December 18, 2017 Stated Session Meeting
Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church
Stated Session Meeting December 18, 2017
Attending: Ruling Elders Karen Atkins, Monty Brekke, Stan Campbell, Lynne Hoerter, Paul Isom, John McDowell, Terry Rudolph, Al Schalk, Barbara Strange, Jerry Wehmueller (treasurer), Marcia Ladd (clerk), Teaching Elder Rev. Lynn Stall (moderator)
The meeting was called to order by Lynn Stall at 8:15 PM. Paul delivered the devotion and dinner prayer. Pastoral concerns and celebrations were shared. Lynn thanked session for all they’ve done for her and the church.
Approval of agenda and consent agenda
The consent agenda and agenda were approved by common consent. The consent agenda includes the following:
Consent Agenda
A. Approval of session minutes – Email vote 11/29/17, Stated meeting 11/18/17, Called meeting December 17, 2017
B. Approval of committee minutes – Finance 12/17/17, Financial Review 12/15/17
C. Correspondence – 2 thank you notes from Chatham Schools
Pastor’s Report
Lynn asked session to turn to the shared Manual of Operations change for adult education and paying for their own books. There was discussion that the Sunday morning class is different from the other adult education groups. Paul and Barbara are going to go to the class and speak to the group, then report back to session after the discussion. Lynn also indicated she had spoken to Mickey DePrater, Minnie Sue Douglas, Lee Strange and Bill Lawrence about offering pastoral care between pastors. Nana will be the point person on this, reaching out to the retired pastors as needed. Nana also has a list of lay folks either trained Stephen Ministers or Deacons upon whom she can also call. Lynn asked session to nominate people for elders and deacons. Lynn raised the idea of the NC Cello Society using the sanctuary at CitP. Al moved
that we allow the use of the sanctuary by the NC Cello Society in February for the standard fee.
Monty seconded the motion. There was discussion to clarify session’s will concerning sanctuary use. The consensus was that session interprets “glorifying God” in a broad sense to mean that any event that brings beauty to the sanctuary glorifies God and is a form of worship. Hence Nana is free to agree to scheduling events that fall under this umbrella in the sanctuary and only needs to come to session if something falls out of this umbrella. The NC Cello Society is clearly within this umbrella. The motion passed unanimously.
Committee reports
Finance
Jerry presented the November numbers, revenues were ~$19,000, our November expenses exceeded this by ~$8,000, but we are still $12,000 to the positive for the year. Jerry feels fairly confident that this amount will be spent by the end of the year Jerry anticipates making a budget presentation to session in January.
Lynne asked if everyone had a chance to read the financial review report. She indicated that the review was positive. The Finance and Administration committee will develop policies to bring to session sometime in the first half of 2018.
Membership and Evangelism
Barbara offered the following motion from her committee
Remove Phyllis Marine from the rolls of Chapel in the Pines
With no discussion the motion was approved by common consent.
Christian Education
John indicated Emily Smith had agreed to serve on the Presbyterian Campus Ministry board and brought the following motion
Approve Emily Smith to represent Chapel in the Pines on the Presbyterian Campus Ministry Board
It was approved by common consent.
That Board has amended their by-laws, included in the pre-session packet, so John asked session to consider the following motion
Approve the amended by laws and covenant agreement of the Presbyterian Campus Ministry
The motion was approved by common consent.
Finally John let session know that they are seriously considering hiring a 17 year old substitute nursery worker, against which there are not stipulations in our Manual of Operations. Session was fine with this hire
Building and Grounds
Karen indicated that the church is running out of room. The folding chairs are currently being stored in Sanctuary closet. We also have 24 extra Sanctuary chairs we purchased a couple of years ago, 8 or so extra Fellowship Hall chairs, and several round tables in that closet. The extra FH chairs and round tables will not fit in FH janitorial closet and we don’t have space in the Sanctuary for the extra cushioned chairs. All these chairs including the rack of folding chairs are causing space problems for other items that need to be stored. The folding chairs have only been used several times since we bought them six years ago except when the Session or the Women’s Fellowship met in the Narthex. Both meetings are now held in the FH. We have approximately 500 chairs in our facility.
Bruce would like to use the freed up space to build some proper shelves for storing other things that need to be stored.
She offered the following motion
Deputize Jerry Wehmueller to investigate the sale of all but 7 of the folding chairs and the chair rack and to sell them if we can find a buyer
Jerry asked to amend the motion to
Deputize Jerry Wehmueller to investigate the sale of all but 5 of the folding chairs and the chair rack and to sell them if we can find a buyer
The revised motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Lord’s Supper, Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals
Since the previous stated meeting on November 20, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated once on December 3rd. There was one new member received on December 17, Jan Wooldridge. There were no baptisms, weddings or funerals at the church.
As the business of the meeting was concluded, Lynn closed with prayer at 8:45 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia Ladd, Clerk
Approved session 1/15/18
Reminders:
1. Next stated session meeting January 15, 2018, Andrew Taylor-Troutman has the devotion.
2. Next Presbytery meeting is February 20, 2018