bank assistance. The Food Bank has 250 families in their
database who are qualified to receive food from it. He said that the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) data reports
that 55% of all recipients of their debit cards (previously food
stamps) are under 18 years old or over 65 years old.
He
said that the Deacon’s mattress and bedding ministry program received 7
carts (4 x 4 x 4 each) of bedding that a church attendee had arranged
for Memorial Medical Center (MMC) to donate to us. Although the bedding
was no longer suitable for Hospital use, it was still serviceable for
distribution to poor and needy families in need of bedding. After just 2
bedding distributions, we only have about 1/2 of all the bedding
donations we received left to distribute.
Committee Reports:
Administration:
Written with no action items. The Administration Team pointed out that
our January financial report showed that we spent $2,684.69 more than we
received in income. The Administration Team will try to provide this
monthly financial data in both the Good News and the Lantern in the
future in order to keep all our members informed of our income and
expenses. They will also monitor our expenses very closely in case we
have to make changes to our approved budgets. Moderator Story turned the
meeting over to the Clerk and requested himself so that the
Administration Moderator could present his Terms of Call to the Session
for their review and approval. After a brief discussion a motion was
made and seconded to present Rev. Story’s Terms of Call to the
Congregation at the Annual Congregational meeting on February 24th,
with the Session’s recommendation for approval. The motion was approved
by acclamation and Pastor Story returned to the meeting as Moderator.
Buildings and Grounds:
Written with no action items. The Buildings and Grounds Team thanked the
Session for approving their motion to establish a Memorial Tree Fund and
solicit donations for the Fund and the much needed irrigation system
upgrades. They spent their entire Feb. 12th meeting
prioritizing the work list for the members and youth who show up for the
Congregational Work Day at 8 AM on Sat. March 9th.
Christian Education:
Written with 3 action items. The Christian Education Team recommended
the Session approve the use of church facilities for youth movie nights
on the 3rd Friday of every month, the use of church van to
travel to Capitan for a High School Presbytery Retreat on March 1-3, and
approval for a Youth garage sale on March 16th. Their
recommendations were approved by acclamation. Elder Blaine Goss
volunteered to ask for donations of members “slightly used” sofas for
the youth room in Reeves/Watkins during a Sunday Minute for Missions. If
members donate a good used sofa, then they will have a good reason to
buy the new one that they have been looking at in the furniture store.
Congregational Life and Outreach:
Written with no action items The Congregational Life Team reminded
everyone of their St. Patrick’s Day Pot Luck on Sunday March 17th.
They described it as a “Meet and Eat” for new members to meet the
congregation, and vice versa.
Missions:
Written with no action items. The Missions Team continues to update the
Missions Book.
Music
and Worship:
Written with no action items. The Music & Worship Team reported that the
Maundy Thursday service on March 28th will serve Communion by
intinction and the March 31st Easter services will be
preceded by our traditional Easter morning breakfast
Foundation:
No meeting, therefore no report.
Financial Report
for Jan. 1 - Jan. 31, 2013
Jan.
(Actual) Jan. (Budgeted) YTD (Actual) YTD (Budgeted)
Income $31,725.25
$31,725.25
Expense $34,409.94
$34,409.94
Omnibus Motion to receive all Committee Reports and accept Financial
Report:
Approved by consent.
Old
Business:
The Session discussed the Duties and Responsibilities of the
Congregational Life and Outreach Ministry Team and approved it after the
addition several duties or responsibilities that were not included in
the Team’s initial list. The approved list of the Team’s Duties and
Responsibilities is shown as Attachment 1 to these minutes.
New
Business:
No new business was brought to the Session.
The
next Stated Session Meeting will be Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 7:00 PM.
The Christian Education Ministry Committee will be responsible for
opening prayer and meditation.
Adjournment:
Reverend Story adjourned the meeting with prayer at 8:00 PM.
_____________________ ______________________ _____________
Carlton Connor Norm Story Date Approved
Clerk
of Session Moderator
ATTACHMENT 1
to the Minutes of the
February 19, 2013 Stated SESSION Meeting
MINISTRY TEAM RESPONSIBILITIES & PRIORITIES