ROAD CREW NOTES CONDENSED; COUNCIL FOLLOW-UP PROPOSALS

From November 24th Road Crew lunch: meeting notes organized/condensed,
with added Council follow-up proposals:

MINISTRY AREA: Sustainability

ROAD CREW COMMENTS

·   Communication vague at times; feeling persists for many of being out of the loop

·   Pastor going part-time not a welcome move….. not yet

·   Size matters; were Emmaus Road little larger, some financial stability achieved

ACTIONS proposed by Council

·   Pledge forms by January 31^st; Stewardship Team carry out; reason: concrete way for members to take ownership, or be faced with it, even if end result is not a useful budget tool (e.g., not enough people participate)

·   Refresh people with budget updates ALREADY online; people lose track of info.; don’t know where to find it; good for people to see details

·   Numerical growth of church! (separate topic/mtg.)

·   Capitalize on offertory moment; cite specific costs

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MINISTRY AREA: Cradle to College; Ministry w/Children, Parents


ROAD CREW COMMENTS

·   Emmaus Road’s emerging generation(s) are expanding; potential for good; future youth group(s)

·   Collaboration a hopeful approach, re: way to develop events-oriented programs

ACTIONS proposed by Council

·   Highlight mentoring relationships; tell stories (Eric capture for eWeekly or Show/Tell on Sunday)

·   Explore partner church opportunities; Cluster relationships; Nicole Molendyk interested

·   “Top Ten” biblical topics/narratives for parents to share w/children beyond Sunday; call together a parental summit to explore, sort out, begin

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MINISTRY AREA: Worship


ROAD CREW COMMENTS

·   Valued

·   All Ages Sundays are appreciated

·   Multi-media important/helpful

·   Small size of worshiping crowd does not affect everyone evenly; some notice, some do not

·   General affirmation

ACTIONS proposed by Council

·   Continue developing kid-friendly messages/liturgies (even for adults)

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MINISTRY AREA: Church & Neighbor: Missional Activity Beyond Belltown


ROAD CREW COMMENTS

·   Broaden the planning team and event leadership; share work load

·   Communication around events/expectations; can never have too much communication!

ACTIONS proposed by Council

·   Raise awareness – need bigger team to carry out planning (beyond Kristen, David, Eric)

·   Strategy needs work; new vision needs to be cast

·   Personal invitations; creates accountability

·   Match church members to neighbors and established opportunities

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MINISTRY AREA: Prayer Parties


ROAD CREW COMMENTS

·   First event at David/Jessie’s off to good start

·   Good strategy to have prayer “champion” around each focus

ACTIONS proposed by Council
·   Arauctos host next Prayer Party, January 24

ROAD CREW NOTES, NOVEMBER 24, 2013

We had a good showing:
twenty-five participants at the Sunday Road Crew lunch.
Here are notes from some of the table conversations:

ROAD CREW AGENDA NOVEMBER 24

AIM = CLARITY ABOUT BIG QUESTIONS

Who is Emmaus Road; Why do we come together?

What do we receive; What do we offer?

PROCESS = small group discussions around tables

large group summaries for Council take-away

AGENDA

1. Introduction: Table Topics

• Church & Neighbor; multiply from Belltown
• Cradle to College, Sunday & beyond for kids/parents; equipping parents/mentors, over programs
• Prayer; prayer parties; skills; transparency/posture; expectations
• Worship/Word/Sacrament (Sunday); expectations; changes
• $ustainability/bi-vocational Pastor; micro part-time staff

2. Table Talks

3. Summaries

4. Follow-up Plan 

• December 10 Council discuss Road Crew notes; make proposals
• proposals to church for review/comment through December
• January implement change

5. Welcome New Members

FINANCE UPDATE, OCTOBER 2013

As we begin the school year and Fall is upon us, your Emmaus Road Church Stewardship Team is providing a giving and budget update to Road Crew to help us see our giving levels over the last several months, and to also provide an expense update.

Expenses: 
The update on expenses is pretty quick. Nearly every expense category has stayed on budget for the year, with no significant changes. We will update projections for 2014 expenses later this fall in preparation for an early November Road Crew meeting. Please refer to the June 2013 budget update, or even the annual budget summary from November 2012, to view church expenses (recall we were able to keep 2013 expenses generally in line with 2012 expenses).

Giving: 
As we discussed at our most recent council meeting earlier in September (see notes online), giving in July and August was very low. Some decrease is attributable to members being away on vacation; it has, however, left us with the need to catch up throughout September and October. If you have followed our giving trends via the Sunday bulletins and the eWeekly online, you may have noticed a good uptick in June giving, followed by a decrease over summer months. The charts and data we have published are one way we are trying to be transparent about our collective giving levels, and help remind everyone that money is a part of our shared ministry; we need it to sustain our work together. The chart below shows our giving trends over the last nine months as compared to average monthly expenses.

The Light Bulb Goal = $20k in the bank

If you were with us a couple Sundays ago, you may recall we mentioned a ‘Light-bulb’ goal.  As many of you know, the light bulb in one of our projectors is out.  For several months, we have been only using one projector during worship.  When will we replace it? As a Stewardship Team, we envisioned setting an attainable goal related to giving; as soon as we reach this goal, we will celebrate by purchasing the replacement bulb. Our goal: to replenish our bank account with more than two months’ worth of expenses, which is about $20k.  Early September giving was strong!  Please stay faithful in contributing to the financial support of our church; consider committing to regular giving if you do not regularly do so.

While we have stayed financially ‘above water’ this year, there have been times where our cash reserves dipped dramatically low, to less than a month’s worth of expenses.  This happened in late August/early September and also occurred in late April/early May.  We would like to get to a more healthy financial level where we as a Stewardship Team and as a church can get away from some of the detrimental month-to-month worries about finances that come with our current cash reserve levels. We would like to be a robust, giving congregation, able to bless others, in addition to sustaining our ministry partners and staff.

As mentioned, we will provide a more comprehensive budget update at November’s Road Crew meeting.  Have a good week!

Mike Elenbaas, Ryan Engel, Dave Anema – your Stewardship Team

ROAD CREW AGENDA MARCH 3, 2013

GROUNDWORKS - GET TO or HAVE TO?
Or do something else entirely?

Background: Since May 2009, Emmaus Road has organized neighborhood service projects on or around "Fifth Sundays"; over time, fewer and fewer people have participated. December 30 involved just nine adults and six children/youth from Emmaus Road.

Have our values shifted?
Is more preparation/planning needed?
Has the time come for something different?

Tomorrow (March 3), this will be the topic for Road Crew.

Here is the rational behind GROUNDWORKS, in notes from ministry team mtg. this past fall:
Why GROUNDWORKS?

• obedience; widows/orphans 
• 5th Sundays simple for coordinating 
• fellowship 
• Belltown specific, also for simplicity AND bldg relationships in 'hood 
• easy to invite friends from beyond church 
• church growth

Possible Improvements/Changes:

1. Rotate/mix up the activities so as not to lose interest - make sure our work is meaningful and intentional 
2. Kid/family friendly ideas 
3. Move toward serving "with" and not just "for" 
4. Engage congregation more; share Success Stories; address Barriers: apathy; fear; kids