February 2020 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                                February 2020

Summary of Business Meeting Conversation    

In spite of our total giving being under $10,000 this past year, we were able to meet all of our designated giving for the causes in our church giving plan, due to money left over from last year and our spending below budget for our local mutual aid and other needs. We agreed to follow the same budget plan for 2020 subject to modification in the fall if we see will not have enough to cover those amounts.

We also discussed the following:

--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, one without physical barriers?

Members expressed themselves about Family of Hope’s future (some since the meeting), with a majority preferring to continue regular services, with various suggestions for simplifying or changing things, such as:

• Meeting at 2-4, and having only a snack, provided by individual members by turn. 
• Meeting at the same handicap-accessible location each Sunday, preferably at VMRC, except for a possible once a month gathering at the Vlasits with a carry in meal.
• Having someone help with doing the monthly newsletter.
• 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 either time whenever needed.
• Having an occasional study series based on a book in the Bible instead of studying the lectionary texts.
• Have members by turn share their faith stories, either as a part of the sharing time or the Bible Study.

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• MINUTES OF OUR ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING January 12 can be found on our Family of Hope blog site.                                        http://familyofhopehousechurch.blogspot.com/2020/01
• OUR TOTAL GIVING GOAL for 2020 is $16,800. Give your offerings to Susan Campbell or to James Stauffer.
• PRAY FOR PAUL SWARR who has been moved to Crestwood, Room 213, since his recent stroke.
• HARVEY YODER’s radiation treatments began January 6 and continue five days a week through February 19. Your prayers are appreciated.
• LEWIS AND MARY ELLEN OVERHOLT celebrated their 60th       wedding anniversary January 13. Congratulations!
• LET’S HAVE A DISCUSSION Sunday, March 1, on the book The Rock, The Road And The Rabbi that each of us has been given. 

February Lectionary Texts

2   Micah 6:1-8   Psalm 15   1 Corinthians 1:18-31   Matthew 5:1-12

9  Isaiah 58:1-12  Psalm 112:1-10  1 Corinthians 2:1-16 Matthew 5:13-20

16 Deuteronomy 30:15-20   Psalm 119:1-8   1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37

23 Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 2   2 Peter 1:16-21   Matthew 17:1-9

February services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

2  Location: 1st floor meeting room Heritage Haven, VMRC                              

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger                             

Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                               Brown bag meal

9  Location: Lewis & Mary Ellen Overholt Heritage Haven G49, VMRC

Worship and sharing: Lewis Overholt

Bible Study: Kent Palmer         no meal, snack provided by the Overholts                                              

16 Location: Guy & Margie Vlastis 3399 Caverns Dr. K’own   908-0391                     

Worship and Sharing: Harvey Yoder                                  

Bible Study: Elly Nelson                                                      Carry-in meal

23 Location: 1st floor meeting room Heritage Haven, VMRC?

Worship and sharing: James Stauffer

Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                    no meal, snack provided

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.