Congregational Life Ministry Team minutes

Last meeting: April 8, 2008

Attendees:
Ellen Evensen

Elizabeth Hensel

Emilie Larson

Deni Lundwall

Dong Pham

Staff:
Karen Herbrich

Jean Monson

Excused: Jean Wuethrich

Items that may require council action: None

Items that may require budget/finance coordination: None

Important items of information:

Diamond celebration in the works. The first worship at the North Site (Appleton North High School) was Aug. 16, 1998, so there will be a North Site diamond celebration (10 years) to be held either Wednesday, Aug. 13, or Sunday, Aug.17. A task force will be needed to plan event/food and decide date. We will try to get some original ANHS attendees, as well as some Downtown Site worshipers. Jean will talk to Jan Sommerfeld about getting an article into the newsletter about this event, and possibly in The Post-Crescent to advertise the occasion.

Church member directory. We need to put together another pictorial church directory. A task force is needed for this project. The time commitment for members of this task force will be minimal, since vendors will call members to make appointments and do most of the leg work. Vendor choices include Olen Mills (FELC has worked with before) or LifeTouch (offers option to update/add pages over time). Task force will need to take college school year into account in order to plan a time that most college kids might be home from school to get full family pictures. Estimated time commitment: Six months from start to finish (this includes time to decide vendor, timeline, layout, etc., in addition to the actual pictures being taken). Probably close to 3-4 weeks for final put-together with completed pictures (one day/week?)

Upcoming events:

Timber Rattlers; task force is planning and tentative date is June 21 (Saturday evening game)

Summer FELC picnic is scheduled for June 1.

50+ activities for April/May include ecumenical potluck and two bus trips in May (April 23 is next meeting to plan June event, none to be scheduled in July).

April 23 (Wednesday LIFT activity) training for Special Friends program to be led by Karen and Ellen. Intention is to match volunteers with people in need, with flexibility to change assignment if complications or issues arise. Possible press release of information; interview with well-established Special Friends relationship and possibly where kids accompany parents during visits.

Health ministry team is looking to change members: one to leave, a couple to join. Also working on new parents group for post-baptism to Sunday school age for spiritual and health development info for parents. Karen to do home visits for pregnant parents to answer questions and find needs, provide prayer shawl to mother and baby and have Thrivent-offered book on grief for those who lose a child. Health ministry team is looking for a name for this group – concerns about having name match book, “Faithfully Fit,” and something too baby-centric, since group is geared toward parents. We did some brainstorming and will continue to think of options: FAITH (Families Active in Their H-----), or Building Blocks of Faith …

Our member care exercise was a success: invited people to church, gave card to someone who lost a loved one, phone call to family in Sunday prayers, printed large print copy of hymns for member who has trouble holding weight of hymnal and another who needs to stand with a cane, mailed cards to members unable to attend social events (50+ group). Some felt minor intrusion, but accepted it since meant with caring. Will pass on and encourage other groups in the church community to try this.

Submitted by:

Emilie Larson