“Doing for the
community, not simply for the church and the church’s survival; rather,
witnessing for the community itself.”
Attendees: Carol Hargro, Hank Jud, Melinda Jud, Pastor Lucille Mills, Bill Smith,
and Pastor Tim Waltonen.
Opening
Melinda Jud opened
with a prayer of thanks for Rejoice’s new space, and for God’s help as the
congregation embarks on carrying God’s message to the Chesapeake area.
Pastor Tim
Waltonen remembered Benjamin Hooks and Dorothy Height. Our team could do well to live by Dorothy
Height’s words (in paraphrase): “We
have to remember; we might be the
beginning of a movement.”
Old/Continuing Business
Rejoice Report
·
First Worship in the New Space. Rejoice celebrated First Worship in its new space at
838 Old George Washington Highway, Chesapeake, Virginia, on Easter Sunday,
April 4, 2010. Both a sunrise service and a 10:30 A.M. worship service took
place -- the latter, with the Reverend Jean Bozeman, Assistant to the Bishop,
attending. Rejoice received its
occupancy permit at 9:30 P.M. on Good Friday.
·
Project Connect. Begun with the goal of helping
young people – especially, of color – discern a calling to become pastors, the
project received an original $3 million grant from the Lilly Foundation, and
has recently received over $1 million more.
Pastor Mills serves as chair.
·
Evangelism Strategist. A 24
year-old student from a Baptist university in Atlanta visited Chesapeake to
evaluate the community, and has agreed to work with the Rejoice congregation in
return for a donation. Currently working
for a Lutheran church in Columbus, GA, the strategist helps churches see
potential ways to reach out to communities (e.g., Rejoice has rich
possibilities by virtue of its shopping center location: “Everyone in the center wants to relate to
the community.” The medical, dental, and
chiropractic offices are all venues of opportunity. Pastor Mills will “become a familiar face” in
these and other community locations; then the strategist will come back and go
out to work together with her. The basic
approach is “asset building” via businesses in the community, a fresh idea for
Rejoice.
·
Atlanta Conference. Details of the conference, “Welcoming God’s Many Faces,”
conference hosted by Dr. Everett Flanigan in February 2010, are as follows:
- Dr. Gemechis Buba
gave the keynote address, on “Passionate
Witnessing,” saying that Lutherans tend to miss the boat on this.
- During one session, attendees used Bible texts to
brainstorm over a name for Dr.
Flanigan’s Region IX Work Plan. Dr. Flanigan and Jocelyn Bennett, Director,
Poverty Ministries C.S., and Church-Wide African American/Black Outreach Team,
will use the results of the brainstorming to finalize the plan’s name.
- A speaker in an additional session clarified that “cross-cultural” is not the same thing as
the American “Melting Pot;” salad, with
a mix of ingredients that complement one another, is a better example.
Other data from the conference: Of the 1,
278,000 African Americans in Virginia, only 248 are Lutherans. Reasons
for this: Names of the churches (people don’t “see themselves” in the
names). Also, too often “the welcome isn’t there.”
·
Rejoice’s Finances. As of April 1, 2010, Rejoice
will pay $1700 rent per month (based on a backlog of payments already made),
plus $1500 per month for Pastor Mills’ salary.
Pastor Mills believes that the congregation has sufficient funding for
the current fiscal year. However, the
fiscal year beginning on February 1, 2010 will present a challenge, as external
support will wane. In the meantime,
Rejoice is still paying for things such as a new altar, a cross that will hang
from the ceiling, a lectern, and signage.
A donor has contributed funds for a new computer.
New Business
LETTER TO BISHOP
A letter authored by Melinda
Jud was distributed for feedback. All
present gave positive feedback and no changes were suggested.
SYNOD ASSEMBLY WORKSHOP
It was suggested by the Rev.
Chip Gunsten that to plan for the anticipated heavy attendance with Dr. Buba as
our featured guest, the team should do a workshop in lieu of being available
over lunch in the rear of the cafeteria.
Box lunches will be provided to the team.
In preparation the Rev. Tim
Waltonen studied the PowerPoint created by Dr. Buba on “Missional Hospitality”
and created a written list of questions in response. The questions were distributed to all
present. Tim stated he tried to allow
several opportunities to have Dr. Buba expand.
After much discussion it was clear that the team was unclear as to what
Dr. Buba would present at the assembly.
As well it was suggested that the prepared questions be used if the
conversation would be helped by them at the actual workshop but not limited to
what the team prepared since the workshop was to engage the participants. There was also a suggestion to send the
questions in advance to Dr. Buba. It was
clear the team needed to know what Dr. Buba was presenting in order to prepare.
BLOG
Melinda posted an entry on
the team’s blog about Rejoice’s first worship.
She will also post about the Rev. Dr. Gemechis D. Buba and specifically
the team’s workshop during synod assembly.
She stated the website needs a “dialogue” where readers could write
interactively with the posters and others.
There was discussion on how to draw the readers into responding. CeCee suggested Tim ask the question he posed
several times in the wake of the loss of a major leader in the Civil Rights
movement– Dorothy Height- “Are we part of a movement?” Carol suggested questions on “Missional
Hospitality” and to ask for suggestions for the blog on cross cultural
outreach. It was also suggested a link
to the blog be put on the synod’s website and in synod publications.
REVIVAL PLANNING TEAM MEETING
Melinda submitted a written
report. CeCee added she would like at
least one Peninsula church. She also
added that to determine who we wanted to preach we had to determine what audience
we wanted the preacher to reach. Tim
suggested there be five people from each church.
2020 VISION
Melinda tabled this due to
time.
Future Meeting Dates:
·
May 16, 2010 in Fredericksburg
·
July 18, 2010 in
Fredericksburg
·
October 17, 2010
in Fredericksburg
( Rejoice’s Ministry Review
will be October 9-10, 2010.)
Closing - Pastor Tim Waltonen closed with a prayer for the new
life that is in Christ.