By Vickie Denning, Communications Director
“Resilient.” That’s the word Carol Paulsen, TVLC President, used to describe our congregation at the Annual Meeting held last Sunday and attended both in person and via Zoom by about 90 members.
The Annual Meeting is a business meeting, but it’s so much more. It’s a chance for us to look at the past year and choose our future path.
Our past year was summarized by Carol in her opening remarks to the congregation: “Your spirit of generosity has allowed us to continue to minister to our congregation, our community and the world.” That ministry included a pivot to online worship, Zoom meetings for groups, and ministries that transform lives.
Our ministry was supported by income that exceeded our budget according to our church treasurer, Ed Hudson. While expenses were also over budget, largely due to expenses incurred in the remodel of the youth room, the church ended the year with a surplus.
Ed also presented our hopes for the next year in the proposed budget. While the overall budget total is less than last year, it reflects our values including increased benevolence and raises for our pastors and staff. The bottom line reflects an unbalanced budget with a shortage of about $28,000, but the atypical stewardship campaign due to COVID and the previous year’s surplus made the finance committee and council comfortable with the proposed deficit.
The church also moved into the future by re-electing Carol Paulsen to her second two-year term and electing Linda McDaniel and Johnice Mitchell to their first two-year terms on the Council. Annette Banchy, Ed Hudson, Marge Johnson, Art Slatin, Dave Swanson, Gayle Tonon, and Pat Williams make up the other council members. These dedicated leaders will continue to navigate our path forward.
The final action of the congregation was to approve changes to the church constitution. While most of the changes are housekeeping rules, one was an update to recognize the ability to officially communicate with members electronically. Other changes had to do with procedures should a church and the synod part ways.
As Carol said, “resilient.” As a congregation we can now add global pandemic to our list of challenges faithfully faced. TVLC made an impact and continues to do so.
As our mission statement proclaims, “We follow Christ Jesus and share his love.”
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