CBCGB Church Council Retreat Minutes, Q2 of 2014

        June 21, 2014

中文翻譯在末後段落

1. In Attendance:

1. Board of Elders (“BoE”): Liqin Chen (Chair), Ke-Chieh Chu, Yuguang He, David Ho, Ming-Jer Tsai, Terry Yang
2. Board of Deacons (“BoD”): Joshua Chang, Christopher Cheng (Secretary), Lawrence Liang-Shang Gan, Phil Sailer, Loren Shih (Head Deacon), Ji-Yong Wang (Treasurer), Ruike Wang, Xin-Wen Wang, Haiguo Wu, Jimin Xiong
3. Pastoral Staff: Sr. Pastor Caleb Chang, Pastor Steve Chang, Pastor David Eng, Pastor Chuck Lowe, Pastor Ju-Ta Pan, Pastor Jiang Wei,
4. Invitees: Eric Chiu
5. Absent:

1. Deacons: Chun-Yi Hu, Lance Pan
2. Elders: Timothy Lu
3. Pastoral Staff: Pastor Sandy Liu, Minister Jennifer Lin

2. Location: Edwards House, Framingham, MA

3. Meeting Agenda & Minutes

1. Meeting started at 9:40 am.
2. Opening Prayer -  Pastor Caleb opened in prayer.
3. Church status update (Pastor Caleb)

1.  Praise the Lord that Minister Steven Bowman has answered the call to be our children minister starting in October.  Special thanks to the pastoral search committee.
2. Thanks to Chia-Li Li for acting as interim administrator for Children’s ministry until October.
3. Please pray for the other pastoral search for a Chinese ministry fellowship pastor.
4. CBCGB hosted a Post-90 generation conference sponsored by CCCOWE last week.  Please pray for follow-up.
5. Chinese ministry will hold a revival conference from 7/25-7/27 with Rev. Wilson Chan from RCCC.
6. On the evening of 7/27, CBCGB will also host a Six-Turtle Orphanage Choir evangelistic service.
7. The summer preaching series will focus on church missions (for Chinese ministry) and core values (for English ministry)
8. A decision on whether to have a joint Chinese ministry retreat in 2015 is pending.

4. Quarterly Financial Report

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.

*Note: If subtracting church main building re-roofing budgets, the available Capital Fund will be $288.676 on May 31, 2014.

For the budget summary - up to May 31, our total expense is at 90.8%, and our total offering is at 110.3% of the total annual budget.

5. Fiscal year 2014 budget amendment approvals

Deacon Ji-yong noted that because of the CBCGB expense approval procedure, “the approving official for each group must provide a justifiable reason to the church council to obtain approval for any increase to their original budget during the fiscal year.”

9. Deacon Ji-yong motioned to increase the FY2014 budget for disability insurance from $4,000 to $4,460.  Elder K.C. seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.
10. Deacon Ji-yong motioned to increase the FY2014 budget for pastor-mentored seminarian support from $24,000 to $25,500.  Deacon Jimin seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.
11. Deacon Ji-yong motioned to increase the FY2014 budget for parachurch workers support from $12,800 to $14,000.  Elder David seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.
12. Deacon Ji-yong motioned to increase the FY2014 budget for baptism gifts from $900 to $1,550.  Pastor Steve seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.
13. Deacon Joshua motioned to increase the FY2014 budget for IT from $5,000 to $5,500.  Deacon Ji-yong seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.

6. Fiscal year 2015 budget approval

1. Ji-yong reviewed budget items that have changed since the budget meeting held earlier in the month.

1. The seminary internship budget was increased from $12,000 to $14,000 to anticipate the support of two seminary interns.
2. The seminary student support fund was increased from $25,000 to $27,000 and the parachurch worker support budget was increased from $13,000 to $15,000 to reflect anticipated increase in support.
3. The stewardship insurance budget was increased from $11,000 to $13,000 to reflect updated insurance rates and new potentially covered items.
4. The printer/copier budget was increased by from $12,0000 to $13,000 to cover anticipated costs.
5. English worship was increased from $2,600 to $3,400 to cover costs of small equipment purchases for the new year (which can also be used by Chinese ministry)
6. The 45th anniversary budget was reduced from $3,000 to $1,400 because a local speaker was found.

2. The fiscal year 2015 budget is a 7.5% increase from the fiscal 2014 budget.  The vast majority of the increase in budget is due to the hiring of new pastors.  Smaller increases include updates to the IT budget and spiritual formation budget.
3. Deacons Ji-yong motioned to pass the fiscal year 2015 budget.  Elder David seconded.  The motion passed unanimously.

7. Elder Ming-Jer presented on the power of vision to the church council.

1. Drawing on the examples of Paul, Jacob, Nehemiah, Richard Feynman, and Steve Jobs, Elder Ming-Jer discussed the importance of vision to unify, motivate, and inspire people to strive towards a common desired future state.  For his sharing, “vision” was defined as a spiritual image of a preferable future, which comes when we get an impression of what God wants to do in us and through us based on His person and His plan.

8. Pastor Chuck presented some challenges of planning a vision.

1. The church needs to manage expectations for the vision, be clear about the process and time frame for creating the vision, make sure that the vision is not too generic, and ensure that what we are seeking is a vision and not just strategic priorities.

9. Pastor Chuck closed the morning session at 12:14 pm with prayer.  The afternoon session resumed at 1:00 pm.
10. Pastor Caleb shared examples of visions in the Bible which were all divinely given and not necessarily explicitly sought after.  He also shared that we must be sure to carefully weigh both the costs and benefits of what we hope for in a vision.

1. Elder Ming-Jer emphasized the desire to work out a specific vision for our church and not just the general vision for what the church universal is striving towards.

11. Deacon Joshua provided an overview of creating a vision and helped to provide a common context and language for people to use:

1. A vision is the overarching goal for the organization that should very rarely change.  It answers the questions of why the organization exists and to whom/where is the organization seeking to influence/change.
2. A mission statement is a high level plan of how to achieve the vision.
3. Strategic goals are quantifiable and achievable short-term goals. (How and when to achieve aspects of mission)

12. Pastor Caleb presented questions for discussing our church’s vision, mission, and strategic goals.  The church council then divided into small group discussions about church vision using these questions as guidelines.
13. Elder David closed with prayer at 4:32 pm.

14. Addendum: The church council had previously electronically approved the following motions since the last church council meeting:

1. Pastor Steve Chang motioned to approve a literature ministry budget increase of $1,185 to their 2014 budget to fund a training workshop on May 17, 2014.  The motion was seconded by Deacon Lance Pan and was passed.
2. Deacon Ruike Wang motioned to amend the main building re-roofing project budget from the original $150,000 to $190,000.  The motion was seconded by Pastor Sandy Liu and was passed.