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| Minutes of the Church Council Meeting
|
| On: Wednesday 9th March 2005 20:00
| At: St Marc's Church Centre
|
| Present:
| Stephen Coffin (Chaplain), Richard Sheppard (Treasurer), David Bailey (Churchwarden), Alison Coulavin (Synod Rep.),Valerie Golton (Synod Rep), Alan Golton, Craig Alciati, Claire Naylor, Segun Odunlade,Elizabeth Cherhal, Mark Lewis (Secretary).
| | Absent:
| none
| | Excused:
| Troy Simoni,Lara Confort (Churchwarden).
|
-----------REMINDER OF AGENDA------------------------------
|
| | 107.
| Prayer & apologies (please notify Chaplain)
(Standing Item)
| | 108.
| Sending Missionaries – A letter from Carine & Mark Lewis
(proposed by Chaplain)
| | 109.
| Approval of minutes of last meeting and any matters arising
(Standing Item)
| | 110.
| Treasurer's report
(Standing Item)
| | 111.
| Committee reports
(no committee reports)
(Standing Item)
| | 112.
| Mission-Shaped Church
Please read the Mission-Shaped Church hand out you received at last meeting to prepare for this item.
(proposed by Stephen)
| | 113.
| Review of past & future events
- 11th March 19h30 - Men's Supper, speaker Dr Brad Kay of World Health Organisation
- 13th March - Auction of Promises after 10h45 service
- 8th April – A Fundraising Supper will be held at the Castellan Restaurant
- 13th-15th May – Church Away Weekend at Champfleuri
(Standing Item)
| | 114.
| Church project(s)
What to think of the Community Centre proposition?
(Standing Item)
| | 115.
| Any Other Matters (or AOB)
– Possibility of hosting a mini conference on 14-15 April: Bringing up Children (proposed by Stephen)
- Adult Sunday school (proposed by Clair)
- resume of Council meeting for Church assembly (proposed by Clair)
(Standing Item)
| | 116.
| Closing Prayer
(Time as needed. - Standing Item)
|
-----------BEGINNING OF THE MINUTES------------------------
Minutes:
| | 107.
| Prayer & apologies (please notify Chaplain)
(Standing Item)
| | 108.
| Sending Missionaries – A letter from Carine & Mark Lewis
-----insert Zaz's notes here-----
Mark and Carine Lewis brought before the council their project of mission work.
Mark outlined three points:
- Why ?
- Why talk to the church council ?
- What project ?
- Why ? As Christians, they feel the urge to go forwards and serve God full time. Mission work seemed a possibility.
- Why talk to the church council? St Marc’s is their church and family. They turn to the church for protection and direction. They want the church council to acknowledge their desire to serve, and eventually send them out. They want honest feedback from the council about their project.
- What project ? Mark and Carine feel they are equipped to serve: men, women; children, families. Both are well trained. Mark has studied social work and theology, and Carine has a masters in clinical psychology. They have been looking for jobs, and have had lots of “no answers”. They feel the Lord might be telling them something there. They have contacted a missionary society (SIM), and been told there would be a place for them with their gifts. They are thinking of an african country where french is spoken, and then come back to France.
Their questions to the council are:
- Does St Marc’s “do missions” ?
- Do they qualify ?
- Would we encourage them ?
- Is money the real problem ?
- Any other ideas ?
More explanations were given to many questions. SIM (Serving In Mission) is an evangelical mission society. Mark heard of it by a friend of his who served with them. They are expected to raise 100% support for themselves. They evaluate this at about 2000E/month. They are thinking of countries such as Bénin or Guinée, where churches are often lead by very young people often from non christian backgrounds. They would expect to be trained for 3 or 4 months. They are still right at the beginning of the process, and may not even go on with SIM. The first two questions they were asked by the SIM representative were “do your family and your church agree to this ?” The council agreed enthusiastically to give Mark and Carine its full support. It was suggested that more than one church should share this mission, and the Bale church was suggested as a possible partner. Carine would probably need some further training, and Mark was thinking more on the lines of self training. She has already made contact with an association of christian psychologists.
It was decided to inform the church about this project, and afterwards keep it up to date..
The Council gave full support to Mark andCarine, offering to help and encourage them in their mission project, that they might discover God's will for their lives.
| | 109.
| Approval of minutes of last meeting and any matters arising
The minutes from the last meeting were approved by all (CCM Minutes 20050210). There were five matters arising:
- The Council reviewed Howard and Donna DIEHL role outline. A few amendments and alterations were suggested including precision on Donna's role with the Sunday school and Howard's work with small groups. Concerning Howard and Donna DIEHL's position in the church, it was thought that Howard or Donna would not automatically be on the church council but would need to be elected. Also their initial role for an estimate of 3 months would be that of observers in order to find their feet in France.
- Arrangements for the training of our Sunday school teachers are moving forward in conjunction with the ICS church in Lyon.
- We have not yet been given permission to position a permanent notice board in the "petit volume" that we rent from the 'Centre Oecumenique'. Our query is now in the hands of the bureau. They are worried that if we are given permission to have a permanent notice board then other associations that use the premises may also be tempted to ask for similar boards.
- Door closers will be fitted back on the main doors to the church centre.
- The broken window in the kitchen will soon be repaired.
| | 110.
| Treasurer's report
We are still solvent although the <down trend> is still noticeable. It is thought that a number of people are still not giving as they might to their local church. This is an issue to be addressed after the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The Council agreed to a transfer from the French deposit account to the British Savings account (vote: unanimous). The giving to ICS was questioned as we seemed to be a little short on what we had decided to give, an inquiry is being made. Council agreed to continue giving to Compassion and also to send the second half of the amount promised to CITA Burkina Faso (vote: unanimous).
The 240 euros which the youth group raised by selling decorations at Christmas would also be sent to CITA this month.
| | 111.
| Committee reports
(no committee reports)
| | 112.
| Mission-Shaped Church
The Council followed a projector presentation of The Mission Shaped Church report. Some of the issues raised were well known to us, others quite new, some irrelevant. What are the different ways of connecting to people? The report suggests we try to think hugely differently to what we are used to. Should we be doing something really new?
In our context we have a language/culture difference within our church but especially in the country that we operate in. Our primary mission is to English Speakers. We can do outreach for example by joining associations directed at English speakers because we are interested in what the association is about. Then because we are Christians we will challenge or be challenged sooner or later and we will be able to talk about our faith, possibly inviting people to accept the gospel message for themselves. It is about being real in the world around us, reaching out to individuals and not to numbers. Ultimately God judges and knows what is being done or not.
Although it was thought we should not be encouraging or reflecting the fragmentation of the society in which we live, we could for example meet in smaller groups to bond together in Christ around specific interests. We should however keep the big church meetings for worshiping and mingling together, keeping the family of God united.
| | 113.
| Review of past & future events
- 11th March – 31 people were present at the Men's Supper; the speaker was Dr Brad Kay of World Health Organisation
- Youth Worship Service – Last Sunday of each month (April, May, June)
- 13th-15th May – Church Away Weekend at Champfleuri - People may need to be encouraged to come along.
| | 114.
| Church project(s)
What to think of the Community Centre proposition?
The vision so far involves renting or finding a bigger place. We would be looking at securing a Christian presence in Town outside of the Sunday Services. A community centre would be a way of reaching out to older and younger generations by offering after school and day-time activities, clubs and lessons.
The project could involve linking with French Churches. An example given was the American church in Paris (which was compared to a Tardis or Starship Enterprise in relation to it's overwhelming size) and although the Grenoble Community Centre would no doubt be smaller who knows what this project could build into.
3 council members proposed to create a Think-Tank for this project.
| | 115.
| Any Other Matters (or AOB)
– Can we think of hosting a mini conference on 14-15 April: Bringing up Children? Yes the council thinks the church is a suitable venue for this conference.
- Adult Sunday school
Could we look into proposing something like 6 week adult Sunday school courses held before or after church services? The courses could be based on specific needs and there are definitely needs in the church. Why not?
- resume of Council meeting for Church assembly
We heard a proposition to feedback to the church assembly the proceedings of the Council meeting. The council decided to entrust the Secretary with the task of delivering the main titles of the Council meeting to the church on the Sunday following the meeting.
| | 116.
| Closing Prayer
The meeting closed in prayer
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Next Church Council Meeting:
| | Wednesday 13th April 2005 20:00 at St Marc's Church.
| | The present Council will be dissolved at the AGM on the 3rd April 2005 and a new church council elected. The next meeting is for the Newly Elected Council (NEC) only.
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