Church Council Corner: Sept 2021
The FELC Council September meeting, was conducted in hybrid format to allow members the choice of in-person or ZOOM. Eight members, plus Pastor and Vicar were present, 3 absent, and there was a guest presentation.
Treasurer Report revealed a positive sign that our finances YTD are down -$12,000 rather than the -$21,000 last month, and that the pledged income is about -$1900.
Pastor’s Report
Pastor has had a busy month; in spite of having vacation time and getting married, she carried the usual Pastoral duties and is planning increased Worship opportunities, worked on Personnel Handbook and task force meetings re: Faith Preschool Covenant, in addition to moving from Faith Place and leaving it nearly ready for habitation for future tenants!
Pastoral Transition
Chris Jacobson, Transition Team Coordinator and Spokesman presented the revised Mission Site Profile (MSP) which has been steadfastly worked on by the diligent team for several months. The MSP was reviewed, and enthusiastically approved unanimously! This completes the important work of the Transition Team as the 1st step in the process of calling FELC’s next Pastor. The information therein now will presented to the GCS Office in web form, along with a summation of the document to be made available to the entire Congregation.
Preschool
The Faith Lutheran Preschool (FLP) Covenant was discussed, and there is a joint conversation of the Executive Teams of FELC and FLP planned for the near future.
Reconciling In Christ (RIC)
FELC has been an RIC Congregation since the late 1990’s, and still we do not make a monetary contribution to RIC as an entity. There are several individuals in our church who make regular contributions, and the suggestion was made for those individuals to make the change to send their contributions as a “pass through” by sending checks to FELC and designated to go to RIC. In this way, RIC still gets the funds and we get recognition officially as an RIC Congregation. (Win-Win!)
Member involvement
Concerns re: decrease in members’ commitments utilizing their Time-Talents-Treasure to support the everyday business of the organization was discussed as a result of known side conversations about this. In order to make ourselves attractive to a Pastoral candidate we MUST put our best feet forward in making these commitments to the on going health and wellbeing of our Faith Family.
There is a place for EVERY member (& regular attending non-members) to make their own portion a part of the whole. There will be a series of reminders of tasks and efforts that make up the busy support needed for smooth operating here at FELC. Be aware that people are not expected to make a never-ending-commitment-to one Ministry…just commit to what can realistically be carried out without burning out! A schematic of the 4 major Ministries of this congregation, and sub-support efforts of those was handed out to those present and will serve as a model for Re-Formation of the wheels and cogs that move FELC forward through all the Seasons of the Church Year.
75th Anniversary Celebration
Update about the 75-76 Year Anniversary celebration of FELC was presented and discussed. Plans move forward knowing that COVID variant may change our timing, again.
Spanish Worship
Approval was given to a request to allow signage to advertise our Worship in Spanish.
Faith Place/Refugee Assistance
We have been approached by LSS-SW to entertain possibility of housing refugee family units. The expected need has increased to include Afghanistan and Haitian refugees, in addition to the Latin/ Central American people seeking asylum. Agreement followed knowing there is potential here to do this.