A Busy Council Meeting

If you have read the January 24 News and Notes, you know that there are a few lines written about the Council Meeting on Wednesday, January 20. Short notes can be helpful to give you a little information about Council’s discussions, but in this blog entry, I would like to give you a more in-depth picture of what is being discussed at our Council meetings.

Now that our congregation has voted to change our name to New Life CRC, members of council have been busy making arrangements to unveil the new name for our church. A new web address has been secured to reflect our new name (www.newlifecrc.com), and we will begin work to develop that website in the next weeks. Our denomination, classis, and many businesses have been notified of the name change, and we have begun the process to have the new name legally recognized. A committee has been appointed to make suggestions for new signs on Ridge Road and 5th Street to reflect our new name.

Council also approved the appointment of a committee to begin the search process for a Director of Community Outreach for our church. The person who fills this position will be the primary liaison for our church with Love INC, will coordinate events and activities to welcome people to join our church family, and will suggest ways to enfold visitors and new members into the life of our church. Council approved appointing a committee of five members to conduct this search process. At the time of this blog posting, Tom Sawyer has agreed to serve as the chairman, and the other members have been contacted to see if they are willing to serve in this capacity.

For the past few months, our council has been discussing how we will proceed with our High School and Junior High Youth Ministries after Ken Scholma leaves the position of Youth Pastor at First CRC. For a number of years, our church has combined our High School and Junior High youth groups with First CRC. Ken Scholma is graduating from a teaching program this spring, and does not expect to return as a youth pastor next year. We have been discussing the options of separating our youth groups, or continuing with one Youth Pastor for our two churches. At our council meeting, it was decided, upon the recommendation of a joint committee from the two churches, that we would continue the practice of hiring one Youth Pastor for the two churches. Council voted to appoint three members of our church (a Council Member, a Parent, and a current volunteer Youth Leader) to join members from First CRC on a joint search committee that will re-evaluate the Youth Pastor’s job description, search for a new Youth Pastor, and suggest ways that this position will be jointly overseen by the two churches.