Meeting Minutes

Board of Elders (“BoE”)

March 14, 2015

Present: Liqin Chen (Chair), Pastor Caleb Chang, Ke-Chieh (KC) Chu, Yuguang He (acting secretary), Timothy Lu, Haiguo Wu (Head Deacon), Beata Shih (尹思瑩, BoD observer)

Absent: Terry Yang (Secretary), David Ho

Opening prayer: Liqin

Brief sharing:

• KC: 151 Old Spring Street Building roof done, after some turbulent processes
• Caleb: gratitude for the congregation for the time of family vacation last week to get refreshed, recalling the fun family time in the past when the children were young
• Haiguo: snow storms have forced fellowships to postpone the Chinese Year Celebration, making it closer to the Spring Evangelist meeting gracefully just in time to have the poster ready to distribute to the seekers at the celebrations

Updates to the State of the Church (Caleb)

• Grateful for the successful retreats by ICF, senior and junior high and all the servers
• Grateful to have Liqin, Haiguo, and Caleb to monitor the snow cover conditions at church for making decisions on opening/closing of the facilities when needed
• Discipleship/Leadership training

• Second wave of the small group leadership training has started on 3/1
• Centralized training and leadership; decentralized / mobilized operation
• Elders and shepherds are crucial to the program
• All key leaders should be trained as the possible regional pastors (區牧),
• It is a ministry not just for small groups activities but establishing 24/7 relationship. It is a ministry that is able to debottleneck the facility limitation and to multiply leadership

• Aware of teaching and learning are dual processes and should go hand-in-hand, to encourage small group gathering, which has been demonstrated  in various ministries and churches, e.g., many sisters’ small groups, 352 “Tribe”, Rutgers CCC and Grace Chapel
• MGM (春季布道會) is coming, training on the way, more recruits of counselors (陪談) are needed, and more earnest prayers are needed
• Grateful to BoD and Finance Committee’s initiative for mother church Financial Support planning for the MetroSouth property purchasing
• Pray for Church-wide Special Membership Meeting on 3/15

BoD Updates (Haiguo)

• Stewardship (see more details in February BoD minutes)

• Property project: e.g., main building basement HVAC installation before this summer
• Property maintenance:  e.g., fixed the boiler pump water leakage in the office basement, malfunctioned elevator, Carriage house oil boiler maintenance, etc
• Property management: security camera in place, copyright infringement handling, etc.

• Awareness of copyright infringement issue is raised when publicizing the copyrighted properties over the network at church, which applies to both the local coworkers and the guest speakers
• Deacon Lawrence Gan’s official furlough from the post has been recorded in the BoD minutes, and informed at BoE

Local Mission Committee Chair Confirmation

• BoE approved Brother Shan-Chuan Zhao as the chair for the Community Outreach Committee

Deacon Appointment for Vacancy 2015 (Liqin)

• Decided to select from among last year’s deacon candidates to finish the term as vacated by Deacon Lawrence Gan
• Appointed Yuguang He to start the interview process

Prioritizing Ministries for Review

• Decided that CM worship as the first ministry to be reviewed, and KC is assigned as the moderator for the process
• Assigned Timothy to come up with the plan to review the joint worship
• Decided that the Website ministry needs to be reviewed, and Yuguang is assigned as the moderator for the process

Social Concern Ministry (SCM) Budget Review

• Decreases

• Last year’s joint conference budget was exceeded due to accommodation of two flights from Taiwan.  This year’s invited speaker is from NJ and costs would expected lower, leading to lower budgeted amount for the joint conference.
• External ministries that we perceive to have a wider population to fundraise from (International Justice Mission and Lifesong for Orphans) had their support levels reduced by 25-50% due to actual pledge numbers were below target.
• Unplanned organization giving and unplanned activities, which historically were budgeted a sum of ~$9,000, had to be combined to 1 line item in 2015 with a budget total of $3,000 due to pledge numbers below target.

• Increases, e.g.,

• Summerbridge 10% increase based on actual 2014 expenses

• Proposed to have the budget review changed to once a year to be at the beginning of the year upon having finalized pledge numbers instead of twice with one before the pledge comes in as defined in the SCM Charter. The reasons areto reduce committee workload and the projection of year-end fund balance  tends to be inaccurate.  This will be reflected in the SCM charter revision to be worked on in 2015.
• Pledge 2015 is lower than expected, which is translated to lower supports to the ministries
• SCM Budget 2015 is approved

Church Visioning Updates

• Feedback from the pastoral staff

• Open-ended Concerns – Pastoral staff had concerns on culturally specific wording such as “Chinese Heritage”
• Suggested broader purpose such as all our neighbors in the statement

• Met with EM leaders who will send written feedback soon
• Feedback from Fellowships

• Concerns on culturally specific wording such as “Chinese Heritage”, similar to pastors

• Suggestions

• Resume the monthly BOE visioning prayer meeting
• Extend invitation to people to BoE visioning prayer meeting such as pastoral staff
• Encourage concrete recommendations from pastoral staff

• Once concrete recommendations are collected, BoE will resume the visioning prayer meeting and may extend the invitation to broader audience
• Church council (CC) summer retreat is recommended for church visioning, which needs feedback from the CC members in the coming CC meeting.

Special Membership Meeting for MS Property Purchase

• To be conducted on 3/15
• Verified all the details such as collecting ballots, time control, etc.

Closing prayer: KC

長老團會議記錄

March 14, 2015

出席：陳利欽（主席），章開第牧師，朱克潔，何煜光（執行秘書）, 盧忠信，吳海國（執事會主席），尹思瑩（執事會觀察員）

缺席：楊德禮（秘書），何明治

會前禱告：陳利欽

簡短分享：

• 朱克潔長老：經過一番波折過程之後，151號樓屋頂完工
• 章開第牧师：為著上週自己和家庭度過一個放鬆的假期感謝眾會员，回想起過去家人和孩子在一起的樂趣
• 吳海國執事：因暴風雪迫使团契推遲了中國新年的慶祝活動，使庆祝活动靠近春季佈道会，正好将准备好的海報分發給慶祝活動的参加者

章開第牧師的教會近況簡報：

• 感謝所有服事者，大專生，高中生，以及初中生退修會成功舉行
• 感謝在需要時有陳利欽主席，吳海國執事，和章開第牧師一起監控積雪的情況，做出教堂是否開放或關閉的決策
• 門徒/領導培訓

• 第二期的细胞小组領導培訓班已經于3/1日開始
• 集中培訓和領導力培訓;分散式/移動運作
• 長老和牧者的作用非常重要
• 所有的主要領導應該被培訓為可能的區牧
• 這些小培训班不仅是做為细胞小组进行活動，而且要建立24/7的關係。这些小培训班能摆脱场地的限制和提高領導能力

• 意識到教學和學習的是紧密相关的雙進程，應該鼓勵小團體的聚會，在各事工和教堂都已有了各种小聚会，譬如，很多姐妹的小團體，352“部落”，若歌教會的CCC和Grace的副堂等
• 春季佈道會即將到來，同工培訓在進行中，需要招募更多新的陪談员，需要更加懇切的祈禱
• 感謝執事會和財務委員會關於母堂對南區子堂財產購買的支持計劃的提議
• 為3/15教會特別會員大會的禱告

執事會簡報(吳海國) 

• 產物管理（見二月份執事會記錄詳細信息）

• 物業項目：例如，今年夏天之前主樓地下室供暖、通风、空调的安裝。
• 物業維修：例如，辦公室地下室的固定鍋爐水泵漏水，電梯失靈，內部運輸燃油鍋爐維修等
• 物業管理：安全攝像頭到位，侵犯版權被處理，等等。

• 注意到版權侵權問題發生在把有版權的出版物刊登在教會網絡上，這在本地同工以及外來講員都有發生。
• 甘良生執事在執事崗位的正式休假已被記錄在執事會的会议記錄，並通知了長老團

本地宣教委員會主席確認

• 長老會確認趙山川兄弟為本地宣教委員會主席

執事對2015空缺的任命

• 決定從去年的執事候選人中進行選擇出填补甘良生執事任期空缺的人选
• 任命何煜光長老開始面試過程

事工的檢討安排

• 決定华语部崇拜事工作為第一个事工部进行检核，指定朱克潔長老為過程的主持人
• 指定盧忠信長老提出計畫來检討聯合崇拜
• 決定網站部的检核，指定何煜光長老為過程的主持人

社會關懷事工（SCM）預算審查

• 減少
• 去年因有兩次台灣來回机票費用而使宣教社關聯合年會的預算超過。今年的特邀演講者来自新澤西州，故成本將有望降低，從而有望降低宣教社關聯合年會預算金額。
• 由於實際認獻的數字低於原定目標，我們認為来自外部籌款部門（國際公義使團和孤兒生命曲）的事工将他們所支持的水平減少了25-50％。
• 由於信心認獻的數字低於目標，計劃外組織捐贈和計劃外的活動的预算，在过去歷史上是总数可达〜$9,000元款項，现在不得不合併到總額为$3000的2015年預算第一项。
• 增加，例如：

• 根據2014年的實際支出顯示，Summerbridge消費增長了10％

• 建議将預算審查改為每年一次，並在年初依照其完成的承諾數字进行，而不是如社会关怀部规定的每年兩次，而其中一次在奉献承诺之前。究其原因付訖減少委員會的工作量和年末資金餘額的預測往往是不準確的。這一建议將在2015年社会关怀部规定中需要修訂。
• 2015年信心認獻承諾低於預期，是對事工部提供較低的支持
• 社會關懷部2015年預算案獲得批准

教會異象簡報

• 從牧區工作人員的反饋

• 開放式的關注 - 牧区人員不得不關注文化上的具體措辭，如“中國文化承传”
• 建議更廣泛的目的，如用於在聲明中所有的鄰居

• 會見英語事工部的領導，他們在不久會發出的書面反饋
• 來自團契的反饋

• 關注文化上的具體措辭，如“中國文化承传”，類似於牧師

• 建議

• 恢復每月長老會規劃禱告會
• 擴大邀請人群，如牧師，參加長老規劃禱告會。
• 鼓勵教牧提具體建議

• 一旦具體建議收集，長老會將恢復規劃禱告會，並可能延長邀請更廣泛的参眾。
• 牧長執聯會（CC）的夏季會議推薦為教會遠景規劃，这还需要征求即将召开的牧長執聯會成員會議上的反饋意见。

關於南區購地的特別會員大會

• 3/15将要在進行之中
• 核實了所有細節，如收集選票，時間控制等。

結束禱告: 朱克潔