Southwestern
Texas Synod
Lutheran Men in Mission
December 9, 2006
The meeting was called to order by Karl
Vermace, President at 10:00 A.M. at Faith
Lutheran Church,
Seguin, TX.
Members Present: Karl Vermace,
Pastor Charles Eckert, Al Sunday, Leroy DeHaven, Charlie
Schwartz, Don Gerhart and Dennis Hickey.
Guest Present: Pastor Tim Bauerkemper, Faith Lutheran
Church
Opening Prayer and
Devotion: Pastor Eckert led the
devotion and opening prayer.
Minutes: The minutes of the October 14, 2006 meeting
were reviewed and approved as written.
Treasures Report: Leroy DeHaven presented the Treasures Report
and it was approved.
Business Reports:
- Synod
Liaison: No report due to the
absence of the member.
- Pastoral
Advisor: Volunteered to help in any
way he could.
- Financial
Committee: Leroy presented the
budget proposal for 2007 for review.
It was approved and a recommendation was made to send out mailings
to individuals asking for gifts for the LMM so that we might make the
required amount of funds needed to operate. Pastor Eckert agreed to do the mail out
of the letter.
- 2007
Assembly Update: Pastor Tim briefed
the council that the Guest Speaker would be Pastor Sean Forde, Young Men’s
Ministry Specialist addressing the assembly, and then there will be workshops
on Servant Leadership, Men’s Rite of Passage, Swinging Swings for Seniors
Project, Health and Wellness Screenings and Ways to Get the Green
Stuff. A few changes were
recommended and approved to ensure there was ample time for the business
meeting. Otherwise everything looks
great and it looks to be a good assembly.
- Century
Club Report: It was mentioned that
there will need to be a treasurer and secretary appointed to these
positions. Frank
Pennington was nominated and has accepted one of the
positions.
- Conference
Reports:
- Austin
Conference: No representative
- Coastal
Bend: Leroy DeHaven briefed that they have
built 6 swings and have funding to build 11 more. The conference is holding a quarterly
breakfast.
- Hill
Country: Striving for young men involvement,
the Hill Country 100 Men Club agreed to give a $700.00 gift to the Synod
LMM. The Conference also agreed to
gift $ 500 to building of swings so if a congregation would like to build
a swing and they don’t have the funds they can contact Charlie Schwartz and ask for the money to
build a swing.
- San Antonio: Dennis Hickey and Don Gerhart will be
going to Immanuel in La Vernia to present a plaque to the en in the
congregation welcoming them to our group.
Elm Creek needs to get organized and a group started there. The Beitel LMM has agreed to host a
quarterly breakfast which will start after the annual assembly.
- Rio Grande: Representative not present.
- Victoria: No representative.
- Swing
Project: It was briefed that 47
swings have been built and delivered to at least 12 different
communities. It was mentioned that
Thrivent will provide funds for the project. To ask for help from the Hill Country
Conference contact Charlie Schwartz
or to get help from Thrivent contact your Congregational Coordinator and
have them submit a Care Abounds in Communities Request. Also it was decided that the recognition
for the group that brings the most swings to the assembly would be a
$50.00 Honorarium to Crosstrails Ministry in the group’s name.
- Bible
distribution report: Some groups
still have not turned in the paperwork required for the distribution of
Bibles received for new or reforming LMM groups from the Chicago office. Please take care of this ASAP.
- Tri-Synodical
Responses: It was agreed that we
could post information for them and ask for reciprocation from them.
The meeting closed at 12:00 with the membership reciting the
Lord’s Prayer.
Dennis J. Hickey
Secretary
Southwestern Texas Synod Lutheran Men in Mission