Trinity Fellowship Board Meeting
August 3, 2000

Present:

Don Williams, Ken & Cindy Morefield, Todd & Sherry Truffin

Todd brought the meeting to order with opening comments and prayer.

Secretary's Report:

Cindy presented the minutes from 6/21; Don moved that minutes be accepted as presented; Sherry 2nd; motion carried.

Financial Report:

Ken presented July report and added that we have a balance of $1723.94 in the building fund account. Cindy moved that report be accepted as presented; Sherry 2nd; motion carried.

Old Business:

Todd presented a quick status report included in the agenda. There was no discussion.

New Business:

• Lawn care - we need to make lawn mowing arrangements b/c Lasses are out of town; Don, Cindy & Todd will mow on 7pm, Sat, weather permitting.
• Other - Many of the items that could have been considered for new business depended on subsequent proceedings; the floor was open for any items needing immediate action; none presented.

Prayer Time:

Focus was on the Stricklands' needs, guidance for the board and the church as we considered the future, and guidance for Don regarding the problems with the business program at school.

Discussion:

The majority of the meeting was spent in discussion of issues pertaining to whether we can/should continue as a church. By the end of the evening, no clear consensus was apparent as to whether God was leading us to continue or not. Todd suggested that we take the weekend to pray and seek God's direction and then reconvene, and this suggestion was accepted unanimously. It was agreed that we would reconvene on Mon., August 7, at 6:30 pm at the church.

Board Meeting, Part Deux, August 7, 2000

Present:

Don Williams, Ken & Cindy Morefield, Todd & Sherry Truffin

Todd opened the meeting with prayer

Todd then briefly recapped the issues discussed on Thursday and events since that meeting; he then asked the board members to share how they felt God had been leading them. After that discussion the board came to the unanimous conclusion that God was indeed leading us to continue with Trinity Fellowship.

We then discussed several structural changes. Don encouraged the board not to see any of the current structures as "set in stone," and gave a brief history to show that, though the structure hasn't changed much since we've been at the church (the last 1-2 years), the church has in fact utilized a great variety of structures during its existence.

New Business:

• "Pruning" Sunday Activities - Todd suggested that, with our limited resources, we need to consider reducing our Sunday activities from 6 hours (SS, worship, sermon discussion, dinner, and Inklings) to around 2 hours. We agreed to accomplish this reduction in the following ways:
  1. No Sunday School - we will not undertake to provide Sunday School until such time as the Lord provides people who are interested both in leading and participating in it.
  2. Evening Devotional and Meal - we felt that eating together on Sunday evenings was an important means of fellowship as well as a real draw for students. We decided to change the format from sermon discussion to a short devotional (15-20 min) led initially by one of the board members, but eventually to be led by a variety of people, which would then be followed by discussion over dinner.
  3. Inklings II - Inklings II seems to suffer from the fact that people understandably bring different sets of expectations to it - that it is a forum for constructive critique OR a social time for sharing through creative work. Ken suggested that we develop different venues for Inklings to address both of these needs. He will set up a Yahoo club for Inklings, which will have a link on our website, which can serve as a place to share written work and give constructive feedback and critique. This web-based discussion would also enable us to continue to include participants who have moved away from Toccoa, and also possibly to involve people who have no other kind of contact with the church. We can then also have "performance nights," very similar to coffee house "open mike" nights, at least a couple times a semester to give people the opportunity to share works that need to be read, performed or shown in a social setting. These events would take place on some night other than Sunday, probably Friday. They could also be expanded to include workshops and/or other activities that would encourage the pursuit of the arts in the context of the church.
  4. Designated "Bad Cops" for Sunday nights - have one person, not one of the hosts, designated to make sure that everyone gets out of the hosts' house at a reasonable time, so that the Sunday evening activities don't always end up taking up the whole evening for the hosts.
  New Sunday schedule will take effect the first Sunday after TFC begins, but Todd will begin announcing it this coming Sunday.
• Variety in the pulpit - on a regular basis, have someone other than Don preach on Sunday morning. Goals are to:
  1. reduce, if only slightly, Don's work load (but not his pay!)
  2. provide different voices, faces, and perspectives from the pulpit for the sake of balance
  3. help train expository preachers.
  We still need to work out how often this will occur (once per month? six weeks? Couple times per semester?) and how alternative speakers will be chosen.
• Fall publicity
  1. URL campaign - try to utilize the re-vamped website and play on curiosity by making posters and bookmarks, on obnoxiously bright paper, that simply display our URL, with no other explanation.
  2. More faces on website - include other faces in addition to Don's; we're to provide Todd w/ photos and an introductory paragraph for the "Meet Our Leaders" page.
  3. Develop logo and redo outside sign - Cindy will continue to work on logo and a design for the sign, which really needs to be repainted b/4 school starts.

Next Meeting

There are many more logistical issues that need to be discussed before school begins, so another meeting was scheduled for Monday, August 14, 6:30 pm at the church.

Todd closed in prayer and the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Cynthia L. Morefield, Secretary