November 20, 2017 Stated Session Meeting

Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church

Stated Session Meeting November 20, 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 7:00 PM. Al delivered the devotion, ending with a prayer. Pastoral concerns and celebrations were shared.

Ongoing Business Order of the day

Lynn asked each member of session to introduce themselves, then she asked Kathy Donahue to share a little about herself. She is joining the church by transfer of membership.

Al moved to receive Kathy in membership at Chapel in the Pines.

The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Approval of agenda and consent agenda

Monty moved

To approve the agenda and consent agenda.

The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. The consent agenda includes the following:

Consent Agenda

A.      Approval of session minutes – Email vote 10/30/17, Stated meeting 10/16/17

B.      Approval of congregational meeting minutes 11/5/17

C.      Approval of committee minutes – Interim PNC 11/12/17, Membership 11/1/17, Finance 11/19/17, Email Communication and Technology 11/19/17

D.      Correspondence – Presbyterian Mission thank you, email about Chatham Sheriff Department assistance with church security, CORA walk, Maggie Reif email about Andrew

Pastor’s Report

Lynn shared an article about being open to change in the church, including overcoming invisibility, looking outward, striving for diversity, moving beyond just Sunday morning and encouraging new leadership. Lynn told the session Joelle is doing a wonderful job with Christian Education. She wanted to take some time to talk about Godly Play and children in worship. She asked those participating in Godly Play to share the experience. Barbara talked about teaching Godly Play as a spiritual journey and an endeavor to which she looks forward. Barbara talked about how much her grandchildren have enjoyed Godly Play. Paul talked about doing the doorkeeper role, greeting the kids and talking about changes when they go into the room. Paul explained the new positioning of the children’s sacred art table during worship time. The CE Committee feels that having it in the narthex still involved children in worship because they are listening to the service and participating. Karen strongly suggested that the table should have stayed in the sanctuary. Paul indicated that the CE Committee had made a deliberate decision to try to accommodate as many groups as possible by putting the table in the narthex. This will be an ongoing discussion. Lynn urged all session members to get involved in some way working with the children. Lynn indicated we have one nursery attendant who is paid and our policy requires 2 adults and she asked session what they want to do about the second attendant on Sunday mornings. Someone needs to be in charge of getting people to volunteer, Joelle will be in charge of it. Terry suggested that the elder or deacon in the narthex could serve that role, there was not unanimity on that.

 

Committee reports

Finance

Stan announced that the leadership had all made their pledges prior to dedication Sunday. We are now at $202K out of $285K goal. We still have 50 total households left to pledge. Compared to last year we are ahead of where we were. Janet has counted 57 pledges to date and 29 of those pledges are increases over last year, 5 decreases, 17 gave the same and there were 6 more people who had not pledged before.

Jerry presented the October numbers, revenues were $5500 more than they were last year, indicating the church is in OK financial shape with an operating surplus of $19K YTD. We will come very close to making the revenue budget this year. Expenses seem to be well under control. Finance and Administration will send out a request within the next week asking committee chairs to start developing their budget. The balance sheet is in good shape also. The property equity has increased significantly. We have $41K available to pay mortgages with through 2017.

For the 2016 Capital Campaign the church has taken in three quarters dollars pledged.  The church is paying $500 a month this year out of the operating budget for the mortgage and the goal is to take $1000 out of the operating budget for 2018, which will be a stretch.

Membership and Evangelism

Barbara called session’s attention to the “New Member Checklist” that the committee has implemented to follow-up with new members after they have joined. Membership and Communication and Technology met to discuss committee overlap. She brought a motion from the committee.

The Communications Committee increase advertising in local community newsletters in lieu of postcards in 2018.

This is a follow-on to the advertising to which we have already committed in Briar Chapel and Al is looking into the Governor’s Club, Chatham and Chapel Hill magazines. Al indicated he will be working on the Briar Chapel magazine which has gone to press to be published December 1. In December he will draft text and pictures for the Briar Chapel February issue featuring Andrew. Al distributed a flyer he has made on Andrew and his family. It will be mailed to Fearrington and Governor’s Club, approximately 2,000 families, the cost of which should run ~$800. He will send it out the week of January 15. Al would recommend that session doesn’t make any decisions about marketing in 2018 until after he finishes the report. The motion will be tabled pending Al’s report.

Fellowship

Lynne indicated that we would not have a second Sunday lunch in December since we are having the party for Lynn right after worship on the 17th. She also suggested that Julia Trimmer thought we should invite the Taylor-Troutmans to our second Sunday lunch in January. They could just go into the Fellowship Hall right before the worship service ends. Lynne said she had gotten a lot of input on this and there was a general favorable response. Marcia said she would have Pat Chappell invite the Taylor-Troutmans on behalf of the session.

Personnel

Based on what Lynn and Barbara said about Joelle and to give Andrew a chance to get to know Joelle. John brought the following motion from Personnel

Personnel moves to extend Joelle Brummitt-Yale’s contract through March 31, 2018.

Monty asked that the motion be amended to

Extend the contract to the end of May

John thought it might be affirming to get Andrew to select her as “his person” by the end of March. Karen thought that he did not have to affirm her contractually. Karen seconded the amended motion.

After minimal discussion, the amended motion passed unanimously.

John offered the following motion

at the request of the PNC, Personnel moves to grant Andrew moving leave for the first two weeks in January.

He indicated the PNC, Jerry and he had met several times to hash this over and everyone was comfortable with the results. After minimal discussion, the motion passed unanimously.

John asked Lynn to leave the room.

In anticipation of Lynn leaving

Personnel moves to collect a love gift for Lynn Stall to be presented at her farewell party on the 17th of December

Nana will send out an announcement to the church mailing list, taking Lynn and Edward off the distribution. There was minimal discussion, John will not announce it in worship. The motion passed unanimously.

John called session’s attention to the resolution for Lynn that was sent prior to the meeting. He indicated

Personnel moves to adopt the Resolution of appreciation for Lynn Stall contained in the pre-session packet

The motion passed unanimously. Lynn was asked to come back into the meeting.

Building and Grounds

Karen indicated Building and Grounds wanted to work with the Chatham Sheriff to bring recommendations to session about security for the church. She presented the following motion from the committee.

Building and Grounds will work with the Chatham County Sheriff to develop protocols and recommendations for safety measures for Chapel in the Pines, reporting back to session no later than the end of the first quarter of 2018

There was minimal discussion and the motion passed unanimously.

Christian Education

Lynn raised the question of Christian Ed classes reimbursing the church for their books. She suggested that we should make this church policy and amend the Operations Manual to include this.

Ongoing Business

Lynn said as a result of the Task Force session had appointed at the last stated meeting, there is a final version of the Building Use Guidelines shared in the pre-session packet.  The Task Force composed of Mickey dePrater, Nana Morelli, Kent Norgren, Chuck Rickard, Lee Strange and Lynn Stall offered the following motion

Accept the Building Use Guidelines as written

Lynn fielded several questions about the Guidelines. Jerry and Stan reviewed the prices and will review them in 2018. The motion passed unanimously.

New Business

Lynn asked session to approve the following guest preachers, Sandy Williams on 12/31/17, Bill Lawrence on 1/7/18 and Lee Strange on 1/14/18. Session approved the motion by common consent.

Lord’s Supper, Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals

Since the previous stated meeting on October 16, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated once on November 5th. There were no new members, baptisms, weddings or funerals at the church.

Lynn suggested that the December meeting would be a session party. Barbara invited the members to her home that evening and asked each to bring a heavy appetizer and their beverage of choice.  As the business of the meeting was concluded, Lynn closed with prayer at 8:35 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Marcia Ladd, Clerk

Approved session 12/18/17

 

Reminders:

1.   Next stated session meeting December 18, 2017, Paul Isom has the devotion.

2.   Next Presbytery meeting is February 20, 2018