March 20, 2025 | Deacon Meeting Minutes

Board of Deacons                                              March 20, 2025                                                                       6:30 pm

Attendance: John Genskow, Adam Urberg, Erika Zank, Aaron Libner, Bruce Winkler, Gail Graese, Mark Oldenberg, Del Polzin, Chuck Falch, Denny Denk.

Absent:  James Martin

Pastors: Mark Schulz, Ethan Luhman, David Forke

Guests: Anna Reineke, Tonya Ida

Board Secretary: Sue Gumz 

The meeting opened at 6:30 pm

Mark Oldenberg led Devotions and gave the opening prayer.

Consent Agenda

Pastoral Report – Del Polzin made a motion to approve the Pastoral Report. Bruce Winkler seconded. Motion carried.

Jan. 16 minutes – Bruce Winkler added a part that should be added to the January minutes.  We need to keep the minutes brief. A motion was made by Chuck Falch to approve the January minutes to include Bruce’s explanation. Erika Zank seconded.  Motion carried.

Financial report

We are ahead of last year’s giving but less than our projected budget for this fiscal year.  Aaron Libner made a motion to approve the financial report. Adam Urberg seconded.  Motion carried.

Budget process:

End of March/early April the Finance Team (Gail Graese, Luke Kempen, John Genskow), pastors, and Tonya Ida will meet.

Staff will submit information to bring back to deacons. After deacon approval, the proposed budget will go to the congregation for final approval at the congregational meeting on June 23, 2025.

Action Items

Security Stuff – James Martin and Pastor Mark have nothing to report

Missions – Pastor Ethan commented that we will continue to put up slides on each group we support. There will be 21 different missions will be present on March 30 for the Go Action Event (Fierce Freedom, Feed My People, Collective Choir, etc.)

Follow-Up Items

·       Leadership book study: The study will have one meeting a month with two opportunities to connect to it. It could be virtual, looking at noon Tuesday and Thursday evening. LEAD is the name of the book.

·       Quarterly staff lunches will be on the first Monday of the month. Any deacon planning to attend should let Sue know of their plans and for which meeting they plan to attend ( April or May).

·       Family & Medical Leave Policy (Personnel committee).  This is policy 4.4 under the employee handbook.  This policy is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025.  Aaron Libner made a motion to accept this policy retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025.  Denny Denk seconded.  Motion carried. 

New Items

·       Lay Leader Training Event at St. Matthew (Denny Denk).  The Heart of Leadership by Mark Miller book was given out to attendees. Peace already has a lot of the things in place that they were talking about: leadership and policies, handbooks, commitment, unity, communication, doing God’s will = success.  No surprises, celebrate victories (talk about the positives). 

Peace Policy Manual and Peace Bylaws Update:

Changed leadership names in the manual and made the leadership teams generic. Creator lines were removed. Gail Graese made a motion to accept the updates in the policy manual. Aaron Libner seconded. Motion carried.

Peace Constitution & Bylaws: grammatical changes were the primary update. Copies can be found in the office. The official copy is on one drive. Chuck Falch made a motion to approve the changes Bruce Winkler had explained. Denny Denk seconded. Motion carried.

A special meeting is needed to approve the changes in the by-laws and constitution. The date is set for Sunday, May 18, at 11:30 am. Consensus was given by the board for the date. Thank you to Bruce Winkler and the committee (Bob Solberg, Bill Westerlund, Jerry Geske).

Special Congregational Meeting - Aaron Libner made a motion for the first meeting to look over the changes of the constitution and the by-laws (constitution mandated) to be held on Sunday, May 18, at 11:30 am. Ericka Zank seconded. Motion carried. The notice needs to go out 14 days prior to the May 18 meeting.

Aaron Libner made a motion to have our annual congregational meeting on Sunday, June 23, 2025, at 6:30 pm. Chuck Falch seconded. Motion carried.

Deacon Terms

Chuck Falch and Del Polzin both intend to run again after completing their 1-year term in June. This next term will be a 3-year commitment. A nominating committee will be formed and notified of Chuck’s and Del’s intentions.

Training: Pastor Mark Schulz

Ministry overview and Peace’s mission and vision (guidebook). This is available on our website. The newest part of the vision is Navigating True North (which we have one more year).  Navigating True North came about post-COVID and post-split. Mark’s suggestion is to celebrate the teams that hired our newest staff members.  Need to celebrate also the ministries and events that came out of Peace.

Staff Presentation – Anna Reineke, Dir. of Youth Ministries

Started in January 2025. The big event of Youth Retreat this winter at Camp Luther. Has enjoyed moving into a community.  The staff is very happy to have Anna on staff.

Additional comments for the board – none.

Aaron Libner closed the meeting with a prayer.

Bruce made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Chuck seconded. Motion carried.  The meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.

Upcoming Dates:

Next meeting May 15 – budget

June – meet to approve budget and plan meeting

June 23 – annual meeting