Board of Elders (“BoE”) Meeting Minutes

February 8, 2014

Present: Liqin Chen (Chair), Pastor Caleb Chang, Ke-Chieh Chu, Yuguang He, David Ho, Timothy Lu, Ming-Jer Tsai, Terry Yang (Secretary), Loren Shih (Board of Deacons [“BoD”] Chair)

Invited for Loving Care Ministry Review: Pastor Steve Chang, Anna Choi, Chung-Ping Cheng, Joyce Cheng

Invited for Quincy Fellowship Ministry update: Deacon Jimin Xiong, Nancy Cintolo

Elder Liqin opened with prayer at 9:07 am.

1.      Brief Sharing

Elders shared their thanksgivings on recovery from illness and unexpected family time due to the recent snowstorms.

2.      Update on State of CBCGB

Pastor Caleb provided the following updates:

•  Chinese Bible Church of Greater Lowell (“CBCGL”) 25 anniversary celebration last week
• Upcoming senior high/junior high youth group and InterCollegiate Fellowship retreats over Presidents’ Day weekend and school vacation week
• Pastoral review of 2nd English service on joint service weeks; decided to maintain current schedule, including keeping three current joint services. Elder suggestion to review joint service agreement during English Ministry review.
• Upcoming Spiritual Fruit (gifts) seminar and Mandarin Gospel Meeting
• His reflections on the Church Building Expansion (“CBE”), including recommendation that church’s total debt load related to the CBE not exceed three times current General Fund income to avoid “over-financing”, based on his experience with past church building projects
• Pastoral search for Chinese Ministry (“CM”) pastor to oversee Fellowship Ministry and Children Ministry pastor; Elders suggested drafting a contingency plan should new Children Ministry pastor be delayed

3.      BoD Updates

Deacon Loren provided updates on major BoD projects (current and under consideration), including 1) enhancing meeting environment with new BoD members; 2) consolidation of all Information Technology oversight under one leadership, including initiatives to review current infrastructure by external consultants, consideration of separating public and private WiFi and potential shortening of pastoral staff laptop renewals; 3) review of church fire safety procedures to ensure compliance under law.

4.      Ministry Review: Loving Care

 Pastor Steve provided overview of Loving Care Ministry under CM:

• Biblical philosophy
• Provides oversight for:

• General care for congregational needs
• Pastoral care, including premarital counseling, hospital visitation, crisis visitation, funeral services, etc.
• Five special care ministries, such as Stephen Ministry and Marriage Enrichment Retreat (“MER”)

 Anna Choi and Joyce Cheng provided overview and update of Stephen Ministry:

• Brief history of worldwide Stephen Ministry, with approximately 11,000 participating congregations from 160 Christian denominations and 25 countries with approximately 600,000 trained Stephen Ministers
• Brief history at CBCGB: started in 2003 with 82 Stephen Ministers trained to-date to deal with issues ranging from cancer to spousal abuse
• Functional structure, including support and continuing education for Stephen Ministers and yearly recruiting schedule
• Goals of Christ-centered care, empowerment and support of Stephen Ministers, and networking and sharing resources and ideas with other churches, including other Chinese churches in the area
• Current Status: 7 active Stephen Leaders (1 on sabbatical), 24 active Stephen Ministers, upcoming bi-annual retreat with Pastor Wendall Friest from April 4-6, 2014
• Ministry Requests

• Pastoral support, especially during Pastor Steve’s upcoming sabbatical this fall
• Prayer support
• More female and especially male Stephen Ministers to address large number of Care Receivers in congregation

 Chung-Ping Cheng provided overview and update of MER:

• Goal to enrich husband/wife relationship, based on Chinese Families For Christ materials, for a strong foundation for the church, to minimize future drain on church resources, and for evangelism (2-3 accept Christ during and after each MER)
• Brief history at CBCGB: started in 2002 with 3 day/2 night retreats with monthly follow-up meetings for a year
• Attendees pay registration fee and hotel accommodations, with remaining expenses covered by free-will offering
• Challenge: Inviting couples to attend, due to both logistical reasons (e.g., need to take time off from work, expenses) and social reasons (e.g., couples think they don’t need it, couples think that their problems [currently secret] will be exposed if they go)
• Ministry Request: continuing church leader support; best support is for leaders to go
• Elder suggestion to investigate if there is need for a similar program in EM

 Benevolence Fund

• Provides limited emergency financial assistance, under direction of Cynthia Chiao
• Families helped: 8 in 2013, 1 to-date in 2014

Job Transition Ministry

• Provides job transition workshops and networking opportunities, under direction of Steve Luo
• Current projects:

• Career training workshop in collaboration with CEA in April
• Job transition Sunday School in upcoming year
• Resume-writing/interview/job-seeking tool workshops presented by Wei Jing Chia

Funeral/Memorial Service Ministry

• Provides visitation services for terminally-ill church attendees and funeral/memorial service arrangement assistance as necessary, under direction of May Huang

 5.      Quincy Fellowship Ministry Update

Nancy and Deacon Jimin provided update on the Quincy Fellowship Ministry proposal for outreach ministry to battered-women initiated at November BoE meeting, including both short-term, medium-term and long-term goals.

Current short-term goals include, with six core-families: 1) one-on-one personal attention and care; 2) monthly fellowship meeting with special topics; 3) special Sunday School to provide theological instruction and life application; and 4) monthly lunch fellowship in the Carriage House.

Long-term goal is to shepherd and coach a group of God-loving people in Quincy; reflecting that goal is the medium-term goal to equip and build up baptized current fellowship attendees to be the future leaders/key co-workers of the Ministry. In support, other medium-term goals include transitioning the monthly lunch fellowship to general CBCGB lunch in the basement, determination of whether to continue large-group outreach (such as the two completed in October/November 2013 with approximately 60 in attendance each time), and if so, obtain a suitable meeting space for outreach, and determination of how to develop partnerships with Quincy Chinese churches in the Ministry.

Approved proposal to formalize Ministry as official church-sponsored program under the Fellowship Ministry under the direction of Xinyu Li, with Deacon Jimin as the church leadership liaison, operating under the principle of partnership with Quincy Chinese churches.

6.      Additional Items

Elder K.C. provided update on CBE project: 1) construction update; 2) concerns raised and addressed over project budget and costs; 3) presentation of alternative Phase II/III (new Chapel) to EM tomorrow; 4) project newsletter in process; and 5) fundraising update.

Approved slate of Standing Committee Chairs and members as attached for 2014, in accordance with bylaws approved in December 2014.

Elder Liqin provided update on June Church Council retreat:

• Venue to be formalized this week
• Discussed potential themes for retreat; suggestions include team-building and listening to God, church-wide vision and improving congregational involvement in ministries across the board. Decided theme should be church-wide vision.
• Preparations for vision discussion to be completed prior to Church Council retreat based on questions to be distributed by Pastor Caleb to BoE; initial plans for retreat to be presented at March Church Council meeting.

 Pastor Caleb closed with prayer at 1:41 pm.

長老團會議(“BOE”)會議紀要

2014年2月8日

與會者：陳利欽（主席）， 章開第牧師， 朱克潔，何煜光, 何明治，盧忠信, 蔡明哲， 楊德禮，施志寧（執事會主席）

愛心關懷事工回顧檢討邀請： 張子義牧師，黎巧莊, 鄭重平, 程中珏

昆西團契事工更新簡報邀請： 熊繼敏執事，嚴美莉

利欽長老在上午9點7分以禱告開始。

1.      簡短分享

長老們分享疾病得康復的感恩，也為最近暴風雪帶來意料之外的家庭相處時間感恩。

2.      CBCGB教會近況

章開第牧師提供了以下更新：

·        上星期羅威爾華人聖經教會（CBCGL）慶祝25週年；

·        即將來臨的總統日長週末和學校假期週，高中，初中團隊和大专生联合(InterCollegiate)團契將舉行退修會；

·        牧師們檢討聯合崇拜時，第二堂英文主日的情形； 決定保持現有的計劃，包括保持現有的三個聯合崇拜。長老們建議在檢討英文部事工時，再一起檢討聯合崇拜事宜．

·        即將到來的靈果團契講座和華語部春季佈道會；

·        開第牧師根據以前建堂的經驗，提出教會擴建的感想，為了避免“過分預支財政”，建議教會建築擴建的總負債不要超過目前經常費的三倍；

·        為中文事工尋找團契事工的牧師和兒童事工的牧師；眾長老建議如果兒童事工牧師聘請延遲，就草擬一個臨時計劃。

3.      執事會更新報告

施志寧執事提供了執事會主要項目（現有的和正在考慮中的）更新， 包括1）與新的執事會成員，增進開會的氛圍；2）合併所有的信息技術由一位領導負責，包括請外面的顧問，初步調查目前的結構，考慮分開公共的和私有的WiFi，以及可能縮減教牧同工筆記本電腦的更新；3）審查教會的防火安全流程，確保遵從法律。

4.  事工檢討: 社會關懷愛心關懷

         子義牧師提供了華語部社會關懷愛心關懷事工概況：

   - 聖經理念

   - 提供以下幾方面情況：

·        對整個會眾整體的關懷

·        教牧關懷，包括婚前輔導，醫院探視，危急探視，追思服事等等

·        五個特殊關懷事工， 比如司提反事工，夫妻恩愛營（“MER”）

         黎巧莊師母和程中珏提供司提反事工的概觀和近況：

   - 司提反事工簡介，全世界擁有約從160基督教教派的11,000參與者和25個國家擁有約600,000 受過訓練的司提反同工

   - CBCGB司提反事工簡史,從2003年來，至今已有82位經過培訓的司提反同工，服事如癌症病人，配偶虐待等各種需關懷者。

   - 功能結構，包括司提反同工的相互支持，繼續教育和每年招募新同工。

   - 以基督為中心的關懷目標，授權和支持司提反事工，以及與其他教會及網絡共享資源，   包括本地區的其他華人教會

          - 目前的狀況：7個現行的司提反領導人（1個休假）， 24個司提反同工，即將到來的從 2014年4月4日至6日每兩年一次的由傅立德牧師帶領的的進修會

    - 事工需求

·        牧師的支持，特別是在子義牧師今年秋天即將開始的休假期間。

·        禱告支持

·        更多的女性，尤其是男性司提反同工，以解決會眾中大對關愛的大量需要

   鄭重平提供對夫妻恩愛營的概觀和近況

- 以增進夫妻關係為目標，植基於華人家庭的基督教材，教會有堅實基礎，防止未來教會資源的降低，也是傳福音（每屆都有兩三位決志信主）

 - 在CBCGB簡史：從2002年開始用3天/ 2晚恩愛夫婦營，其後一年，進行每月一次的小組跟進

 - 參加者繳納登記費，酒店住宿費，其他營會費用由參加者自由奉獻。

 - 挑戰：邀請夫妻參加，由於雙方背景因素（例如，需要請假，費用）和社會原因（如夫 妻認為他們並不需要，認為他們的問題，會因為參加而被公開）

- 事工需要：教會領袖持續的支持; 最好的支持是領導光臨

- 長老建議，調查是否有必要在英語部也開始這項事工

慈惠基金

- 提供有限的緊急財政援助，由焦振慧負責

- 受惠家庭：2013年8位，2014年至今1位

轉职事工

-提供轉職研討會和聯網機會，由羅世莊負責

-目前項目

·        在四月與CEA合作的職業培訓研討會

·        有關轉職過渡期的主日學課程，將在來年開辦

·        由蔡慧謹弟兄介紹簡歷寫作，面試，找工作的研討會

葬禮/追思事工

-探訪後期病患的會友以及葬禮/追思會的安排和協助，由黃滿負責

5。昆西團契事工近況

嚴美莉和熊繼敏執事曾在11月份長老團會議時提出針對受虐女性的外宣事工提議後，就昆西團契事工的近況，報告事工的短期，中期和長期目標。

目前的短期目標包括六個核心家庭：1）一對一的個人關懷;2）每月一次的專題團契聚會; 3）向她們提供特別主日學課程，幫助學習聖經和生活中的應用，以及4）在馬車房每月一次的午餐聚會。

長 遠的目標是要在昆西一批愛主的人中間，作門徒培訓。對應的中期目標為，使目前受洗成為基督徒的團契成員，培養成為未來的領袖及核心同工。為了支持這項目 標，其他的中期目標如：把現在每月一次午餐聚會，轉變為經常在CBCGB餐廳的午餐，決定是否繼續大規模福音聚會（如2013年10月，11月已有兩次， 每次出席約60人） ，如果需要，則要找到合適的佈道會場，並要決定如何發展與昆西中國教會的合作關係。

同意昆西事工成為教會正式支持的事工，歸屬團契事工，由李新宇，熊繼敏負責，作為教會的領導聯絡，與昆西中國教會成為同工，合作運作。

6. 其他事項

克潔長老報告教會建築擴建（CBE）項目近況：1）建設近況; 2）提出一些有關於項目預算和成本的問題;3）介紹II / III期工程替代方案，包括為今後英語部設計的（新的副堂）; 4）項目進展通訊已經在編輯中，以及5）籌款進展近況。

按照2014年12月通過的教會憲章，通過2014年附件所列的常設委員會主席及會員任命。

陳利欽長老提供的六月教牧長執聯會退修會的籌備近況：

- 地點將在本星期正式定出

- 討論會議主題; 建議包括：團隊建設，聽從上帝，全教會的異象，和提高會眾在跨越事工的參與度。決定主題為：全教會的異象。

-關於教會異象討論的準備，擬於教牧長執退修會之前完成，是根據章開第牧師交由長老團的問題討論，退修會的初步方案計劃在三月份牧長執聯會提出。

章開第牧師在下午1:41做結束禱告。