Congregational Growth Ministry Team minutes

Last meeting: Feb. 10, 2009

Attendees:

Gary Akgulian

Chris Allen

Rich Flamang

Shannon Howard

Lance Schmidt

Jen Wageman

Staff:

Jan Sommerfeld

Guest:

Peter Peregrine

Excused:

Pastor Dismer

Collin Goldschmidt

Bob Heil

Dale Hershfield

Team roster: The team thanked out-going members Gary and Bob for serving their 3-year terms on the Growth Ministry Team and welcomed Chris to the team. Collin has been contacted and asked to confirm his membership status.

Items that may require Council action: None

Items that may require budget/finance coordination: FELC Connection Center construction costs of roughly $5,000.

Important items of information:

Member engagement: The team discussed issues relating to member commitment, including:

· How do we motivate nongiving households to make a financial commitment to FELC?

· How do we encourage members to participate in programs and activities?

· How do we reach out to inactive members?

· What are members’ expectations?

· What are we providing that is valuable?

· What are we providing that is not valuable?

· Whose job is it to engage members?

· How do we make a personal connection with inactive members?

· How do we create a church community?

Council guest: Peter addressed the team, answering questions and challenging team members to focus on its mission of leading the invitation of welcoming new members and increasing our membership.

Survey: The team suggested developing another survey – possibly a telephone survey – during the current transition process targeting inactive members in an effort to gain perspective. Lance will ask Diane for feedback regarding its development.

Connection Center: After receiving assurance from Peter that the Council will endorse $5,000 needed to build two units, the team decided to authorize the construction phase of the Connection Center with the goal of having it built by Memorial Day. Rich will contact Jeff.

Boosting membership: Team members agreed to forward ideas to each other via e-mail over the next four weeks on how to reach our goal of increasing membership 5 percent.

Ministry team synopsis: In an effort to bring other ministry teams up to speed on what’s happening among the teams, it was suggested that from 6:45 to 7 p.m. on ministry team night each team give a 2-minute overview of the highlights and goals of their last meeting.

Council representation: The Growth Ministry Team would like a Council member to join the team. Rich will forward this request to the Council.

Revival of friendship pads: The team discussed the merits of re-establishing the friendship- pad method of encouraging fellowship and tracking visitors and members. Pros and cons were considered. The general consensus was that perhaps we should reinstitute them for a 6-month trial period. Questions: Who gathers the data? How/where does the data get entered?

Challenges in ’09: The team generated the following key areas of concern at FELC with the intention of executing three this year:

· Connection Center

· New member sessions

· Re-engage members so they become more involved.

· Higher quality worship experiences

· Re-energize youth programs

· Facilitate more small groups

· Highlight parish nurse program

Submitted by:

Jan Sommerfeld