EMMAUS ROAD ELDERS NOTES - 5/27/14

7pm Greenwood Office; Biff Gaitan, Rennie Araucto, Eric Likkel, David Anema, Mike Elenbaas present

Informal Review of Survey Feedback:

• Grateful for Teresa Elenbaas’ work, collating feedback and sorting into categories 
• Compared notes on recognizable themes; striking that “Community/Friendships” had been listed by 80% of respondents among top three reasons for sticking with Emmaus Road; all other reasons spread out; discussed how this is an asset (of course we want sense of community within church!), but not necessarily the strongest asset for missional growth (just because we feel close, does not mean we know how to reach out, grow, and develop). 
• Emerging strategies – compared notes on “gut level” inclinations about how we think Emmaus Road ought to shift; included: articulating mission that emphasizes equipping members for missionary life where they are, as opposed to inviting them to engage missionary life via Groundworks, Sunday/Belltown based activities; in-other-words, leaving our Belltown focus behind as a collective expectation, while multiplying the fruit born from the last few years (good things have happened through our community development efforts), across and throughout Emmaus Road’s presence “around the Sound”; all of our church rhythms, patterns, gatherings (including Sunday and all it’s elements), should be shaped to support this renewed mission; we acknowledged this is not anything novel, or necessarily complex, but it is challenging, given the internal resistance to discipleship and missional living among most churched people in our day/age 
• Agreed not to share all the survey results with everyone; can answer members’ specific questions individually 

Road Crew Plan (agenda already published online last week in eWeekly)

• Eric to first set up context – briefly explain PROCESS and TIMELINE for DISCERNING MISSION and TAKING NEXT STEPS 
• Rennie to explain what Council saw in survey results; what our impressions of Emmaus Road are from the information Teresa gathered, sorted, and gave to us; that ReLaunch Team will take closer look, meet together, make some proposals that represent change 
• Mike will speak to one specific strength and area of concern, re: Children/Youth 

People: Elder Districts

• Elders agreed to postpone restructuring/shuffling until after ReLaunch in September 

ReLaunch Team

• Eric authorized to hand pick adhoc team to function as “steering committee” to craft proposals for Road Crew to consider by end of August; Relaunch September 

Prayer

• Closed with robust prayer together

STEWARDSHIP TEAM - VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

Emmaus Road's Stewardship Team is currently comprises three members, Mike Elenbaas, Ryan Engel, and David Anema. Each has served for more than a few years. By sharing the work as a team, no single person is overly exposed to burnout or risk.

It is time for us to recruit a new member! Increasing time demands at work have caused Treasurer Ryan Engel to announce the need to step away from this volunteer role ASAP.

We are looking to recruit someone from within Emmaus Road to join Mike and David, to serve the ministry in an important way. These four tasks represent the areas where help is needed:

1. Assist with collecting offerings from white box every Sunday; ensure they are deposited to Emmaus Road's bank account.
2. Help update weekly giving tracker spreadsheet online.
3. Contribute to approximately bi-annual budget/giving update memos communicated to Road Crew (membership).
4. Assist monitoring PayPal giving.

If you have questions you would like answered before agreeing to this volunteer role, do not hesitate to contact Pastor Eric Likkel, or any of the current Stewardship Team members:

Mike Elenbaas, Ryan Engel, David Anema

COUNCIL NOTES - APRIL 22nd, 2014

Greenwood Office Present: Teresa Elenbaas, David Anema, Rennie Araucto, Mark Nelson, Kristen VanderLinden, Biff Gaitan, Eric Likkel Excused: Mike Elenbaas

 7:00 Dinner served – reminisced about Easter

 7:15 Previewed agenda

 7:25 Reviewed Dates:

• April 24th Theology Pub (Theology Pub, Misional Pub, Leadership Pub – learning events every 4th or 5th Thursday) 
• Fri May 16th Prayer Party @ Rosnicks’ 
• Thu May 22nd Facility Tour – Seattle School 
• Tue May 27th Elders 
• Sun June 1st Road Crew 
• Sun June 29th Church @ Linda Bishop’s & Beach

7:30 1-2 Minute Spotlight:

•  Children’s Ministry – Godly Play going well; Matt Park happy; things go missing from NH, though; Biff/Eric to follow-up 
• Finance – couple of low months; need strong appeal (not from Eric); need new team member – Eric to follow-up w/Stewardship Team 
• Worship – Easter format well received; great to have at least four households present for first time, not coming from other churches 
• Sunday Volunteers – volunteer appreciation; hosting challenging, esp. cleanup part when they have cranky toddlers – Kristin to follow-up with creative ideas 
• Small Groups – Eric hoping to share leadership w/Addis’; four groups going well; north end group would be great; Kristen brought up rotating small group idea – Eric followup w/Kristen 
• Pastoral Visits – Eric had great visit w/Gillanders; Josh wanting to join mentor team; Eric to continue 
• Facility Search – positive indications from Seattle School; how can ad hoc search team work? Eric follow-up 
• Internship – Matthew Rock finishing well; going to stick with ER 
• eWeekly – Lections would be nice – Eric to add

8:00 Choose approach for Strategic Planning Process

• Council weighed in RE: indepth/comprehensive versus swift intervention
• Steering Committee or Council; who, what, when, how? – not determined yet; wait for survey. Council rhythm/expectations – Council united about sharing leadership in process, not leaning entirely on pastor 
• Long process seems unfitting at this point; “Agile transformation” – small teams can adapt quickly as they obtain feedback, data, and then responding quicky; large organizations cannot do that; Emmaus Road has not historically been quick/agile, but WE COULD BE 
• Confidential/anonymous feedback important 
• Main issues – get more people, keep more people 
• Identity issue; who are we? What’s important? What do we keep? Do members see themselves WITH Emmaus Road in the future 
• Council likes Eric’s measurement topics (see below), but want to get there by asking few, clear questions: 

1. What does Emmaus Road do well; what needs improving? 
2. What are the top three reasons you continue to be a part of Emmaus Road?

Eventually want to measure/address/support these issues, as suggested by Eric:

• Environment (spiritual) – worship, prayerfulness, enthusiasm 
• Engage – newcomer involvement, member commitment, healthy communication 
• Equip, Empower – discipleship for children, adults 
• Expand – identify Emmaus Road’s “niche” in Seattle context; growth scenarios; community engagement; evangelism 
• Leadership structure – Pastor, Council, staff 
• Partnership strategy – multiply impact via collaboration; Cluster, KEZ, etc.

8:55 Very next steps

1. Rennie will introduce survey idea Sunday morning; let people know about Tuesday email w/two questions; this will happen again, following week; THEN, overall goal is to take pulse of congregation, find out if our Vision Mission are aligned with people’s personal perceptions 
2. Teresa will send emails and receive emails; she will hold on to responses; will let Council know who has not responded yet; will hold on to data but not names attached to data

8:50 People – Prayer

• Eric handed out printed bible bookmark with Emmaus Road’s households; to be prayed over regularly 
• Council prayed 

 9:10 Old 100th Doxology

 APPENDIX: Worship Attendance – YTD

COUNCIL NOTES - FEBRUARY 11, 2014

Elenbaas Residence; Rennie Araucto, Eric Likkel, Biff Gaitan, David Anema, Mike Elenbaas, Teresa Elenbaas present; Ryan Engel, Kristen Vander Linden, Mark Nelson absent

1. check in/prayer

2. Emmaus Road stats: attendance, households, $

–       Pastor shared list of names showing approximately 33 currently “active” households, including 49 adults and 26 kids

–       Also provided chart showing ups/downs of worship attendance, long term and short term

What is Emmaus Road’s strategy? What is our way forward?

–         Suggestion made to approach question using ABCD (Asset Based Church Development)

–         Noted several members of Emmaus Road seem skilled in organizational development, consulting, and leadership development in corporate and some non-profit contexts; Emmasu Road has some human skills assets here!

–         Question posed, “Is it time for Steering Team?” All agreed it is time to enter strategic planning period; agreed that polling Emmaus Road w/specific questions, to survey the church about what is strong, attractive, and meaningful, as well as what is painful, lacking, confusing, would be good.

–         General impression among those present is that people seem to like Emmaus Road, want it to grow, succeed, thrive, but are uncertain about it’s future, do not see clear vision, feel conflicted about it’s role in Belltown, and may not individual know how to participate in, or contribute to, growth

–         Necessity of relocating our worship service, due to New Horizons renovations, is viewed as a potentially positive transition for Emmaus Road, an opportunity, to dislodge us from habitual patterns of gathering, place, practices, which may be holding us back from outreach and growth.

–         All questioned Emmaus Road’s relationship to Belltown, in terms of a place of missional focus. After years of presence there, and limited visibility, it neither seems as if Emmaus Road will grow at a healthy rate by continuing to reach out to Belltown alone, nor especially by reaching out to Belltown in the ways we have so far. No other obvious neighborhood, however, emerges in the minds of Council members; i.e., Emmaus Road is a fellowship who comes together from scattered spots around the Sound, and downtown/Belltown might be as central a location as we’d want.

–         Next steps – Pastor to create Google Doc. so Council members can begin vetting questions with which to survey church body.

Next meeting not scheduled; Pastor Likkel hoping to convene mtg. with Kristen Vander Linden and Mark Nelson, to bring up to speed w/aforementioned questions, information, etc.