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Church Minutes Agenda

Minutes (Download as a PDF)
The Semi-Annual Meeting
Of the
Good Shepherd Lutheran Congregation
Sunday, June 13, 2010, 12:15 p.m.

Our Mission: “To be a Church that will know, grow and show God’s love, equipping
everyone to pass on the Good News to the next generation”

Declaration of a Quorum -10% of Active Confirmed Members (114 required) – 144 counted less 4 non-members for 140 total (more voting members came in after the count)
Handouts – Meeting agenda, Annual Meeting Minutes and a letter from congregational member Tom West (attached to this document).
Opening Prayer – Pastor Ryan Warne-McGraw
Lead the meeting- Scott Eaton, the Congregational President led the meeting and introduced Bishop Murray Finck, the presiding Bishop of the Pacifica Synod of the ELCA also in attendance.

Regular Business:

Moved: That the Minutes of the Annual meeting of the Congregation held Sunday, January 17, 2010 be approved - M/S but not approved.
- Point of Order was raised. The Minutes handed out at the beginning of the meeting were incorrect (Annual meeting of January 18, 2009) and members of the congregation had been given incorrect minutes to approve.
- The meeting continued to the next agenda item while the correct minutes were located and copied for the congregation members to review. Later in the agenda, the Motion was raised again.
- Moved: That the Minutes of the Annual meeting of the Congregation held Sunday, January 17, 2010 be approved - M/S/A

The next order of business involved motions that passed at the January 17, 2010 Annual Meeting of the Congregation and required a 2nd vote of the congregation for final ratification. Because of the nature of the Motions a 2/3 majority vote was required to ratify. As has been our practice on other such votes, a private ballot was used as opposed to the standard hand count;
Scott Eaton began the order of business by reviewing a time line detailing the process the congregation has been thru over the past 18 months. While Scott reviewed the timeline, private ballots were distributed to congregational members detailing the 1st Motion to withdraw from the ELCA and 2nd motion to approve changes to the constitution.

- Point of Order was raised. Since the vote to approve the changes to the constitution was somewhat contingent upon approval of the 1st vote to withdraw from the ELCA, it was recommended that the vote to ratify changes to the constitution wait until results of the 1st vote was known.

The Point of Order was accepted and the vote on the 2 motions was split. The meeting continued with the 1st of 2 motions;

Moved: Be it resolved that Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Irvine, CA end its affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America (ELCA). – M/S
- Congregational members were given the opportunity to speak. One congregation member Tom West spoke concerning a letter he requested be distributed at the beginning of the meeting. Other congregation members spoke including Bishop Murray Finck. The vote via private ballot proceeded when there were no further requests to speak.
- Congregation members were asked to vote using the private ballots which were collected by the ushers and counted in the presence of five (5) people. The votes were tallied and the Motion was Approved by a vote of 87% yes, 13% no with 2 abstentions.
- Bishop Murray Finck asked to speak once the final vote had been determined. Bishop Finck read from a prepared letter expressing sorrow for our congregations vote to withdraw while celebrating the many years of service GSLC and the Pacifica Synod of the ELCA have enjoyed. The Bishop asked that God’s Spirit go with GSLC and he extended his gracious hand to help GSLC through the transition. The letter was presented to the Congregational President, Scott Eaton.

Following the 1st vote (above) the meeting continued and other business was discussed. Once the result of the 1st vote had been completed, the following motion was considered. Because this motion was the 2nd ratifying vote involving changes to the constitution, it required a 2/3 majority vote to pass;

Moved: that the Good Shepherd Constitution and By-laws be changed to reflect our change in affiliation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America and the Pacifica Synod of the ELCA, to membership only in Lutheran Congregations In Mission For Christ (LCMC). – M/S/A Because the vote was conducted following the 1st vote to withdraw from the ELCA, private ballots were not used. The vote was conducted via hand count. As a result of that count there was an overwhelming majority, far in excess of the 2/3 required to approve the motion with only 8 votes against. The motion was Approved.

The remaining business required a simple majority vote of 50% plus 1 for approval;

Moved: That some GSLC members feel compelled to continue their support for the many important mission and outreach ministries of the Pacifica Synod of the ELCA. Therefore, we will continue to make a form available for members to direct their offerings and give six percent (6%) to the Pacifica Synod of the ELCA. – M/S
- There was significant discussion concerning this motion. Some question the purpose of such a motion now that we had voted to withdraw from the ELCA while others wondered if placing a time limit on such benevolence was appropriate.
- Motion to Amend the Motion: Congregation member Tom Gephart asked that the Motion be amended to extend for only 1 year when it would expire and require further congregational approval to continue – M/S.
  - The amendment as required by procedure was open for discussion. There was a spirited discussion on the matter when a second motion was raised to table amendment;
  - Motion to Table the Amendment: - M/S As required by procedure the motion to table is not open to discussion and requires only a simple majority to succeed. The vote to table was approved by an overwhelming majority vote. Motion to table the Amendment was Approved.
- Now that the Motion to Amend had been tabled, discussion was again directed to the original Motion made and seconded. Discussion continued until a motion was made to end debate and call for the question.
  - Motion to Call the Question – M/S As required by procedure, a motion to Call the Question is not open to discussion and requires a 2/3 majority vote to succeed. The vote was conducted by hand count. The motion to Call the Question received an overwhelming majority vote clearly in excess of the required 2/3 majority and the question was called.
- As required by Procedure, once the Question has been called no further discussion is allowed and the vote on the motion was conducted via hand count. The vote on the motion was defeated by an overwhelming majority. As a result, the motion was Not Approved. (Note: Following the meeting a letter was sent to the 44 member households who had designated a portion of their giving to the ELCA of this change effective July 1, 2010)
Report from the Church Treasurer – Presented by Dennis Deslatte, Treasurer of GLSC – Reviewed the PowerPoint slide. God has been good and faithful to us. Through May we are $9,000 ahead of our 2010 budget on the income side. We are also running under on expenses resulting in a $37,149 net income through 5 months of the year.
Report from the Preschool Treasurer – presented Stan Gardner, Treasure of preschool – Reviewed the PowerPoint. God has also been good and faithful to the preschool. Through May they are on budget reporting a $24,925 net income from operations.
Report of the Audit Committee – Presented by Dennis Deslatte, Treasurer of GLSC – The 2008 Audit has been completed for the church and the preschool – everything looked good. Only a couple of small comments were presented by the committee on the audit. The 2009 Audits are in process and will be completed this fall.
Election of the Nominating Committee:
- Moved: that the following list of people having indicated their willingness to serve, be elected to the Nominating Committee for 2010 – 2011. M/S/A

New Nominees
Dlorah Dahl
John Kerr
Nancy Guenter (Northwood)
John Parsons
Kurt Schutte

The congregation was asked to express their appreciation to those who served on the nominating committee this past year.

Election of the Audit Committee:
Moved: that the following list of candidates having expressed their willingness to serve be elected to the Audit Committee - M/S/A

New Nominees
Rob Havaks (re-elected)
Tim Johnson
Matt Munson
Tony Pena (re-elected)

- The congregation was asked to express their appreciation to those who served on the Audit Committee this past year.
- Report from the Vice-President of Personnel, Mike Boyle on the position of Director of Youth Ministry.
- Chris Baldwin, the Director of Youth Ministry has decided to attend the Princeton Theological Seminary this coming fall. Chris’s decision to pursue a call to seminary will result in his resignation as of August 1st 2010.
- As a result a search has been conducted to find a new Director of Youth Ministry to serve at GSLC. This search resulted in the hire/promotion of Steven Johnson to the position of Director of Youth Ministries following Chris’s departure.
- Steven’s background was then presented including his current position as the Director of Youth Ministry at our Northwood campus.
- The congregation welcomed Steve to his new position and expressed congratulations to Chris in his decision to attend seminary.
Closing Prayer – Pastor Mike Anderson
Meeting Ending - 1:40PM
Minutes Submitted by Mike Nau – Council Secretary