January 12, 2020, Business Meeting Minutes

Family of Hope Business Meeting Jan 12, 2020, at Family Life Resource Center

Present: Dick Dumas, Guy Vlasits, Harvey Yoder, Alma Jean Yoder, James Stauffer, Ruth Stauffer, Ellyn Marshall-Nelson, Lois Rivera-Wenger, Kent Palmer

Business meeting began with Lois leading a reflection on hymn 371 (Let There Be Light, Lord God of Hosts). This was followed by a time of prayer.

Susan presented a summary of 2019 Income and Expenses.  Giving this year ($9591.71) was lower than the proposed budgeted amount ($16,800) and prior years. Expenditures were met with 2019 income and surplus in the checking account from the previous year. We again had lowered congregational expenses, which helped to meet the budget.  

Concerns were raised that giving may be lower again in the upcoming year due to various reasons. We processed options to revise the budget now or to maintain the current one with the knowledge we may have to adjust after seeing how strong 2020 giving will be in the first three quarters. We proposed to continue the current budget with a plan to examine again in the fall, especially since most expenditures are not paid out until the latter part of the year. 

Harvey initiated a discussion on the future of Family of Hope:

--Should we adjust how often we meet (perhaps twice a month)?

--Should we become a cell group in another local church?

--Should we have a consistent meeting location without physical barriers?

Note: Other suggestions made by members, below, are underlined:

Susan prefers to meet every week.  If people miss a Sunday when meeting only once or twice a month then they become isolated and over time they will identify with the house church less and less. Expressed a concern that four people had fallen on her steps and felt that we needed to meet in a location with less risk of injury.

Lois indicated that she needed to minimize night time driving.  She is only going to be able to attend one or two evenings a month.  Other times of day would be better for her.  Lois noted that the game room that we eat in is used by other residents of Park Place and at least one of them had expressed a concern that our meals displace them from being able to use the room for its intended purpose.

Elly offered to assist in whatever ways possible. She is willing to create and distribute the monthly newsletter. She favored a meeting time that was convenient for all but was not supportive of meeting less frequently.

Dick indicated he would hate to see the church disband. He did not like the concept of reducing the frequency of meeting or becoming a cell group in another church.

Kent was open to meeting once or twice a month.  Suggested we might want to consider meeting earlier in the day (2-4 PM).  Also suggested we might want to have a snack instead of a meal.  If we had a snack instead of a full meal, we could designate a single person/couple to bring the snack for a particular week. 

Kent also raised concern that the leadership of the church may be placing undue stress on Harvey and Alma Jean at a time when they have more than enough other stress in their life.  He was not confident that we could eliminate all stress without disbanding.  Thinks that we should work towards reducing stress if that is possible. 

Guy – Earlier time might be a problem (also might not be--needs to consider it).  Willing to continue hosting once a month. They will be doing more traveling, so they might need to shift dates in some months for hosting at their house. Margie is comfortable with hosting a monthly meal.

Jim – The early New Testament church met in homes. He finds the style of worship at Family of Hope attractive.  He is not finding it difficult to get to other locations but did not object if we wanted to meet at VMRC more often.

Ruth – Enjoys fellowship.  Comfortable with exploring VMRC meeting options, but also comfortable with traveling to other locations.

Alma Jean – Would like to do whatever the group wants.  Says that she is not feeling undue pressure/stress. Lois has taken a lot of the responsibility for food so that she does not have to.

Harvey – He says that in any situation in life, there are positive and negative aspects. One needs to determine which are more predominant.  For him, the plusses of the house church outweigh any stress he feels. He also proposed experimenting meeting at 3 pm and shortening our meeting time to 45 minutes for worship and sharing and 45 minutes for Bible study, with flexibility to extend the time whenever needed.