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 1^st & 2^nd 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 16^th 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 20^th, 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 23^rd, 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 16^th 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