Results from NLPC Annual Meeting

Thanks to those of you who were able to attend New Life’s annual meeting last month. Church meetings have a reputation for degenerating into squabbles, but that has not been my experience here at New Life. I have always been impressed with the gracious and respectful tone of the conversations that take place, and this year’s meeting was no exception. It was also the highest attended meeting in the 17-year history of our church.

I wanted to take time here in Lifeline to report on two developments from the meeting: First, all three men who were on the ballot for election to the office of deacon were overwhelmingly approved by congregational vote. Our three new deacons are Larry Harting, Paul Nagelkirk and Mark Parkison. They have been elected to three-year terms and will join Randy Thompson and Mark Bergman on the deacon board.

There were no new elder candidates this year. Bob Clark’s three-year term expired, and since he chose not to serve a second term, that leaves the session with Wendell Conner, Tony Guinn, Scott Jordan and myself. Please prayerfully consider whom you might nominate as an elder candidate this year.

The second development is related to the congregational survey about overflow space in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings. In December, we sought input from the congregation on how to respond to the space limitations we have been dealing with.

George Saunders compiled the results (59 people responded) and discovered that your first choice was to add a third worship service, which would take place on Saturday nights. Coming in a close second was a simulcast overflow room in the new building. Third was to offer a third service on Sunday morning. There was a weak response to the other two options: building a new sanctuary or starting a new congregation.

After reviewing the results, the elders and deacons unanimously decided that we should create an overflow room in the new building where the service would be shown by simulcast video (second service only). In the meantime, we will continue to explore the option of offering a third service.

Among other things, the Saturday night service was not chosen at this time because we would need twice as many volunteers to make it happen — especially given the fact that we’re already strapped for volunteers on Sunday mornings.

If you have any questions about this, or if you would like to see the survey results, let me know. In the meantime, praise God for his guidance and presence among us during our annual meeting.

My love to you in Christ,

Bob