Showing posts with label Moderator report for Burns Flat CPC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moderator report for Burns Flat CPC. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Moderator Report - October 2025

Moderator Report

October 2025

  I have kept this report lean and linked earlier reports for more context. We do have some action items to accomplish at this meeting, but the list is shrinking.

Seek Justice. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Missions. I think the coat drive may be OBE, but it is listed under Old Business as an agenda item.

Worship. Now is the time for people to offer a Thanksgiving or Christmas special music.

Education. Rodney is working on cancelling the curriculum for Chrissy’s class. No other changes were noted.

Building and Grounds. Hosting the Presbytery helped shrink the “to-do” list.

Fellowship. We will have two fellowship gatherings with food before the end of the year. The Thanksgiving gathering will be a full meal, and the Christmas gathering will be finger food. Both will follow a short worship service. I put fellowship meals on the Dates for Planning Purposes list for the first two 5th Sundays in 2026.

Financial. Windstream botched our current bill. How do we want to proceed? This is an agenda item. We may want to consider putting everything in savings except $10,000 into a 6-month CD before the rates go down. Also, we need a check ($200) for our MA offering before 23 November 2025.

Other

Red River Presbytery was surely a “Well Done!” across the board.  Not to get bruised by patting ourselves on the back, but this event mobilized many within our congregation. That’s some God’s love in action.

Elder Nominations. Both Ethan and Kathy said yes to their nomination. The congregational meeting to elect is scheduled for 14 December 25.

Pastor Turnover. Kathy has taken over the janitorial contract management. If you have not already selected one, an elder on next year’s session should be assigned as a representative to the ministerial alliance. The first meeting of the new year is tentatively scheduled for 6 February. I recommend that you have a confirmation meeting on 28 December 2025 to include the elders joining the session as well as those rotating off. You will need to elect a moderator pro tempore before or at that meeting from the five who will be serving in 2026.

The Search Committee is formed. They were blessed on 5 October during the 11 am service. The session needs to decide whether to meet with them or leave the direction to the session members serving on the committee. I suggest the full session meet with the search committee so discussions are not stove-piped and the committee and the session have a meeting of the minds. A handout of what the session captured in its discussions over the past several months, presented as guidance to the committee, would be a helpful reference.

Building Access. Dwight Shephard once again has a key to our building. Living Waters has stopped maintaining much food on hand at their location and comes here. I gave Heather’s key to Dwight. He had one before, but he has not had one since we changed doors. We had fewer keys for these doors, and I waited until I could recover one. Gayla Hite has one as well. I have asked for it a couple of times, but didn’t want to be pushy over a key that likely poses no risk to our security.

Tom Personal. In October/November, I will put some of my books out in front of my office for people to take if they want them. I may have to adjust the location depending on how long we keep up the Fall Photo area.

 

 

Links to information not included in the report.

Dates for Planning Purposes.

F4 Schedule

Worship Meeting Report

Projects in Search of a Champion.  

Unfinished Business.

Previous Moderator Reports

Unfunded Deficiencies

Online Giving Link

2024 Annual Report

Smart Pack

Turnover Background Documents

Budgeting References

ICA – Pastor Template

ICA – Janitor Template

Recurring Tasks

Prayer List

Insurance and Savings

Red River Presbytery Facebook page

 

 

 

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Moderator Report for July 2025

 

 Moderator Report

July 2025

 

Seek Justice. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Missions. NTR

Worship. NTR

Education. NTR

Building and Grounds. The front doors have been repaired—no change to other projects.

Fellowship. Our turnout for the last fellowship meal was small. I suggest we cancel the last 2 Fifth Sunday meals and focus our fellowship gatherings on the Thanksgiving and Christmas meals that follow those evening services. The next fellowship meal is scheduled for 31 August 2025 (Team 3). Agenda Item.

Other

Elder Retreat. The Elder Retreat is scheduled for 9 August 2025 at 8 am. The agenda will be promulgated soon.

Elders, please begin your prayer and meditation regarding your nominations for our next elders or reducing the size of the session. Here are the responses from elders so far.

Ethan Delp       Yes

Danny Rush      Not at this time

Rick Reeves      No response     

Kathy Stegall     No response   

Larry Walker      No response

Rodney Chilton As a last resort 

Carolyn Murray  No response   

 

Pastor Turnover. You have what you need to formulate your part of this equation.  

 

Projects in Search of a Champion.  

Dates for Planning Purposes.

Unfinished Business.

Previous Reports

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Moderator Report January 2025

 

Moderator Report

January 2025

 

The days are getting longer. We have our usual mix of spring/winter/fall/false spring/winter. The United States had a peaceful transition of power. Jesus is Lord! That last statement is the most important by far.

We walk by Faith, not Sight

2 Corinthians 5:7

Our standing committees have not met, but we have had activity in these functional areas.

Missions.

NTR

Worship.

We should learn Whosoever Will.

Education

NTR

Building and Grounds.

Tom is planting a few flowers around the cross.

Fellowship

We had a small but enjoyable fellowship meal on 2 February 2025. We need to decide what to do with fellowship meals going forward.

Other

Annual Report. Information from the clerk and the December 2024 Financial Report are required to complete this, which is due by the end of January 2025. Annual Report. Submitted.

Finances.

QR Code Link to Online Giving. Are we there yet? This item was moved to the report section of the agenda..

Projects in Search of a Champion.  

Dates for Planning Purposes.

Moderator Report February 2025

 

Moderator Report

February 2025

 

The days are getting longer. We have our usual mix of spring/winter/fall/false spring/winter. The United States had a peaceful transition of power. Jesus is Lord! That last statement is the most important by far.

We walk by Faith, not Sight

2 Corinthians 5:7

I sent this out early, hoping to facilitate decisions at Sunday’s meeting (RRP Coordinator, Validate/modify turnover POA&M, Implementation of QR code, Fellowship meals).

Our standing committees have not met, but we have had activity in these functional areas.

Missions.

NTR

Worship.

We should learn Whosoever Will. It would be a good selection for our Presbytery worship.

Education

NTR

Building and Grounds.

Tom is planting a few flowers around the cross.

Fellowship

We had a small but enjoyable fellowship meal on 2 February 2025. We need to decide what to do with fellowship meals going forward.

Other

Annual Report. Information from the clerk is required to complete this, which is due by the end of January 2025. I have notified Presbytery and GA.

Finances.

QR Code Link to Online Giving. Are we there yet? This item was moved to the report section of the agenda.

Projects in Search of a Champion.  

Dates for Planning Purposes.

Moderator Report April 2025

 

Moderator Report

April 2025

 

Over one-fourth—nearly a third of 2025 is in the books. Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday are on the immediate horizon. We have been blessed with rain. We have had three false springs, but Tom’s walking weather is just around the corner.

Seek Justice. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Our standing committees have not met for some time, but we have had some activity in these functional areas.

Missions.

NTR.

Worship.

NTR

Education

NTR

Building and Grounds.

There is an ongoing list of items that need to be repaired. We have discussed front door repairs in passing, but I  put it on this month’s agenda.

Fellowship

We had a small but enjoyable fellowship meal on 2 February 2025. We need to continue to invite and then decide what to do with fellowship meals later this year. For now, press on with growing our fellowship in this way.

Other

Copier. The new copier is in service. Thanks to Danny Rush for helping me set it up in short order. It is connected to our Wi-Fi so you that know how should be able to print from your phones.

Disposition of Old Copier. The old copier is functional but hardly optimal. It does have spare cartridges to go with it. I would like to decide what to do with it at this meeting and not let it sit around the building for a couple of years.

May is Membership Month. I will announce, but people respond more to face-to-face. Make no mistake, salvation and making disciples are our mainstays, but membership has benefits for both the member and the body alike.

QR Code Link to Online Giving. We are in business. Thanks, Kendra and Phil. I don’t plan to make a big deal out of this with the congregation, but do want people to know this option is available.  I suggest some supplemental Treasurer’s Report for the rest of the year to assess efficacy, perhaps the number of transactions, transactions outside the membership, and total income.  It will take a while, but we should be interested in whether this was merely a matter of convenience for some or if it generated additional revenue. Surely, this tracking will be a work in progress, but we should keep a close watch these first few months.

Additionally, we may want to look ahead and determine if there are any annual requirements to maintain the service.

 

Fiscal Discipline and Accountability. This is the responsibility of the session, but the treasurer is typically the central player in our financial accounting. I have asked again if anyone is interested in helping with the financial accounting. The position title could vary, but two-person integrity and accountability are the goals. I'm not sure if we've ever achieved this, but it's the accepted standard, and we would be well served to adhere to it.

That said, we have gained no traction on this for decades. Let’s pray about this, first of all, thanking God that we are blessed to have enough in giving to need a treasurer and that we have had neither significant miscues nor fraudulent practices, then petitioning Him to put someone on our hearts who might be involved in this.

Should we find someone, they may want us to have an audit of finances so they know what they are getting into before they commit. I don’t expect anything of note from an audit, but financial audits have been a part of best practices for nonprofits (including churches) for decades. The typical 501 (C) (3) nonprofit likely does an annual audit conducted by an external entity. If we are trying to get on board with last century’s best practices, we might need to take this step as well, though I doubt there is a need for it annually  All things considered; I’d rather be in Philadelphia.

Budgeting. I know this bothers some of you, but I will again suggest a budgeting process that begins in June or July each year, so the session, in concert with the living elders, may review it at the Elder Retreat instead of starting from scratch.  I’m not just being ornery (sometimes I am) but am encouraged that after suggesting three times over fifteen years that we put money that was not obligated for the current fiscal year into a CD, we finally did it. It’s a don’t bury in the ground sort of thing. You may have heard me preach on it. So, I’m giving this budgeting process one more shot. I won’t put it on the agenda unless the elders on the session ask for it, and I won’t bring it up again if you don’t.

Trustees. Traditionally, the trustees of the local church are the session. Some sessions name elders as long-term trustees. Other church bodies have incorporated and define their trustees within the incorporation. We need to clarify the individuals we have designated as our trustees and ensure that we record their details and update them when they change. In the Presbyterian system of government, the church's property is traditionally held by the Presbytery; however, for the local administration of property matters, the title may be listed under the names of the local trustees, regardless of who, the property of the CPC is entrusted to a person or entity for the use of the CPC. There is no individual ownership of church property—Constitution 3.30 for more information.

Pastor Turnover. Pastor expectations is the next item to discuss. It was addressed somewhat last month, but this is the time to discuss and record it for later reflection/confirmation and some documentation. I suggest it be done after the meeting is adjourned as we did last month.

Tom Personal. I will be away on April 27, 2025.

 

Projects in Search of a Champion.  

Dates for Planning Purposes.

Unfinished Business.