Mortgage Reduction Report

At the December Administration meeting, there was a proposal to install a full basketball court for the community at the top of the hill. This basketball court would also be available to our youth and members and the members of the other churches that use the building, but the primary use would be for the community on a day to day basis.

It was determined that we would delay this until we have eliminated the remaining debt on our building and seek approval from the community and the city council. The current project for debt elimination is mid 2009. Delaying the purchase until 2009 should also help us to determine the right location and right suppliers for concrete and goals.

Even though finances were only a small portion of the decision, I thought I would include this projection of the elimination of the debt if we decided to install the court sometime in 2007.

The information provided in this posting is not a commitment for our body to install a basketball court in 2009, but rather an example of some of the ways that our body is suggesting to expand our ministry as more resources become available to us. ( Better suggestions may come in before we reach 2009 )

Fellowship Hall Allocation

After discussion with Gregg and Kent, we have made the following changes to the allocation of the building so that the LCF / Mars Hill / Coffee Shop can have more locked storage and the table and chairs can be kept closer to the location where they are used. Tatesbrook agrees that this is good situation for all of the users.

However, we need for each user of the building to return the tables and chairs to this location in order for us to clean the rest of the building. We have already attempted this a few times, so we recognize that this adjustment will take time.

Education Wing Allocation

After discussion with Gregg and Kent in early December, we have agreed on Gregg's proposal that none of the classrooms be allocated to Mars Hill since they don't have locks. Since they are community territory, Kara has begun the process of cleaning them up.

In December, Kara scraped black stains off of the floors and moved the chairs and tables to their new area twice, but the chairs and tables still make their way back...

In order for Tatesbrook to do the next step ( strip and wax floors so they can be mopped easily by one person ), we will need for all the owners to know that the tables and chairs belong in the LCF/Mars Hill/Coffee Shop storage in the fellowship hall as Kent and Gregg proposed.

Now that we have reduced the clutter, we will also be reducing the size of the lost and found tables. Two of the three pieces of furniture in the hall will be gone in January. If anyone would like to have them, please let me know.

Brothers Meeting Minutes - December 16, 2006

Attendees:
Dr. Scott, Donovan Lakes, Matt Hind

Next Meeting???: January 20th ( 3rd Saturday of every month??? )

2006 Purpose of the Brother's Meeting:
Men getting together to share with each other. Ministering to one another and sharing encouragement from individual areas of ministry

2007 Purpose of the Brother's Meeting:
????

2007 Ideas for the Brother's Meeting:
- Mission trips ( projects [ Work Days, Habitat for Humanity, etc. ] )
- Breakfast ( bacon & eggs instead of donuts or bananas )
- Retreats ( Friday night / Saturday [ like Corinth in 2005 ] )
- Fishing Trips ( Donovan casting his vision )
- Need a leader to organize and communicate

Meeting Minutes:

Brothers testified as to what God is doing with the various challenges we face in life:

Matt:

• Commitment is the topic
  
• Why do we do what we do?
• I'm stuck in the "principle of the cross" ( infinite loop )
• Walking the line between "helping people help themselves" and "enabling them to stay where they are"
  

Tim:

• Care what God wants
  
• Jesus draws the line based on his own attitude. "In a hurry" vs "Important"
  
• Are you at the Brother's meeting for the body or for you?
• Is the Brother's meeting a blessing or a burden?
• Choosing the path of least resistance is not the right choice.
  

Donovan:

• How do we change?
  
• If I was half as committed to the church as I am to work, I would be doing it all.
• Tim offered Romans 12:2 as a place to start.
  Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Kevin:

• Shared many concerns that are common with Matt's ( shared specific examples )
  
• Looking forward to mowing tree nursery and digging trenches for downspouts
• Change is something we can't do, but God wants for us.
• Drawing the line is very important.
  

Grace and Peace,
Kevin

Administration Meeting Minutes - December 2, 2006

Attendees:
Matt Hind, James Davis, Dan Leahy, Michael Harrington

Next Meeting:
Saturday, January 27, 8:00 AM

Purpose of Administration Meeting:

Developing leaders that can follow through with excellence in all of the five fold ministries as we coordinate body wide activities and serve each other as unto the Lord

• Discipleship
• Evangelism
• Worship
• Service
• Fellowship

Specific Topics discussed this month:

Administrative emphasis for 2007:
Discussion surrounding the direction for 2007. In 2006, the Administration team was focused on increased communication with our peer churches and working together through the "Make-a-mess" project and eliminating the physical clutter that required energy to maintain each time that we entered into the physical building. In 2007, we should have more time to apply to other areas of the five fold ministry. We will wait for confirmation from Mike and from the Lord through prayer, but Dan's initial perspective was that we should focus primarily on Discipleship as God is already beginning to work in that area through the Sunday morning teachings. Secondarily, would be Evangelism, where we have traditionally had a weakness. Worship, Service and Fellowship are all functional.

Finances:
Reviewed 2007 Budget proposal that was distributed. The group suggested the following changes:

• Increase Youth budget from $2,000 to $4,000 ( Conference, More mileage accounted, Increased activity, scholarships )
• Increase Children budget from $1,000 to $1,500 ( VBS has worked hard to keep expenses below $1,000 in 2005,2006 but fallen just short )
• Add $5,000 for community basketball court to 2007 wish list
• Confirm with Cindy that increase in tithes from 2003,2004,2005,2006 will continue to 2007

Job Posting:
One of the goals of this team was to identify jobs that could make our ministry better and to better utilize some members that would like to contribute time and service but just don't know where to start. We have made some progress but still have a few roles to fill:

• Maintaining a list of small repairs around the building ( need volunteer )
• Mercy administrator ( need volunteer )
• Maintain a rack of pamphlets in the bookstore (see Mike if you are interested)

Building: ( Kevin/James for Donovan )
Windows remain the top priority. We also added a few new items to the bottom of the list.

• A few windows in rear of building at dangerous point of falling out (LCF suggested sliding windows with screens instead of crank windows or fixed windows)
• Need to repair drywall and paint in entry way.
• Plumber: Repair the outside faucet in the rear of the building
• Plumber: Repair the leaking faucet in the upstairs men's restroom
• Plumber: Repair baptistry heater ( water heater or jacuzzi heater instead of current system)
• HVAC ( Install air return for the sanctuary, Ventilation for Sound room for equipment, workers and most importantly the thermostat )
• Lighting: Sanctuary and foyer
• Remove brick mail box - replace with a normal mailbox in one of the community's cluster of mail boxes. Safer for drivers pulling out of driveway, elimination of an eye-sore. (need volunteer)
• Need to rebuild shed or tear it down ( need communication with users and neighbors )
• Need to replace ceiling tiles in basement
• Move tables and chairs to carts in the fellowship hall
• Finish mudding and painting in the CAT Closet

Youth: ( Matt )
Intends to take larger number of kids to Dare2Share and camps this year. This will require more transportation budget and would like to have scholarships as well for first time attenders that have trouble justifying the cost. Is working with Michael on the possibility of having an outdoor basketball court for the community. Kids are already gathering in the parking lot so it would be good to provide a more visible place to play away from the backyards of the neighbors. Just discussion at this point, but Michael and Matt did proceed far enough to get a rough estimate of the material costs.

Calendar
We added the following dates to the church calendar:
January 28: Celebration

Main Church Calendar


December--
2 - Administration meeting
3 - Lord's Supper
16 - Brother's meeting
17 - Christmas Caroling

January--
7 - Lord's Supper
20 - Brother's meeting
27 - Administration meeting
28 - Celebration

Progress towards Cleanliness

LCF cleaned out the sound room this last week while Kara took ThanksGiving week off. After touring the building this evening. I agree with Kara that we are done with the organization phase and ready to move to just cleaning and maintenance.

Completed:
Summer - Two full dumpsters plus 6 Herbies per week or so plus overflow at times.
Week 0 - Extra clutter removal throughout the building to prepare for the debate on Oct 16th ( 7 Herbies plus overflow thrown away on 12th )
Week 1 - Sanctuary Closets / Mike's Office ( 6 Herbies thrown away on 19th )
Week 2 - Mike's Office / Supply Closets ( 4 Herbies thrown away on 27th )
Week 3 - Bookstore ( 6 Herbies thrown away on Nov 2nd )
Week 4 - Supplies / Kitchen Closets ( 7 Herbies, lots of paint and other overflow thrown away on Nov 9th)
Week 5 - Bathroom / Closet in front of fellowship hall / Classrooms ( 5 Herbies on Nov 16th )
Week 6 - Tatesbrook junk out of locked LCF Storage ( 4 Herbies on Nov 23rd)
Week 7/8 - Sound Room Closet ( 5 Herbies on Nov 30th )
Proposed:

After a short conversation with Gregg and Kent tomorrow, I think we are done! Great Job!

Water Problems

Recently, water damage was found in the closet at the front of the fellowship hall. We have had water problems over the years as we have little by little made tiny corrections in outdoor waterflow in order to get the water away from the building.

I'm pretty sure this is the root of the problem since the splashing water has erroded the concrete glaze off the side of the basement wall and the dampness has darkened the bricks above it.

Splash blocks are bad... and ugly.

Five years ago, I moved water from the corner of the building to the parking lot and planted a Lilac bush to help use up some of the water that always seemed to make its way down the hill, into the corner and eventually pressing up through the tile in the foyer outside the fellowship hall.

The black tile can be purchased for about $10 and the only tool you need is a shovel.

The downspouts in the front of Mike's office go into the parking lot drain ( when they are connected ). The downspouts in the rear corner of the building were redirected by a team of young men from LCF several years ago in an effort to get water away from the nursery.

Two years ago, Donovan graded the area outside the youth room and had concrete poured to get water away from the lower door on that side of the building.

There are three downspouts that still dump water right next to the building and the closet is that last victim of water damage.

These last two are not major contributors of water, but we might as well fix all three at the same time.

Brothers Meeting Minutes - November 18, 2006

Attendees:
Dr. Scott, James Davis, Dan Leahy, Mike Brady

Next Meeting: December 16th ( 3rd Saturday of every month )

2006 Purpose of the Brother's Meeting:
Men getting together to share with each other. Ministering to one another and sharing encouragement from individual areas of ministry

2007 Ideas for the Brother's Meeting:
- Mission trips ( projects [ Work Days, Habitat for Humanity, etc. ] )
- Breakfast ( bacon & eggs instead of donuts or bananas )
- Retreats ( Friday night / Saturday [ like Corinth in 2005 ] )
- Need a leader to organize and communicate

Meeting Minutes:

Brothers testified as to what God is doing with the various challenges we face in life:

Tim:

• Many, many stories: Topped Mike for today
• Hopes that 9 SEC teams will receive a bowl bid.

Dan:

• Painting foyer with Joje on a 16 foot ladder
• Praying about his job, he and Joje are both trusting God
• Best Quote: "I want to go out in peace like grandpa, not screaming like the passengers in his car"

Mike:

• Wants to see more people involved with Brother's meeting
• Many, many stories: Tim won the contest, though
• Mimi's birthday, Amanda's Wedding, Emily's Anniversary and Open House is keeping him busy while he holds down a few jobs.
• Asked that we keep Eva Sergent in our prayers ( new location for cancer, will be in surgery this week to have it removed, outlook is good )

Kevin:

• Shared that Jackie has been doing better this last few weeks
• Encouraged about more people using their gifts, sharing a few examples
• Likes seeing high school students learning truth in same classroom as adults of all ages
• Pleased with the progress of decluttering the building, looking forward to reaching steady state, where less energy will be required.
• Suggested that we have a mini-work day after the meeting to clean up and move chairs.

Grace and Peace,
Kevin

Progress towards Cleanliness

LCF and Mars Hill did a great deal of clean up on Monday. Kara cleaned and organized the Kitchen on Wednesday. Next week it is the Sound Room across from Mike's office. Kent and Gregg are working on a plan for the cabinets and their contents.

If anyone has any suggestions about where we point Kara in December, please let me know!

Completed:
Summer - Two full dumpsters plus 6 Herbies per week or so plus overflow at times.

Week 0 - Extra clutter removal throughout the building to prepare for the debate on Oct 16th ( 7 Herbies plus overflow thrown away on 12th )
Week 1 - Sanctuary Closets / Mike's Office ( 6 Herbies thrown away on 19th )
Week 2 - Mike's Office / Supply Closets ( 4 Herbies thrown away on 27th )
Week 3 - Bookstore ( 6 Herbies thrown away on Nov 2nd )
Week 4 - Supplies / Kitchen Closets ( 7 Herbies, lots of paint and other overflow thrown away on Nov 9th)
Week 5 - Bathroom / Closet in front of fellowship hall / Classrooms ( 5 Herbies on Nov 16th )
Week 6 - Tatesbrook junk out of locked LCF Storage ( to be thrown away on Nov 18th )

Proposed:
Week 7 - Sound Room Closet ( to be thrown away on Nov 30th )
Week 8 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 7th )
Week 9 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 14th )

Claim these Items by November 18th

LCF and Mars Hill made a significant contribution to the clutter clean up this week. On Monday, after Mars Hill was finished, they cleaned out their locked closet. A great deal of the contents that they were able to throw away were old, valueless things from Tatesbrook in the back of the closet where moth and rust destroy.

But in this case, it was mold and mildew... While cleaning and prepping to paint, LCF found water damage. I'm pretty sure the source of the problem is the elbow on the downspout on that side of the building.

Kara was also able to clean the kitchen ( and reorganize it, of course ). It looks great. Ladies, you need to check this out.

Since this is mostly Tatesbrook stuff and LCF has already approved it going out the door, I'm going to suggest that the Brother's move it directly to Herbies after the Brother's meeting this morning.

I really don't want to miss next week's trash pickup, because we will need the Herbies for the following week when we clean out the Sound Room.

Progress towards Cleanliness

Kara combined weeks 5 and 6 this week and will be filling the week 6 slot by working with Billy to rearrange the Kitchen, LCF Storage and Coffee Shop Storage so that the chairs can be stored near the fellowship hall.

Completed:
Summer - Two full dumpsters plus 6 Herbies per week or so plus overflow at times.

Week 0 - Extra clutter removal throughout the building to prepare for the debate on Oct 16th ( 7 Herbies plus overflow thrown away on 12th )
Week 1 - Sanctuary Closets / Mike's Office ( 6 Herbies thrown away on 19th )
Week 2 - Mike's Office / Supply Closets ( 4 Herbies thrown away on 27th )
Week 3 - Bookstore ( 6 Herbies thrown away on Nov 2nd )
Week 4 - Supplies / Kitchen Closets ( 7 Herbies, lots of paint and other overflow thrown away on Nov 9th)
Week 5 - Bathroom / Closet in front of fellowship hall / Classrooms ( to be thrown away on Nov 16th )

Proposed:
Week 6 - Tatesbrook junk out of unlocked LCF Storage ( to be thrown away on Nov 16th [no waiting period] )
Week 7 - Sound Room Closet ( to be thrown away on Nov 30th )
Week 8 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 7th )
Week 9 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 14th )

Claim these Items by November 16th

After cleaning out the 4 & 5 year old room and recleaning some other areas, Kara only came up with a filing cabinet and a storage tub as items to be claimed by November 16th.

It appears that we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

For next week, we will be removing the chairs from the hallway. Kara and Billy are working on a plan to move the chairs to one of LCF's storage areas near the fellowship hall.

There are two carts holding chairs that can fit on one cart so throwing away one cart is a definite goal of mine. Throwing things away is a lot easier than finding storage places in our constrained space.

Progress towards Cleanliness

Kara's injury did not slow her down much, so we replaced the week 4 schedule break with a cleanup of the supplies closets for the kitchen and the cleaning. She is making tremendous progress.

Completed:
Summer - Two full dumpsters plus 6 Herbies per week or so plus overflow at times.

Week 0 - Extra clutter removal throughout the building to prepare for the debate on Oct 16th ( 7 Herbies plus overflow thrown away on 12th )
Week 1 - Sanctuary Closets / Mike's Office ( 6 Herbies thrown away on 19th )
Week 2 - Mike's Office / Supply Closets ( 4 Herbies thrown away on 27th )
Week 3 - Bookstore ( 6 Herbies thrown away on Nov 2nd )
Week 4 - Supplies / Kitchen Closets ( to be thrown away on Nov 9th)

Proposed:
Week 5 - Bathroom / Closet in front of fellowship hall ( to be thrown away on Nov 16th )
Week 6 - Classroom clutter on floor/cabinets ( to be thrown away on Nov 23rd )
Week 7 - Sound Room Closet ( to be thrown away on Nov 30th )
Week 8 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 7th )
Week 9 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 14th )

Claim these Items by November 9th

Kara went through the cleaning and kitchen supply rooms and the mop room and has moved all of the paint and maintenance items to the lost and found area at the end of the hall.


On November 9th, she will fill all the paint cans with kitty litter and take them to the curb.


In my 17 years at Tatesbrook, I have never seen the supply closets so organized and clutter free. There are a few electrical items that may be valuable so you may want to look through the clutter this week.


We have been given some more red stackable chairs so we may be able to get rid of the metal chairs on bulky racks that seem to live in the hall lately.

Sanctuary Allocation

Fellowship Hall Allocation

Education Wing Allocation

In recent walk throughs of the building with Kara and with LCF, it has become clear that there needs to be a map of ownership of areas of the building. After much discussion, this is what we believe is the current ownership of the areas in the Education wing for 2006.

Mortgage Reduction Report

As we begin to discuss the 2007 Budget, I thought it would be good to update everyone on our progress toward our goal of debt elimination. As you may recall, at the beginning of 2006, we had hoped to make extra payments to reduce the mortgage at an aggressive rate that would allow us to achieve our goal in late 2008. At times this year, we were on that pace, but after the completion of three quarters, we have dropped our pace back to the rate of 2005.

The current projection of debt elimination at this slower pace is mid-2009.

Claim these Items by November 2nd

GOOD NEWS!

We are down to one shelf of clutter for this week! That means we can eliminate a clutter collecting table from the hall next week!

The pictured items are headed toward Good Will or the curb on November 2nd.

Progress towards Cleanliness

Due to an injury, Kara will be taking it easy this week if she works at all, so I have moved the schedule back one week.

James Davis, Kent Pittard, Gregg Greer and I walked through the entire building this morning as well. After the walk through, we decided to move the Sound Room Closet to later in the month so that LCF and Tatesbrook can remove some of the clutter before Kara gets to it.

Completed:
Summer - Two full dumpsters plus 6 Herbies per week or so plus overflow at times.

Week 0 - Extra clutter removal throughout the building to prepare for the debate on Oct 16th ( 7 Herbies plus overflow thrown away on 12th )
Week 1 - Sanctuary Closets / Mike's Office ( 6 Herbies thrown away on 19th )
Week 2 - Mike's Office / Supply Closets ( 4 Herbies thrown away on 27th )
Week 3 - Bookstore ( to be thrown away on Nov 2nd )

Proposed:
Week 4 - Break
Week 5 - Bathroom / Closet in front of fellowship hall ( to be thrown away on Nov 16th )
Week 6 - Classroom clutter on floor/cabinets ( to be thrown away on Nov 23rd )
Week 7 - Sound Room Closet ( to be thrown away on Nov 30th )
Week 8 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 7th )
Week 9 – Please provide input to Kevin ( to be thrown away on Dec 14th )