United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay
ALB Meeting
February 14, 2017
Attendees
ALB—Barb Armstrong, Dick Barnes, Sean Gaffney, Andrea Hatcher, Kathy Schluter, Susan Goudreau, Kory Douglass, Julie Whitney, Sharon Garrett, Rich Batchelder
Pastors and Staff—Pastor Matt Hadley, Pastor Peace Kim, Pastor Tshishinen and Pam Vaughan
Guests—Laurie Jeffrey, John Fruncek, Sue Stanley Mortellaro
Opening Prayer–Pastor Tshishinen opened the meeting with prayer.
Approval of Minutes—Andrea moved to approve the minutes of the January 10, 2017 meeting and Susan seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Ministry Intern Board Position– The Board reviewed the written description of the new ministry intern position. Dick moved to approve the position and written description and Andrea seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Kathy welcomed Kory to the ALB and he gave a short description of his experience and current role in the church.
The Passionate Church—Chapter 4– Improving Global Health
Sean led the discussion of how the United Methodist church has impacted local and global health. Members cited the Imagine No Malaria initiative and UMCORat the Conference level and Pastor Matt noted that UMCOR dollars go directly to mission because our apportionment dollars pay for all administration costs.
Our church sponsors a bi-annual FMSC event, the Christmas cistern project, Stephen Ministy and ALNON classes as well as a new health ministry that has developed a Crisis Resource Guide. Sharon described the MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary that our church supports and Brown’s plans to develop a health and wellness clinic that will provide health education and blood pressure and glucose monitoring.
Sean asked how we inform and involve other church members in these health missions? Pastor Peace offered that we can organize our website to draw more attention to these health ministries.
Kory suggested that we define health to include social health, mental health and personal well-being as well as physical health.
In response to a question, Matt commented that he incorporates the health ministry message in his sermons when he can.
Pastor’s Report—Pastor Matt
Pastor Matt informed us he will begin the new sermon series for Lent entitled“Searching for Sunday”based on a book written by a millennial who grew up in the church, left and came back. This week we will welcome in 13 new members and most of them are young millennial couples.
We are changing the office hours to 8:00 to 4:00 p.m. from the current 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. to better accommodate member usage. The church bus was also sold and the funds will be held for future transportation needs. Matt reported that the Cistern Project exceeded its goal and the church will use the $7,700 raised to purchase a larger cistern.
Matt discussed the vision of the church to “make disciples” and discussed a chart on the various aspects of public and private discipleship. This focus was mentioned at the ALB retreat with the board members committing to assess their spiritual maturity and develop 2 – 3 goals to grow spiritually. Matt and the staff are also developing a discipleship initiative that will roll out in the fall.
Staff Report - Pastor Peace
Pastor Peace reported on four projects he is involved in. He has developed a template for a new Mission Team and is currently looking for a chair. The Mission Team will focus on outreach to the congregation. Peace is also organizing a Ministry Fair to be held in the Narthex on April 30, 2017 at which the congregation can learn about and sign up for various church missions and ministries. Peace is leading this year’s FMSC with John Wierschem and Kathy Schluter. The event will take place at Portal from May 11- 13 and registration will begin on March 12. The goal is to pack 108,000 meals and raise $24,000. This event will mark theone millionth mealpacked at this event.
Finance—Sean and Pam
Pam reported that Year to Date Income on the January financials is up resulting in $622,214 of Total Income compared to $540,557 in 2015-16. She said this is a strong indicator for a positive year of income. We also paid our first $10,000 installment of the 2017 apportionment and repaid half of our internal loan of $21,000.
Matt discussed a problem we encountered with our Scrip program. Anon-church memberpurchased $3000 of scrip during a 5-day period with 8 bad checks. We are working on recovering the funds from the woman’s husband. To prevent future losses, non-church members will be required to pay cash for prepaid cards and checks will not be accepted.
Craig Walker has agreed to lead the stewardship campaign this year. The campaign will follow the format used last year with a final pledging luncheon on May 7.
Kathy noted that we hope to produce the 2017-18 budget by May and will review a proposed budget at our next meeting. This is a significant change from prior years when the budget was not finalized until all of the pledges were received – often not until October or November.
Matt briefed the board on the possibility of a Conference Capital Campaign. The Conference is hoping to raise $6 to $8 million dollars to be used for new church starts, leadership development and missions. The Conference is conducting a feasibility study now and will decide whether or not to proceed at the Annual Conference in June. It Is not clear when the campaign would be held. If the Campaign is approved, the ALB would need to assess the church’s level of participation given the Second Mile Giving Campaign scheduled for the fall.
Facilities and Property—Rich and Mary
Mary reported that the Danbury fire doors are installed and the Fire Marshall will conduct a final inspection soon. Problems with the exit signs have also been corrected and occupancysigns are being installed as required by the Fire Marshall.
Missions at Home was a great success with 45 volunteers, including several young families.
The second floor Glen Avenue security door is not working correctly and various solutions are being explored. The Bride’s Room bathroom is being refurbished and both women’s bathrooms are being painted. Sofas for the Youth Room will be ordered soon. The elevator has been repaired and is now safe. Finally, the water heater in the kitchen has been replaced.
Staff Parish – Andrea
Steve Lirely has been hired as our new part-time youth director. He will work six hours per week until June 1 when he will begin working half-time or 20 hours per week.Steve’s salary will be funded initially by the Foundation and the Second Mile Giving Campaign.
Andrea presented the final goals for Pastor Matt and the ALB. These goals will be presented at the All-Church Meeting.
ALB - Kathy
Kathy presented a Process for Selecting Additional Board Members. Andrea moved to approve the Process and Barb seconded. The motion was passed unanimously.
All-Church Meeting – Kathy
Kathy reviewed the agenda for the All-Church meeting and requested feedback, particularly on how to handle small group discussions.
A closed session followed to discuss the ALB discipleship covenant and strategic planning.
Personal Discipleship Goals – All
Board members shared their assessment of their spiritual maturity and a goal they had set to grow spiritually.
Strategy – Pastor Matt
Pastor Matt shared that he received the last Strategic Plan prepared by Pastor Susan and the SWOT analysis done by the Planning Team. Pastor Matt then suggested a tool known as Asset Mapping as a positive way to approach strategic planning. Asset Mapping reviews the church’s physical, economic, social assets and builds off of the opportunities offered by those assets. Sharon recommended that we involve the congregation in this process and particularly reach out to those who might not have been involved previously.
Closing Prayer - Andrea closed the meeting with a prayer.
The next ALB meeting will be Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Respectfully submitted, Susan J. Goudreau
Accepted at the March meeting.
1