What does Council do to lead our community of faith?

You elected Ardie Archer, Dean Oswald, Dwight Gutzman, Christina Herauf, Ilse Phoenix, Elaine Schneider, and Grant Swanson to be your Council.  Pastor is also a member.  Your Council generally meets on the third Tuesday of most months between 7:00 and 8:30. Our Constitution guides us.

One of our most important roles is to plan and then evaluate how well Grace is doing.  So, Council had two retreats.  At the first one, we considered Grace’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  At the second one, we developed a plan to build relationships to support the five missions of Grace – to worship, learn, witness, service and support.  Our focus is on people and building relationships.

Your Council then conducted a survey of your opinions on strengths and concerns with Grace’s progress on each of the five missions.  The results of the survey were presented to you in a series of animated slide presentations developed by Pascale Swanson.  Pastor was also asked to prepare a report on his views.  Your Council then evaluated our joint ministry at Grace.  Together with Pastor’s plan for 2018, input from committees and the Council’s own thoughts, a financial budget and a narrative budget were prepared by Ray Henrickson.  A general meeting of members was held in December to discuss our ministry and approve a budget for 2018.