251022 Elder Council Meeting

Call to Order/Opening Prayer: The meeting was called to order by Dan Organ at 5:54pm and Mark opened in prayer.

Attendance: Elders: Dan Organ and Mark Organ and Council Members: Keith Morgan and Jeremy Simmons were in attendance

Devotions: Keith read from Colossians 2:18-3:17 with a focus on differentiating self-sanctification and true personal holiness. Mark is scheduled to give the next Elder Council Meeting devotional.

Agenda: Additions or Corrections: New business included a discussion on Church security and whether or not to have a Christmas program. Mark moved and Dan seconded that the updated Agenda be approved. Carried.

Minutes: Mark read the minutes from September 30th, 2025. No adjustments. Dan moved and Mark seconded that the Minutes be accepted, carried.

Financial Report: Dan presented August and September financials. Clarification was offered by Dan on the open question of differences between photocopied weekly totals and the figures on the financial sheets. Dan also revisited the various levels of support that the various Mission Organizations are at and discussed his recent conversations with the Brown’s and Taylors. The council committed to individually coming up with a list of recommendations for the next meeting scheduled November 18th on a go-forward plan to take place January 2026. An additional conversation took place regarding insurance deductibles in order to reduce our ongoing expenses. This conversation developed into a related topic of safeguarding the children during youth group with Mark committing to ensuring that the children play on the rear of the Church building and not the front and side.

Pastor’s Report: Mark gave a limited report due to the fact that the Quarterly Member Meeting two days prior had received a more comprehensive update. He focused on his encouragement at the body making use of the prayer list via text and prayer activity at the school.

Ministry Concerns: Mark revisited the topic of the Laws and mentioned that since Jeremy had talked with Sarah and Gail things seemed to have improved.

Old Business: Old business was limited to discussion regarding Jeremy’s plans for the prayer meeting and upon hearing Jeremy’s plans the Elder Council agreed to a year long commitment from the Simmons beginning on December 9th with notice given the week prior in the Bulletin. Next Mark committed to prepping an updated Phone book. Lastly, It was determined to pass on adding a Member spotlight to the Missions slideshow and instead to encourage the body to recognize individually gifts and faithfulness demonstrated by people as they are witnessed.

New Business: New business focused primarily on Church security with 3 main elements. First, adding a lock to the nursery door was agreed upon. Secondly, it was agreed that Rovers would comprise part of the security plan as a primary deterrent and first response to any security issues during the Service. Lastly, a discussion took place on creating an annual Emergency Preparedness event to take place some time in the Spring in order to educate the body on various emergency elements (ie fire extinguishers, egress routes, aed usage and possibly a CPR class). With the remaining few moments of the Elder Council meeting the leadership agreed that a Christmas Program would be appropriate with an increased number of songs and an abbreviated message on that day (TBD). Our discussion ended by agreeing on our next scheduled regular Elder Council meeting on November 18th.

Adjourn: The meeting was closed in prayer by Jeremy Simmons at 8:00pm