CBCGB Informational Meeting Minutes

May 13, 2012

中文翻譯在末後段落

1. Meeting Location: Church chapel, CBCGB
2. Meeting Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, Sunday, May 13, 2012
3. Meeting Chair: Elder K.C. Chu, (chair of church council)
4. Meeting Invitees: Open invitation to all church members. The total number of attendees is about 145.
5. Meeting Recorder: Deacon Patrick Lin, (secretary of church council)
6. Meeting Agenda:

1. Opening prayer: led by Elder K.C. Chu
2. Presentation (Please refer to Elder K.C.’s presentation file for details).

1. Chinese Version 5/13/2012
2. English Version 5/20/2012

3. Q&A

1. Does church expense on the projection of 3.5% yearly increase rate incorporate pastoral staff benefit? How many more of pastoral staff can be added in addition to the current number? Does our projection need to be kept up with current 27% increasing rate of tieth offering in order to keep in a good balance?

Church are considering add one more pastoral staff in the near future. It always takes time to search pastoral staff. Also, our church ministry expense projection should be exercising upon faith. It is not necessary to predict the future with a certain increasing rate on tieth offering. Our consideration is not all about the financial need and balance, but should focus more on how build up all to be rooted in Christ.

2. What is the primary need and vision for our church building expansion project? How long does it take for entire project to be done completely? Financial plan of this CBE project

The current CBE project is expected to be done in 4.5 years. We are trying hard to plan this project and wish to shorten it within 4 years. The design phase and permission application is indeed taking time. We will send this request to CBET for better planning. Some of you may know that sanctuary is full recently and ushers are sending people to the chapel for overflow control. We have considered many different options and suggested this CBE project as one of solutions to accommodate more needs within our church family. If we move ahead to execute this CBE project, and issue church bonds, the interest rate is estimated to be 3.72%.

3. Can we provide two worship services using both sanctuary and chapel simultaneously? I believe our pews are not fully seated, why can we consider multi-worship services to utilize our existing church space? We’ve talked about multiple and more dynamic of worship services for the past 5 years. Overflow to the chapel may only work around current issues temporarily. Can we help to improve sitting density?

Since overflow-to-the-chapel has been the current plan to ease the tension of sanctuary, we will need to equip our facility to allow worshipers to have as similar experience as in the sanctuary. There is a dedicated group to study on possibility of multiple worship services and provide us a feasible plan. User team should be able to help with proper sitting density.

4. What is our vision in Chinese Ministry? How come the church vision team has not been established yet, since church meeting minutes described the need?

The Great Commission (Mt. 28:16-20) is our Christian’s vision, in general. The question is how to deliver it? EM team is working on this issue recently.

(Member) The Great Commission is not equal to our church’s vision. We need to know more concrete statement.

I would take this back to BoE for further discussion.

5. If one of our neighbors is going to sell their houses, will we consider buying it?

I've not heard anything about that. However, if there is a case with a decent price which can fit our needs, then we will consider about it, of course.

6. Church mission fund has surplus for many years as we all know. Can short term mission team be supported financially? I think current our short term mission teams carry back all financial burdens mostly on parents' shoulders.

If there is a need, please do apply, case by case, to the mission committee. BoE will discuss this need and communicate with the mission committee. The mission committee will take any case into consideration and bring it up to committee meetings. We should consider about their parents financial situation as well.

7. Should pastors or elders actively participate mission trips?

Yes, we will consider it and talk about how to do this in the coming BoE meetings.

8. CM sermon time is stretching relatively too long, which causes worshiping time to be short?

(Pastor Caleb) I’ve tried to control over the sermon time in between 45~50 minutes.

(members) This is just one of the opinions. We need to be careful when this type of topic is brought up for discussion. Another member stands up to support current liturgy configuration and time spending.

9. What is the current ByLaws status? Why we have to spend so much energy, effort and time to study ByLaws? Will this organization be simplified rather than be complicated?

As some of you may know, all drafts proposed by ByLaws Revision Committee were not be accepted. There is a new (5) people committee established. This committee brought those drafts back, compared with current ByLaws, researched in depth, and provided a study report to the BoE. This report is reviewed by BoE right now. From time to time, there is always room for improvement, even through, our church ByLaws may not bring us all to be the better person and make this church to be the better place. The goal of improving ByLaws is for us to serve our gracious Lord better altogether.

10. We are working on Metro South church planting and CBE project at the same time. Both may consume huge resources. Why can we do it sequentially?

Church planting and church expansion may not contradict to each other. Because one is demanding on human resource, the other is needed for financial support. I would encourage us all to be faithful to God, by following His guidance, and trusting Him more.

11. Can we bring up the 2nd worship services for senior people?

We don’t want to exclude any groups of people to participate the original worship services. BoE will consider what to proceed, if there is a 2nd worship services.

12. Church expansion on building space for education vs. a multi-purpose Gym. We are building up a church, a religious place for us to worship God, why spend huge funds building a gym?

(Elder Chaw-Bing) I think we need both. For English congregation, they are desperately needed a multi-function Gym. We have many different needs in multiple aspects. This multi-purpose building, if you don’t want to call it a Gym, can be utilized for evangelistic meetings, revival camp, or many other different usages. We’re not limited its usage to sport events. All spaces can be used to bring more people from nearby communities to build up His Kingdom.

13. According to this huge church expansion plan, can we consider what is the most project in need and prioritize items into different phases? Do we know what is our priority and what current problem we try to resolve? Most of time, our church buildings are not as busy as Friday and Sunday.

This CBE plan has been brought out for a long time. If we do it all at once, we can reduce the total cost. We may have many different opinions upon the priority and demands. We should consider one another and holding hands to work on this project altogether. We all know better about our needs within our own ministry, but we don't know too much about what else is needed for other people sometimes. I would suggest for most of you to try to understand more about the needs for all ministries, and also urge you all to pray for those needs. We've done so such as doing survey and collecting opinions. Perhaps, those actions are not well communicated. We need to take actions, not just stop in research and having thoughts.

14. (suggestion) We may need a better planning on facility sharing policy. So we can try to avoid conflicts after church expansion could be done.

15. If mission fund is always coming with huge surplus, why we still pledge so much fund year by year? Should the mission committee provide a better budgeting and planning?

Indeed, mission committee members have discussed this same issue. The surplus has been accumulated from the past. Mission committee should continue on with more details for better discussion.

Translation in Chinese

CBCGB 會友座談會議紀要

2012年5月13日

1. 會議地點：本教會副堂。
2. 會議時間：2012年5月13日，星期日，上午11時30分至下午12時30分。
3. 會議主持人：聯會主席朱克潔長老。
4. 與會者：公開邀請所有的教會成員，及關注教會事務、並可參加本次會議的人。約145人與會。
5. 會議記錄：聯會書記林有洧執事。
6. 會議議程：

1. 會前禱告：朱克潔長老帶領
2. 報告（細節請參考朱長老的檔案）

1. 中文版 5/13/2012
2. 英文版 5/20/2012

3. 問答

1. 教會每年支出增加3.5%的比率，是否與教牧人員福利的比率相對應？就目前教牧的人數來看，還可以增加多少人？我們的所反映的數字，是否要與目前奉獻增加27%的比率相當？

教會考慮在未來增加一名教牧人員，聘牧需要花一段時間，再者教會事工支出的預算如何，應屬於信心的操練上，可以不用拿精確的的奉獻比率，來預測將來。我們的考量，並不集中在財務需要和平衡，而是建造在基督的基礎上。

2. 在我們教會的擴建計畫，什麼是主要的需要和異象？整個計畫需要多久才能完成？教會擴建小組的財務計畫是什麼？

目 前教會擴建計畫盼望在4.5年完成，我們竭力去行，希望能縮短為四年。設計階段和申請建築許可，會需要較長的時間，我們會將這項請求交給教會擴建小組，作 較佳的籌算。你們可能注意到大堂的容量已滿，為了避免擁擠，招待要疏散一部份的人到副堂。我們考慮過許多不同的策略，認為擴建是較能適應教會大家庭眾多需 要的解決之道。如果我們繼續朝著教會擴建計畫來執行，發行教會債券，則利率大約是3.72%。

3. 我們能同時用大堂和副堂提供兩種敬拜嗎？我相信我們的座位並未完全坐滿，為什麼不考慮多元方式敬拜，善用我們現有的空間？我們談論過多元和動態的敬拜，已有五年了，疏散到副堂只是暫時解決了問題，我們能配合改善座位擁擠的問題嗎？

疏散到副堂的方式，已經是目前的計畫，用以減輕大堂的張力，我們需要加強設備，使敬拜的人能感受到和大堂一樣的經歷。我們有一群同工，已經在研討多場次的崇拜，並提出可行方案。招待同工，應該能協助座位空間的調配。

4. 我們華語部的異象是什麼？由教會會議記錄裡可見其需要，然而為什麼教會異象仍尚未成軍？

一般而言，大使命 (太28:16-20) 是我們基督徒的異象。問題是如何去行，英文部最近也正在研討。

(會員) 大使命並不等於我們教會的異象，我們需要有更具體的聲明。

我將帶回長老團做更多的討論。

5. 如果我們的鄰居之一要賣房子，我們會考慮買嗎？

我沒聽說過這件事，如果有的話，價錢吸引人又合乎我們的需要，當然我們會考慮。

6. 我們知道，教會宣教委員會已經很多年都有結餘，短宣隊是否可以得到補助？我認為目前的短宣隊，父母親幾乎要背負所有的財務負擔。

如果有需要的話，請務必申請，宣教委員會將依實際狀況考量。長老團會與宣教委員會討論這項需要，宣教委員會可就全盤做種種考量，並在會議中討論，同時也會考量他們父母的財力情形。

7. 牧師或長老是否要親自積極地到宣教工場參與宣教事工？

是的，我們可以把這件事放在下一次長老團會議中，並討論可行的辦法。

8. 華語堂的講道時間較長，相對來說將音樂敬拜時間給縮短？

(開第牧師) 是我把講道時間控制在45~50 分鐘。

(會員) 這只是一個人的意見，我們對這類話題的提出和討論，要很小心。另一位會

員起立，支持目前主日敬拜的模式，以及時間的運用。

9. 目前的教會憲章的近況？為什麼我們要花這麼多精力和時間，來研究教會憲章？我們的組織，不能夠化繁為簡嗎？

有 些人知道，教會憲章修訂委員會所提出的草案，沒有被接受。目前成立一個新的五人委員會，該委員會已把草案帶回，與目前的憲章作比較，作更深的研究，提出研 究報告給長老團。長老團刻正審查中，其中總免不了要時常修改。即便如此，我們的教會憲章，也不能使我們成為比較好的人，或使教會變得更好。改善教會憲章的 目的，是為了讓我們能更同心事奉我們恩慈的主。

10. 我們正同時從事於大南區植堂和教會擴建，兩者可能同時用去大量的資源，為什麼我們不按步就班的做？

植堂和教會擴建兩者不衝突，因為一個需要人力資源，另一個需要財力支持，我們彼此鼓勵要忠心事奉神，遵行祂的旨意，並且更相信他。

11. 我們可以請老年人去第二場主日敬拜嗎？

我們不應該把任何一個族群的人從原來的主日敬拜會眾中刻意排除出去，如果有第二場敬拜，長老團會考慮如何進行。

12. 教會擴建計畫有教育大樓和多功能綜合大樓的設置，我們是建造教會，是敬拜神的宗教場所，為什麼要建昂貴的體育館？

(張 召斌長老) 我認為兩者都需要，對英文部而言，他們極需要多功能綜合大樓，我們要從各種角度，會看到許多不同的需要。我們也許不應該叫體育館，或應說是多功能綜合大 樓，可被用來作為佈道會，培靈會，或其他許多用途。我們不要僅限於運動方面，所有的空間，都可以吸引鄰舍更多的人來到，從而建造神的國。

13. 根據這項龐大的教會擴建計畫，我們能各階段中，找出最迫切的事項嗎？我們知道什麼是目前最迫切待解決的問題嗎？很多時候，我們教會的空間，並不像週五或週日那麼擁擠。

教 會擴建已提出很久了。如果我們一次做完，可以省掉很多花費。我們可能根據迫切和需要，有很多不同的意見，我們需要為別人著想，攜手同工做這件事。我們都比 較知道自己事工的需要，但有的時候，我們不太知道別的人需要什麼。我建議大家試圖了解所有事工的需要，並且呼籲大家為這些需要禱告。我們在問卷和諮詢上， 已經花了很多的時間了。也許，這些行動或許沒有能全面的溝通，然而我們要採取行動，不要只是停留在研究和思考階段。

14. (建議) 我們可能需要在設備分享的管理上，有較好的計畫，所以我們可以在教會擴堂可能完成之後，避免產生衝突。

15. 如果宣教基金總是有巨額的盈餘，為什麼我們每年要認獻這麼多？宣教委員會是否能提供較佳的預算和計畫？

實際上，宣教委員會的同工已經討論了同樣的問題，這個結餘是過去所累積的，宣教委員會繼續作更多詳細的說明，以便有較好的討論。