MorningsideLutheranChurch

Church Council Minutes

September 9, 2013

Members Present:Terry Krei, President, Pr. Darrin Vick, Pr. Tom LoVan, Pr. Paul Andell, Barb Baker, Dawn Kelly, Judy Weatherly, Duane Wasmund, Jim Williams, Lauretta Shaver, Lori Pruehs, Doug Ford, Donna Koch, Rita Potter.

Members Not Present: Jeff Croston, Vice President

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Terry Krei at 7:05 pm.

Opening devotion: Terry Krei shared devotions.

Approval of Minutes: The minutes of August 12, 2013 were approved. Motion by Dawn Kelly and seconded by Donna Koch.

Treasurers Report: Duane Wasmund reported for the month income $89,555.75. Expenses $82,699.32.

Pastor’s Reports:

Pr. Vick:

Wonderful Rally Day – compliments on the good location on the church campus and the great activities.

Hired new music director (would like vote of approvable for new business).

Posted middle school education – have received some hits on the information posted.

Communications positions (Fran Cole is retiring at the end of the month – end of September 2013) – Looking at part-time position which some responsibilities will focus on web site, Facebook, twitter, newsletter, etc. The individual needs to have computer knowledge and skills (computer savvy).

New Website – looking at new website for the church which is much more user friendly for all. Looking to use a user friendly website called cloversites.com. Goal to launch the new Websiteat the end of September.

Church Doctor Ministries – Kent Hunter – Healthy Churches Thrive

Go forward w/ “taster” – Kent Hunter w/ Healthy Churches Thrive will be here Nov 23-24th. Nov 23rd MLC will host outreach clinic in Sioux City @ the church and Siouxland churches and outlying community churches will be invited to be involved. MLC members will be able to attend for free. Other congregations will have a fee of about $30 to attend. On November 23, 2013 the clinic will be from 8:30am-4:30pm. On Sunday, Nov. 24thKent Hunter will preach at the 3 worship services. Endowment approved funds for the weekend to host the weekend, lodging for Kent Hunter. This will be a time for everyone to sample Healthy Churches Thrive and how it works.

Discussion of budget time – discussed tonight the Mission and Benevolence fund. Open discussion. (question of what is included and what is over looked) A team will meet to look at this which will include: Pr. Darrin, Pr. Paul, Pr. Tom, Duane Wasmund, Barb Baker, Jim Williams & Terry Krei.

Pr. Lo Van:

Is working on a new group from another church – leaders coming to learn our ministry and leaders in the community. Educating leaders.

Asian Dinner is coming up on Oct. 27, 2013. Jerri Hanson is helping to get ahead of the day and working to get the word out about the dinner.

Talked about this year is Multiculture at MLC 15 year anniversary. Happy Anniversary Multiculture. This weekend is also Reformation Sunday.

Discussed also this year is MLC’s 95th Anniversary.

Informed about Mission in South East Asia.

Pr. Andell: Oral Report:

New adult education:

Hope to do a couple things: 1)”Being Lutheran” program to be offered at 10:40am after Pr. Darrin’s new membership sessions. 2) Offer one day in two parts a walk through the Bible.

Care Core class is a go – does not have as many as people as would like. Oct – Nov is the training. Pr. Paul asked for a couple council members to join the Care Core class.

Evangelism/Outreach. Shared story about a student from MorningsideCollege and looking at how to tap into the college to reach more young adults.

Shared information about the Swedish Dinner for FirstCovenantChurch is less than a month away.

Appreciated Rally Day. Kudos to Dawn Kelly and her team. Dawn Kelly thanked everyone that providedhelp for Rally Day.

Connections Magazine shared with the council and wanting to share the magazine with the congregation as it is a very good evangelical Lutheran magazine.

Written Report: Pastor Paul’s September Council Report

Education

  • Conclude 12 sessions on the Acts, conducting a review with skits, teams etc, and begin a new series August 28th on the Letters of Paul, 36 attending.
  • Begin planning fall and winter adult education offerings and meet with Kathy Yoder and the Christian Education team to identify past successes.

Evangelism

  • Meet with the Evangelism Team and staff to update them about dialog with First Covenant Leadership and convene, with Gary Judd, an orientation session for Morningside volunteers with the Swedish Dinner coordinator.
  • Greet people and visitors on Sundays in the narthex; hold an important conversation with a visiting MorningsideCollege student after one 9:30 service.

Care Core

  • Preside at a Care Core planning session and welcome Ann Cohrs to the Leadership Team.
  • Recruit for Care Core training scheduled to begin September 18th.

Congregational Life

  • Begin play cast recruitment now that a date, December 15th, is set.
  • Attend numerous activities including the Asian Potluck and the Explorers game on August 18th, Elderversity’s This & That, the Celebration Choir’s Potluck, and Rally Day with its water gun fight.
  • Lead or partipate in 27 staff/organizational meetings.

Worship

  • Greet and visit with Confirmands and parents, participate in the Confirmation Service August 25th.
  • Lead opening worship for 8:00 and 9:30 services most Sundays.

Pastoral Care

  • Conduct home and hospital visits, providing pastoral care ministry, holy communion and counseling, a total of 49 visits, including Ken Thorson. See, also, Charlotte Knudson and her antique cars, receive a grand tour of Paul and Carolyn Rippke’s farm, and join choir group for pizza at Godfather's one night.
  • Also, visit the home of a nonmember for a requested 'removal of spirits' who, then, changed her mind at the last minute.

Community

  • Attend worship services at St. Marks Lutheran and St. Paul’s Lutheran on Jennings, after the 8:00 a.m. service at Morningside, to get a ‘feel’ for their congregations, August 18th.
  • Treat Rev. Kenny of St. Paul’s to lunch, introducing him to staff and touring our building.
  • Attend the Gospel Mission Ministry Team meeting, representing staff.
  • Accompany Pastor Tom to the SeniorCenter for a chicken luncheon, hosted by Jeff Loffswold and Marc Christofferson, beating Pr. Tom and Marc in a game of pool!

Personal

  • Attend and join the Scandinavian Society.
  • Respond to numerous inquiries about the Holy Land trip, guessing that about 15 people have sent in their deposits so far.
  • Travel to Danish Villages in Iowa on August 24th.
  • Visit Minnesota home for Labor Day.

Quote: "Organizations are reinvented with new generations of dreamers."

Old Business:

Discussed online giving and getting this set up in the future.

New Business:

Charity Koehler hired ¾ time for Music Director presented to the council. Lauretta Shaver motioned to accept Charity Koehler as the Music Director and seconded by Judy Weatherly. Council voted and ayes have it. Charity will start Sept. 16, 2013 and her first church services will be Sept. 22, 2013.

The nomination committee brought forward Rita Potter to fill the Social Concerns Chair after Lori Westrich’s resigned. Rita Potter will be the replacement for Social Concerns and the chair goes through January 2015. Lauretta Shaver motioned to accept the nominating committee’s nominee of Rita Potter and Doug Ford seconded. Council votes and ayes have it.

Other Information:

Terry asked for volunteers to have group together to do phone interview w/ other church in Omaha that has consulted with Healthy Churches Thrive – those volunteer Doug Ford, Dawn Kelly, Terry Krei, Donna Koch, and Lauretta Shaver if she is able. Goal will be to ask questions.

Team Reports:

Executive Team: No council action needed.

Worship and Creative Arts Team: No council action needed.

Mentioned to Technical Support Training to sign up for Sept. 29, 2013. Lunch will be provided.

Christian Education Team: No council action needed.

122 registrations for pre-registration from rally day. Liked location of set up.

Social Concerns Team: No council action needed.

Parish Fellowship Team: No council action needed.

Looking for bars and cookies to be brought for Sept. 29th for Fran Cole’s retirement.

Finance Team:No council action needed

Property Team: No council action needed.

Evangelism Team: No council action needed.

Youth Team: No council action needed.

Multi-cultural Team: No council action needed.

Lauretta Shaver will provide devotions for October 2013 council meeting.

Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM.

Closed with the Lord’s Prayer.

Respectfully submitted,Amie Millard, Secretary

Team minutes

Executive Team

Worship and Creative Arts Team: September 9, 2013

In attendance: JoAnn Schaeffer, Carolyn Rippke, Charity Peterson, Pr. Darrin Vick, Judy Weatherly, Connie Luhman, Danielle Schroeder

Devotions – Judy Weatherly

October devotions - Danielle

Our new music director Charity Koehler will begin Sept 16th. She will be ¾ time and Charity Peterson will be ¼ time for a year.

Discussed ideas for 2014:

Possibly an outdoor on site church service /revival, maybe on Rally Day

Improve backdrops for the Lenten portrayals – any suggestions who could do this?

Combine the contemporary service budget into WCA budget

Reviewed the contemporary budget and determined the budget line each should go in to.

Discussed recognizing all who have been baptized in the last year on All Saints Day.

Closed with the Lord’s prayer

Christian Education Team: Meeting MinutesSeptember 9, 2013

The regular meeting of the Christian Education Team was called to order at 5:30 pm on September 9, 2013.

The attendees were: Dana Kennedy, Lauretta Shaver, Kathy Yoder, and Pastor Paul Andell.

Dana read devotions.Lauretta volunteered for October devotions.

August minutes approved.

Old Business

  • Rally Day~ Everyone thought it was a big success. We have the most pre-registrations we've ever had with 122 children ages kindergarten through 5th grade and 39 preschoolers already registered. It's exciting to have so many little ones coming. We liked having the activities in the back and funneling the registrations through the front doors. Michelle did a great job as a roving registration person.
  • Kids Time at the River went well this summer with a consistently great attendance. Kathy is thankful for her friend Donna Connelly who volunteered a second summer in a row to help with this unique and vital ministry.

New Business

  • Adult Education~ Pastor Paul outlined many great ideas for adult education, including workshops, Bible studies and seminars. Since so few team members could attend this meeting, we'll discuss this further at our October meeting and share Pastor Paul's hand outs with the rest of the team.
  • Fall Programs~ We briefly discussed all the upcoming fall programs including Kidfriendly Bible Adventures on Wednesday nights, Preschool Sunday School, Rotational Sunday School and KIDSChurch. We had a great turn out for the Kidfriendly Sundae-making and registration night. Parents were asked to sign up for one time to help with KF the entire year. More than half the spots are filled. Still looking for volunteers to fill in spots.

Respectfully submitted, Kathy Yoder

Social Concerns Team: 09/03/13

Present: Barb Houske, Bill Saunders, Elaine Magstadt, Karen Eberle, Marge Skokan,

Marian Knepper, Sandy Jordan, Pastor Tom, Rita Potter

Opening prayer: Sandy Jordan

Social Concerns Chair Position: Due to the departure of Laurie Westrich as S.C. Team

Chair in July, we are still in search of a qualified Team Chair. Rita Potter attended tonight’s meeting to see what our committee is all about and what being a team chair would include. We each took turns introducing ourselves and explained to her which projects that we each take care of during the year. We tried to outline for Rita our timeline for the year, the amount of money generated for each project, and what they all involve.

CommunityGarden Update: Bill stated that the garden plots were all filled. Pastor Tom had just come from the garden and picked a large bag of Thai eggplant. These plants were donated to us by Southdale Nursery. Eggplant and tomatoes are still growing.

Soup Kitchen: Soup Kitchen volunteer list was filled and MLC commitment to the Soup Kitchen will be carried out September 5, 2013. Karen agreed to take over the sign up sheets and managing the coverage for the year.

Food Pantry: Elaine reports that the change in the food pantry hours to Wednesday’s and Thursday’s 8 – 4:30, instead of every week day, is working out much better. People are getting used to the new hours and we are giving away just as many groceries. Elaine brought up the fact that the food bank had 280 boxes of fresh eggs to hand out. However we did not have enough refrigerator space to store any. Also the freezer and a refrigerator are located in the church basement. This creates a problem for the people handing out the groceries. If they are the only ones in the office, they cannot leave the office to go downstairs to get the fresh and frozen foods to add to the grocery bags. Therefore some people will have to leave with no meat or veggies or fruit. We discussed the idea of buying a refrigerator and finding a space to keep the refrigerator and downstairs freezer upstairs. We toured the closet upstairs near the elevator. This holds the band instruments and various other bins and boxes. We agreed to check with the grounds committee as to whether or not the electrical outlets in that closet would safely run the appliances. Also we would talk to the band people about possibly rearranging the closet and letting us share it with them. We brought out the “food wheel barrow” for people to fill it with produce or take the produce that is in there. The food bank also has fresh produce that they give us free to distribute. Our food pantry has been extremely busy and extremely successful, especially during this time of year. Elaine stated that they are always in need of grocery bags (double bagging them would help).

A $750 check was issued to Pastor Tom to buy Rice and approved by the committee.

Giving Tree: The last of the giving tree tag materials were given out and are to be made and handed back into Karlene at our next meeting.

Convoy of Hope: It was noted that our Benevolence Committee gave a $5000.00 donation. This will be held at the TysonEventCenter on 9/14/13. A table will be set up in the narthex for volunteers to sign up to help.

Penny A Meal: Marian has agreed to take on this project from Karlene this year. Tentative dates are February 9, 2013 or February 16, 2013.

We left Rita with a lot to think about. It was an overwhelming over view of our year in review.

We closed the meeting with the Our Father.

Respectfully Submitted by Sandy Jordan

Parish Fellowship Team: Notes—September

Present: Dawn Kellyand Angela Vick

Dawn Opened with Prayer

As a team we will be sharing Joys and Concerns for our team to pray about for the month. Items of concern were mentioned and will be prayed for. This is a great ministry opportunity we can do for each other.

Rally Day: September 8th---We will be serving food from 10:30 on. Hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, drink and watermelon. Angela will pick up the food and table cloths and Barb has ordered the watermelon.

Upcoming Events: September 29th we will be hosting a retirement reception with blessing basket in the narthex between each service for Fran Cole. Dawn will contact Marian Knepper and council to see if anyone can help by bringing treats. If team members can bring something, that will help also.

September 29th at 12:15-- we need to provide lunch for a Media Training event. Lunch will be taverns, chips, salad and drinks. We are hoping to use leftover treats from Fran’s reception for this as well.

October 13th at 12:15—We need to provide lunch for Hospitality Training event. Lunch will be taverns, chips, salad, desert and drink.

October 20th at 12:15—New Member Lunch. Lunch will be taverns, chips, salad, desert and drink.

November 27th after the 7pm service we will be serving pumpkin pie in the gym.

Budget: At our next meeting we will be doing some brainstorming for the upcoming budget including looking ahead at projects for next year.

Meeting was adjourned.

Finance Team: Minutes of the regular Meeting held on Monday, September 9, 2013

Members present: Chairperson Duane Wasmund, Dave Luhman, Peg Becker, Dick Anderson, and Rich Michaelis. Administrator Barb Baker and Congregation President Terry Krei were present. The meeting was called to order by Chair Wasmund at 5:30 pm and Anderson opened the meeting with a devotion and prayer. Rich Michaelis will have the devotion next month.

Finance Team minutes of the 8-12-13 regular meeting approved on motion by Luhman, second by Michaelis, all ayes.