Ministers Desk 13th April 2014

On Sunday 30 March we commissioned those people who had been elected as Elders to serve on Church Council.  On the back page of this notice sheet you will see the names of the members of the Church Council and the Ministry Coordination Team.

We also held our first congregational meeting for the year.  During the meeting we spent time sharing in an activity to complete the annual report for 2013.  The ministry of the congregation is not something that is done for us, it is something that we do together, so we compiled our recollections of the ministry of our church in the previous year.  If you didn’t receive a copy of this part of the report last year, there are copies on the information desk and on the church’s website.  Attendees at the congregational meeting answered three questions.

 

· Who is the person or people that you want to appreciate?  Here we named individuals for the contributions they made in 2013.

· What do you want to celebrate?  We named specific highlights of the church’s ministry in 2013.

· What are your wishes for the future ministry of Emmanuel?

 

The budget for 2014 was adopted.  Our budget for 2014 is comfortable.  Our income levels are sufficient to meet our ongoing expenditures.  This is as a result of the generous response that we make to the grace of God through our tithes and offerings.  More people are taking advantage of direct debit for their offerings.  Since we changed banks this has become a simpler process.  Direct debits provide a greater certainty in the church’s income; it also reduces the workload for offering counters, the people who do the banking and the Treasurer.  Please speak to Barry Jardine (3353 4551) to know more about Direct Debiting.

 

Our income is not sufficient to fund some necessary and significant major property expenses.  Carpets, pews, painting all need to be done.  As an early indication we have received quotes of between $15, 000 and $20, 000 to either replace the pews with individual padded chairs or recover the existing pews.  Significant expenditure is needed on our building in the next couple of years so that we can continue to use it as a tool for our ministry, the money for that needs to come from somewhere.

 

Our Roma partnership was discussed.  Anne Maloney, Sandra Stanton and Maureen Witheyman will help us in building relationships with the people of the church in Roma.  They will do this in conjunction with representatives of the Roma church.

The role of Transport Coordinator has been vacant for a number of years.  Please contact Bronwyn Kelly (3354 4961) if you who would like to volunteer for this role.  To assist people to attend worship who have transport issues the first and best thing we can do is for us to be aware of those who might need transport assistance and to offer help.  Those who need assistance are encouraged to make contact with either Bronwyn Kelly (3354 4961) or Harlee Cooper (3355 2162) and they will seek to make transport arrangements.

 

Grace and peace

David Fender