CBCGB Church Council Retreat Minutes, Q4 of 2014

        December 13, 2014

中文翻譯在末後段落

1. In Attendance:

1. Board of Elders (“BoE”): Liqin Chen (Chair), Ke-Chieh Ch, Yuguang He, David Ho, Timothy Lu, Ming-Jer Tsai, Terry Yang
2. Board of Deacons (“BoD”): Christopher Cheng (Secretary), Lawrence Liang-Shang Gan, Chun-Yi Hu, Lance Pan, Phil Sailer, Loren Shih (Head Deacon), Ji-Yong Wang (Treasurer), Ruike Wang, Xin-Wen Wang, Jimin Xiong, Haiguo Wu
3. Pastoral Staff: Minister Steven Bowman, Sr. Pastor Caleb Chang, Pastor Steve Chang, Pastor David Eng, Pastor Sandy Liu, Minister Jennifer Lin, Pastor Chuck Lowe, Pastor Jiang Wei, Minister Yuegang Zhang
4. Invitees:

1. Incoming BoD members: Beata Shih, Jian Zhang
2. Guest Speaker: Pastor Steven Chin

5. Absent:

1. Deacons: Joshua Chang
2. Pastors: Pastor Ju-Ta Pan

2. Location: Church office basement

3. Meeting Agenda & Minutes

1. Meeting started at 9:08 am.
2. Sharing from Pastor Steven Chin (Senior Pastor of Boston Chinese Evangelical Church)

1. Pastor Steven Chin shared about developing a winning church leadership team.

1. Jesus prayed for our unity and the early church appointed multiple elders that had to work together to make decisions.
2. Obstacles to unity include cultural/language/age, theological, philosophical, leadership style, personality, spiritual differences
3. Leaders must be godly people who sense God’s will, model servanthood, show love to all, continually grow (since the model is Jesus), and act as peacemakers.
4. Unity is not the same as uniformity.
5. To promote unity, leaders must:

1. Seek consensus on major decisions (not just simple majority decisions).
2. Clarify their individual roles.
3. Not gossip (even if it’s true).
4. Take initiative to resolve conflict privately.
5. Have an attitude of humility
6. Submit to authority
7. Pray

2. Pastor Caleb led the council in the Lord’s prayer.

3. Board of Deacons update (Deacon Loren)

1. Loren reviewed stewardship and IT projects that were completed in 2014 and upcoming planned projects for 2015.  Please refer to prior month Board of Deacon minutes for more details.
2. Security cameras will be installed this coming week.

4. Board of Elders update (Elder Liqin)

1. The Board of Elders have been praying monthly for the church vision.  They continue to seek open communication with the church and would like to ask all to continue to pray.
2. Church policies:

1. The Board of Elders has approved the following new policies:

1. Seminary scholarship and internship (to reflect increasing tuition costs)
2. Inviting outside speakers and performers (to formalize an informal practice)

2. The church council discussed the need to better manage all the church policies and facilitate the ability to find and reference these policies.  The website team and Board of Deacons will work to ensure they are aligned regarding the strategy for managing church documents.

3. The Board of Elders is reviewing a new charter to form a local missions and outreach committee to support evangelism/outreach activities and manage support of parachurch workers.

5. Quarterly Financial Report (Deacon Ji-yong)

Deacon Ji-yong reported on the church’s current financial situation.  He gave an overview of the various monthly financial reports generated by the finance committee.

For the General Fund budget summary - up to November 30, our total expense is at 33.9% and our total offering is at 41.5% of the total annual budget after give months.

4. The total CBE project donations since December 2012 has been $788,212.12.

6. Budget Approvals

1. English Ministry Focus (Bryan Che)

1. The purpose of creating this new general fund budget account is to support development, promulgation, and instruction regarding the English ministry focus: using our vocations to advance the purpose of God.
2. Bryan clarified that this is an amendment to the current fiscal year budget ending in June, but will likely continue as a budget item in future fiscal years.  Chinese ministry members are also welcome to participate in this focus.
3. English ministry was asked to be accountable regarding how the money was spent at the end of the fiscal year.
4. Elder Ke-chieh Chu moved to approve the creation a new budget item to support the English ministry focus in fiscal year 2015 of $3000.  Elder David Ho seconded.  The motion passed.

2. Re-roofing project (Deacon Lawrence)

1. The church council previously approved $190,000 for the re-roofing project.  However, actual costs exceeded the initial estimate by 5% due to the need for thicker material (4”), longer nails (10”), and more days of labor.
2. Deacon Ruike Wang moved to approve an additional $9,520 from the capital fund for the re-roofing project.  Deacon Chun-Yi Hu seconded.  The motion passed.

3. Internship, Para-church support, church directory printing (Pastor Caleb)

1. The budget requests are due to two new seminary interns, change in seminary scholarship support levels (because of the amended policy), and new parachurch members that we are supporting.
2. Pastor Jiang Wei moved to amend the internship support budget from $14,000 to $19,000.  Minister Yuegang Zhang seconded.  The motion passed.
3. Deacon Lance Pan moved to amend the directory printing budget from $2,000 to $2,200.  Deacon Haiguo Wu seconded.  The motion passed.
4. Pastor Jiang Wei moved to amend the seminarian support budget from $27,000 to $35,000.  Deacon Lance Pan seconded.  The motion passed.
5. Elder Yuguang He moved to amend the parachurch worker support budget from $15,000 to $25,000.  Minister Yuegang Zhang seconded.  The motion passed.

7. Elder Ming-Jer Tsai closed in prayer and Elder Liqin adjourned the meeting at 12:26 pm.