COUNCIL MINUTES -- APRIL 8, 2009

Call to Order (Fireside Lounge, President Darrell Paske)

• Lighting of the Christ Candle
• Praise and Thanksgiving

• Secretary’s Report — Approval of last council minutes from March 11, 2009, after small edits were made. (M/S/P – Maier/Pastor Bruce)
  
• Financial Report — Financial report for March approved (M/S/P – Smith/Larson)
  

•  Confession and forgiveness (Pastor Joan)
•  Scripture and response (Pastor Joan)

• Briefly discussed ongoing Healthy Start goals, next check-in is April 30.
• Strategic Planning goals.

• Plowing of road from church parking lot to Smiley has been resolved.
  

• Council Retreat
  "The Present Future." Possible dates: May 9 (Saturday half-day 9-2 or 10-3) or May 30
  
• Community
  LCC is the only congregation in the Brainerd Lakes area to submit two teams for the Good Samaritan Bowl VI! Thanks to Council members and staff for volunteering. Each bowler has to raise a minimum of $50 in sponsorships ($200/team). Donations welcome as we give a great witness for our congregation!
  
• Health
  April has been a frustrating month with a series of personal illnesses, and has temporarily left my energy level a bit depleted: intestinal flu April 1-3; heart attack symptoms April 5 with two-day hospitalization (Holy Week & Easter); internal infection April 13-current.  Looking forward to better things from this point forward. Thanks to Pr. Bruce and staff for carrying on good ministry during all of this.
  
  
• Office computers
  
  • Reaching critical point.
  • My LCC laptop (old when I received it from Children’s Ministry) seems to have crashed. That one replaced a previous PC which crashed; that PC had crashed once before.
    
  • Financial Secretary’s computer has crashed. Thankfully, John Walter (Office Manager’s husband, not a member of LCC) had CMS backed up and on Office Manager’s new computer.
    
  • One Children’s Ministry computer is behaving badly and could be next.
    
  • Most of our software (Word, Publisher) is not coordinated with one another – there are multiple versions/years, making sending things back and forth, particularly between Office Manager and staff (newsletter items, bulletin, etc.) cumbersome. 
  • We need to put something in place to update/replace office computers on a regular basis, as we had until 2006. It would be good to purchase multiple copies of the same Publisher and Word software, so we can, literally, all be on the same page.
• Continuing education
  April 25 – Navigating the Great Recession, at Luther Seminary – Now more than ever, communities of faith have an opportunity to heed the call of leadership and in turn offer hope and guidance. Help your congregation and community better understand the core issues related to the economic crisis and in turn develop a strategy and an action plan for how you can help people navigate these uncharted waters. SPEAKERS: Nathan Dungan of Share, Save, Spend; and David Lose, Prof. of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary.  (I received permission from our Bishop to attend this rather than Synod Assembly this year.)
  
• Distribution of book
  Antagonists in the Church to be read by Council members and discussed at subsequent meetings. 
  

• Welcome Center/Narthex
• What happens when a visitor enters our narthex? What are the first things a visitor sees? Our narthex isn’t particularly welcoming with all the sign-up sheets set up on tables and the desk.
  
• Let’s do the bulletin board short-term, and something like this kiosk (pictures attached) long-term. John Wallin has indicated his willingness to build it, or something similar, for the church. Action item – is a motion needed?
• Outreach/Evangelism
• Two of our members (Dick Peterson and Mark Swenson) will begin calling on inactive members starting in May.
  
• We are looking for an Evangelism Chair – one of our members is prayerfully considering it. 
• Focus on new member classes. We have eleven families for our next new member Sunday. New members will be received at the second service on Sunday, May 3, with a light lunch following. Please plan on attending if possible – please let me know ASAP if you can’t attend. Council approved the list of applicants for membership (M/S/P – Pastor Bruce/Pederson)
• Focus on Stephen Ministry. Thanks to gifts from two members, we are now enrolled as a Stephen Ministry congregation. There is a brief article in the next newsletter, and
  applications/interviews/Stephen Ministry classes will start in May/June.
  
• Focus on education
  
• I’ve mentioned that we have been looking at new curriculum for 2009-2010 Sunday School year for Preschool through Sixth grade. We will be using the new Spark Story Bible and Spark Bible for our young people as well as a "Spark" curriculum, all from Augsburg Fortress. Over the coming months our focus will be recruiting and training teachers for each grade.
  
• Council approved list of confirmands for confirmation April 26, second service (M/S/P – Pstr. Bruce / Kraft). 
  

• Three leaky roof areas have been repaired.
  
• There will also be a new system installed on the north side of the church for water runoff. This is burdensome during the Spring because of freezing temperatures.
  
• On April 20th, I will be meeting an MP&L Energy Consultant for a review of our church utilities.
  
• Also on April 20th, 9:00am to noon, Spring clean-up is planned — outside yard clean-up and outside window cleaning. In case of bad weather, this project will be rescheduled for Saturday, April 25th. Please join in to help with this project!
  
• I will be on vacation during May, but will find someone to take on maintenance responsibilies in my absence. Joy will have the information.
  
• A conditional use permit was sent to LCC from Nisswa Marine.
  
• A checklist was made for Janitorial staff to insure certain tasks were completed.
  

• Bridges of Hope Dinner, March 7th – raised $1000. Discussed making it a fundraiser for the kids.
• Family Faith Practices Day, March 8th – 16 families attended, really good conversation about integrating spirituality into family life.
  
• First Communion, March 27th – $141 spent on brunch that was served, 52 people in attendance, next year may need to change approach based on opening of communion to a larger group.
• Spring Benefit for Nisswa School, April 4th – raised $100 to be used to purchase animals for God’s Barnyard, 12 children attended.
• Palm Sunday Event, April 5 – 67 people (22 families) made flowers out of toilet paper rolls and foam.
• Spring Jamboree, May 17th – activities will be offered to children between services on day of anniversary, looking for help or ideas to keep kids occupied.
  
• Silent Auction, April 19-26 – received many fine donations of baskets and other products and services, display to be in Celebration Center only on Sundays, pictures of baskets and items along with bidding sheets will be in narthex during the week to allow people to come in and check their bid.
  
• Vacation Bible School, June 15-19 – Crocodile Dock is the theme and money to be raised for God’s Barnyard, (Cow - $500, Goat - $50, Pig - $30, Turkey - $25, Chicks - $1/each), sign-up is online for families, looking for donations of small dowels and water bottles (20oz variety) for bird feeder craft.
  
• Sunday School (2009-2010) – curriculum on order and expected this week, pre-school story Bible was received and reviewed, will be registering students soon, offering recruitment information and training for all teachers prior to summer vacation.
  

• Lenten soup suppers: worked well having small groups assigned to each week. They organized their meal, purchased food, and set up, served and cleaned up following. Congregation donated desserts and breads. Confirmation groups assisted. Only one restaurant donated soup – special thanks to Timberjack Restaurant! We averaged 110 in attendance with 130 being the highest and 93 the lowest (Spring break
  from school). Last year we average 92 per week. This year had higher totals than both 2007 and 2008. Expenses were kept to a minimum – $264.62, with income of $1166.50. An evaluation will be sent out to all workers soon.
  
• Report from the Women of the ELCA: 80 people attended the God Spa on March 27th. This was seen truly as a ministry event and evangelism tool.
  
• 50th anniversary: Sally Hodgson reports that she has been getting a good response from past (and present) congregational presidents to assist with the worship services. Donations are coming in. Dinner and program the evening of Saturday, May 16th and regular worships with coffee hour celebration on Sunday, May 17th. A complete financial summary will be prepared at the end.
  

• Pastor Bruce presented the Worship Survey to the Worship Committee and its is proposed that a third service for the Summer be added on Saturday evening, starting May 30. Time of service is yet to be determined. Sunday morning services will remain at the same time as the current schedule (8:15/10:30). This will allow for summer programming for adults and children to take place between services. (M/S/P – Both/Pederson)
  
• The organ is in desperate need of repair. Cathy Taylor reports that the pipes have not been able to be used for over two months – the valves that came with the original pipes were inferior. Some repair has been done but that was only enough to get us by. The electronic organ also has stopped functioning twice now and needs to be looked at and repaired or replaced. An estimate was received from Johnson Organ Company, Inc. for $6929.00 to repair the pipes. Cathy would like to begin having fundraisers
  
• A motion was passed to proceed with an organ fundraiser (M/S/P – Maier/Jensen).
  

• March is Food Share Month raised $3401.00 in monetary donations, plus filled the shopping cart with groceries.
  
• Will be planning a Make a Difference Day for this Fall. Am looking for ideas of projects that could be done church-wide this day. Let me know if you have any ideas.
  
• Will be planning an alternative gift market event to take place during advent.
  

• Planning for Sr/Jr High trips underway – Colorado (18 students), New Orleans (7 or 9 students).
• Summer Stretch will be brought back for another year, great demand for this program.
• Sr. High Retreat packed the house. We had a great time, took a spiritual gifts inventory and talked about that.
  

• Easter Breakfast – went well. Had outstanding help and all the food was donated except the ham...and received a donation that covered much of that.
  
• Butterbraid sales went very well.
  
• Stock sales will happen in early May. If we do well with the stock sales, we are on the way.

  Contact us:
Lutheran Church of the Cross
On Hiway 13 just east of Hiway 371 at Sportland Corner
P.O. Box 29
Nisswa, MN 56468
Phone: 218/963-2564   Fax: 218/963-0294
Email: lcc@lccnisswa.org