CBCGB Church Council Retreat Minutes, Q3 of 2014

        September 20, 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, Timothy Lu, Terry Yang
2. Board of Deacons (“BoD”): Joshua Chang, Christopher Cheng (Secretary), Lawrence Liang-Shang Gan, Chun-Yi Hu, Lance Pan, 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 Sandy Liu, Minister Jennifer Lin, Pastor Chuck Lowe, Pastor Ju-Ta Pan, Pastor Jiang Wei, Minister Yuegang Zhang
4. Absent:

1. Elders: Ming-Jer Tsai

2. Location: Church office basement

3. Meeting Agenda & Minutes

1. Meeting started at 9:06 am.
2. Opening prayer -  Pastor Caleb opened in prayer.
3. Senior Pastor report (Pastor Caleb)

1. Key points from Pastor Caleb’s report were:

1. In the fall, Chinese ministry will focus on the post-exilic books, while English ministry will begin an Old Testament Survey.
2. The Mandarin Gospel Meeting will be held 9/26-9/28.  Prayer is strongly needed!
3. 10/19 will be the church’s 45th Anniversary where two new ministers will be installed.
4. 11/7-11/9 will be the church’s missions and social concerns conference.
5. Eric Ding and his family are back on temporary home assignment.
6. Roger Williams University is not available for a 2015 Memorial Day retreat.  Other options for retreat locations are being explored.
7. There is a possibility for an April church-wide conference on mental health.

4. Board of Deacons update (Deacon Loren)

1. Deacon Loren provided a summary of stewardship accomplishments, IT accomplishments, and approved capital expenditures over the last year.  For more information, please refer to prior board of deacon minutes.
2. Upcoming special projects include:

1. Re-roofing (started last week)
2. Office Masonry (late September)
3. Office bathrooms (start in October)

3. Regarding the purchase of a new sanctuary piano which was approved earlier this year:

1. The purchase is not urgent, so the music committee is awaiting the completion of the 151 construction where they will move the old piano (so they only have to move the piano once)
2. It is important to be patient to make a good decision and to consider both sound quality and aesthetics

4. Goals for the rest of 2014

1. Finish implementation of a new capital expenditure policy
2. Outsource IT
3. Security camera installation

5. Someone noted that it is important to communicate with the rest of the church what the responsibilities of the Board of Deacons are since many may not know what its role is.

5. Board of elders update (Elder Liqin)

1. Elder Liqin gave an update on the church vision process and encouraged prayers from church members and leadership.  He emphasized a desire to keep open communication during the process and the need for the process to be just as important as the final statement.  The goal is to propose a vision and mission statement within a year and to solicit feedback from church members before any final decision is made.
2. The seminary scholarship and parachurch worker support policies are being reviewed.  In the former’s case, it is because tuition fees have increased significantly since its last revision.
3. The Board of Elders conducted an English ministry review.  They hope that their experiences in establishing the English ministry vision will help guide the overall church visioning process.  They also noted the difficulties and opportunities for collaboration and interaction among multiple ministries in our church.  Elder Timothy will coordinate efforts to discuss how we might increase collaboration between the various individual ministries.
4. The Board of Elders has invited Pastor Steve Chin from BCEC to share at the December church council meeting.

6. Church annual meeting preparation

1. Proposed agenda

1. Membership commitment
2. Report
3. Elders/Deacons confirmation
4. Bylaws revision
5. Exhortation
6. Pray for church vision
7. Suggestions, Q and A

2. Voting will be facilitated at Metro-south and City Outreach ministry the week before the annual meeting through distribution and collection of absentee ballots by the church secretary.
3. An e-mail address for Q&A will be set up for people to submit questions ahead of time.

7. Bylaw revision for quorum and voting process (Elder Terry)

1. The rationale for the bylaws change is because the definition of quorum is not defined in the current bylaws.  CBCGB has been interpreting quorum as the number of people who have voted (both in person and absentee).  The goal of the bylaws revision is to ensure that our bylaws unambiguously codify what our current practice already is.

8. Quarterly Financial Report (Deacon Ji-yong)

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.

Please note: except for the General Fund, the Cumulative Balance of all other funds in FY2014 has been transferred into this fiscal year.

For the General Fund budget summary - up to August 31, our total expense is at 11.7% and our total offering is at 17.8% of the total annual budget.

2. The total CBE project donations since December 2012 has been $723,068
3. Deacon Ji-yong encouraged people to put the account number on the requisition form before submission.  The finance committee member examining the form may not be able to read Chinese, so the account number is very important.  Also, it is important for the ministry leader to legibly print his/her name if the signature is not legible.

9. Metro-south building fund

1. Metro-south is in need of a larger facility due to the high attendance relative to the space.  The Board of Elders has proposed that a building fund be set up for Metro-south.
2. The Board of Elders has also proposed that any surplus offering from Metro-south go towards their building fund with a 25% match from the CBCGB general fund.  However, current bylaws and policies dictate that the church council can only vote to amend the general fund budget or allocate general fund surplus at the end of the fiscal year (after replenishing the general fund reserve and capital fund), so no vote was held for the time being.

10. General fund surplus allocation (Elder Ke-chieh)

1. After contributions from the general fund surplus to the general fund reserve and capital fund (as required by church policy), the church council is responsible for disbursing the remaining  $202,164.
2. Elder Ke-chieh Chu motioned to transfer $172,164 to the Building Expansion Fund and $30,000 to the newly created Metro-south building fund, while transferring the current balance of the church planting fund of $6,689.63 also into the Metro-south building fund.  Elder David Ho seconded.  The vote passed.

11. Church building expansion status (Elder Ke-chieh)

1. Phase 1, Part 1 (151 Spring Street): The contract was signed on May 4, 2014.  The demolition permit was given on September 3, and new construction started on September 8.  Construction is expected to be complete with six months.
2. Phase 1, Part 2 (Expanded parking and circular driveway): A land survey was completed earlier in January.  The permit application is planned for this October.
3. Phase 2 and Phase 3: A church facility usage survey analysis was completed last month which has given the committee valuable feedback regarding potential future direction.

12. Pastor Sandy closed in prayer at 12:53 pm.

4. Addendum: Board of Deacons side meeting

1. Deacons Lawrence outlined a proposal for renovating the church office bathroom into two separate single-occupant bathrooms.
2. Deacon Loren motioned to approve up to $13,000 from the capital fund for renovation of the church office bathroom.  Deacon Ruike seconded.  The motion passed.