Meeting Minutes

Board of Elders (“BoE”)

October 10, 2015

Present: Ke-Chieh Chu (Acting Chair), Pastor Caleb Chang, Liqin Chen, David Ho, Timothy Lu, Haiguo Wu (Head Deacon), Jimin Xiong (Board of Deacons [“BoD”] Representative), Terry Yang (Secretary)

Present for Social Concerns Ministry (“SCM”) Charter Discussion: Yang-Sheng Tzeng (Chair)

Absent: Yuguang He

Elder Ke-Chieh opened meeting with prayer at 9:06 am.

1. Brief Sharing

Elders David and Timothy shared about successful Mandarin-focused evangelism meeting at Boston Evangelical Church’s Newton Campus they recently attended. Pastor Caleb shared his thoughts on location of upcoming pastor family retreat in Maine.

2. Update on State of CBCGB

Pastor Caleb provided a quick update on:

• Progress of English Pastor Search Committee
• Approval of occupancy permit for 151 Spring St.
• Recognition of Church Building Expansion construction and design team during CBCGB Annual Meeting this month
• 2016 Church Calendar, which has been edited by the pastoral staff and will be distributed for Church Council (“CC”) review soon
• Approval of Minister Steven Bowman’s ordination by his Ordination Council
• Recently completed Fall Mandarin Gospel Meeting with Rev. Peter Wu, with more than 30 alter call respondents now undergoing Evangelism Explosion follow-up
• Successful English Ministry (“EM”) Fall Retreat
• Upcoming pastoral staff family retreat this weekend
• Upcoming City Outreach Ministry Fall Gospel Camp
• Upcoming Mission & Social Concern Conference
• Pastor Caleb’s upcoming outside speaking engagements
• Former CBCGB Elder Windsor Sung’s installation as Elder at Christian Gospel Church in Worcester
• August CC meeting follow-up

3. BoD Update

Deacon Haiguo provided a quick update on:

• Request by Stride Rite employee who commutes from Maine to park his personal trailer (to live in) on edge of CBCGB parking lots during weekdays
• Equipment purchase request for “151 Spring St.” BoD approved part of request that included projectors (and special wall paint in lieu of screens) and large screen televisions for several rooms; part of request that included audio equipment for large, partitioned room returned to audiovisual team for re-evaluation in collaboration with EM

4. Website Ministry Arrangement

Elder Liqin proposed creation of standing Information Technology (“IT”) Committee to clearly delineate leadership and ownership of IT issues. Proposed standing IT Committee would contain stable membership from year-to-year consisting of co-workers in website and infrastructure teams chaired by a Deacon. BoE agrees in principal and commissions BoD to draft Charter.

5. English Pastor Update

BoE members of the English Pastor Search Committee (“EPSC”) provided a quick update on:

• Issue regarding perceived lack of full demographic coverage on Committee; EPSC explained to members with that concern of need to keep Committee small in order to not only be efficient, but protect both integrity of process and confidentiality of potential candidates
• Proposed timeline
• Current status: Committee identifying requirements for and desired attributes of ideal candidate in preparation for drafting functional job description for posting and development of evaluation system for applicants

6. Community Outreach Committee (“COC”)

Elder David proposed creation of Campus Coordinator position within COC to oversee post-high school student ministries undertaken by CBCGB. BoE agrees in principle and commissions Elder David to draft roles and responsibilities for position.

7. SCM Charter Changes

Brother Yang-Sheng presented proposed changes to SCM Charter:

• Revise budget approval process to remove requirement for initial approval of SCM budget by BoE, as SCM is not currently doing so
• Add Disaster Relief budget line item:

• Originally not included due to small number of disasters and large amount of extra work required by SCM team and Finance Committee
• Addition proposed in order to provide ability for quick response by CBCGB, while using announcement of any donations using the budget line item to bring awareness and call congregation to action

• Formally codify the following policies:

• SCM can repurpose excess funds for completed projects; BoE suggests adding “with approval of majority of Committee”
• SCM Short-Term Mission support cap defined as 1/3 of reasonable travel and lodging expenses for mercy and justice projects
• Reimbursement request filing deadline set to March 31 of the following year; BoE suggests defining the “previous year” as previous calendar year

BoE approves proposed changes to SCM Charter in principle and commissions Brother Yang-Sheng to incorporate BoE-suggested revisions into draft to present to BoE for final approval.

8. Marriage Policy

Elder David proposed establishing official marriage policy to clarify and unify CBCGB’s position on concept of marriage. BoE agrees in principle and commissions pastoral staff to draft policy for review.

9. Administrative staff for EM/Youth Ministry (“YM”)/Childrens Ministry

Elder Terry proposed hiring of administrative staff to support EM, YM and Childrens Ministry; respective pastoral staff have indicated that heavy administrative burden takes time away from pastoral responsibilities. Elder Terry proposed hiring one full time administrative staff to support all of EM/YM/Childrens Ministry.

BoE agrees in principle, and commissions Pastor Caleb to use Ying Yuan’s job description as a template and gather input from the affected EM/YM/Childrens Ministry pastors in order to draft job description (including reporting relationship) for review by the BoE.

10. Annual Meeting Reminder

BoE reviewed all logistics surrounding annual meeting. Deacon Jimin assigned responsibility for organizing cake cutting during annual meeting.

Pastor Caleb closed meeting with prayer at 12:04 pm.

Addendum: BoE approved revised SCM Charter as attached over e-mail on October 15, 2015.

長老團會議紀錄

2015 十月十日

出席: 朱克潔 (代理主席), 章開第牧師, 陳利欽, 何明治, 盧忠信, 吳海國(執事會主席), 熊繼敏 (執事會代表), 楊徳禮(秘書)

出席社會關懷事工討論: 曾陽生 (主席)

缺席: 何煜光

早上9:06 克潔長老禱告開始

1. 簡短分享

明治和忠信分享，他們最近參加波士頓華人佈道會，在牛頓的華語佈道會，十分順利。對於最近將在緬因的牧師家庭退修會，開第也分享他對地點的看法。

2. 本教會現況報告

開第簡報:

• 英文牧師聘募的進展
• 151使用許可通過
• 本月教會年會中，認可教堂擴建的結構和設計團隊
• 2016 教會行事曆，已經牧師們更正，將送交教會聯會
• 鮑斯文傳道的按立，已經按立團通過
• 吳正群牧師主領的秋季佈道會，有三十位決志或回應，現正進行個人佈道探訪
• 英文堂秋季退修會，順利
• 本週末牧師家庭退修會
• 近期的城區秋季福音營
• 近期的宣教社關年會
• 近期開第在外的講道安排
• 教會前長老孫蔚信，在Worcester 基督福音教會立為長老
• 八月教會聯會會議跟進

3. 執事會報告

吳海國提出簡短報告:

• 一位Stride Rite 員工，往返緬因州，要求週間可以把他住人的拖車，停在教會停車場旁邊
• 申請為151購買，通過的 : 幾個投影機，投影牆壁的特殊油漆，放在幾個房間的大螢幕電視。至於給那大間的錄音設備，配合英文堂的需要，送回影音小組重作評估

4. 網站事工安排

利欽提議成立一個常設的資訊科技委員會，來界定每個資訊事件由誰負責。該委員會有穩定的委員，由網站同工，和網站設計建造小組組成，有一位執事負責。長老團原則上同意，要執事會起草章程。

5. 英文堂牧師

英文牧師聘募委員會(“EPSC”)的長老，提出簡報:

• 對於委員會可能沒有涵蓋所有組群，委員會解釋，必須維持委員會的小規模，才會有效，並保護聘募過程的整全，和可能候選人的隱私。
• 提議的時間表
• 現況: 委員會正確定，理想候選人的條件和期望的特色，準備草擬其職責，來刊登，並建立對申請人的評估方法

6. 社區外展委員會(“COC”) 

明治提議在社區外展委員會(“COC”)內設立”校園事工負責人”，監督本教會進行的高中後學生事工。長老團原則同意，明治將草擬該位置的角色與職責。

7.  社關章程更改SCM Charter Changes

曾陽生提議對社關章程更改:

• 社關經費審核過程，並未經由長老團，應該從章程中移除該規定
• 增加災難救助經費一欄:

• 原來因為災難不常發生，而會增加社關委員會和財務委員會許多工作
• 增設該欄，使教會可以盡速回應災難救助，只要向教會公佈為某事故收奉獻，列在該項下即可

• 正式編撰下列辦法:

• 社關委員會可把完成的計劃所剩的經費，重提給其他計劃。長老團提議加”得到多數委員同意”
• 社關委員會對短宣支持上限，定義為: 憐憫及公義計劃，合理的旅費宿費的1/3  
• 申報經費截止日是來年三月三十一日。長老團建議註明是月曆的年

長老團原則同意，社關委員會提議更改的章程，要求陽生照長老團的建議修改後，提交長老團作最後審核

8. 婚姻辦法

明治提議建立正式婚姻辦法，確定本教會對於婚姻立場一致。長老團原則上同意，先由牧師們草擬辦法

9. 英文堂/ 青少年事工YM/ 兒童事工

楊德禮提議雇用一位行政助理支持英文事工、青少年事工、和兒童事工。這些事工的牧師表示，繁重的行政工作，佔用許多牧師職責的時間。德禮建議雇用一位全職的行政助理

長老團原則上同意，請開第以雇用張應元的職責作為範本，再從英文堂/ 青少年事工/ 兒童事工的牧師集取意見，起草其職責，和該助理向誰負責，再交長老團審核

10. 年會提醒

長老團回顧所有年會時的物流事務。熊繼敏將負責規劃，年會當天切蛋糕一事 

中午12:04 開第禱告結束會議

增編: 長老團2015年十月十五日在電郵中，通過社關委員會章程更改的修訂版