PASTORAL COUNCIL MEETING

September 26, 2010

Present:  Josh Hanauer, Jeremy Eyre, Greg York, Dave Nixon, Sam Hatchett, Owen Brock, Janet McNeel, and Mandy McLaughlin

Meeting held at The Convent and led by Josh Hanauer.  Several potential agenda items were reviewed and prioritized.

1)  House Church Network

Discussion centered on status of house churches and the need for “birthing” of new house churches at the appropriate time.  Council members reflected on their own personal experiences and provided input regarding key concerns.  Many of VC’s current members are not attending a house church.  At this time, we have few options to offer newcomers. Consequently, members agreed that Dave and Josh will devote part of their time in the next week/s to establishing 1-2 new house churches.  Hopefully there will be 2-4 new house churches by January.

2)  Sunday Gatherings

Recently several VC members have expressed a desire to have regular weekly gatherings.  There are many challenges to making this a reality, but council members identified some possible strategies.  Some of the pressing issues which must be addressed include leadership, sustainability, care of children, and the need for shared responsibility for each part of the morning.  The wisdom, value, and work of establishing this weekly meeting will continue to be explored by Dave and Josh when they meet later this week.

These two topics were discussed at length and are considered to be vital to our health as the Vineyard Central community.  The council determined that it will be important to meet again as soon as schedules will allow.  The next Pastoral Council meeting is now set for Monday, October 11 from 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.  and will be held at the Speckled Bird.

Present:  Greg York, Christiane Sears, Jeremy Eyre, Josh Hanauer, Janet McNeel, Mandy McLaughlin, and Dave Nixon

Meeting was held and the Hanauers home on Spencer Ave.

The first part of the meeting was spent reflecting on recent developments within this leadership body.  Members were given the opportunity to express thoughts and feelings about the current situation.  Specifically of concern are the recent resignations of Bethany Rogers(overseeing gatherings), Kevin Gilles (overseeing house churches/networking/ leadership community) and Sarah Ross (overseeing finances).  Earlier resignations this year included Kenny Havens and Brad Rogers.

For the time being, Dave Nixon will oversee the Leadership Community.  There are tentative plans for Hearth and Terra Nova house churches to cover the next two months of planning and carrying out the activities associated with monthly gatherings.

Sarah Ross is moving and Greg York is fulfilling her role of overseeing finances.  A meeting will be scheduled soon with Ken Hanauer to help the VC finance committee set up a more efficient system of tracking finances.

The group considered the question of what are the few things that we need to be focusing on to do well.  There was discussion about doing community vs. doing church and where we see VC at present with either or both.

Josh reviewed some recent connections with new folks and how we are still drawing individuals who are interested in community and relationships in a spiritual context.

The group read the lectionary together and shared communion.

Greg York gave a brief update regarding our financial status.  We have approximately $8000 in the bank.  We are roughly spending about $500 more than we are taking in each month.  Compared to last year, giving is down 5%; over the past three months giving is down 17%.  Salaries are up 80% over last year so this is the most noticeable difference in expenses.  Collection of studio rent has improved and the YMCA membership situation was resolved for the first 6 mos.  We need to be sure that Beth Reed will take this on for the next 6 mos. period.  There was a broken coffeemaker earlier this year and an effort will be made to provide compensation for that.

Jeremy has been in communication with the Pomegranates and they have agreed to give a fundraiser concert in December.  More details will be provided later.

The Google Wave has been scrapped by the developers so we will not be using this now.

Josh will communicate the date for the next PC meeting.

VC Community!  Our first “Town Hall” meeting of 2010 will be held on Saturday, July 10, at 6pm, in St. Elizabeth’s.

Join us there for a quick rundown of what the Pastoral Council has been working on in the following areas:

• finances
• building
• house churches / hospitality (structure)
• neighborhood

This should take approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours.  Please come with any questions related to these topics.  If you have a pressing question that doesn’t fit in this meeting, send them this way.

There’s still time to cast your vote on the naming of these events!  (survey is not scientific)

cforms contact form by delicious:days

More than four months ago, the VC congregation nominated and confirmed certain people as members of the Pastoral Council, an internally recognized group of leaders charged with stewardship of various responsibilities and visions.  The community has been so patient and supportive during that time as we have tried to better define what these stewardship roles involve and how each member personally fits into those roles.

The members of the PC have each written a description of their position, with nice bulleted lists of duties, so that each role is more explicitly defined in everyone’s minds.  We’d also like to use this list as a way to stay accountable to the body that we are serving, but limit a single person from taking on too many responsibilities.

You can view the descriptions on the “About” page.

If you have any questions, you could get in touch with a particular PC member, leave a comment below, or send general feedback to the communications team.

It is important to note that, while we as the VC body have managed to fill most of the originally identified areas of stewardship, we have not found a person to take leadership of St. Elizabeth’s preservation.  Jeremy is doing a fantastic job with maintenance and the managerial aspects of renting the space for weddings etc., but we still need a person or persons to champion the proactive preservation that our old lady desperately needs.  Get in touch if you think this is you.