November 12—planning—Bishop Wilke event

 

 

Planners:  Jerry Niebaum, Neva Merriman, Margo Gordon, Dennis Dailey, Ann Johnson, Judy Niebaum, Carol Abrahamson, Sue Morgan

 

Reports:

 

Tom’s report:  Tom has been in contact with Bishop Wilke, who suggests a $1000 honorarium plus expenses; will send a biography and picture; will preach 15-20 minutes at two services…at West Campus and 11 o’clock downtown; will answer questions at a forum after the service and meal.  (attached is a copy of the email Tom sent as per your request).

 

Survey:  The survey group will meet several times before our next meeting.  The consensus appears to be…

1.  hand out survey as parishoners arrive, not in bulletin

2.  give the survey after the sermon possibly during an extra long offertory, requesting that all participate; have a box by the door to receive them.

3.  purpose is to find out where the congregation is on the subject.

4.  leave a place for comments and questions… a tear off to use at the forum.

5.  survey should be short with a place for an optional signature.

 

The meal:  Steve Maceli is willing to serve a lunch for 50-75 participants as a donation to the church.  It will be a light lunch with a salad and dessert.  January 15 will be the deadline for turning in the number.  There will be no cost.  We will advertise that folks can come to the forum without having lunch with us if they miss the deadline.

 

Small group advertising:

1.  Sue will design a simple script that can be adapted to each small groups character.

2.  Jerry will design “Save this Date” cards that can be handed out to small groups.

3.  Carol will email Reconciling Hearts telling them that we need persons to go to small groups to advertise and that we will provide a script.

4.  Carol will type up the list of small groups, get contact persons for each group and supply the list to us and to all Reconciling Hearts.

5.  Carol will explain to RH what we want them to do…contact a person from the small group to find out when they will meet; explain what we want, i.e. 5-10 minutes at a certain time to explain about the Wilke event; go to the small group…explain…pass a signup for the meal and pass out the “Save This Date” cards.

 

General advertising:

1.  Ann Johnson will meet with Carol to design advertising; hopefully the bio and picture will arrive soon. We will advertise in First Editions, gold insert, and powerpoint. Included in the advertising will be that Reconciling Hearts is responding to Ad Board’s affirmation that we continue to inform the congregation. We will begin ads ASAP.

2.  Jerry’s “Save This Date” cards will be handed out at services in January. The card will include the date/times of the event; reservation deadline; where to sign up; a reservation email address (it can be Carol’s…ciadfaks@sunflower.com. and the Reconciling Ministries Network logo (if there is room)  which Candice has on her computer.

3.  We will ask Barb and Tom to highlight this event in their opening remarks at services in January.

4.  The title of the event will be “The Bible, Our Church, and Homosexuality.”

 

Followup:

1.  We do need to have ideas in our pocket for followup and be thinking about all the scenarios…i.e. large percentage positive or negative or a major split.

2.  We will discuss potential followup possibilities at our next meeting.

3.  We need to keep in mind a goal of having a welcoming statement, but we need to figure out when and how to do this.