What a diligent group of young volunteers from Rutgers University, guided by Pastor Hartmut, Gary & Lauren Bernhofer, and Rod Gray, came out Saturday afternoon to work around our church. Gravestones received mulch around them to keep down the grass, various places received a coat of paint, the curtain sheers were hung throughout the church house, the sanctuary was restored to order in preparation for RALLY DAY! Phew! I’m getting tired just writing it all down. Thank you! Thank you all for time and efforts.

And what a fun and spirited RALLY DAY we had. There was a flea, a lion, a magician, a king and a ring master with the flea. Such small sparse props were used still the message of joyful hope made room in our hearts because we allowed it to have some space there. Let’s carry that hope with us through all that we are doing as a church.

Here’s what’s happening this week at FRC:

Monday, Sept 19
Staff Mtg. 10:30 am
Ad-hoc TCCDC Comm. mtg 2:30 pm

Tuesday, Sept 20
House of Manna 4 -7 pm
Consistory 7:30 pm

Wednesday, Sept 21
Lunchtime Recital 12:15 noon
Choir Rehearsal 7:30 pm

Thursday, Sept 22
House of Manna 4 – 7 pm

Sunday, September 25
Choir Rehearsal 9:00 am
Breakfast & Banter 9:30 am
Bell Rehearsal 9:50 am
Worship 10:30 am
Friendship Luncheon w/ our friends at the Interfaith Dialogue Center 11:45 AM

Upcoming Events:

October 1st – Spaghetti Dinner & Game Night $20/ family & $8/Person
Games, Apples, and lots of laughs!

Blessings and peace be with you,

Pastor Susan

Please keep them, as well as the rest of our guiding board members, in your prayers because these are the folks that will make the decisions for our ministry in the future. This is not always an easy task.

While the congregation was gathered, Pastor Susan took the opportunity to provide an update on the progress of the Community Development Corporation. It was reported that the architects are in the process of being chosen. Additionally, the congregation should anticipate a questionnaire to be distributed in the near future to collect opinions regarding the redesign of our worship space. John Coakley has arranged for a NBTS Board Member and reformed architectural expert, David Cooper, to discuss the reconfiguration of the space with Pastor Susan.

The difficulty of the budget discussion was offset by the joy of surprising the pastors by celebrating the 10 anniversary of their time at FRC. A wonderful luncheon that was provided by many hands, David Waanders gave a tribute to the pastors, the tribute was joined by many other voices, lastly several lovely gifts from the congregation were presented.

We started with the background information and the decision for the replacement of the windows in the (Education building) tower. Currently the windows are quite loose and paint is coming off daily. It has become a safety issue that has to be addressed soon. We will replace the four windows that are visible from the street and will board up the four windows facing the roof.

The men’s shelter will be housed in the Fellowship Hall since upstairs is no longer available for them.

David Waanders and Margaret Coakley were assigned as our representatives in the Classis.

We add our support to the proposal of Hope Church (Holland MI) for a procedural change in selecting the next General Secretary of the RCA by the Search Committee.

Next, we spent time on the Revitalization Templates of the committees.

Afterwards, we went into our regular reports by the standing committees. The reports were read and highlighted where necessary. The Finance Committee brought forward three recommendations:

a. $15,000 to be withdrawn from the endowment fund to cover anticipated operational
expenses.
b. To pay the MPG invoice for October (about $100,000) as follows:
$40,000 from the Construction loan (line of credit), $13,000 withdrawal from endowment,
$47,000 either from the expected reimbursement from the NJHT or (if the money is not
received in time) an additional withdrawal from the endowment.
c. To accept the treasurer’s report and the balance sheet.

All recommendations passed.

The chart about the fund-raising was included. To our surprise on Wednesday, we received a grant of $15,000 that pushed us above the $300,000 in donations mark. We had been hovering there for last fewmonths. (Editor’s note: Praise God!)

After all this, we turned to Pastor Susan and allowed her to explain a bit more about the progress of the Town Clock Community Development Corporation, which is the name of our 501(c)3.

We received three proposals from three architectural firms regarding their expertise in re-design and working with various state agencies. (See Susan’s report in the newsletter.)

(Clerk’s note: Hopefully, you were able to attend the congregational meeting (Oct 31st), where further details will be provided.)

As building usage manager, Susan received a request for using the space to teach Latin dancing. Consistory allowed her to continue the negotiations. (Clerk’s comments: Shall we see some dancing now at our next Chili cook off?)

And miraculously, we were able to go through the 4 mm thick Consistory package in 2.5 hours, thus we were about to disband shortly after ten. (Editor’s comment: This simply shows how active a congregation we are! Amen.)

• Discussed and decided to change the Invitation to the Lord’s Supper in order to make the sacrament truly welcoming especially to guests, and the Baptism Liturgy for Children of Pre-Confirmation Age which respects the awareness of these children regarding the sacrament.
• Discussed the preliminary feasibility study presented by our architect James Kruhly and the Building Vision Group. We voted to approve the vertical separation of the sanctuary with the proposed affordable housing units. This will be brought to the congregation in a special meeting with Mr. Kruhly sometime in the near future.
• Discussed the possibility of accepting a student minister for the Fall.

Among the many committee reports Consistory received that night was also a report from the Finance Committee. It delineated the design of our first Annual Pledge Campaign. Consistory reviewed the written material that will be sent to our active members, as well as the timetable of the campaign. Then it passed the campaign by vote. The Finance Committee emphasized that the campaign was not intended to provide a special measure for dealing with the annual budget deficit. Instead, the Committee hopes that the campaign will serve all our members as an educational tool on congregational giving. In addition, the Committee hopes that the campaign results will provide the church with more predictability as far as its projected income is concerned.

However, Consistory did not just talk about money that night. There was also a report on the coordination of some of our preservation efforts with neighboring Christ Episcopal Church. The combined Coordination Committee has just met for a second time.

Then there was the news of a special Baptism on Sunday, Feb 21st. This is a result of the current new member class and fits well with the baptism-centered liturgy we will employ during Lent.

We began and closed the evening with prayer. In gratitude, we lifted up to God the signs of growing life in our church: The new member class, the successful completion of our men’s shelter week, and the recent increase in our fund-raising for the preservation project. We also brought our concerns before God: The situation in Haiti, the struggles of some of our churches without installed pastor in the Classis of New Brunswick, and the situation of the Western troops in the Middle East. It was a meaningful evening.

Consistory will meet in a special session on Saturday, Jan 23rd, in order to find ways to decrease or eliminate our annual budget deficit. Due to the newsletter deadline, we will have to report on this at another time.