Congregational Council Updates

The first order of business for the congregation council on Tuesday July 8 was to hear an update from Caryn and Jim Josephson, our Loving the World sphere leaders. The corrected paragraph should read:  They spoke about their upcoming trip to Tanzania in September and about the upcoming Ice Cream Social. Donations at the Ice Cream Social will go towards spending money for gifts to bring the people of the Bomalang’ombe and Vikongwa parishes and Huruma Center including school supplies, soccer balls, and a piki piki (motorcycle) for the parish pastor. 

Council approved a motion to designate Council approved a motion to designate final End of Fiscal Year Benevolence funds totaling $3200 to various organizations.  This is in addition to discretionary benevolence funds of $3118 approved at the May council meeting to our special lent offering recipients and ensures we reach our 10% benevolence goal. These organizations included $500 each for RAHS food shelf, Every Meal, Lutheran Disaster Response, Feed my Starving Children, Dignity for Daughters (a new Bega kwa Bega affiliate that provides menstrual products to girls in Tanzania and health training to both girls and boys), and Bega Kwa Bega program support (including supporting a visit to PoP from the Tanzanian Scholarship Clerk). The last $200 were designated for the pastors discretionary fund. 

The council then heard our regular update from the personnel committee which is that we have completed 1 on 1 meetings with all of the staff members (except Interim pastor Steve and Brandon). The personnel committee will also be updating the staff handbook in the coming months to reflect Minnesota’s new ESST policy which began in January 2025 ensuring our staff are aware of all the benefits they qualify for. 

Next we had a short debrief of the semi-annual meeting from June 29th and Interim Pastor Steve commended the PoP congregation on the trust we have in our leadership by how easy the passing of the budget went. Thank you to all who participated!

Next we heard an update from the Build the Church Sphere leader, Deb Cordes, which began with a regular update from  Interim Pastor Steve. Steve indicated that the largest update he had is that he is still getting used to the processes and procedures of PoP and will likely have more robust updates in the future. He is excited for the summer worship series “Be Still And Know That I Am God”. 

Deb provided a debrief on how the June 28th parking lot fireworks party went. It was fairly lightly attended compared to last year, but there could be reasons to explain the attendance including weather threats, so the group who put it together did not feel discouraged. They will continue to put together another party next year!

Next we heard a report from Julene Hannesh, our Interim Minister for Intergenerational Congregation and Care. The youth camping trip went very well and had 8 kids attend a camping trip to Cascade River State Park near Grand Marais. Regular CYF committee meetings will resume in August. As for senior ministry, there is the Summer Senior Social next Thursday July 17th. Seniors supporting seniors has also been going well and they recently have covered topics like memory care and mobility. 

Next council heard a regular update from Treasurer, Arjun Sethi, who stated his thanks for everyone’s participation in the Semi-Annual meeting on June 29th. There was nothing major to update that hadn’t already been said at the semi-annual meeting, but Arjun’s term will be up in January 2026 so the nominating committee will be actively looking for a new treasurer this fall to take Arjun’s place. 

Finally, council heard a transition update from Interim Pastor Steve and Deb Cordes. Steve is beginning 1 on 1 conversations this week and hopes to complete around 50 by the end of August. He will then use what he hears to bring ideas to Deb Cordes, Michael Stetzler, and Jenna Sethi to begin defining and filling out volunteer spaces on the Transition Team. The Transition Team will be the team mostly responsible for completing our Ministry Site Profile, or MSP. The MSP is the document that a potential pastoral candidate will read to determine if they see themselves fitting in and leading our church. It will include things like our mission, vision, and values statements as well as descriptions of who we think we are and what direction we see our church heading. 

The next council meeting will be in early September as the council takes August off each year to have some community and relationship building time with the PoP staff.