Overview of the Council Minutes for the April 2004/March 2005 Mandate

The Church Council was elected in April 2004 and was composed of : Stephen Coffin (Chaplain), Lara Confort (Churchwarden), David Bailey (Churchwarden), Richard Sheppard , Alison Coulavin , Valerie Golton , Claire Naylor, Elizabeth Cherhal, Craig Alciati, Troy Simoni, Segun Odunlade, Mark Lewis.

At our first Council meeting Richard Sheppard was appointed Treasurer and Mark Lewis Secretary. Alan Golton was co-opted onto the Council. Alison Coulavin and Valerie Golton maintained their positions as Synod Representatives as this involves a three year mandate ending April 2005.

Here follows a very brief overview of the Council discussions for the past year. Agenda and Minutes of each meeting can be found on the church website (http://www.grenoblechurch.org/ - click on Church Organisation in left menu bar, then click high-lighted text "Church Council" on right hand page).

The Council set out discussing an important issue: "Aims, Goals and Direction of the Church". This led us to preparing the "Second Service Proposal (SSP)" which most church members were consulted about last September. The main goal of the SSP was to encourage Worship, Service, Evangelism, Fellowship and Discipleship by allowing parishioners to worship in ways that best suited their own needs. Feedback from the questionnaires sent out led us to put aside the idea of the SSP and continue with the current service layout. It was agreed however that The Family Service would be 11+ friendly and that both The Family Service and Morning Worship would reflect the contemporary service proposals. The services would run on consecutive Sundays.

Possibly the most influential decision the Church Council made this year was that of prolonging Stephen Coffin’s contract with "The English Speaking Church of Grenoble". This was done after much thought and prayer and in conjunction with ICS exec Ian Watson. The Council recognised Stephen’s hard work over the past years and felt that the church in Grenoble was moving in the right direction with him. As a result the Council spent a substantial amount of time discussing "The Years Ahead" in order to set the church moving towards specific goals and to give Stephen a clear idea of what was expected of him. Two particular areas were underlined: Encouraging Children and Sunday school teachers, Encouraging Christian Growth and Outreach.

Another exciting theme this year has been that of mission. The Church was asked if it could possibly welcome Howard and Donna DIEHL form Aurora, Illinois, USA. This couple is planning to outreach to the French Community but has proposed to serve in our church while they learn French. The Council has been working on a job outline for them. In another area, we have put in for a Student Worker from Friends International. This worker will focus on a ministry with Anglophone students on and off campus. The church will have to organise housing for this person. In yet another area, Mark and Carine LEWIS have asked the council to consider "sending them out" as missionaries and we are currently looking into a possible partnership with SIM mission society (http://www.sim.org/). The Last area concerns one of the themes talked of at Synod this year, "The Mission Shaped Church". We are taking up the challenge as a Council and looking into ways to better our outreach to the community as a serving church.

The Council has voted for much Church giving this past year. We have given to agencies such as Tear Fund, Compassion, The Barnabas Fund, Champfleuri, CITA (Burkina Faso),"Le Diaconnat Prostestant" and The Tsunami Appeal (via Tear Fund). The Church council ahs also voted to subsidise internal events such as the Youth weekends and the church weekend.

Oh! …and we have talked about and done some other things too. We accepted the proposal to buy a Video Projector and we agreed to setting up the NEW church website (thx again Larry). We have been looking into setting up a real notice board, we have repaired the church sink, repaired the church apartment’s bathroom, talked about a microwave, door-shutters, … and much more.

Hope you all appreciated our service…

Mark Lewis, Church Secretary - March 2005