Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
Governing Board Minutes

Minutes of the February 10, 2004

President Dave Sengpiel called the meting to order at 6:30 p.m. Those in attendance were Ken Wunsch, Shawn Woolman, Craig Braget, Pastor Burcham, Deb Kesse, Dan Snyder, Dave Sengpiel, and Faith Spark. Charlotte Nutter and Brian Peter were present to give their reports. There were no visitors.

Pastor Burcham opened the meeting with prayer.

Dave Sengpiel welcomed Brian Peter and Charlotte Nutter to the meeting. The minutes from the last meeting were read with two corrections being made. A motion was made by Shawn Woolman to approve the corrected minutes and seconded by Ken Wunsch. Motion carried.

Director of Youth and Family Ministry, Brian Peter, was pleased with the "Souper-Bowl of Caring" that the youth took part in on Souper-bowl Sunday. They collected $491.76. He is especially excited about "Faith Alive 2x2" youth program that is seeing its highest numbers ever. He attributes this to great topic selection by Chet and Jen Stefanowicz, along with Jeremy Meythaler and Jenn Amendt. The Faith Alive Confirmation class is happy to have Pastor Burcham back in the classroom and teaching.

Pastor Burcham showed the board a trailer for the new movie "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson. Gloria Dei rented Wynnsong Theatre the night of February 29 for two showings 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The church will be selling tickets to the congregation for $5.00. Pastor Burcham will follow up this movie with a sermon series beginning on March 14th to address the basic questions about Jesus, to equip our congregation members to answer questions they may be asked by their friends. He thanked the staff for their help in pulling all this together.

Igniting Congregations, a program sponsored by LCMS, will be attended by Pastor Burcham and Shawn Woolman the weekend of February 14th - 15th in San Antonio, Texas. This is an honor for us since we are one of 25 congregations invited because of our number of adult confirmations.

Discovery 201 has brought us 34 new members into our congregation. Gloria Dei continues to be blessed by the energy and excitement of bringing these new members into the congregation.

Pastor Burcham discussed with the board, the national best selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. The book talks about what our purpose as a human being is and why we are here. Pastor Burcham would like to begin a congregational involvement program beginning on September 19th through November 7th called 40 Days of Purpose. This is an interactive program that has been developed by the author and publisher to support the book. It is a nationally syndicated program that is offered only three times per year. Due to increased activity in adult education activities and the cost of this program, a motion was made by Craig Braget to authorize $3,100.00 to be added to the adult ministry budget. Dave Sengpiel seconded it. Motion carried.

The call committee chairman, Shawn Woolman, said they talked with three possible pastors on Sunday and Monday. One of the pastors is well known to the congregation and one additional pastor will be here on Monday of next week for an in-person interview. The committee will give us a recommendation in possibly two weeks with a call meeting hopefully in early March.

Dan Schneider informed the board that Seven Flags convention center overbooked Gloria Dei with another event on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday. As result, we were informed that Gloria Dei staff and volunteers would not be able to gain access in the convention center for set up until after 11:00PM Saturday evening. This would require volunteers to be up all night doing set up. The decision of staff and the Easter Committee task force was that this was unacceptable and that Easter services will be held at Gloria Dei. The services will be a traditional service with full music at 7 a.m. and blended services with full music at 8:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. There will be no contemporary service this year. The Easter Task Force committee is addressing the expected parking problem and issues related to the sanctuary size.

Treasurer, Craig Braget expressed how God has blessed us with an income of $79,081.00 for January. Craig reported that the staff continues to do a great job of keeping expenses under control. The first down payment of $44,225.00 has been made for the new organ. Craig advised the board to expect snow removal expenses to be higher than budgeted because of the inclement weather in January.

Business Manager, Charlotte Nutter, was happy to report that 81% of the budget has been pledged to date. A new computer has been purchased for Ronda Mueller to replace the old laptop. Kelly Woodard, Desktop Publisher, has resigned from Gloria Dei. Pastor Burcham and Charlotte Nutter will write a job description, and Jackie Van Ahn will help screen the new employee. Web specializing, proofreading, language skills and an eye for detail are necessary. Gloria Dei employed 47 people last year with nine full-time and one part-time as the staff.

There were no Subcommittee reports.

Old Business: Steve Kammeyer is in contact with Pastor Sieveking concerning the constitution.

New Business: We will continue to follow up on the strategic plan focusing on where we should be in 2010. The Governing Board retreat is February 27th, 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. and February 28th, 7:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. with Pastor Kieschnick of Gloria Dei -Houston helping as a guest presenter/facilitator.

With no further items to discuss the Lord's Prayer was recited and the meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m. on a motion from Craig Braget and a second by Ken Wunsch.

Respectfully submitted by Faith Spark, recording secretary.