EHCC 2010 Council

President: Stephen Wilson

Vice President: Stephen Soderland

Treasurer:  Barbara Linsert

Secretary: Reed Price

And: Dave Beemer, Pat Johnson, Jim Macpherson, Denise Melton-Todd, Laurie Ringaert, Ernie Williams

Personnel Committee Chair: Pegeen Mulhern

EHCC Mission Priorities 2011

These are the results of our polling at the annual meeting on Sunday, January 30, 2011

Category 1: Supporting personal spiritual formation for all ages

• Provide quiet prayer time with lay or pastoral leaders following regular worship services. (21)
• Create one or more new spiritual growth groups to meet weekly or monthly. (60)
• Enlist additional instructors, aides, and support people for the Sunday School to broaden the base of volunteers taking responsibility for educating our children and youth. (66)

Category 2: Supporting our EHCC Christian family

• Establish a once-monthly church social evening with a potluck dinner and intergenerational activities such as games, music, movies, dancing, conversation, sharing talents, etc. (56)
• Open the youth dinner to the whole church once a month, followed by study or activities. (23)
• Develop a team of visitors who could go to see people who need company after worship on Sundays, taking tokens of the church’s love (flowers, cards, communion, cookies, etc.) (50)
• Set a discussion question or topic as an option for Coffee Hour to facilitate conversation. (16)

Category 3: Fostering the Kin-dom of God—Outreach

• Host events and speakers that are clearly non-doctrinaire but attractive to the spiritually curious, with an emphasis on marketing that is inclusive, non-threatening, and welcoming.  (31)
• Maintain a vigorous youth program that attends to the needs of youth both inside and outside our church constituency. (39)
• Research where state funding cuts are going to have the most devastating impact, and shape a response to one or two needs based on that research.  (12)
• Cooperate with existing organizations such as Helpline House, Interfaith Council, and Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers to facilitate some kind of community “job jar”—a resource for finding out specific needs people of faith such as ourselves could respond to.  (35)
• Educate ourselves on justice advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels, intentionally plugging into existing advocacy networks and encouraging each other in advocacy work. (10)
• Engage in a theological study of the environmental crisis, and humanity’s role in it focusing specifically on how humans may be motivated to change their habits and take action to slow environmental degradation. (16)
• Plan a summer mission trip for adults. (12)

Three Year Goals (2009-2011)

Stewardship of Property

• Complete sanctuary remodel.
• Environmental audit.
• Develop recommendations and take action toward being more environmentally friendly.
• Kitchen rehabilitation.
• Fellowship Hall rehabilitation.
• Emergency Shelter capability.
• Improve nursery facility.
• Prayer space.
• Budget for emergencies.

Serving Others

• Designated/focused service project.
• High participation
• Intergenerational
• Support system for families in crisis.
• Congregational tithing (giving 10% of church budget to outside ministries).
• Prioritize collaboration with other faith communities and agencies in service projects, educational events and celebrations.

Connecting with God

• Encourage and facilitate meditation and prayer practice.
• Explore alternative or additional worship services.
• Open ourselves to new technologies in worship.
• More families in intergenerational worship service – adjust service as needed.
• Theological education on connecting Sunday to Monday – integrating theology and work, etc.
• Encourage environment-oriented spirituality – Green Theology.
• Continue to explore and expand our response to God through music.

Ordering Our Community

• New system of enrolling volunteers.
• Discovery of volunteer potential, i.e. Gift Inventory
• Breaking down/organizing tasks
• Revise/approve Constitution and By-laws.
• Improve internal communication.
• Expand website capability – more interactivity, audio sermons, etc.
• Improve lay leadership development (be more intentional).

Making Disciples

• Increase adult education opportunities (classes, small groups, mentoring).
• Add five adult education teachers.
• Intentional Educational/Discipling plan for all ages (Christian practices).
• Nurture personal connections within the congregation.
• Mentoring
• Prayer partners
• Friend to friend
• Events
• Improve marketing/outreach/new member enrollment system.
• Make the unique identity of EHCC known to the community.

To contact us:

EHCC

105 Winslow Way West

Bainbridge Island, WA  98110

Phone: 206-842-4657