BoardTalk

Mon Feb 20, 2012

 Devotional and Prayer: We continued our discussion of the book “Leaders Who Last”, looking at “The Leader’s Gifts” and “The Leader’s Character”, two components of leaders that are of paramount importance.

Time was spent in prayer, remembering various concerns and struggles of the congregation.

AGM Follow-up:  We reviewed the AGM from earlier this month.  This was our financial AGM where the 2011 financial reports were submitted and the 2012 budget was presented.  There is a degree of confidence that the 2012 budget is a reasonable and realistic one that will see the end of a number of years of financial shortfalls.

 Towards a Building Future:  It has been communicated a number of times that this is the major issue that the directors, and the church, will need to wrestle with this year.  “What shall we do about a facility that is increasingly problematic and showing its age?”

Our discussion initially focused on a number of values that will guide our planning and decision-making.  These values are:

• We do not want to go into debt.
• We want to be in a facility that is part of the surrounding community.
• We want to own our land and building (i.e. not to be tenants).
• We want to protect the pre-school.
• We want to enhance multi-use capacity for the ministries of the church.
• We do not want to be displaced for any period. I.e. IF we were to move to a new facility, we want the facility to be finished before moving out of the current facility.

 Also through discussions with real-estate agents and developers, we have obtained an approximate evaluation of our current situation.  It has been suggested that we could get as much as $6 million for our current property.  We have also been told that ours is the “most desirable property in Langley” and indeed it is true that we continue to have developers “knocking on our door” frequently.  We will continue to talk to agents/developers to learn more of the possible options.

 There was time provided at the AGM for questions/comments from the congregation regarding this process, but none were forthcoming.  The board feels the need to hear from the church family (Your input is invaluable) and to that end, we hope to come to the church in the near future, with a proposal or options in order.

 Other issues:  While there was no time at the Feb 20 meeting to discuss this issue, nevertheless another big issue that we hope to address this year is to align our “financial year” (currently the calendar year) with the “ministry year”(currently begins in Sept.).