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River Glen Session

A Word From Your Session -July 28,2023

Here are the top five highlights from our Session meeting this week. Feel free to contact members of Session with your questions during this transition time toward a new pastor.


Leadership Council Meeting: We are restarting a quarterly meeting to improve communication between our ministries, support teams, staff, and Session. Formerly known as ALTA (All Leadership Team Assembly) meetings, we would like to gather each moderator, chair, team leader (or a designated representative), staff member, and current elder on Tuesday, August 15 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm in the lower level. We feel it’s important that we gather again to understand each group’s plans for the upcoming season. We promise to make these productive and quick. Each group will have just 2-3 minutes to present their plans for the upcoming season. We will also have an open question time at the end of the meeting. Please plan to attend (or get another representative) if you lead a team.


Transitional brainstorming meeting with COM: Session had a special meeting on Tuesday, July 18 with our COM (Commission on Ministry) representative, Sandy Zelles from Chicago Presbytery. Sandy led us through some reflection questions about our strengths, accomplishments, and challenges as a Session, as a congregation, and about our community to help us prepare for the Transitional Pastor phase. A deeper dive into these issues is expected to be part of the work of the Transitional Pastor once they are hired. Last week’s eNews included the latest from our Transitional Pastor Search team.


Financial Update: While year-to-date (through June) contributions exceed our 2023 plan, giving in both General Fund and Building Fund lags behind last year’s giving. We are managing expenses well but Personnel vacancies (mainly Children’s Ministry Director) are offset by higher Building & Grounds expenses. Pastor vacation payout and dissolution expenses are being offset by Pulpit Supply Pastors for now. We encourage everyone to stay current with the timing and amounts of pledges to help us through this year.


Front Porch Church: This new gathering community for people of all abilities will again use our space for worship several times this fall. The Serving Outside Our Doors and Unity in Diversity teams support this initiative to help people of all abilities learn about and worship God.


New Women’s Ministry Group: An email and survey went out to all women members and friends of the congregation about forming a new affinity group at River Glen. A lunch was held last week to discuss the results and plans to move forward. Watch for more in upcoming editions of eNews.


2023 Session: Tom Barto, Bob Carr, Brian Gilbert, Rich Gorecki, Paula Hebert, Bill King, Christy Palangattil, Kalina Waszak.

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