Minutes of recent KMC Church Meetings and AGM
Printer-friendly version2010 ANNUAL GENERAL CHURCH MEETING
The next Annual General Church Meeting will be held on Monday, 29th March 2010 in the Church beginning at 7.30pm. All are welcome to attend – members and non-members. This is a very important meeting when all are invited to raise issues about the life and witness of KMC. Questions may be asked during the meeting. There is also an opportunity to raise issue of policy, which the Church Council can then follow through. We urge you all to make this meeting a priority in your diaries.
Also at this meeting, Church Stewards and Congregational Representatives to the Church Council are appointed. This year we are looking to appoint 1 new Church Steward and 2 Congregational Representatives.
As well as being essential to the smooth running of the Church, Church Stewards are the ears and eyes of the Minister, in addition to giving him spiritual support. Congregational Representatives represent you, the congregation, on the Church Council. Any concern or comment you may on the life of the Church can be passed to the Church Council through them.
Nomination forms will be available in the entrance from Sunday, 28th February. Only those who are members of the church are entitled to nominate, or be nominated for, appointments, and to vote on the appointments during the meeting.
Please return your completed nomination forms to Rev Paul Wilson or Steve Atkinson (Church Council Secretary) by Sunday 21st March.
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MINUTES OF GENERAL CHURCH MEETING
HELD ON MONDAY, 16th NOVEMBER 2009
The Meeting was attended by 48 members/adherents. There were 32 apologies.
Reports: Finance Howard Kirkham (Chairman of the Finance Committee) gave the report covering the General Account for 2008/09. Income was £6,500 better than budget and Expenditure was £500 worse than budget. The payment of £1,250 budgeted for the building fund was not required and there were small reductions on Outreach and Connexional Funds. So overall the net position was over £7,000 better off than budget - a good result.
The response to Gift Day in September was an increase in regular Giving of £13,500 and one-off donations of £10,500 (both figures including related Gift Aid).
The Budget for 2009/10 was amended to reflect this Gift Day response. The net result is a small deficit (of £606) before the District Advance Fund (DAF) grant of £12,000 for Lay Workers’ costs, resulting in an expected increase in reserves of over £11,000. Connexional Funds and Outreach spending from the Church General Account would be reassessed at the Council meeting in June 2010, and a decision made whether these can be increased in the light of the more definite information regarding income against expenditure after two-thirds of the financial year. At that point, the District Advanced Fund grant decisions, projected Circuit Assessment and Lay Worker costs for 2010-11 will also be known.
The draft budgets for 20010/11 and 2011/12 were then reviewed because of the need to take a longer-term view, as the commitment to a new Lay Worker was for 3 years. The cost of Lay Workers and the Circuit Assessment were expected to rise significantly, resulting in an overall deficit of almost £11,000 in 20010/11 and a deficit of almost £19,000 in 2011/12, in the absence of any external grants, which may not be received. Grant applications will be made but with no guarantee of success.
Howard summarised the position for last year as “taking everything into account, in the current economic climate, KMC is not doing too badly”.
Stewards Peter Bowler (Senior Steward) reported that Paul Wilson celebrated his half-century at a 50th birthday lunch in May. Mike Bayliss took on the burden of organising this and had excellent support from many members of the Church. Our thanks go to all concerned.
ECG has once again had a major impact on many of our members. Our teenagers have led several inspirational services over the last few months and it is clear that they have really benefited from Ruth's leadership. She has now moved on to take up a full-time youth-worker post at Bishop Stortford – she will be much missed. Whilst seeking a replacement for her, we realised that The Welcome was also seeking to appoint a part-time youth worker. The posts are therefore to be combined to form a single full-time post which was advertised last week. We are hoping to appoint someone to start work early next year, and Alison is holding the fort in the mean time.
The welcome service for our new superintendent minister (Rev Jackie Betts) was held at KMC.
There were two special Sundays during September:- Gift Day and “Back to Church Sunday”. The latter was part of a national campaign which this year had the strapline “Come as you are”. Attractive invitation cards were distributed to the congregation and over twenty people came to the morning Services who we hadn't seen for a long time – many are still coming. There was a prayer day for both these events during which each of our twelve house groups were asked to take responsibility for a half-hour slot. The numbers praying during the day varied widely, but it was great to see the various groups approach the challenge in their own way.
The Young Farmers were welcomed to our Harvest Festival service.
We are continuing with our variety of styles for the evening Services, and at Harvest it was in the form of Café church, with Climate Change as the very relevant topic. The evening was very interesting and concluded that the Earth was suffering because humanity is ignoring God's rules. The importance of the issue was picked up by the Church Council who arranged for us to look at our response, as a Church, later in this meeting.
Our longest serving steward, Mike Bayliss, has taken time out to serve God though voluntary work in Thailand. Whilst he is away, Jean Bowman has been acting as a temporary steward in his place. She has fitted in well and the meeting was asked to agree to appoint her as a steward, permanently, in order to bring us up to our full complement of ten. The meeting agreed to appoint Jean.
Lay Workers Alison Maynard, KMC Pastoral Worker, was unfortunately on holiday but provided a written report for the meeting. Alison reported that she counted herself privileged to be a part of the ministry team at KMC. She had personally grown spiritually over her time here and thanked everyone for their care, love, support and encouragement. She is regularly involved with many events. She provides community communions with Paul at Ash Court, Beechwood, Abbeyfileds and Sharston House. She is involved in the running of the Come As You Are course on a Tuesday at the moment. The Senior Citizens’ Lunches, which is community outreach, continue to go well. There is a good atmosphere and the food is second to none! Visiting our housebound and elderly members along with those in hospital is a major part of Alison’s role and a part that she has grown to love more and more. Alison started doing SPACE on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month.
Since the departure of Ruth, our Youth Worker, Alison has picked up some of her responsibilities and she is once again leading TNT and TNT Xtra (Thursday and Sunday nights). She also has responsibility for the Youth Band. Their confidence is growing in all areas, sharing their faith, leading worship, spiritual growth and willingness to stand up for what they believe. Alison has known many of them since they were 11 years old and she says that, seeing how they have matured and grown in their faith, we at KMC can feel secure in the knowledge that when they go off to University and further education they are standing on a sure foundation of faith which will stand them well. This is because KMC has put resources in place to concentrate on such an important ministry among the young people here. Alison is also going into the High School one lunchtime a week on a Wednesday to the Lower School library to do ‘listening ear’ which allows the students to have someone to talk to other than the teaching and support staff.
Gill Morrison, KMC Children’s Worker, explained her role. It was neither child-minding nor the role of an entertainer, but the principal activities were prayer and study. On Sundays, a range of materials is used across the age-ranges – Gill enjoys supplying extra ideas to put flesh on the bare bones often given! Gill also organises and supports the many leaders and helpers and provides one-to-one support for children with additional needs.
Gill runs King’s club, which is offered to children both from within and without the church family. Apart from teaching, and consolidating that through craft and games, social occasions together are enjoyed. Over the summer, preparations were made for “livewires”, an annual ecumenical venture, based at St John’s. This year covered the story of Jonah.
Though Gill has taken school assemblies on an ad hoc basis, she believes she has had more “success” in generating interest from schools when she has been prepared to offer a “package” which they couldn’t do themselves - packages such as “Bible Explorer” – a “big picture“ overview of the Old Testament – which has been appreciated this year at Mobberley, Goostrey, and Manor Park schools.
This year, instead of offering a Light Party here at KMC, a mini-bus took children to Moss Farm Leisure-centre, thus offering a positive alternative to “trick or treating“. Our position as Christians on this issue was addressed through a tract sent to each member of Junior church.
As we approach Christmas we are preparing for parties and the Nativity.
Gill likened her ministry to an iceberg because, at the beginning of her ministry at KMC, Paul told her that her work would be but the tip of an iceberg and that really it would be what was going on underneath which would be more important. Gill confirmed he was right!
Gill encouraged members to check out BSF, a tool He has used particularly in her life over the last 8 years.
Circuit - No formal report was provided but Paul reminded everyone about the “Swimathon” and “Auction of Promises” events.
Response to Climate Change – Paul presented a report prepared for the Methodist Conference, titled “Hope in God’s Future: Christian Discipleship in the Context of Climate Change”. It is 40 pages long and available over the internet. This needs all of us to recognise what we can do. Brothers and Sisters across the world are affected by climate change. We are here to care for creation and are part of the Body of Christ. We must sign up to reducing carbon emissions by a minimum of 80% by 2050. We must respond personally and influence our church and the Government. Discussions took place in small groups. Paul summarised by saying that we must reduce our energy consumption, increase recycling, and change our lifestyles in a practical way. KMC will be having a green audit to try to reduce our carbon emissions.
Any Other Business – Steve Wilkinson stated that the work done by KMC members in The Welcome is regarded in a very positive light in the community. Paul revealed that the aim is to plant the Welcome Café Church in the New Year, which is likely to attract external grants, and which will hopefully take the pressure off Circuit finances. The Welcome will change its constitution but the work there will largely be the same as now.
Date of Annual General Church Meeting – Monday, 29th March 2010.
