9/7 Transition Team Meeting 7:00 at Chruch

We started with devotions on Philippians 4:4-9.  We all agreed that the Lord has, indeed, been with this process and that we are not to worry.

Discussed the fact that we want to have a family leave clause available and the details of that will be worked out by the church council.

There were two items that needed discussion and/or some revision.  The first was a revision of the five ways the congregation would support the new pastor (bottom of page 11 and on to page 12).  After consulting the MSP of Trinity Lutheran in Gresham, we adopted their format, if not their exact wording (see MSP).

The second was was in the commentary.  There was lengthy discussion of the phrase "to all baptized Christians" in the mission statement.  We ended up just adding the date that the charter was signed.

The congregation has until the 11th to give us their comments, and if there are no issues that arise from a lot of people, we will present the MSP to the executive committee when they meet on the 12th.  It is expected that they will accept it and then Gary will electronically deliver it to Susan Kintner.  It was felt that we do not need to meet with her to present it.

We will present a brief overview of the MSP to the congregation after worship on the 18th.  The transition team members who are there are invited to speak a sentence or two about what he or she was responsible for in the document.

Meeting was adjourned with blueberry cake and ice cream, sparkling cider and a prayer.

8/16 Transitin team Meeting

Attendees:  Meghan, Gary, Pastor Michelle, Shirley, Jan and Diane

We began with a reading of Hebrews 12:1-2.  

The MSP was projected on the big screen and we started with page one and proceeded to examine it line by line to make changes in wording that seemed awkward, redundant or unnecessary.  We got through page 5 and decided we would each review it individually on our own and send Gary any further proposed changes.  These are to be done by 8/24.

He will then compile these and make the "final" product available for our review.  We may or may not need another face to face meeting for this; the option was left open.  The plan is to submit the MSP to the September meeting of council.

Diane will submit a note for Toni to put in her next weekly newsletter.

7/13 Transition Team Meeting - 6:30 Church

Agenda:

• Devotion
• Housekeeping
• Agree on goals and milestones to report progress (Bring personal calendars, Council Meeting)
• Closing Date for Survey 
• Check in on individual work (additional one-to-ones)
• Reviewing and consolidating the MSP responses 
• Any needed MSP Responsibility Adjustments
• Addressing different congregational understandings about Creator
• Overall Transition Decisions - What do we need from council?
• Scheduling Next Meeting

Minutes 

We began with devotions using Romans 12:1-8.  We spent time considering our own personal gifts and those of Creator.  

We then discussed some of the things that came up at the two cottage meetings.  There is still a major concern surfacing about finances.  Concern about the identity of Creator also cropped up, especially in the area of social justice.  There is a deep sense of social justice, but it does not particularly resonate among the congregation as a whole.

However, after all that discussion, we agreed that it is not the job of this group to address these concerns, but to make sure they are not ignored in the future. These are suggestions that will be passed on to council. 

 Moving on to the progress of our purpose:  we came up with a timeline for the next few weeks.

The hope is to submit the MSP to council by August, September at the latest.  After council has reviewed the MSP, we would schedule a town hall meeting and get feedback from the congregation, noting any concerns that might be pointed out.

Before then, each committee member will finish his or her area of responsibility and finalize their parts of the report, submitting them by 8/5/16.  We will then meet on 8/10/16 at 6:30 at the church and have the MSP projected on the screen and go over it as a group, fine tuning where it might be needed.  Council will be handling the financial parts of the MSP.

Again:  our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 10th at 6:30 pm at the church.  It would be nice to have full attendance, and If there are those who can't make it. perhaps we should consider finding a day when all could be present.

6/22 and 6/26 Notes from Small Group Meetings

Diane reports:

We have had our two additional cottage meetings and there was good conversation at both.  On Wednesday we had one person outside of the transition team (TT) and there were 18 people plus 5 TT members at the second one.

Financial stability was a subject at both sessions.  There was a comment about not being a church that's so focused on money.  It seems to be a conundrum as it's a necessary subject; it takes money to keep the church viable.

Communication was discussed at the first one and there were comments about communicating what's going on outside of church hours.  Sharing more of our lives than just Sunday morning, and being able to be supportive of individual members/families when we know their stories.

Sunday's meeting seemed to have more open discussion in general.  Someone suggested that everyone be heard, and most everyone participated.  There were a couple of specific "hopes" mentioned, but soon we were talking about the bigger picture.  We want to be a more community oriented church.  And we need to remember that this is a process.  This is not going to happen overnight and we need to stay committed to the process.

Some of the specific qualities in a pastor:  one who can focus on our community outside of the church; someone younger, or more recently out of seminary (a second career); an immigrant pastor; have a global vision with a community focus; a change agent; a facilitator.

There was discussion about a church whose focus was all about social needs and that was compared to a Kiwanis club.  If that's what you want, you can join a club, but most people want worship as well.  We need to find the balance between worship and social justice work.

There are going to be changes.  We are in the middle of change and some will be uncomfortable with this, with any change.  A good suggestion (in my opinion) was to send a letter out to the congregation acknowledging the change and the discomfort that some may be experiencing, but to hold on.  Stay for the reasons that have kept you here so far and commit to walking together through the process.

6/02 Transition Team Meeting

Agenda

• Setting Important Next Dates and Transition Planning (bring your calendars)
• Devotional
• Housekeeping
• Review Individual One-to-one and relational work
• Analyze and consolidate MSP responses
• MSP Presentation to council and congregation
• Schedule next meeting

 There are currently 47 submitted surveys.

We began the meeting with a devotion based on Matthew 28:16-20.  Four short verses with lots to ponder.  Two of the questions we were asked to ponder over:  what are the "knots" in the congregation that keep us bound?  what is the purpose of Creator Lutheran Church?

We started with a discussion of closing the survey which lead to a much wider discussion of what we really have learned about the hopes, dreams, and goals of the people who make up Creator.  We decided to leave the survey open; in addition, it was decided we needed to reengage with our church family and try to delve deeper into the hopes and dreams.

We momentarily thought about creating a second survey and quickly realized that wasn't the approach we needed.  We have set up two more listening sessions with the focus on hopes and dreams.  We are also offering opportunities for one to ones with anyone who desires.

Nick was meeting with the youth on Sunday the 5th and was going to try to get them to open up on their hopes and dreams for this transition and beyond.

Jan had accumulated much detailed information on the demographics of the area schools.  Some surprising numbers were appearing, especially with the number of different languages in the various schools.  We decided it was good information but did not want to pursue it at the moment.

We set dates for the two sessions for further discussion:  June 22nd (Wednesday) at 7PM at the church, and June 26th (Sunday) after worship.  The focus will be on hopes and dreams for the future and what is the purpose of Creator.

We will try to close the survey by July 1st (unless the new discussions generate more activity).  We are also offering people an opportunity to submit their thoughts in writing or schedule one to ones.  In July, we will go over the data and send Gary any updated information we have gleaned.

The next transition team meeting will be Wednesday, July 13th, 6:30 at the church.  As the document comes together, we will edit it as a team.

The hope is that we will have the MSP ready to give to council by September.  Pastor will sent out the email to everyone about the two new meetings we are holding.

5/25 Transition to Do List

We will have more one-to-one sessions and the team will remain focused in our listening.  However, we recognize the survey responses are slowing down and we currently do not have people asking for another small group session.

We are entering a different phase of our work which is equally important.  We need to analyze and consolidate what we have learned from our listening into the answers for the MSP. 

Next Thursday we will continue to delve into areas of the MSP where we have our particular responsibilities assigned. Individual work updates will be helpful when we next meet.  We will review answers in our areas of responsibility and will add, change or rewrite any of the answers like we started to do at the last meeting. 

Also, we set the goals and milestones we can use to communicate our future progress to the congregation.

5/11 Transition Team Meeting

Agenda:

• Devotion
• Housekeeping
• Review overall survey / small group meeting learning and results 
• Check in on your individual work besides Small Group Meetings (additional One-to-ones)
• Reviewing and consolidating the initial MSP responses 
• Needed MSP Responsibility Adjustments
• May Congregational Meeting Presentation Plans
• Overall Transition Decisions (including how to pass along information not directly related to the MSP)
• Scheduling Next Meeting

There are 40 survey responses as of today.

This will be our first attempt at consolidating the MSP information that we gathered up until now through the one-ones, small group meetings.

Please send by Monday:

• Initial write-ups you may have in your area of responsibility.  
• Initial strategies for compiling survey results and initial impressions of the summary survey data  
• Meaningful contributions from a one-to-one or small group that pertains to another part of the MSP.
• Your ideas for the congregational meeting presentation to hammer out our initial working presentation..

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Notes:

The meeting was opened with devotions on Ephesians 4:11-16.

Gary requested a brief note from everyone briefly telling what drew each of us to be on the transition team.  It will be posted by our photos.

Diane explained about Greg being unable to make it and his comment that perhaps he should resign from the team.  She will confirm that.

A brief discussion of the last small group meeting and of the social justice gathering was held.

We then went over the MSP, category by category, beginning the fine tuning of our responses.  Good progress was made, with more to be made after some pondering it  individually.  Rob will be the overseer of all the categories, as we continue with the earlier "assignments."

We decided what would be on the 3 slides we will present to the congregation at the meeting on the 22nd.

     1) Reporting progress:  4 small group meetings with a total of about 50 in 

         attendance; 40 surveys have been completed; 12 one to ones have been 

         held; the transition team is meeting regularly.

     2) Trends:  Meghan will write this up

     3) Next steps:  expectations for when we have completed the MSP