August Guillaume

 Hi Karl:

You just finished describing it in Spider Deacons and had  "I saw “organic” instead of hierarchical." I simply rearranged your own words.

Another competitor to Microsoft Office is Open Office which is free and compatible. Third world countries love such software!

I have found that any company which sells you something designs it so that everyone 'needs' to purchase similar items every three years.

I do not trust Microsoft, nor Google web based or not. It is likely that in three years most of what you have now will be incompatible with what comes next.

Who has a strategy that avoids such costs?

As a church we can use the liturgies on Sunday to show what we and our society lacks during 'confession' time. If done appropriately it will hopefully show our visitors that we know no one is without sin.

Fellowship CRC rents space from king's university College.
All Administrative work is done in member's homes. Almost each home has internet access.
All church work is done on member's own computers.

I keep e-mail addresses of each member.

Minutes are sent to each member's homes and the secretary of each committee is responsible to keep them somewhere.

Fellowship uses a gmail e-mail address. All policies, mandates of committees are posted on our web site.

Secure web site houses schedules, directory information and e-mail lists.

We do own a computer to use powerpoint for our services.

Our IT budget is $0.00

At the Northern Alberta Diaconal Conference, Deacons are asked to share stories. Here they are!

~At Centrepointe, they now have 2 deacons, and hope to get a couple more soon. They have started to help people with moving, house reno’s, etc. They now make those services available for anyone in the community, including those who can pay, to help raise funds.
~Some members of The River have gone to meet with people in Zambia to get to know them & love them. They have seen huge results and changes in people who have been there, and the Zambians are getting comfortable now to ask for help with their projects. The River’s annual Serve fundraiser enables them to respond to local needs quickly, and to help people with unique, expensive needs. For example they were able to help someone with $10,000 in medical expenses.
~Woodynook is looking forward to celebrating its 75th anniversary in November, and they are in building mode. They are almost at the $1.5 million needed to start, so preliminary work has begun. Woodynook is evaluating their evening service, and ask for prayers for guidance in this matter. They have two new refugees coming as their current refugee family is asking them to support two additional family members. Woodynook is active in Neighbourlink in their community. There are three greenhouse operations which employ 15 Thai people. Deacons are very excited that they have found a person who can speak Thai, and are now offering Alpha in their language so that these Thai people can come to know Jesus.
~Joe asked for support for Diaconal Ministries Canada, as the support via denominational ministry shares doesn’t always come in. Joe mentioned that at the DMC meetings he has attended he has been so impressed with the commitment of the staff.
~Wolf Creek is searching for a pastor. Their young people went to Vancouver on an inner-city mission trip, and Wolf Creek is also very involved with Neighbourlink.
At Maranatha, they have an election for deacons coming up soon. The Karen refugees, with whom Maranatha has been involved for a long time now, are planning to rent a Baptist church, as they have outgrown the space in Maranatha. However, they still plan to worship at Maranatha in the mornings.
~Ottewell is involved in a visioning process whereby they have adopted core values leading to core practices, generating commitment from the congregation. They are planning an outdoor community worship service on June 13, starting with a pancake breakfast, and ending with a community information fair. As part of their year-round giving schedule, they are focusing on The Pregnancy Care Centre for May and June, involving the youth in the Walk for Life, and collecting baby items, as well as offerings. In July and August the focus will be Habitat for Humanity, with offerings as well as serving up several lunches to volunteers.
~Bethel-Lacombe is doing intentional giving over 5 Sundays. They started a big expansion to the church kitchen. Circle of friends has been very positive for them. The have been busy with the overture to Classis regarding seating deacons at Classis. They have not been made aware of many financial or other needs recently.
~At St. Albert, they are losing three deacons. Please pray that they get replacements. They had a SERVE team go to Vancouver, and will be starting a community garden. They also have a refugee sponsorship in progress. A year ago, the church was asked by Community Services to help with people who fall between the cracks. They, along with 5 other churches, joined “The Bridge” and are a centre through which community requests are funneled. They work out of the Food Bank. Bert mentioned that it would be really beneficial for all churches to be involved in this type of arrangement.
~At Covenant, they now have a second pastor, Ken Vis, who focuses on youth and education. They had a SERVE team go to El Paso, and a HANDS team going somewhere next year. Their programs are winding down, but find Vacation Bible School to be a good outreach tool. They are looking forward to church camp and have a community garden. They will be starting Compass 21 in the fall and are working on developing their Safe Church policy.. They find they have lots of families who need help, but still found time to have a senior’s supper.
~Bethel-Edmonton has a small diaconate. Their refugee family of 8 is doing well and is almost at the end of its year of support. There is some hesitancy in applying for jobs. If anyone has any leads on entry level jobs or house, please contact Linda Hofstede. Bethel will continue to support them until they can get on their feet. One of their refugees was to support a family member and has asked the church for help. Interesting calls for help come into the church, and the deacons are thankful for helpful connections. They are delighted that some of the folks they helped with Tax Time are now coming to church, and relationships are developing.
~First-Red Deer has an outreach program, and offered babysitting services at Christmas and help with spring clean up. They have lots of young people, and have Vacation Bible School (VBS) coming up, and are specializing on soccer after VBS.
- At Sonrise, they were sad to see their pastor Harry Zantingh leave, and are now searching for a new pastor. In the interim they are being served by Maurice Boonstra who has filled in for many pastoral vacancies. They are grateful for his ministry. Their programs are running well, and they are looking forward to a 25th anniversary.
~Hope had a neat evening last month when their missionaries to China, the Ten Harmsels, were in town. They sold tickets and raised an additional $400 by auctioning off great desserts!
~New Life Fellowship has a couple of girls who were in Haiti helping at an orphanage before the earthquake hit. They were asked to gather up clothes and other items which they did. Their youth did a Mexico trip and also had a bottle drive to raise funds for YC, but were gracious to give some of their bottles to a senior’s bottle collection. A disabled person who has been coming to church moved to a group home, and has invited his fellow residents and their care workers to come to church!
~First-Edmonton is still looking for a senior pastor. They hope to celebrate their 100th anniversary this fall. They had church campout at the end of May. The deacons are helping a family adopt two kids from Africa. The church has purchased the home next door and is soliciting ministry ideas for the property.
~At Ebenezer, plans are underway for a new church building. The stewardship team is endorsing Stewardship Initiatives, and had a “stewardship circle of chairs” meeting at Ottewell on May 20th with a hope to have more of the same in the future. Ebenezer is hosting a SERVE project.
~At Trinity, they now have a senior pastor and a pastor for the seniors in place, and are making plans for youth ministry. They are fundraising for the church building renovations. They have been asked to aid with refugees. Their pastor asked an elder and deacon to come to a profession of faith class to talk about being a church member. Several members are closely involved with the Mosaic Center outreach.
~In Neerlandia, they do “cross training” - their time of youth and adult education - at 10:00 on Sundays with worship service after that. They are in the process of setting up administrative and pastoral elders. They have a refugee family from Ethiopia. They support anyone who needs counseling.
~Terrence asked for prayerful thought to let your name stand for NADC executive, or if you know anyone with a diaconal heart who might stand, please let Henry or an Executive member know.
~Fellowship has a pastoral committee that provides the leadership and mercy ministry. Since they don’t have a full time pastor or a church building, those resources can be applied elsewhere. They try to support members in what they get involved with, for example refugee involvement. They get lots of participation from lay persons, and have been having 25-30 TKUC students attending, whom they are challenged to integrate. They have “Mobile Feet Sundays” with various groups doing service projects. They received a Worship Renewal grant and published the book Words for Worship, with liturgies written by some of their members. They have several families who have chronic financial issues.

Tracking membership is an ongoing challenge for us since members rarely let us know whether they are going to another church or not. Especially with Covet situation, and services also being on-line it is impossible just to look at people and know whether they are still 'coming' or not.

When I went to the site, it was an advertisement to purchase material to reserve a spot on the assembly line. This way the CRC can find out how much interest there is in a specific product before publishing. If one is not interested in purchasing a specific product, the looker is expected to exit the site. I hope it works for them, but don't call it crowdfunding!

Crowdfunding is to me something different. In crowdfunding the internet community is asked to fund a project, in return sometimes getting an interest in it or tickets should there be sufficient $$ returned. There are many crowdfunding sites that organizations can use.  For instance if the CRC needs a new building for publishing, crowdfunding could be used to raise the capital. 

August Guillaume

My guess is that the hymnal is more a pre-order system, and the story book is true crowd sourcing. Since CRC NA has officies in US and Canada I am assuming that there could be receipts done in both countries. However, the note mentioned that the charges are in US $ with the exchange provided for with the credit card. That is a good way of doing it since the credit card produces competitive rates.  However the tax receipt would be in US $$ which is a problem for Canada's tax system which operates in Canadian $$. For the CRC, donations from Canada are usually done in Canadian $$, with receipts so indicated, and the US organizations get the US $$ from it, depending on the exchange rate. 

Crowd sourcing for the CRC should actually have two sites, one for Canada and the other for US citizens.

The Canadian site should then have prices in Canadian $$ with the risk of exchange being with the CRC, not the individual making the donation.

August Guillaume

Today I had a discussion with a volunteer from a Lutheran church close to where I live. This church and the nearest CRC church as well as a Baptist church are working at Mosaic "home" to help homeless or near homeless people. She expressed the wish to have all the Christians come to one church. A lot less overhead, making such projects a bit easier to do.

In the west end of the city a number of different churches (CRC among them) also work together to help homeless people.

Each local project may not need to have the 'same doctrine and teaching'.   Educational institutions and CLAC all have different mandates that may or may not match each church's doctrine and teaching.

Here are the typical minutes of a Diaconal Conference Board meeting. I removed / replaced most names for privacy reasons.

NORTHERN ALBERTA DIACONAL CONFERENCE

OF THE CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

Minutes of the board meeting held January 21, 2010 at Ebenezer CRC, Leduc, AB

Present: Deacon, Pastoral Advisor, West End; Deacon, First-Edmonton; CRWRC Rep, Deacon, Covenant-Edmonton; Refugee Coordinator, Fellowship; Deacon, Trinity; Deacon,NADC Admin, Ottewell; NADC Exec, Deacon Bethel-Lacombe; Deacon, NADC Exec, Ebenezer; NADC Exec, Neerlandia; DMC/NADC staff, Deacon, Inglewood; Deacon, DMC Rep, Woodynook; DMD, Wolf Creek;

Absent with notice: 3

*Denotes Action Required

1.       OPENING: Chair read from II Kings 4:9, noting that our lives are a powerful witness, then opened with prayer.

2.       AGENDA: was approved with one addition

3.       INTRODUCTIONS: Self introductions were made

4.       MINUTES: The minutes of Sept 10/09 were received as information

5.       NADC EXECUTIVE: There are two openings for members of Executive. If you are interested, or know anyone who might be, please let Henry, or any Executive member know.  Interested persons need not be serving deacons, but must have a passion for diaconal work. It is necessary to fill these positions in order to keep the NADC functioning, which is very important to the ongoing success of the various projects NADC undertakes, as well as communication and support among the deacons.

6.       TREASURER'S REPORT: DMC/NADC staff reported that the final quarter report was received from the Classical Treasurer (attached), and indicated that it contained no surprises.    

7.       CRWRC:

·         CRWRC Rep distributed a letter from Henrietta Hunse regarding relief work in Haiti. CRWRC's work will be focused in Leogane.  He noted that donations can be made for immediate relief, which will be matched by the Canadian government 1-1;  or for development work, which may be matched 2-1; or donations can be designated to where most needed. He stressed that the website is updated regularly, so for most recent information, go to www.crwrc.org.  He noted that a powerpoint presentation and bulletin insert are available from the website.

·         He noted that 2009 was not good financially for CRWRC, with aid to all countries being cut by 10-15%, and 10 staff persons were laid off, with a 20% pay cut for remaining staff. This could result in some strain on CRWRC's relations with CIDA, if confidence is eroded.

·         the AIDS awareness campaign went very well.

·         Thanks for ongoing support of CRWRC!

8.       DAY OF ENCOURAGEMENT:

·         NADC Staff reported that the Day of Encouragement went well, registrations were up a bit, the inclusion of the youth workshops was very well received, and evaluations indicated that the day was a blessing for those who attended.

·         Next DOE:  Deacon asked if we could invite each church in Alberta South, as their DOE was cancelled. The answer is yes, and this will be taken up in the planning committee, which is in the process of being formulated. This suggestion may come back to the Board for approval at the May meeting. NADC Staff reported that Ron DeVries, Youth Ministry Consultant for Classis Alberta N. would like to be involved in the planning, and it would be good to have Home Missions representation as well.

9.       DIACONAL MINISTRY DEVELOPERS:

·         DMD has been very busy with new deacon workshops, which she did at the DOE and in several  churches. She will be doing a circle of chairs soon. She just returned from a DMD gathering in Burlington.

·         NADC Staff said that the Edmonton area churches can call DMD for any training, or to invite him to your deacon meetings. He is also planning a circle of chairs meeting soon.

10.   DIACONAL MINISTRIES CANADA (DMC): DMC board and Operation Manna meetings are scheduled for the near future. DMC has also experienced some financial constraints, as income from above- ministry- share-offerings is down.  Operation Manna (OM) funding through offerings experienced a decline which resulted in a reduction of funding to the OM projects. DMC staff and the OM committee  have initiated a review of the OM program, including income streams.

11.   REFUGEE COORDINATOR REPORT:

·         REf Coor reported January 6/10 CRC news had an article on how CRCNA helps refugees. Rose Dekker made sure Bethel CRC (Edm) family and existing filings by Fellowship, West End, Maranatha and St Albert were mentioned.

·         CRWRC's web page on Refugee Settlement now contains links to other sites.

·         Deacon (West End) contacted Ref Coor. She works for Brendan Institution specializing in helping professionals with post secondary degrees seeking suitable job placement and career paths.

·         NADC Staff distributed a letter from Rose Dekker and Rebecca Walker, CRWRC Refugee staff (attached).

12.   CONSULTANT'S REPORT:

·         NADC Staff distributed his report (attached) and commented on some hi-lites:  Jose Ramon's visit; church planting conference in Calgary with Michael Frost who emphasized that God is a sending God, sent His word to create, sent his Son to save, sent the Holy Spirit to empower, and sends us to do His work.

·         DANC Staff reiterated that it is important to keep the Conference (NADC) alive, as others have folded, but if  we see benefit in having the Conference, we must work to keep it going. There are 4 areas of focus: three  Board meetings per year; Honduras Water Project; the Kenya Project ;  and the NADC office(contact point/dissemination of information/administration of other areas).

13.   STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEES: Rep asked if other churches have them, and suggested a circle of chairs meeting combined with stewardship committee members. He is interested in getting a dialog going among churches who have a stewardship committee and possibly invite guest speakers, so if your church has one, could you* please get a member of your stewardship committee to contact Norm at [email protected].

14.   KAREN REFUGEES: NADC Staff advised that he received a call from CRC member, who said there are lots of Karen refugees who would like their kids to go to the Christian school, but cannot afford the extra fees.  Maranatha CRC is working on a proposal to provide some financial assistance to these families. This should be ready to be presented at the May meeting.

15.   KENYA PROJECT: NADC staff thanked the churches for continuing to take offerings, and advised that some funds were released to a former partner on an emergency basis during the drought. They were also able to offer some assistance to a reconciliation process after tribal clashes, as well as some health assistance. The mobile clinic is busy with immunizations, clinics, etc. The Participatory Rural Assessment has gone well.

16.   HONDURAS WATER PROJECT:  bulletin announcements have gone out for our 16th water project. NADC Staff advised that costs have increased, and it would be good to have a better balance between the cost to get the team there and what is spent on the project. Project costs are what offerings are used for. If we did not support the projects, they would not happen. Deacon moved that NADC increase our financial support to $1200 per person (from $1000) to a maximum of 12 people (or $14,400). CRWRC Rep seconded the motion, and it was carried. For clarity, the purpose of the increase is not to reduce what team members have to pay in, but to increase what is contributed to project costs.

17.   SHARING & CARING:  A time  of round table sharing was enjoyed by all. Details of the concerns, joys, happenings will be published in the next Network News.

18.   CLOSING: pastoral Advisor closed the meeting with prayer.

Next Board Meeting: 7:30 on Thursday, May 6, 2010 in Ebenezer CRC, Leduc 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway.            ~Mary C. Crowley                 

 In a large church, exactly who is supposed to do the jumping in? and under what authority?

Usually those that are supposed to approve the project like to see a plan:  What are you going to do, how much will it cost, what will you say about us?  Are privacy concern been met?  May we see some of the proposed pages?

A Smaller church can go faster... once a volunteer has come forward to do it!

A few observations:

Some classis have "Diaconal Conferences where deacons get together 3 or 4 times a year to share their work and to network, discussing common areas and at times develop projects shared among many churches. Training for new deacons is also an ongoing task.

At the same time, deaconal concerns are rarely dealt with at classis/synod with many deacons present. Discussions can easily go off track. 

In order to balance discussions and deliberations, many people are trying to figure out how to increase deaconal representation at Classis and Synod without increasing delegate count by 33% which would make decision making even more cumbersome and frustrating.

If deacons feel isolated, unappreciated and untrained, perhaps the first attempt to correct this is to establish a local Diaconal Conference.