Agenda for Quarterly Business Meeting
23 August 2009
Reports | Reorganization |
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Reports from the Leadership Team:
Our financial giving has also been strong and growing. With the adoption of a detailed budget and expenditure guidelines in March, we have a strong giving program in place. We are now giving more money to the cause of missions through the International Baptist Convention and the German Baptist Union than ever before in the history of the church. Through Feb. - July of this fiscal year, we have contributed 2.304,-- € through the IBC, and 4.047,-- € through the German Baptist Union. We're reaching out through partnerships with fellow Baptist congregations in these two denominational structures to spread the gospel literally around the world. As your pastor, this is a point of enormous pride for me in our church. God is enabling us to move from being on the receiving end of help from these two groups to becoming a strong contributor to and supporter of the work of the Kingdom in Baptist efforts to evangelize the world. We have now shed once and for all the 'beggar congregation, always asking for money' image that our church has had among these two groups for many years.
So far this year we have baptized five individuals into the membership of our church. But we can do better, and we must redouble our efforts to reach more people in profession of faith in Christ. The Evangelism Ministry proposal below will help us greatly at this point. My prayer is that by the end of our church year on January 31 we will have baptized at least 15 people.
Also, I'm sensing growing participation by a larger number of our members in the work of the church. The process of reorganization of the church for ministry is moving along at a steady pace that allows us time to embrace each step in this process before moving to the next one. The proposals coming today will mean a significant step forward and will leave us approximately two more major steps. The central goal of the reorganization is to develop places of ministry opportunity for every member of the church. This way everyone is contributing to the work of the church, rather than just a small segment of the so-called 'faithful few.'
The next set of proposals will cover the Welcoming Ministry, the Finance Ministry, Prayer Ministry, the Children's Ministry and the building/maintenance ministry. That will leave the final major step of beginning the process to ordain deacons for pastoral ministry leadership in the church. The projection is to have the next phase before the church by the end of September.
Then the process of planning for the new church year of 2010 will begin. This will focus on three primary actions: 1) the church wide election of individuals in late October to fill the various places on the emerging ministry leadership teams. 2) Then the newly elected ministry teams will begin the process of preparing budget recommendations for their assigned cost centers. These will then be presented to the Finance Ministry Leadership Team by the first of January. The Finance Team will next prepare a recommended budget from these requests for 2010 (Feb. - Jan, fiscal year in the church) that will be presented to the church by the last of January. 3) Also in the early winter the newly elected ministry leadership teams will plan out the church calendar for 2010 with proposed activities and programs. These proposals will come before the church in January for consideration and adoption as our ministry programs for the 2010 church year.
It's going to be a busy and exciting fall and winter for us as we continue positioning ourselves as a truly ministering congregation passionately seeking to proclaim the Gospel and minister to others. I do believe that through these reorganization efforts God is getting us ready to grow significantly, and to be able to handle that growth in a positive, spiritually healthy manner. Often rapid growth in numbers is spiritually devastating to a church. For a church to grow in size and in spirituality at the same time is very challenging. But I'm convinced that God is moving us toward this very goal.
Modification of Pastor's Ministry Agreement
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