ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
August 30, 2007
PRESENT: Rich Hill, Sherrie Cottrell, Pastor Bill Shaw, John
Machonis, Gail Bedingfield, Bruce Bedingfield, Gwen Greenwalt, Marshall Nystrom,
Jill Woods-Naatz, Carolyn Meneely, Jerry McDaniel, Shirley McDaniel, Marian
Wagner, JoAnne Gregorash, Linda Nordli, Sue Brown, Mike Whitehall, Steve
Miller, Mary Knoppel, Mike Wojtal, and Cathy Mottar.
OPENING Prayer and Devotions:
Opening Prayer given by Sherrie
Cottrell at 7:17 p.m.
Devotions: Jill Wood-Naatz provided the devotion
from a passage from Roger Curless at the Northern Illinois Annual Conference
that she attended in June. <See
Attachment A for Notes from the Conference> In essence, he defined the church as whatÕs left after the
building burns down and the pastor leaves town. Rich volunteered to provide the September devotion.
ADMINISTRATION:
Introductions and Approval of June, 2007 minutes. Bruce made the motion to approve the
minutes as written and JoAnne seconded the motion.
HUDDLE (Business of the Church)
Vision on Reationships – Presentation by Pastor Bill & Sue Brown
Sue presented her gift of
Hospitality. Sue shared how she
was greeted when she arrived at ORUMC.
She focuses on meeting new people.
Sue shared 3 of her personal stories related to hospitality. Sue shared some of the greetings and
tactics she uses to develop relationships. (i.e. DonÕt sit in your usual spot each week., Find someone new
and ask if you can sit by them, Ask if you can pray for them this week, Invite
someone to the Wesley room, Start a discussion of high/low experiences for the
week.) Basically – Meet,
Greet, Engage Yourself and have fun.
Bill passed out Attachment B
– Vision & Process documents.
Bill shared ministry accomplishments (what are we doing and what should
we continue doing). What do you
believe god is calling us to do?
As a part of ÒOur Working VisionÓ, Bill asked that everyone send him a
list of 3 items that we are doing and 3 items you think we are doing well in
our church and send them to him in the next 10 days. You can write them down and email them to Pastor Bill.
We need to go beyond our
immediate needs to define process and organization.
Fund Raiser – Movie
memorabilia update: No Update.
Third Church Service 6:33: Based
on notes from Marianne, as you all know, Our RedeemerÕs is going to begin a new
worship gathering on September 9th.
The 6:33 gathering will be every Sunday night beginning at 6:33pm and
will last about 45 minutes. 6:33
is worship Òoutside the box.Ó It
will provide interactive, cutting edge
worship experiences to bring Christ into your everyday life, further define and
strengthen your walk with God, and provide opportunities and vision to carry
out His kingdom work on earth.
Whether youÕre just starting your walk or continuing your journey with
Christ, 6:33 will speak to you and the world we live in. The gathering will be led by our very
own worship band, Ember Days.
After
the 6:33 gathering, there will be a brief break with munchies provided; then
from 7:30 to 8:30pm there will be small group time. We are beginning the school year with a jr. high youth group
and a sr. high youth group and hope to extend that to some other small groups
(including one for young adults, one for parents, etc.). We are planning on these groups being
tons of fun with a discussion of the message and lots of games—the youth
will really form a bond with the other students during this small group time.
Natural Church
Development (NCD): Carolyn Meneely reported
that the committee conducted a new survey in June and received the results in
July. Evangelism was our top need
in the previous survey and continuing along those lines we want to implement
the ORUMC Event Planning Guide <See Attachment C> for more integration
with people ÒoutsideÓ of our church family. This will help us have a record of these events, so we can
leverage past event planning. This
will be available just as any other form in the church office. The results from the most recent survey
show that Need Based Evangelism is up 18 points and our new focus should be on
holistic small groups (communicate and support each other to live biblically
applying it to your whole life) and passionate spirituality (living with joy
and the love of Jesus 100% of the time).
The NCD team will be looking for help on these new initiatives while we
continue with our Needs based Evangelism.
NARTHEX: Jill
reported on behalf of the committee that she spoke with the carpenter and the
new tall cabinets will be installed on Thursday on September 6th. At this time, the new scheduled
completion is for the end of September.
There are many other tasks to be done after the carpenter is complete,
so that is when most of our internal work begins.
Web Page & Calendar
Review: Jerry shared the events through the mid-June, 2008. Jerry asked that the committees review
the items on the 2nd page to get them scheduled and better
communicated.
Action Item - Jerry will send the
current schedule to all committees and ask them to update the event items that
either involve members or are done within the whole church. – There needs to be a new process
for the calendar maintenance and updates from the committees.
Name Tags & Church
Directory: There was some discussion on what should be done with name
tags and getting them to new members and updating of the church directory. Decisions on these topics need to be
made.
Action Item - The Evangelism
committee will discuss options and come back with a recommendation at the
Administrative Council next meeting.
Miscellaneous:
Annual Conference Report:
JoAnne and Jill reported on Annual Conference. – <See
Attachment A for Notes from the Conference>
SHARING:
Director of
DiscipleshipÕs (DOD) Report: Carolyn reported above on NCD.
Youth Director Report: Marianne forwarded her report prior to the meeting. Confirmation will be changing this year: In addition to the youth group on Sunday nights for the Jr. High students, there is confirmation class. Confirmation will now be held during the 9am worship service on Sunday mornings. The first Sunday of every month, Communion Sunday, there will not be class. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays there will be class. Pastor Bill will also meet with the confirmation students three times outside of the regular class meetings. Confirmation teachers are Marianne, Michelle Hill and Annette Brown.
During
the school year youth council will continue to host an Open Mic Night in
November, go on the youth ski trip to Wisconsin in January, hold the 30 Hour
Famine in February, and host a graduate recognition at the end of the school
year.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
WTTF:
Marshall reported that the web site has been updated recently. He said that he is going to remove all
the email addresses from the web site except the generic email address. The task force is still looking for the
committees to provide updated content and can use additional support. He also asked that the committees
submit any pictures they may have for the site.
There is a Creative
Worship and Designs Matter seminar on September 14th and 15th,
Friday and Saturday. By helping
you can attend the seminar for free.
FINANCE: John reported that Congregational giving and tithes
has been holding at 94% through the summer, which is very good. Fred will be sending out a draft budget
for 2008 and if no response is received then that will be the approved 2008
budget. Jill made a motion to
tithe 10% of the T-mobile revenue which is $600 per month. The motion was passed.
STAFF
PARISH: Pastor Bill reported that Ron Zemke has been interviewed and
will be leading the Ember Days band.
There will be announcements coming.
MICAH MINISTRIES: Gail
reported as follows:
1. We are very happy with our vegetable garden. One of the parts of
Micah mission statement is to inform the congregation about issues of social
justice. By including the day care we hope we are teaching the little
ones that food should be available to all and that there is a process of that
food getting to the stores. We also gave food to the food pantry and some
families at the day care.
2. Some members of Micah will be attending a conference in Downers Grove
at the end of September. This meeting is a celebration of 100 years of
social justice ministries in the UMC.
3. We are continuing our support with the Heifer project and CROP Walk
and the social justice issues surrounding these two events.
4. We will once again this year support a letter writing campaign
with Bread for the World and work with the youth on
Famine Weekend.
5. To help understand the concept of Fair Trade we will start selling
Fair Trade Coffee once a month at the Church. We will serve fair trade coffee
on Sundays also.
STEWARDSHIP: Pastor
Bill said that October 28th is the luncheon.
TRUSTEES: Mike reported the trustees are looking at the current
room usage fees and working on their 2008 budget.
NOMINATIONS: Pastor
Bill and Carolyn meeting next week on this topic.
UMW: Sherrie reported the first meeting will be Sept 15th
on children with special needs by Annette Brown. November 4th there will be a silent auction and
potluck luncheon.
UMM: Marshall reported that there is a Spiritual Conference on Sept 14th and the UMM Fall Retreat is on Oct 26th and 27th.
Also planning is beginning for next yearÕs ASP trip with the first meeting on September 12th for information. They are trying to go for the 2nd week of ASP. Marshall reported that the next Habitat for Humanity dates are September 15th and October 27th.
EVANGELISM: No
Update.
EDUCATION: Rally
Day is scheduled for Sept 9th.
There is a need for a new VBS Director for this year.
MUSIC/WORSHIP: Jill
reported that she has written up specific instructions and a diagram of the
sanctuary. She is trying to get a
copy to everyone that may move the furniture, so it can get to the right place. It is also posted in the back of the
sanctuary. The trustees will give
this information out to anyone using the sanctuary.
The new music season
begins in September with rehearsals on Tuesdays for Cherub, Joyful Noise and
Sounds of Grace, Wednesdays for Chancel Choir and Chimes and Saturday 22nd
for Random Ringers. Ember Days
will continue on Wednesdays.
The Music Committee will
submit a proposal to Staff Parish requesting that all current music personnel
(Director of Joyful Noise and Cherub, Accompanist for Cherub and Joyful Noise,
Director of Random Ringers and Director of Sounds of Grace) be a part of the
paid staff. The need to grow and
strengthen these programs can best be met by employing qualified individuals to
provide leadership.
Thanks to all those that
did special music this summer.
LAY LEADER: No
report.
MEMORIAL COMMITTEE: Mary
reported that the committee is trying to get their financial record keeping in
alignment. There is a form that
has been provided to Donna for distributions. They have paid out approximately $9,000 for the
Narthex. $6,300 donations have
been received. They asked that
committees provide a wish list if monies are desired.
CARING MINISTRIES: Bruce
said that we have scheduled - Soup Kitchen dates September thru April, the
blood drive is on Dec 6th the Crop Walk is on Sunday October 21st. The brochure for this committee is
available which with recent 2007 updates.
We try to give 3 times a year to our missionary Richard Vales and
Rainbow Covenant and it is that time to provide to him again, so they will do
that.
FAMILY MINISTRY: There
were several families that showed up for the Fourth of July parade. The picnic was at the end of July and
it was great and the band was awesome!
Sept 16th is a family bowling event in the afternoon. They are checking into a family dance
leader for October. Nothing formal
planned for November and December.
Caroling can be organized by youth council – Linda Nordli.
CHRISTIAN CORNER: Mike
reported there has been some turnover in teachers and they are reviewing a new
budget and considering their rates.
Jerry McDaniel agreed to
take the notes in the September 20th meeting as Cathy will be out of
town.
The meeting was adjourned
with a prayer by at 9p.m.
Next Ad Council Meeting will
be September 20th at 7:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Cathy Mottar
Attachment
A – Notes from Northern Illinois Annual Conference
of
the United Methodist Church
Bishop
Hee-Soo Jung, presiding spiritual leader of the Northern Illinois Conference, led
an assembly of close to 1,000 lay and clergy members meeting for Annual
Conference from June 9-12, 2007.
Your delegates were JoAnne Gregorash and Jill Wood-Naatz. We heard inspiring sermons and
celebrated our faith through prayer, music, dance and worship.
From
2000 – 2005 the Northern Illinois Conference shrunk by 11,147 members, a
decline of 9.8%. Bishop Jung has his own large vision for the growth of the
conference. The Harvest 2020 initiative is a plan to revitalize our churches. It is composed of 3 dimensions: 1) planting 100 new faith communities,
2) healthy church growth, and 3) planting, growing, and harvesting through
cluster ministry. A Harvest 2020
leadership team has been appointed to coordinate and develop the plan by March,
2008. Our bishop is determined not
to lead a dying church! He stated,
ÒIt is time for us to share GodÕs gifts to the world. Our churches need to begin to dream big. Instead of limiting what we can do,
limiting what we can dream, we need to realize that we can make a differenceÉ
For
too long, too many of us have been focused inwardly not outwardly, focused on
keeping present members satisfied rather than reaching out to the huge numbers
that surround us, in every one of our communities, who have not yet heard and
received the good news of ChristÕs saving love for them.Ó
Nothing
But Nets was initiated by Rick
Reilly, Sports Illustrated columnist, in April 2006. The United Methodist Church has joined the United Nations
Foundation and the NBA in a global grass roots campaign to stop the spread of
the deadly disease of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Just $10 buys an insecticide treated anti-malaria net,
distributes that net, and educates families on its use and installation. Bed nets work in 2 ways: they prevent mosquitoes from biting
during the night and the insecticide kills the mosquitoes. The Measles Initiative is distributing
the nets in Africa. You can make
donations to this campaign by going to www.NothingButNets.net or www.UMC.org. The Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation is matching Nothing But Nets donations dollar for
dollar.
The
Global AIDS Fund was established by
the UMC in 2004 with a goal of raising $8 million over 4 years to address the
AIDS pandemic around the globe.
Each congregation is encouraged to contribute $1 per member. Of the funds raised, 25% will stay in
our conference to be used in programs combating HIV/AIDS and 75% will be sent
to the General Council of Finance and Administration for distribution around
the world. ORUMC has already
contributed beyond $! per member!!
Retired
Bishop Fritz Mutti, who lost 2 sons to AIDS some years ago, addressed the
Annual Conference on this issue.
The UMM responded with an offering of $1,000 to the fund and the Annual
Conference members responded by collecting an offering which brought the total
to $10,000!
Steve
Nailor, Northern Illinois Conference UMM President outlined plans to reach out to all of the men in the
conference and to guide district UMM presidents to help enable the ministry of
UMM and to improve skills in the following areas : 1) invitation (including
business card templates, small group development) ,2) communication (about
conference, jurisdictional, and national events), 3) training (on use of the
NIC UMM web site), 4) partnerships (Letter from Dad, Man in the Mirror, etc.)
IN
HIS LAITY ADDRESS, ROGER CURLESS DEFINES THE CHURCH AS WHATÕS LEFT AFTER THE
BUILDING BURNS DOWN AND THE PASTOR LEAVES TOWN. THATÕS US, THE LAITY!
Roger
challenged us to fly in part by telling a parable from Kierkegaard about
ducks. ÒHe describes a town where only ducks live.
Every Sunday the ducks of the town waddle out of their homes, down Main Street
to the church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper
pews. Yes, even ducks sit where they always sit. The duck choir
waddles in and takes its place. The duck pastor comes forward and opens
the duck bible. The pastor reads: Ducks! God has given you
wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar
like eagles. No walls can contain you! No fences can hold
you! You have wings. God has given you wings and you can fly like
the birds. All the ducks shouted amen. And then they all waddled home.
So do we believe that God is done with us? Do we believe that all
things are possible with God? If we believe that to be true, then what is
keeping us from living large, risking more, imagining more, trying more,
dreaming more. Why do we insist on waddling when God has given us the
ability to fly?
What I believe to be true my brothers and sisters is that we cannot
just sit here. God wants us to fly. To fly free of yesterdayÕs
Òthis is how we have always done it before.Ó To fly free of todayÕs
paralysis of shrinking numbers and waning influence. To fly free of tomorrowÕs
uncertainties about what the church of the 21st century will look
like. We just donÕt know.
But we do know that the Spirit of God continues to breathe life into
us. We do live. We will live. There is hope. It is a
promise and a proven reality.
I
believe we need to see as God sees. We need to start telling a different
story because we have a different story to tell. We have a God who longs
to set us free of our denial and despair so we can fly, fly into a future that
is bright, amazing, full of adventure and more than we can imagine or
ask. God has said it. God will do it. On our own we can do
nothing É..but with God, everything is still possible.Ó
Inclusiveness Resolutions: A number
of resolutions around the issue of ÒinclusivenessÓ including, Òaffirming all
familiesÓ, an acceptance of the definition that ÒInclusiveness means openness,
acceptance, and support that enables all persons to participate in the life of
the Church, the community, and the world and denies every semblance of discriminationÓ
were passed.
Pursuing Peace & Justice in the Holy Land: United Methodist Church agencies are encouraged to use
financial leverage to push for accountability among corporations conducting
business in regions of the world with civil and political unrest, particularly
in the Holy Land.
To learn what is happening in the UMC locally and around the world, you are encouraged to subscribe to the ÒUnited Methodist ReporterÓ. Send your name and address, name of our church and its location, and a check for $25 payable to Northern Illinois Conference to Margaret Lundahl, Circulation Manager, The Reporter, c/o Northern Illinois Conference, 77 W. Washington Street, Suite 1820, Chicago, Il 60602.
Bible Study
Every year at Annual Conference a Bible study teacher holds sessions first thing every morning. It sets the tone of the day and gets everyone settled into a good place from which to conduct the dayÕs business. Every year I find myself absolutely captivated by that yearÕs teacher and think that this one can never be topped. And every year, they top it. This year was certainly no exception! Pastor Grace Imathieu is a Pastor from Africa who pastors a small church in Wisconsin. You have heard Pastor Bill tell some of her stories. She was not only a wonderful teacher, but a teacher that that really made us take a good hard look at ourselves and how we live or do not live our daily lives based on the teachings of the Bible. I feel so privileged to have been able to attend these studies with her and actually get to meet her and talk for a while.
Elections
This year was an election year for annual conference. We elected both lay and clergy to represent the Northern Illinois Conference at General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference both to be held next year. Once everyone got the hang of the little hand held voting machines, it took the clergy much longer than the lay, the voting was held and after many ballots, we had elected our representatives. I am proud to say that this year, we elected a very diverse group of delegates and I feel our Conference will be well represented.
Commissioning and Ordination
As happens every year at Annual Conference, a commissioning service and an ordination service was held. Twenty-four individuals were ordained as elders. Four individuals were ordained as Deacons. Three people were commissioned towards elders order and two additional people from the Democratic Republic of Congo were also commissioned. There were also three people commissioned towards Deacons order.
Retirement
Every year a special service is held for those clergy and/or deacons that are retiring at the end of June. They are all given the opportunity to say a few words about what being a pastor has meant to them over the years (however, being clergy, brevity is not one of their long suits).There were 16 clergy retiring this year and among them was Jay Walkington, who unfortunately was not able to attend. The stories they tell are both touching, impressive and downright hilarious. I think someone could publish a book of their remarks each year and it could be used by stand up comics.
Awards
Every year at Annual Conference awards are given both to individuals and churches and other Methodist institutions in many different categories. For instance the BishopÕs 2007 Ecumenical & Inter-religious Award is recognition of witness by word and action to GodÕs purpose for human community, in the field of ecumenical or inter-religious activity was given to North Central College. There are also scholarships awards to young people seeking to further their education by the Board of Higher Education & Campus Ministries. There is the Denman Evangelism Award given both to a clergy and to a lay person for outstanding work in Christian evangelism. At conference the certificates for Rainbow Covenant churches are also given and I am proud to say that Our RedeemerÕs has been recognized again as a Rainbow Covenant church which recognized the churchÕs Òsecond mileÓ giving.
e-Safety and
Ethics
This was a topic touched on at Conference due to the overwhelming influence and availability of the internet today especially among the youth. While I did not get the resource kit that was offered, I do have a couple of brochures if anyone would like to see them. They list a lot of good references that will help us keep our children and ourselves safe from predators.
Legislation
Our legislation this year was as diverse as the entire conference was. Several of the issues addressed (the issues that passed will be sent on to the General Conference for the consideration of the United States United Methodist Church as a whole) included the Israeli-Palestinian conflict entitled pursuing Peach and Justice in the Holy Land. Also debated were Protecting Marriage, Affirming All Families, Affirming Inclusiveness of the Church, Fast Food, Fair Food, which focused on paying a fair wage to the farm workers in Florida that pick the tomatoes for the fast food industry.. It also paid attention to the living conditions of these farm workers, their treatment by the landowners and sought improve their standard of living. Many of these workers have been earning the same substandard wages since 1978. The fast food industry is a HUGE consumer of these tomatoes.
Conclusion
Coming together each year as the Northern Illinois
Conference is such an opportunity for lay and clergy to interact with the other
churches in the conference. We all
have a great deal to learn from each other and with the Holy Spirit there to
guide our thoughts and actions, hopefully we are true representatives of the
body of Christ, seeking to not only live as Christians within our church walls,
but to spread the good news of ChristÕs saving grace in all that we are and in
all that we do.
Attachment B –
Vision & Process Document from Pastor Bill
Attachment C -- ORUMC
Event Planning Guide from Carolyn
