We began our meeting with training on the team aspects of Eldership and will be undertaking a half-hour period of training at the start of our meetings for the next few months.
We welcomed our treasurer, Stewart Blair, and he informed us on our current financial position. We agreed that increased giving is needed and that we should promote “Gift Aid” through the Freewill Offering envelope scheme in addition to encouraging the congregation to give more and to give regularly. We will publicise this through the SOURCE our church newsletter.
We considered the continuing serious situation of our Junior Church, where we have very few children and attendance can be rather irregular. This is discouraging for our leaders who prepare material every Sunday without knowing whether they will teach 2 or 6 children, or none at all. Our Youth Group is now meeting once a month and attracts 10/12 youngsters but we need to make this a weekly event for them if we are to hold and even increase numbers attending. “Rock Solid” provides good, plentiful material and can be easily used so we need volunteers, not necessarily professional leaders.
The Committee of Management are asking us to think about our church’s lack of visual impact on Broadway and how we might address this problem, to promote ourselves better and more effectively. We will consider this over the next few months and also publicise the problem in the newsletter and on displays in church.
Fred Milligan,
Secretary,
Elders Meeting.
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