Report on the January 12 TEAM Meeting

Twenty TEAM members, 3 visitors, Pastors Rita Gardner Tweed and Jerry Wahl and facilitator David Raymond met for 6 hours at First Lutheran Church. Each church was represented by at least 3 members.

The objective of the meeting: develop a Clear Concrete plan and Communicate that plan. Agenda items and discussion included:

1.       Guiding Principles.  A list of principles to guide the TEAM through some of the tough discussion and decisions to come was revised and adopted. Click on this link to see the TEAM’s Guiding Principles for Consolidation.

2.       Consolidation Plan.  After lots of thoughtful, spirited, and prayerful discussion the TEAM reached consensus on a Consolidation Plan Summary. This outline plan will be fleshed out in future meetings, but it concretely describes the vision for new congregations that the TEAM is striving toward. The plan set a September, 2008 target date for starting the new congregations.

3.       The TEAM reviewed a Fact Sheet that shows the membership and attendance trends and the financial position of the 6 churches.

4.       The TEAM spent some time thinking about the identity and mission of the new congregations and how that might be expressed in a short “tag line” that members and the community can easily understand. You can see the suggestions by clicking on New Congregation Tag Line Ideas.

5.       The TEAM received the Facilitator Agreement with David Raymond.

6.       Dave Raymond presented a first draft of a list of the tasks that will be involved in consolidation along with some suggestions of the teams and committees that might be charged with each task. This draft will be discussed and revised at the next meeting after people have had a chance to study it.

7.       Some TEAM people will meet on Wednesday, January 16 at 7:30 at Immanuel to prepare the Temple Talks and other communications.

8.       The next TEAM meeting will be on Tuesday, January 29 at 7:00 All Saints. Dave Raymond recommends that the TEAM start meeting twice a month for the next couple of months.