October 17, 2016 Stated Session Meeting
Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church
Stated Session Meeting, October 17, 2016 Narthex
Joint Meeting of Elders and Deacon
Attending: Ruling Elders Karen Atkins, Heather Bogan, Maggie Reif, Terry Rudolph, Al Schalk, Archie (Butch) Smith, Teaching Elder Rev. Lynn Stall (Moderator), Deacons Chick Biddulph, Elizabeth dePrater, Gail King, Joshua Ladd, Garrett Southerland, Peggy Wilkerson, Jerry Wehmueller (treasurer), Marcia Ladd (clerk)
Absent: Susan Cyr, Lynne Hoerter, Kristin Lavergne, Mitzi Lesher-Thomas, Kenny McIntyre, Mary Donna Pond, Barbara Strange
Guest: Brandon Melton, intern
The meeting was called to order by Lynn Stall at 7 PM. A quorum was declared. Jerry led the opening devotion, ending with prayer. Concerns about Kenny and Peaches McIntyre, John Walkup, Tom Reif, Bill Lawrence and Ron Greene and the celebration of Beverly Rudolph’s award were shared.
Approval of agenda and consent agenda
The agenda and consent agendas were approved by common consent. The consent agenda contains the following items:
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Approval of minutes – Stated meeting 9/19/16
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Committee minutes -Building and Grounds 9/29/16; Finance 9/23/16; Stewardship 9/18/16, 10/4/16; September Communication and Technology Report; Children and Youth 9/26/16; Mission and Service 10/2/16, Worship 10/9/16
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Correspondence – Fellowship email, Michael DePue email, Farm at Penny Lane Building Request
Pastor’s report Lynn talked about the transitional process. She discussed the many changes in the larger church and society. She described the increasing role in the church for interim or transitional pastors and talked about the three types of church polity
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Bishop ruled (Catholic hierarchal)
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Congregational (Baptist)
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Representative (Presbyterian)
Presbyterians are also connectional with other churches. Presbyteries are responsible for clergy and the churches in their area. Interim help the church look at where they have been, where they are going, and what type of called, installed pastor the church wants and needs.
A team has been appointed to start this process. They have had their first meeting. The whole congregation will be consulted as the team studies where the church has been and where it wants to go. The team will report to session. She identified this as a time of discernment and transparency. Once the process is complete, the team will write up their findings in the form of a Mission Study that will be approved by session and submitted to the Presbytery for approval, if Presbytery deems it appropriate then the team will be disbanded and a Pastor Nominating Committee, PNC, will be appointed to receive applicants for the installed pastor. The PNC will have the task of selecting a pastor, the COM for Salem Presbytery approves the selection and finally the congregation votes on the candidate identified by the PNC.
Lynn then turned to the life cycle of churches, similar to the life cycle of an individual. She talked about the differences of Chapel in the Pines compared to other churches of an equivalent size.
Lynn indicated the transitional discussion was the reason she wanted the deacons present and indicated it was fine for them to leave at this point in the meeting.
Finally Lynn reported that effective the end of October, Michael DePue is stepping down. She indicated that Brandon would be taking on some of the roles with the children, while the church decides how that role should be shaped going forward.
Committee reports
Finance
Jerry went over the September financial reports, which were not as good as expected, partly because of personnel expenses. He is concerned that the pledge income is not where it should be.
Jerry called session’s attention to the two documents contained in the Fellowship Hall folder in the pre-meeting packets. He went over the Summary of the financing and the document that is a proposal for how the church can merge the mortgage payment into the operating budget over time. He brought the following motion from the Finance Committee
to approve the recommendation of the Fellowship Hall Task Force to proceed with the construction of the Hall for $419,000, according to the submitted floor plans and to execute a contract with BOLD Construction for this purpose
There was discussion about several items in the budget, but the motion passed unanimously.
Heather brought the following motion to session from Finance
to amend finance procedure (d) under designated giving, replacing ‘the appropriate committee will notify the Session when the designated gift has been spent’ with ‘the appropriate committee will determine use of funds and then recommend to Session for approval.
This motion passed unanimously after minimal discussion.
She also brought this motion
to amend finance policy under revenue to c) "Open plate, income from building rental and special programs, and other giving programs throughout the year (e.g., Pennies for Hunger offering)"
The motion passed unanimously.
Fellowship
In Lynne Hoerter’s absence, Lynn called attention to the fact that the Fellowship Committee added a definition of Strobilus to their part of the Operations Manual.
Communication and Technology
Al asked everyone to take a look at the changes his committee had made to the Operations Manual, removing the responsibility for the bulletin board, and placing it with Worship who is now responsible for all décor in the existing building.
He indicated his committee had two motions carried over from the last meeting. The first
to approve the expenditure of $2,500 for printing, mailing services, and postage for mailing 10,000 postcards prior to the Christmas Season, and $100-$150 for amending the existing CITP Christmas Banner.
Possible sources of funding were discussed. It was decided that the money not used for Michael’s compensation -could be allocated for this purpose. The motion passed unanimously.
The second motion is
to approve expenditure of $5000 depending upon availability of end-year 2016 operating budget surplus, or other funding source, for the purpose of contracting for a complete CITP Website Redesign.
Finance did look at this request, and there is concern that this cannot happen until next year because of a cash crunch. Al withdrew the motion and will re-submit it after further discussion with Finance.
Building and Grounds
Karen drew attention to the changes her committee made to the Operations Manual, noting that Interior Décor is folded under Worship now. They eliminated the language about the terms of committee membership, and took all the language out about B&G vetting the Building Use Policy.
Worship
Worship will be responsible for all the interior décor. The angel paintings will go up for Advent and come down before the Baptism of the Lord. They will also be hung at Eastertide and removed before Pentecost. The committee updated the pricing schedule for weddings.
Mission and Service
Maggie let session know that no action would be taken for at least a month on giving money to FVRC. There was discussion, but no decision about putting those monies toward disaster relief in the eastern part of the state.
She brought the following motion
to hold the Alternative Gift Market on December 4th and 11th.
The motion was passed by common consent.
to approve Georgia and Stan Campbell’s "North Chatham Angel Tree" fundraiser
The motion passed with common consent.
Maggie asked whether they need to seek approval for spending special donations, Karen suggested that the committee re-write their section of the manual as they see fit and send it forward.
New Business
Lynn asked for a volunteer to go the November 12 Presbytery meeting at First Presbyterian in Lexington. Karen volunteered. Her representation was approved by common consent.
Lord’s Supper, Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals
Since the previous stated meeting September 19, there were no new members. The Lord’s Supper was celebrated once on October 2. There were no weddings, baptisms or funerals.
The next stated session meeting will be November 21 at the 7PM. Al Schalk will lead the devotion.
As the business of the meeting was concluded, Brandon led a closing prayer and the meeting was adjourned at 8:30PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia Ladd, Clerk
Approved session 11/21/16
Reminders:
Remember to pray for our church each day at noon.
Next stated session meeting will be November 21, Al Schalk has the devotion