Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
Governing Board Minutes

Minutes of October 14, 2003

Vice President Deb Kesse called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Those in attendance were Pastor Burcham, Dan Snyder, Deb Kesse, Shawn Woolman, Ken Wunsch, Lou Grotheer, Norm Rinderknecht, Faith Spark, and Dave Sengpiel (who arrived at 6:50 PM). Charlotte Nutter and DeAnn Haas-McCue were also in attendance to give their reports. There were no visitors.

Pastor opened the meeting with a prayer and a scripture passage from 2 Corinthians, chapter eight, "Testing the sincerity of your love by making comparisons." St. Paul makes a bold statement concerning stewardship that it is a "Spiritual manner, not just a money manner".

The minutes from the September meeting were approved on a motion from Norm Rinderknecht, seconded by Shawn Woolman. Motion carried.

Children and Family Director, DeAnn Haas McCue, informed us that Wednesday night classes now called "Faith Alive" are at new high of 227 in attendance. Sunday school attendance is at 240; Kindermusik enrollment is up 14 new members. There are 130 women registered for the International Non-Denominational Bible Study being held at Gloria Dei. The discussions are of the Bible only, not about churches or people. It runs for thirty weeks with the studies on Israel and the minor Profits. DeAnn will be going to San Antonio on November 7th for a children's learning conference.

Business Manager, Charlotte Nutter, reviewed the Treasurer's report for Craig Braget. A Motion to approve the budget was made by Norm Rinderknecht, seconded by Dan Snyder. Motion carried. Giving is still down, but the staff is continuing to keep expenses down. The carpet problems are being worked out.

Pastor Burcham felt the "Revisiting The Vision" meeting went well with 50 in attendance. The take away from that meeting was that the vision is on target and God's vision for us is to move ahead. Stewardship emphasis will begin on November 9th and continue on the 16th and the 23rd. Attendance is growing at the three Sunday morning services with a rolling average of now over 800 per Sunday.

Call Committee representative, Shawn Woolman, stated that the committee had a list of three pastors to choose from and felt that more were needed to effectively choose an associate pastor for Gloria Dei.

Human Resources subcommittee chair, Deb Kesse, reported that Pastor Burcham's performance review went well. The job descriptions are done for the pastors. Medical insurance alternatives were reviewed for the staff. Options were presented. Option C offers a higher deductible and an increased co-pay provision with considerably less expense to the church enabling us to meet our 2004 budget projection. A Flexible Spending Account benefit was discussed and will be set up for the staff if, proven to be economically viable. Motion to approve option C was made by Shawn Woolman, approved by Ken Wunsch. Motion carried.

Finance committee representative, Ken Wunsch, said that a financial summary would go out with the giving statements as another means of keeping the Congregation informed of church related activities.

Old Business: The constitution is being looked over by Pastor Sieveking, and we will hope to hear from him soon.

Job Descriptions for the two pastors and a staff organizational chart were discussed. A motion was made by Ken Wunsch to approve both the job descriptions and organizational chart. It was seconded by Shawn Woolman, motion carried. A motion to bring Rhonda Mueller on full-time in January 2004 as part of implementation of the new organizational chart was made by Ken Wunsch and seconded by Deb Kesse. Motion carried.

With there being no further business to discuss, a motion to adjourn was made by Dan Snyder and seconded by Shawn Woolman and we closed with the Lord's Prayer at 8:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Faith Spark.
Secretary