C.O.M.E Minutes

MINUTES: Outreach/Mission/Evangelism (COME) Team of Springdale UMC

November 9, 2014

In attendance: Julie Mather, Rhoda Barnhart (chair), Deborah Schoenfelder, Jim Schoenfelder, Jo Leighty, Myrna Ferguson, Harlan Ferguson, Jim Farmer, Lynda Ambrose (guest).

Opening thoughts, joys and concerns were shared, followed by prayer.

Minutes of September 21, 2014 were reviewed and accepted.

The COME Ministry Spending Plan (MSP) for 2015 was submitted. Pastor Kimberly purchased Confronting the Controversies (Biblical Perspectives on Tough Issues) by Adam Hamilton. Pastor Kimberly intends to use this resource as the basis for a sermon series starting in January that will be an opportunity to invite people to attend. It is something we will want advertise Christmas eve and it deals with issues many people probably struggle with. The materials are an evangelism resource, which is a part of COME’s MSP.

MISSION

1. Special offerings

• Report: Human Relations Day (October 12): Total giving=$90.00
• Upcoming United Methodist Student Day (November 30): Flyers and envelopes are available; Jim Farmer will look for video clips to show during November worship services to promote this offering

1. Report: 2014 Thanksgiving Ingathering

• In-kind giving

• 27 Health Kits, value=$324.00
• 60 School Bags, value=$180.00

• Cash donations

• Goat Scheme=$1030.00
• Money for toothpaste for the Health Kits=$27.00
• Money for shipping=$54.00

• TOTAL GIVING=$1615.00

• Myrna Ferguson and Rhoda Barnhart delivered the kits and cash donations to Mt. Pleasant on Saturday, November 1, 2014.

1. Upcoming mission trip: Five persons are participating November 14-15 in the mission trip to Springfield, Illinois.

EVANGELISM

1. The last family movie night of 2014 on November 9 was cancelled. Jim Farmer is planning to select a movie and a date in January 2015 for the next family movie night.

2.  Pastor Kimberly purchased three new Bibles (New Revised Standard Version), to have on hand for gifts as the need arises. We will store the Bibles in the COME file cabinet, if space allows.

OUTREACH

1. Jo Leighty reviewed the contact persons for the next few months.
3. There was discussion about how can we as a faith community ensure people are informed about joys and concerns, especially Pastor Kimberly? It was decided that we are all responsible for sharing joys and concerns as appropriate, then as we are aware of a joy or concern, the following can be put into place:

1. The one who becomes aware of the joy or concern should ask the person(s) involved if the information may be shared with our faith community
2. If permission is granted to share the information, the person who has learned of the joy or concern will contact Deborah Schoenfelder, who has agreed to serve as the point person
3. In turn, Deborah will:

1. Contact Pastor Kimberly, informing her of the joy or concern, and
2. Disseminate the information on the SUMC email mailing list.

**We will need to continue to discuss how to inform people who do not use email, so that a concerted effort is put into place to keep our entire faith community connected. The intent is to keep us all in touch in terms of what is going on in the community; joys and concerns in need of our awareness and attention, our thoughts and prayers, and perhaps our actions.**

Next meeting: January 18, 2015.

Following discussion in September about meeting occasionally somewhere other than at the church to increase our visibility (for example, at a restaurant), Pastor Kimberly spoke with the manager at a West Branch restaurant. The manager did not give her a definite “no”, but stated Sunday is a particularly busy day and might not work well for the restaurant (COME meets on Sundays). Our intended purpose in doing this would be to truly reach out into the community, being open to people stopping by and interacting with us. At this point, we will pray about the best way(s) to engage the community. The COME team is open to any and all ideas.