The HOP Church Council met on Tues. July 9th, 2013 at 700pm. Treasurer, Scott Hults, reported that our financial situation is still tentative. We are making ends meet as people are stepping up and we need them to continue to do so. Council agreed that we need to continue to monitor this on a month to month basis.
Pastor’s Report – Pastor Dan reported that the worship and music committee have submitted a congregation survey regarding adding an evening service for the council to look at. It was reviewed and approved. (A clarification was made “is the evening service in place of a second Sunday service?” Answer: no, the survey was just asking if people are interested in an evening service) Congregational home visits are going well. Pastor is sending out a BLAST email to the congregation regarding a couple of topics and may continue to do this from time to time as a means of improving our communication.
Ministry Reports (from committees reporting in):
*HOP Preschool – Jan Stiles said the HOP Preschool Garage sale took in aprox. $700, they had lots of help and 3 new families have expressed interest in Fall enrollment.
*HOP Community Festival (formerly known as the Buffalo Roast) – Everything is proceeding as planned. Thrivent matching funds has been submitted and approved for up to $2,000.
*Worship and Music – they have submitted to council, a copy of the congregation survey regarding interest in an evening service.
*Women of Hope – about women’s fun night and fall cluster meeting.
*Youth – Corey’s last day is this Sunday, we will have a sending service where we will get a chance to thank him for the blessings he has brought to HOP, it will be followed by cake and coffee in the fellowship hall (special thank you to Rose Flannigan for the cake!).
New Business:
Capital Campaign – Mike Nelson reported that letters were sent out to about 1dozen members to seek members for this committee. The stewardship committee is in the process of following up with these members. The items on the list of items needing updates or repairs are: roof, floor, audio visual, sound buffer, bathroom renovations, and debt reduction. The estimate of these items is aprox. $400,000.
Marital Status change – Pastor Dan has asked the council to think and pray about this as he needs to discern if the congregation would support allowing a same sex couple to be married by Pastor Dan at H.O.P. or not. After much discussion, council decided they would like to have a Faith matters discussion about this with the congregation and perhaps have someone from Synod leading the discussion. Pastor Dan will work on arranging this.
Additional items:
Roof Info – Dave Burau reported that another roofer came to look at the roof and made some recommendations. He has some ideas for fixes to the problem areas on the roof that will total about $1500. The sanctuary corner (10-15 feet) he would recover the whole thing. There are pinholes around the scuppers that he can fix (he fixed the one over the kitchen while he was here). He said the new addition has a poor liner, the sun hits it and it is deteriorating (he anticipates it will need to be replaced in a couple of years). Dave reminded council that the estimate to replace the two sections of the roof is aprox. $60,000 each or $120,000 for the entire roof. Audrey asked if we could switch to a pitched roof. Mike said that has been brought up and the capital campaign committee would address that when they have discussions about what to do with the roof. Dave would like this roofer to start right away, by fixing some of the biggest problem areas first with the thought that this would keep the leaks in the roof at bay until next spring/summer when we will have funds and a plan in place to do a more permanent fix. Council was in favor of this and it was decided that the $832 currently in the “roof fund” will be used first. If more funds are needed Dave will talk to council again to get approval to possibly use funds from the $1500 in the “Flooring fund”.
VBS Income question – Dave Burau reported that the VBS program might have extra funds left over. He will check with Ginny Johnson and Janet Pruden to get their itemized list of expenses and income. He will then add the 1 week salary paid to preschool teacher April (which was previously agreed to) so he can get the total amounts of expenses and income, as he thinks there might be a positive balance. Council agreed that any left over monies would go into the general fund of the church.
Fir tree from VBS children – Dave Burau reported that a Fir tree was donated by the VBS children. The offerings the children gave were used to purchase this tree.
The children were taught to Stand Strong for God and this tree represents Standing Strong. It will be planted on the west side of the church (it will replace the honey locust tree that is currently there).