PRESBYTERY COUNCIL

April 8, 2008

Presbytery office

The Council of the Presbytery Minnesota Valleys was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by the vice-chairNorma Spurgin.

Those present included: 

LeRoy Ennenga, Presbytery Vice-Moderator

Rev. Sue Coller, Executive Presbyter

Rev. Pamela Prouty, Stated Clerk

Those excused included:  Rev. Dawn Carder, Presbytery Moderator, Rev. Roger Grussing, Rev. Bob Bartlett, Dale Champ (Class of 2009)

We started with introductions and devotions by Grayson Osteraas.

COUNCIL VOTED to approve the agenda.

COUNCIL VOTED to approve the minutes from March 11, 2008.

Sue led us in a discussion around a piece entitled “Regional Denominational Issues for Generative Dialogue.”

Communication Task Survey (Appendix A)

We looked at the “Congregational Survey Summary” and talked about how to communicate what is going on in the presbytery.  An initial step could be to have the Valleybridge be in a format so that the articles could easily be placed in bulletins.  Another initial step is to put the Valleybridge on the website in a “PDF” file.  And we will continue our discussion of communications.

Proposed Manual of Operations and By-Laws

We did a final look through of the proposed manual of operations and by-laws.  Grayson brought forth questions about the articles of incorporation.  He shared the current articles of incorporation along with the original articles of incorporation.  He has concerns about accountability

COUNCIL VOTED to recommend to presbytery the proposed manual of operations and by-laws effective January 1, 2009.

COUNCIL VOTED to form a task force (to co-opt members as necessary) to deal specifically with the board of trustees and the articles of incorporation.  Leroy Ennenga and Bea Ourada (will be asked by Norma) will serve as members of the task force.   Grayson Osteraas and Pam Prouty will resource this committee.

COUNCIL VOTED to recommend to presbytery that we have five members of the personnel and budget and finance committee.

Bills and Overtures Committee

We looked at the overtures which the Bills and Overtures.

COUNCIL VOTED to endorse the recommendations of the Bills and Overture Committee regarding the overtures to the General Assembly.

Report from the Task Force to recommend a process for nomination of General Assembly Commissioners and presbytery officers

They have not met yet.

Visit with Bethel PC, Reading

Grayson, Norma and Sue will be visiting with them tomorrow, mainly to listen to their concerns.

Update on June Council retreat

We had short conversation about the retreat.

COUNCIL VOTED to invite representatives from the Presbyteries of Northern Waters and John Knox to the June retreat.

Nomination for the Nominating Committee

Connie Steltz will volunteer to find a male elder.  This name will be presented at the May Presbytery meeting.

We broke for lunch at 12:30 p.m.; we reconvened at 1:00 p.m.

Reports

Committee liaisons/phone advocates

Session Records:            They have begun their work.

LCM: Al reported that they are doing nothing.

CG &D:  Christina reported that they are becoming a more responsive committee

Leadership Team-hasn’t met

Presbytery moderator: no report

Executive Presbyter

Sue presented the following report:

Executive Presbyter Report

Council Meeting - April 8, 2008

1.     A synod task force was formed to look at issues surrounding the phase out of the mission support dollars and the impact of that on the staff support dollars that presbyteries with full time executive presbyters receive.  Our presbytery does not receive any mission support dollars.  We do receive $40,000 in staff support.  The task force will be recommending to the synod at its April meeting that the funding continue as is in 2009, and that it decrease to $35,000 in 2010.  After that, it is proposed that presbyteries submit a plan for “new forms of leadership configurations” before being eligible to receive any more staff support dollars.  The synod will act on this recommendation the end of April, and it may or may not approve what has been proposed.

While our budget is such that we could “shuffle” our numbers without a lot of effort to accommodate the decrease in funds for 2010, given our other conversations about who we are as a presbytery and what are our priorities, this is an opportunity to look at our entire budget in light of our priorities.  So for the moment, this is information that at some point in the near future will require a response.  We will not know the final word from the synod until after the synod meeting the last week of April.

2.     The “6 Pack” multi-presbytery conversation has died a quiet death.  We had two meetings with representatives from Northern Waters, Twin Cities Area, John Knox, Winnebago and Milwaukee presbyteries to do some generative thinking about the purpose of our particular presbyteries, and what, if anything, we could do together as we wrestled with being regional governing bodies during these changing times.  The Wisconsin presbytery executives decided that they were no longer interested in being part of such a conversation and have withdrawn, choosing instead to focus on staffing issues among the Wisconsin presbyteries and working within state boundaries.   Currently we have no conversations planned with Twin Cities Area Presbytery or any other presbyteries.

3.     Just something to be aware of:  the nominating committee is meeting April 9 to address several vacancies –

a.     two on council, including that of chairperson

b.     two on Committee on Preparation for Ministry, including that of co-chairperson

c.     one on Congregational Growth and Development Committee

d.     one on the Permanent Judicial Commission

e.     one on Social Action Ministry Committee

f.      one on Self Development of People Committee

In addition, the council needs to nominate a male elder for the Nominating Committee, due to the resignation of Duane Boetzek from cluster 2.

It is my recommendation to the Nominating Committee that they only address the issue of council chairperson at the moment, and not seek to fill the two vacancies.  If we decide at our June council retreat to recommend to presbytery a smaller council, now that we are asking presbytery to move personnel and budget and finance to be committees of presbytery, then waiting to fill those two vacancies gives us more flexibility as we discuss that.

We had a conversation about what part of the presbytery will play in paying lawyer fees for contracts between minister members and particular congregations.  By a consensus we agreed to split these costs fifty-fifty up to a reasonable amount.

We had a conversation about the recommendations from the Sartell Administrative Commission for the use of the net proceeds.

Stated Clerk’s Report

Pam presented the following report:

STATED CLERK’S REPORT

TO THE COUNCIL

APRIL 8, 2008

1.             Action needs to be taken to dissolve the Administrative Commission to install the Rev. Anna Williamson; her installation took place on Sunday January 13, 2008 at the church in Brown’s Valley.  The minutes are on file.

COUNCIL VOTED to dissolve the Administrative Commission to install the Rev. Anna Williamson; her installation took place on Sunday, Janaury 13, 2008 at the church in Brown’s Valley.

2.             Action needs to be taken to take the following people off the rolls of Presbytery from the Sauk Rapids church; this church was closed.  The names include:  Betty Garrer, Ned Taylor, Mae Levine, Bob Levine, Doris Busse, Lisle Evans, Lelia L. Huston, Sally Hockert, Timothy Leyk, Linnea Keehr, Jean Bauer, Betty Butterfield, Roger Bartehlemy, Maureen Barthelemy, Rick Rentz, Tammy Rentz, Kathy Reinke, Dwaine Tallert, Beverly Tallert, Diane McClure, Dave McClure, Lisa McClure, Mark Neil, Alice Neil, Mike Neil, Scott McClure, Adam Barthelemy, Christian Mahoney, Connie Taylor, Dick Hicks, Delores Hicks, Lynn Cairns, Duane Even, Mark Leyk and Luke Leyk.

Attached is a letter from Jean Bauer requesting that her name remain on the presbytery rolls.

COUNCIL VOTED to recommend to presbytery to remove the above people from the rolls of presbytery and to ask Jean Bauer to figure out her membership by June 1, 2008.

3.             Action needs to be taken to set the hosts for the 2009 presbytery meeting.  Here are the requests I have received:

February           Silver Lake

May                  Amboy and Worthington

September         Fergus Falls, Federated

December         Pipestone and Renville

These locations fit within the guidelines which Council set.  Some things you need to think about when setting the locations is the size of the building (whether it is large enough to seat the members of presbytery comfortably as well as room for break out discussions if there is a need for this) and the drive time for the people who live on the edges of the presbytery boundaries.  I have had a number of people talk to me about the location of the presbytery meeting as to whether they will attend.  Traditionally when a presbytery meeting is in the South, the attendance from the Northern churches (meaning elders and pastors) is low and vice versa.  Ten or more years ago all the presbytery meetings were held in the center of the presbytery (Redwood Falls, Renville, Spicer and Willmar). 

COUNCIL VOTED to set the hosts for the 2009 Presbytery meetings to be Tuesday, February 3, 2009 in Silver Lake, Saturday, May 2, 2009 in Amboy, Saturday, September 19 in Fergus Falls, Federated, and Tuesday, December 1, 2009 in Renville.

4.             All the annual statistics have been transmitted to the General Assembly.  Attached is the Presbytery report for 2007.  If anyone would like further details on any item, please let me know.

Budget and Finance

COUNCIL VOTED to receive the per capita report and the mission giving report.

Click here for Financial Reports.

GA 2010

Rallah and Robbie Madison and Colby Anderson are all representing Minnesota Valleys on the committee for local arrangements.

COUNCIL VOTED to give $2000 to Robbie and Rallah Madison to attend the 218 GA in San Jose, CA; money will come from reserves.

Rallah Madison abstained from the above motion.

Our next meeting will be the June retreat on June 11-12 in Willmar.

We adjourned at 2:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Pamela R. Prouty

Stated Clerk

Appendix A

Congregational Survey Summary

Council Meeting – March 11, 2008

The survey of sent out to the congregations gave a return of 13% of the surveys sent out.  This was a higher percentage than anticipated.  We received over 760 surveys back.  The Church-goers who responded are overwhelmingly very active members who are older, married with no children at home.

Internet Access

·         Minnesota Valleys Internet access of 69% is lower than the national average of 80% with the more rural and smaller churches having less access.

·         The numbers rise to 90% with families with children.  Larger churches also have congregations with higher internet access.  Of those with internet access, most are online weekly.  Only half of those with internet access know that their church has a web site.  One in five of the internet users doesn’t know if their church has a web site or not.

·         The less active a family is the less likely they are to know if their church has a web site.

·         Only one half of those who knew their church has a web site have ever visited it.

·         The group which is most likely to use the web sites is the active, ordained members.

·         Less than 30% of members with internet access has ever visited the Presbytery of Minnesota Valleys web site.  Interestingly, it is the members of smaller churches and in cluster 4 that are the most likely to have visited the Presbytery web site.

·         The Synod website has the least visitors and the PC (USA) website had slightly more visitors than the Presbytery web site.

·         Use of email by those with internet access: 40% say that they have contacted the church office by email and about half that many have contacted the Presbytery by email.

Publications: 

·         Valley Bridge - Only about half of the respondents are aware of the Valley Bridge and only 1/3 of the younger respondents are aware of the Valley Bridge.  The greatest awareness of is in smaller churches and in cluster 3. Of those who are aware of the Valley Bridge, half have never read any of the last four issues.  Only about 1 in 4 church goers have read at least one of the last four issues. 

·         Transforming Leaders – an e-newsletter - Only 7% of the respondents were aware of this publication with only twice that number of active ordained.

·         Church Newsletters - Most churches have newsletters and most of the respondents were aware of their church’s newsletter and these newsletters are well read.

·         Church Bulletins - These are the most often read source of information and the most well read (by 97%).  Inserts are not read as well as the information printed in the bulletin itself (only by 73%).  Three out of four people will take their bulletin home.

·         Magazines - More people are aware of Presbyterians Today than are aware of Presbyterian Outlook or Presbyterian Layman.  The overall readership of all three magazines is very low.

Loyalty  (as respondents have a high opinion and likelihood to recommend their church, are aware of the presbytery, synod, and denomination and have a high opinion and are willing to speak highly of those elements, the higher the loyalty score.)

People are less likely to be loyal to the denomination than to their local church, but only one in four has a high loyalty to their church.  More people would give the denomination a positive review than the presbytery (46% vs. 36%)

Conservative, Moderate, or Liberal

The largest group of respondents (43%) classify themselves as somewhat or very conservative.  Thirty five percent classify themselves as moderate and twenty two percent classify themselves as liberal or very liberal.  Singles, never married, and inactives are less likely to classify themselves as conservatives.  46% of the respondents classify the PC (USA) as moderate and 36 % as liberal.  47% of those aware of GA actions consider them somewhat to very liberal.

Topic Interest and satisfaction:

The top three interest areas are: Church members, Scripture based messages, and church growth ideas.  Of these the highest satisfaction with information received is with Scripture based messages and the least satisfaction is with church growth ideas.

Challenges

The areas that offer the biggest challenges for the churches in the Presbytery are those of Church growth and decline.  A second area of concern is with youth ministry.  Younger members are much more concerned with issues affecting families and less concerned with denominational issues.

Some conclusions are: (from Isabelle Davis)

·         The best way to advertise to existing members is in the church bulletins and newsletters. 

·         In order to increase awareness of Presbytery, Synod and GA local publications should refer to readers to these resources by way of including links to web sites or referring to articles in publications such as Valley Bridge or Presbyterians Today.

·         More people would feel more connected to Presbytery if they were more aware of it and if they felt it was helping their local church address its problems (and not just seeing it as a place that wants them to send their money). 

·         There is a major disconnect between the congregations and the denominational governing bodies.  The people in the pews do not feel connected to the Presbytery, Synod or GA.

Appendix B

Bills and Overtures Committee Meeting

March 25, 2008

First Presbyterian Church, Redwood Falls, MN

Those present:              Colby Anderson, Celeste Lasich, Scott Prouty, Richard Underdahl-Peirce

Those not present:         Candace Adams, Chelsea Crowell, LeRoy Ennenga, Cindy Matthews-Rosa, Charles Moore, Dennis Wilson

Ex-officio present:          Sue Coller, Executive Presbyter and Pamela Prouty, Stated Clerk

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. in absence of the chair by Sue Coller with prayer.  We started with an orientation for the General Assembly commissioners and advisory delegates.

Then we considered three overtures.  The first overture is a request for the 218^th General Assembly to view a video “Living Waters for the World” at GA this year.  Since this overture is already being sent to the General Assembly the committee by consensus took no action.

The second overture is about creating a Presbyterian office for the prevention and healing of misconduct and abuse by Ministers of the Word and Sacrament.  While this committee considers this a crucially important subject, they felt there are other ways which would not carry the expense of creating a new office of accessing these sorts of resources.  So the committee by consensus took no action.

The third overture has to do with asking the World Alliance of Reformed Churches to investigate the actions and conduct of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in its actively pursuing a strategy to persuade PC (USA) churches to disaffiliate with the PC (USA).  The committee had a lengthy discussion of this overture and voted to concur with this overture.  The rationale for recommending concurrence is that if a pastor were to engage in such behavior so as to try to entice members from one church to another, that would be considered a violation of boundaries.  In communities where churches and ministers work together for the common good, such behavior would be destructive, not only to their Christian witness, unity, and trust, but to the community as well.  When a denomination engages in such behavior, the effects are similar.  If there are concerns that the Evangelical Presbyterian Church is engaging in such behavior, it would be appropriate for an outside entity to investigate that and recommend an appropriate response.

The first two overtures will be presented to the Presbytery through the Consent Agenda and the third will come to the floor of the Presbytery for it to consider.  Celeste will do the presentation.

The committee adjourned at 12:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Pamela R. Prouty, Stated Clerk