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Regional Board Meeting ~ May 2005We opened the meeting with roll call and introductions. We had a worship by Connie Day with a quote from Archbishop Oscar Romero on being a worker. And Love Each Other! Passions! Those in attendance were Connie Day, Susi McCall, Scott & Peggy Hill, Ray Thomas, Jani DeMond, Ken Stamper, Marjorie Johnson, Lorraine Stephens, Herb Whitaker, Gary Smith, Roger Bray, Kathy Rupert, Bob Clair, Angie Nelson, Leman Messley, Maurice Jones, Jim & Janetta Piper, Gary Shoemaker, Linda Dealy, Lena Webb, Chris Clark, Brenda Lynch, and Larry Crist, Regional Minister. After a discussion of each committee everyone was encouraged to choose one committee and then they will stay with that committee for at least three board meetings. Each Committee was instructed to have a spokesman and then also to have someone bless their report with prayer. We all dispersed into Committee Meetings. The meeting was re-adjourned at 12:45 Connie Day handed out a book on the Region for each Board Member. She encouraged everyone to read theirs and see what their duties were. She asked for each person to check their church’s data and their representative and if it wasn’t correct to get her any changes before the next board meeting. Connie also handed out a Priority list for 20006-2006 for the Board. · Continuity of Leadership · Mentoring for positions of leadership 1. Fill vacancies & encourage participation of more members 2. Assign Committees 3. Good Communication · Constitution Revision · Regional Assembly (2006) · Mission Division 1. New church development – appoint a committee 2. Nicaragua Mission 3. Yakama Mission 4. Hispanic Ministries in Idaho · Nurture Division 1. Congregational Revitalization 2. Camps · Administrative Division 1. Mission Finance 2. Campground Improvements Connie asked everyone to go back to their churches and ask for more representatives. We need to have a youth representative and we need to have every church represented on the Regional Board. Connie made the announcement that Jack Sullivan, Regional Minister in the Northwest Region will be our main speaker at Regional Assembly and she plans to speak to him at Assembly in Portland. Peggy Hill brought a recommendation from the executive committee that we suspend the by laws long enough to have Connie Day step down from being the Vice – Moderator and we appoint her to be Moderator. She asked that Jani DeMond take over for the nomination. Jani agreed. Jani asked for nominations and Peggy Hill nominated Connie Day to become Moderator for our Region. There was a discussion and the nomination was accepted unanimously. Reports were given: General -- Roger Bray serves on the General Board Administrative Committee: He reported: 1. The nominee for General Minister will be Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins. She is a Pastor in Oklahoma and has distinguished herself through serving on the General Board, the Administrative Committee, and on several different boards and task forces. 2. The NBA has emerged from bankruptcy and has only five units now under its’ operation. Not all the units were lost to the church as some were purchased by the people in the geographic areas. An apology was rendered by the new NBA President for the insensitivity and vagueness by which the previous board functioned. Funding has been restored at 30% of what was originally allocated through Disciple Mission Fund. 3. Because of an urgency to meet the mission imperative of becoming and antiracist church and due to the huge shortfall of the reconciliation offering in 2001 because of 9/11, a deficit occurred for Reconciliation/Antiracist programming. That deficit was financed from the account of the Office of General Minister and President and the account for the Office of Communication. Reconciliation has been using the Special Offering to help retire debts incurred from the previous year of programming. We used some of the withheld funds from the NBA, up to $320,000, to retire the indebtedness to the office of GMP and to the Office of Communication, and free up the Reconciliation program to fund forward with this year’s offering. We believe that there are three things that are to come out of this: a. First we take the office of GMP and Office of Communication to a better financial status and better operational basis. b. We make Reconciliation financially stable to fund forward. c. We raise the consciousness of our church to the fact that our antiracist training is essential for us as we live into what God is calling our church to be. This will help us to have the glue that holds us together in love and faith as we become an increasingly diverse church. 4. There is a proposed revision of the design of the Christian Church that has been forwarded to the General Assembly. Essentially it is a streamlining of the General Board and the Administrative Committee to smaller numbers. This downsizing creates a greater efficiency in our operating funding and it challenges us to rethink some things about the size and shape of regions. Roger said that he knew that in some of the discussions held, relevant to this revision, that there were numbers lifted up for what constitutes a legitimate congregational base to support a region and that there were some consensus that a minimum would be around 50 congregations. I would encourage you to get a copy here today and review it before National Assembly. 5. New Church Starts are booming again this year. Our total is now at 337 since the effort began. It looks like we will reach our goal by 2013 if not by 2011. We are starting churches at a historic rate. There are a lot of challenges brought to us by such success and opportunity. Of the new churches started 25% are Anglo, 75% are other ethnicities. Of the new churches we have approximately 25% by affiliation. 6. Finally, register to attend the General Assembly July 22-27 in Portland, OR. Be sure to also consider some of the pre-assembly activities. The registration and resolution materials are available on line. Regional Minister’s Report – Larry Crist reported that he had attended the Faith Trust Institute for three days. He is now a certified instructor. He reported that General Board was great. There is still quite a bit of anger related to NBA. He also related some of what Roger reported about the changed going to take place in the General Church. Some of the discussion is to meld the western states together. Larry reported that he will attend Rod Parrot’s retirement party in California. Larry has spent a lot of time with the Homedale Church. They now have a lovely facility. He has enjoyed helping them. Larry also reported that Linda Olsen has resigned from the Nampa Christian Church. She is getting married and decided she couldn’t keep the full time position. They will be having an interim minister from Colorado for about a year. He had preached for both Ontario & Idaho Falls. Larry also announced that Roger Bray’s 25th Anniversary will be next weekend. Larry told us how the trip to Nicaragua was and what a wonderful time they had. Larry also thanked Maurice Jones for his new furniture in the Regional Office. Larry also told us that he feels our NBA facilities in our region are better off now that they are on their own. They have made the adjustments very well. Marge blessed Larry’s report with prayer. Mission Division- Jani DeMond gave the Mission Committee Report Jani reported that they had Chris Clark, Leslie Clark, Jim Piper, Randy Nelson, Brenda Lynch, Linda Dealy, Jani DeMond Chairman and Connie Day and Larry Crist as ex-officio members of the Mission Committee. Roger Bray shared with them about the New Church Development Committee and told them about when he, Bryan Elliot and Gary Smith went to San Francisco for the training. Roger said that they had Stephen Compton as a speaker. Then he discussed the following points about New Churches: 1. We need to know when to let churches die so new ones can be born. 2. We have 337 new church starts according to 20/20 view 2011/2013 projected to reach 1000. 3. 92+% success rate for new church starts which is exceptional across the denominations. 4. 25% are anglo churches 75% other ethnicities 5. Some by affiliation, 35 Hatian churches are in this block. If we want to start a new church we need to contact the new church consultant. The Mission Committee has set a goal to work on starting two new churches: One Anglo and One Hispanic in the Boise, Caldwell, Nampa areas. Jani also reported that they had discussed how to Communicate and Build enthusiasm. a. get the numbers out b. What is in it for me? c. Why would Idaho Falls care about a new church in Boise? d. Re-Focus on evangelism in our own home churches while building evangelism for a new church. The committee appointed the following New Church Development Committee: Gary Smith – Chairman, Brian Elliott, Roger Bray, Linda Dealy – Regional Lay Person and then they would like additional representatives from each church. Jani also reported on the Nicaragua Mission Partnership. She had a report from Brenda Lynch. There were 15 people who went on the Nicaragua trip. The committee tried to decide where do we go next? Can we support a fundraiser of at least $4000 to bring four people from Nicaragua to the 2006 Assembly? Should we plan another trip for 2007? Brenda said she would go back to each church and each person who made the trip and see what they felt. She will ask each church to send a devotion to Brenda. She will contact the churches for more information. She will send Thank You cards first. She will then make a book of the devotionals to send down to Nicaragua. The Committee decided that for the next trip they will need to remember the following things: 1. Hire a translator down there – not here. 2. Cut off date needs to be at least a month ahead of the trip. 3. Limit our numbers to 10 – not 14 or 15, even if it required three or more groups. 4. Would like to propose a senior visit also, a non-working group. 5. Also we need to make sure the youth that go on the trip attend Regional Assembly. 6. People asking if they can sponsor kids in school in Nicaragua. 7. Don’t overlap groups. It did not work out very well. 8. Have been asked to help with the Oswalla Church to become a church to church (congregation to congregation) sister churches to form a partnership. Connie will check this out. The committee established a group to bring a delegation from Nicaragua. This will include Brenda Lynch and Randy Nelson. Others will be re-united. Yakama needs a committee to head a “learning and serving” trip to Yakama for 2006. It will cost some. We need to plan for it. Connie will chair this committee. Commission on Ministry - -Jani DeMond reported : Members of this committee were: Gary Allen, Lorraine Stevens, Jani DeMond, Chair and Larry Crist – ex-officio. · She had met with Larry for our nurturing session. First time in 27 years. It was a good meeting. · Received progress letter from Tracia & Karissa · We are looking forward to three ordinations in the coming year and at least one licensing. · We met with Chris Clark today and have taken him under our care in preparation to become a licensed lay minister. · We will meet July 1st at Valley Christian Church with Chris and hopefully the pastors from the other Magic Valley congregations. · Will meet with David Carringer in May. · Each pastor in the region will be required to participate in boundary training within the next two years. – no later than June 30, 2007. Can be one presented by Larry or a comparable one. Jani’s reports were blessed by Chris Clark. Administration Division Susi McCall gave this report. The members of this committee were: Janetta Piper, Ken Stamper, Bob Clair, Jim Piper, Gary Shoemaker, Ray Thomas, Susi McCall, Peggy Hill, and Lorraine Stevens. Jim Piper told us that Cascade needed a repair job on the lodge roof. It would run around $500. They would also like to put a deck on the south side of the lodge for people to enjoy the outdoors and not have to walk on the rough ground. It will cost around $7000. There will be a work week on May 20 through May 30th. Also, Kum Ba Ya needs a new propane or electric compressor. Leman will be leading a work week-end there over Memorial Day Weekend. There was a budget report that Larry had prepared. We will be re-investing $9000 in the Church Extension. We will be spending $12,000 for capital expenditures. December offering was not enough! Don’t wait, start reminding everyone now that they need to give a good offering for the December offering as it will come back to the region. We discussed that we needed better communication between our people. In the newsletter we need to advertise that we will be getting most of that offering back. We also need to update the web site. Peggy Hill made a motion for Larry to take $12,000 for capital expenditures. Ray Thomas 2nd Motion Passed. Susi’s report was blessed by Peggy Hill. CWF - - Linda Dealy gave the CWF report Since the last regional meeting in February the women have been busy. 1. We had the women’s breakfast at the Snake River Academy in Twin Falls, It was poorly attended with only 28 attending. Lois Darnall was our speaker. Sara Olsen Bradbury installed our new officers. 2. We encouraged everyone to use our blessing boxes and develop an attitude of “a life of gratitude” 3. The East district Spring Retreat was held April 9th in Burley with 25 women attending. The West District Retreat was held April 16th in Nampa with 38 women attending. Jani DeMond was our speaker. She did a very nice job with mission and our journey in the world. The time at Nampa was very unusual with two funerals occurring and several other functions so we had women coming and going and coming back. We are encouraging all our women to attend the Assembly in Portland this July and participate in the Women’s luncheon. 4. We are also making “Mix” Snack Packs to encourage and advertise “Mix in ‘06” in June of 2006 that we will carry to assembly to be given out. Registration for “Mix in ‘06” will open at National Assembly. Shirts are on sale now. See Linda to buy one. Also I would like to remind everyone of the Fall Retreat at Kum Ba Yah in August. Judy Row will be our program facilitator. CMF - - Jim Piper gave the CMF report. There has been some activity. There are two work camps planned for the camps. Nurture Division - - Marge Draper reported on the Regional Camp plans. The following attended this committee: Lena Webb, Scott Hill, Rev Leman Messley, Kathie Rupert, Rev Maurice Jones, Rev Herb Whittaker, Marjorie Johnson, Rev Roger Bray, Angie Nelson, Dave Merrill, Marge Draper and Larry Crist. We bring the following recommendations to the board: 1. CIT (Counselors in Training) can only serve at one church camp per year. They must come to camp Sunday prior to the camp. They will be doing CIT assistance training before the camps. It is a must that these counselors attend this training. 2. We would like to see a three year training cycle with CIT’s for new recruits coming on board and not being repetitive for the CIT’s that have already attended. June 6th will be the deadline for CIT sign up. It was also suggested that each CIT receive a list of expectations. This would be uniform for all CIT’s. 3. We also recommend the elimination of 11th grade and adding 12th grade at the discretion of the director. 4. We would like to see the Leaven Program. It would give them the opportunity to network, to revitalize congregations and be reviewed by the congregation. The cost is $200. There are 9 sessions. It will need to be submitted by September 1st. Ruth, Montana’s Regional Minister and Larry would lead 3 to 5 people from different congregations, possibly Pastors if they could attend all 9 sessions. This will be a Christ led transformation of each new congregation. New Business – Nominate a Vice Moderator by next meeting. Please everyone see if you have someone interested in this position. We will be appointing a nominating committee in executive committee meeting. Please email Connie Day with anyone who would be interested. Reminder – Pentecost offering is for new church starts. Prayer Requests: Eddie McCotta had a new daughter on the 26th . The baby has been in the hospital. She weight 7lbs 7oz. She had pneumonia. John Blakley’s Mother in law Bev Ringwald, Jane Arnold will have a knee replacement surgery. Jason Coon will have open heart surgery on May 10th. Each and every congregation and the General Church and it’s new leadership especially General Minister nominee Sharon Watkins and her family. The September Board Meeting will be held on September 23rd & 24th at the Valley Christian Church in Twin Falls. The meeting adjourned at 2:11 PM Submitted with Christ’s Love, Susi McCall, Board Clerk
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