COUNCIL MINUTES - JUNE 11, 2009

Greenwood Office, 7PM

Present: Biff Gaitain, Sarah Groen-Colyn, Beth DeVries, Chandra Mullenix, Ben Lappenga, Eric Likkel, David Anema

Opening Prayer, Ben

JOYS/SORROWS: around the table sharing

ANNOUNCEMENT: Camping Trip, weekend of September 18^th-20^th

CHILDREN'S WORSHIP SUMMER PROGRAMMING

What do we do through the summer without a Children’s Worship Coordinator? Suspend all classes; hold childcare for 0-5 year olds; encourage preschoolers to join parents in “pews”; use kids’ bulletins

-Ben’s homiletics class: sermon should be for whole church, not just adults

-Fred & Belinda to make a presence; include additional kid friendly music

-Find spot that would work for older children; continue in Prayer Room

-Will be important to enforce limits on who is appropriate for Prayer Room (nursery) (increase awareness among adult volunteers, as well as parents)

--Beth to finalize letter to share Council’s decision; send to Chandra to mass mail

CHILDREN'S WORSHIP COORDINATOR AND GODLY PLAY

--Amanda not returning this Fall; what do we do for coming school year?

--Importance in having congregation teach vs. employee, relationships in context of whole church vs. isolated relationship

--Core Godly Play teaching group: Amy, Chad, Rennie, Sarah, Kristin - all trained; most have experience teaching

--No one yet committed to teach on regular basis; Sarah can find this out

--Sarah has been solo lead to guide Godly Play; looking for team leader to take it from here

--Is it better to wait to share with the church once a decision is made or present the issue?

--Council will discern where to go from here, and communicate with Road Crew in August

NEW HORIZONS

Mark Nelson/Biff to meet with John James, possibly

--Considering helping NH financially for building updates that would also benefit ER (Biff)

--Table until Fall when NH might be able to take on a new project for us to come alongside vs. ER carrying project for NH

--Side note: NH extremely grateful/overjoyed with Groundwork Sunday work (Eric)

--Are there other things we can do that don’t require money to support/assist New Horizons? (Beth)

--Important to discuss physical set-up of Godly Play with NH, as well (Sarah)

--Biff (and Mark Nelson) will check in with NH about options.

--Chandra to ask Food Group Liaison if they’d be willing to also discuss facilities once in awhile

LEADER BOARD

--Looks great; thanks Brad & Cynthia!

--Next step: write description of our roles to include with photos

--Beth will write, send to Eric for approval, then to Brad to make it all pretty

ADMINISTRATIVE ROLES SHIFTING

--Chandra has passed along aspects of administrative roles to 3 folks, searching for a 4^th

--Share via slides, eMonthly, blog, announce during the service that these people are stepping up to serve (Eric/Chandra)

SARAH'S LEADERSHIP SHIFT

--Pit Crew work to move to Elders? Yes: Pit Crew to discuss at Sunday meeting

NEXT COUNCIL AGENDA, AUGUST 13

--Discuss Emmaus Road's relationship with Classis Pacific Northwest (regional group of Christian Reformed Church) with Road Crew; we are supposed to contribute to denomination to help fund shared ministries

--Eric to fill everyone in on work and connections of Belltown Covenant

--Eric to fill everyone in on LDN meetings

NEXT ELDER AGENDA, JULY 9 (Uptown Espresso, Belltown)

--What will happen with Ben’s people? Replacing? Redistributing?

--Revising by-laws about term lengths, and eligibility