Congregational Growth Ministry Team minutes

Last meeting: April 8, 2008

Attendees:

Gary Akgulian

Bob Heil

Rich Flamang

Jen Wageman

Staff:

Pastor Detweiler

Jan Sommerfeld

Excused:
Collin Goldschmidt

Dale Hershfield

Shannon Howard

Lance Schmidt

Guests: Linda Hash and Kevin

Items that may require council action: None

Items that may require budget/finance coordination: None

Important items of information:

Name tags: Since most members who attend worship at the Downtown Site don’t use the paper name tags with the FELC logo that are available, the team would like to offer the clip-on type of name badges that are used by about 70 percent of members who attend North Site worship services. Members will be able to decorate the badges when they write their names on the card stock that slides between the plastic. Hopefully, this more permanent type of name badge will encourage more members to wear them, thus promoting fellowship – the goal of wearing name tags.

Welcome table: The team discussed placement options for the welcome table at the Downtown Site and will continue to experiment with the best location.

Advertising: The team discussed the effectiveness of the FELC AT&T Yellow Pages display ad and yellowpages.com ad and decided to renew both ads for 2008-09.

Welcoming: Guest Linda Hash, who accompanied her son, Kevin, who was observing this meeting for his Scout project, offered valuable insight on the importance of welcoming visitors and shared some her experiences when she and her family visited other churches. Discussion followed regarding offering training for our welcome hosts. Bob Heil and Jen Wageman will research available resources for welcome hosts through the ELCA synod and Augsburg Fortress. Perhaps we can ask new members about their needs at the next new member session on April 30.

New members: The team discussed the concept of including “fun facts” about new members that would be included in newsletters along with their names after they are installed. The general consensus was that including the personal interests submitted by new members would help them connect with other members of the congregation with similar interests. Jan will touch base with Jean Monson on how to make that happen.

Connection Center: The team discussed the next step of the connection center. Rich will ask some of our members with woodworking skills if they would be interested in creating the center.