Your Vote Matters
Your Vote Matters: Be a Part of Our Upcoming Church in Conference
By Ron Watts on behalf of the Committee Reorganization Task Force
Our next Church in Conference is Sunday, October 24 immediately following the 11 a.m. worship service. We will be voting on several important items, and we want your vote to be counted! You can participate in person in the Fellowship Hall, remotely via Zoom or dial-in from your phone. Connection info for virtual participants is at the end of this article.
There are several important topics on the agenda for this meeting including (but not limited to):
Electing Deacons and church officers
Adopting the 2022 budget
Discussing FLC and Preschool opportunities
Changing our church bylaws
Ahead of the conference, I wanted to offer some information on the bylaws portion of the meeting. The Committee Reorganization Task Force recommended these bylaw changes as part of their work developing our new streamlined committee and council structure. These bylaws changes were presented for information at our July meeting and we will be voting on them at this conference.
Below are the four proposed bylaw changes. A detailed document, including the exact wording of each change, will be available at the meeting, or you can find it here.
Change 1: Director of Bible Study: The bylaws require that the church body elects a Director of Bible Study each year. In the new organization, the Discipleship Council has responsibility for overseeing Bible study. The proposed change removes the requirement to elect a Director of Bible Study allowing the council flexibility in overseeing Bible study as effectively as possible. Recent directors are in favor of this change.
Change 2: Director of Woman’s Missionary Union: The bylaws require that the WMU elect a director each year and that the church body votes to approve that director. There has been no WMU director for several years. The WMU is now functioning very well using a team leadership approach. The recommended change eliminates the requirement for a WMU Director so that the WMU is not forced to name a single leader and can retain their team approach. The WMU leadership team supports this change.
Change 3: Stewardship Development Committee: The bylaws do not specifically name all the church committees; however, the bylaws do specifically require a Stewardship Development Committee to “function the entire year to lead the church in stewardship growth.” Promoting stewardship is vital to our ministries. In the new organization, stewardship is a responsibility of the Discipleship Council. We would like to give that council the flexibility to address this important task without requiring a special committee for this purpose. The recommended change maintains the requirement to promote stewardship but does not require a specific committee.
Change 4: Nominating Committee: The bylaws give the Nominating Committee responsibility for naming candidates for church officers and deacons. The Nominating Committee does not appoint members of task forces and committees. The pastor and deacons have that responsibility. The recommended change would give the pastor and deacons the option of asking the Nominating Committee to identify candidates for certain positions. At this time there is no plan to use the Nominating Committee in this way, but the proposed change will give us that option if the need arises.
Elections, budgets, new opportunities and bylaw changes are important. Please make plans to attend this Church in Conference so your voice can be heard. Remember that you can attend in person, online using Zoom or by phone. If you are attending in person and would like to reserve a lunch, please RSVP to Tiffany Baumstark at tbaumstark@spdl.org.
Join Online:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86485369625?pwd=SDJaRlRRemswYlMvbDAzNk9kK0g0Zz09
Join by Phone:
929.205.6099
Meeting ID: 864 8536 9625 | Passcode: 131686