Board of Elders (“BoE”) Meeting Minutes

March 8, 2014

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

Invited for Finance Committee review: Ji-Yong Wang, Sylvia Cheung, and Pearl Shiue

Invited for BOD update: Joshua Chang, Christopher Cheng, Jimin Xiong, Chunyi Hu

Elder Liqin opened with prayer at 9:00 am.

1.       Brief Sharing

Pastor Caleb shared the joy of having 18 youths accepted Christ during the youth retreat led by Pastor Sandy.   Elder Tsai mentioned his reading of a novel, recommended by one brother, named “Gilead” which tells a story of three generations of pastors; he also recommended a book, “Called to be Saints: An invitation to Christian Maturity” by Gordon Smith, which offers an answer to the question: what is the purpose of the spiritual disciplines?  Elder Liqin shared his trip to Zambia, Africa.

2.       Update on State of CBCGB

Pastor Caleb provided the following updates:

-        Dr. George Hsu is going to hold a workshop on “Depression and Anxiety:  Mental Health Issue or Spiritual Issue” on March 22 organized by the Fruit of Spirit Fellowshi

-        Mandarin Gospel Meeting (MGM) is coming on March 21-23.  The Tuesday evening prayer meetings will focus on this event.  The church wide prayer relay has been started.

-        The search for a Chinese Ministry –Fellowship Ministry pastor has been narrowing down to a few candidates and Pastoral Search Committee will only seek before the Lord one candidate at one time; Phil Sailer is asked to lead the Pastor Searching Committee for Kids Ministry.  Elders asked to review the job description and qualification statement that has been established a few years ago.

-        Speakers invited for Sunday services are as follows: Ezra Jin (4/27); Yuguang He (6/1); and Jamie Taylor (8/24)

-        Summer sermon topical series may be “The purpose of our church” or “ Spiritual Gifts”

-        It is possible that we will sponsor a seminar of “Post-90” together with many Chinese churches in New England on June 13-15 offered by Chinese Coordination Centre of World Evangelism (CCCOWE).

3.       BoD Update (Ministry Review: Finance Ministry)

The Finance Ministry Review, facilitated by Elder Tsai, was provided by Ji-Yong Wang with the help of the finance committee members, including Sylvia Cheung and Pearl Shiue who were both present.  Topics, including “Role and Responsibility”, “Organization and Members”, “Service Timeline”, “Policies of Capital Expenditure”, “General Fund Budget Review Process”, “Expenses Approval Procedures”, “Operation” and “Inputs/Helps Needed”, were covered. Qualifications of Finance Committee members and its successors plan were discussed.  Several changes to the current policies and practices were proposed, including the definition of capital expenditure and the general fund budgeting process.  Also mentioned was the need to formally approve the budget and expenditure of the Mission and SCM funds by the Church Council.

4.       Prepare for Church Council June Retreat

The topic will be “Church Vision and Value”.  The retreat will focus on developing the church vision.  The date has been set on Saturday, June 21, 2014.  The location will be at Edward House, One Badger Road, Framingham, MA 01702.

Loren shared the English Ministry core values, execution and focus of their church vision.

The church vision was defined in the same category as church purpose/mission rather than supernatural visions seen in the Scriptures with critical historical significances.

Elder Liqin will call for a prayer meeting to include all Elders as a start to seek the Lord’s guidance for our church vision.

 5.       Policy for Staff Technology Purchase

Staff Technology Purchase Policy has been presented by Joshua and reviewed by elders.  Joshua collected all the suggestions from elders.  An updated version will be sent out for approval through email.

 6.       Deacon Nomination Committee Members

The BoE has approved BaoSen Zhou, Emily Cheng, Loren Shih, Ruike Wang, ShanChuan Zhao, Shin-Fuw Lin and YuGuang He to be the members of the Deacon Nomination Committee as proposed by Elder Yuguang.

7.       Core Coworker Team (CCT) New Members in the Metro South

The BoE approved Yushan Tian and Lisa H. Zhang to be the CCT new members in the Metro South as recommended by current CCT.

8.       Church Building Expansion (CBE) Brief Update

The BoE agreed with Elder Ke-Chieh’s proposal to do an On-line facility usage survey for the purpose of CBE project Design Input.  He will look for a lead person from the CBE team for this project.

The redesign of 151 Old Spring Street building has been submitted to contractors for bidding.

The CBE project promotion news letter has been written and published.

9.       Staff Contract Renewal

The Contracts with Yingyuan Zhang and Wei-Hsin Chau will be renewed for two years.

10.   Pastor King-Fai farewell Arrangement

BoE has discussed the farewell arrangement for Pastor King-Fai and his wife.

Elder Ming closed with prayer at 1:20 pm.