2018 Annual Congregational Meeting Summary

Thank you to everyone who attended the Annual Congregational Meeting on Sunday, June 10th after worship. In addition to the annual business of voting on a budget and church council nominees, the purpose of the meeting was to reflect on the past year and to look ahead to the challenges and opportunities that face us in the year ahead.

Both the proposed Annual Budget and the Council Slate for 2018-19 fiscal year were approved by unanimous vote (30 - 0 votes).

We welcomed two new elected Church Council Members, Paul Jackson and Tracy Litterer. We said thank you to outgoing council member Jill Bierman.

Our Church Council Roster for the 2018-19 fiscal year will be:

President: Denise DeMarre

Secretary: Michael Gross

Treasurer: Rich Radford

Pastor David Eppelsheimer

Tracy Litterer

Paul Jackson

Sarah Wilkinson

We began the meeting with Biblical and relational work led by Pastor David Eppelsheimer. This helped us to ground our conversations and our decision making in God’s word and to celebrate the various ways we are committed to serve God and to be church in this place. During his Pastor’s Report, Pastor David shared some highlights of what was learned from the 2017 Oregon Synod Assessment and Visitation Process. This was an opportunity to get an overview of the state of the synod and the state of our own congregation based on the data that was collected. Some of the takeaways from his report include:

Many congregations throughout Oregon are facing challenges when it comes to vitality and sustainability, ChristChurch is no exception. This is due to a variety of factors, not least of which is the rapidly changing culture around us. Churches that choose to do nothing about these challenges, or to simply do only what they have always done, before will most assuredly move toward crisis.

Strong leadership (clergy and lay) is critical to moving our congregations toward greater vitality and longer-term sustainability. A key component of this strong leadership is the willingness to take risks and to try new things. The data suggests that congregations whose leaders are unwilling to risk failure tend to be less hopeful and less joyful.

Creating and sustaining healthy relationships inside the congregation and with others in the surrounding community are also essential for vitality.  

Our Treasurer, Rich Radford, gave the financial report. He projects that we break even by the end of June (Fiscal Year 2017-18) thanks in large part to increased recurring monthly giving. Thank you! He also reviewed the proposed 2018-19 Budget for everyone before the vote was taken.  If you’d like to view Rich’s presentation, email Admin@comchristchurch.org.

Taken together, the Pastor’s and Treasurer’s reports reveal that the path forward for Community of ChristChurch is a path filled with opportunity and challenge. To move from maintenance to vitality will require us to make bold decisions and to step out in faith. Your leaders recognize that it is time to bring this conversation from the council meeting room and out into the whole congregation.

Council President Denise DeMarre shared the council’s plan for doing just that: Beginning in the fall, ChristChurch will engage in a listening season. There will be multiple opportunities for people to participate through one to one conversations and small group discussions in people’s homes and at the church. Key questions we will be asking you all to reflect on as we move into the future are: What does God want FOR ChristChurch? And what does God want FROM ChristChurch? Stay tuned for more details about this.

Thank you again to all who attended and presented. Council meetings are on the 2nd Wednesday at 6:30pm each month. They are open to all. Full minutes from the annual meeting will be available for review next month.