Heard it at Council: June 2025
By Kate Silfen, Church Historian | June 10, 2025 Council Meeting Report
The Reverend Ashley Popperson opened Council’s busy June 10th meeting with a reading of “A New National Anthem” written by poet Ada Limon. Treasurer Donna Matson offered good news about Old South’s financial status. She was glad to note that we have completed our 2024 audit. Our net income this month is quite substantial because many members paid their full pledges early, but it is important to note that our expenses will go throughout the year, and thus start to edge this down. She thanked the Stewardship Committee members, who have completed their outreach to pledging members of Old South. As a result of their efforts, our total number of pledges has increased this year.
Council members spent part of the meeting debriefing about a leadership retreat that was held on the afternoon of May 18th. The purpose of the retreat was to follow up on an earlier retreat that the three bodies took part in last August. At the August retreat, the Reverend John Edgerton named three “pillars” for us to focus on: community building, growth, and social justice. Soon after that, a small task force was formed to think about how our church governing bodies and committees could support this vision, and whether it was time to rethink our structure and bylaws. The Task Force members recognize that Old South has a large, complicated leadership structure, and are seeking ways to make this church's running more fun and spirit-filled. Towards that end, the May retreat attendees broke into four small groups to discuss possible next steps for bringing our vision to fruition – one on worship and evangelism, one on social justice, one on deepening community, and one on facilities and operations.
Council members noted some key themes that emerged during the small group discussions at the May retreat. Members wanted a clearer picture of how the church runs and the roles of the various committees and governing bodies. The group talking about finance and operations identified several opportunities for different committees to work together to simplify financial decision making and ensure that we are caring for our beautiful building. The group focused on deepening the community and discussed ways of working together to expand our small groups program for the coming year. The group focused on social justice contemplated opportunities to get more people involved in hands-on service and advocacy work linked to faith-based reflection. The group focused on worship and evangelism discussed opportunities to broaden member participation in worship services.
Moving on to other business, Pam Roberts provided an update on the Associate Minister Search Committee that was formed last year. The search was put on hold in the fall, and since then, several members have asked to step down from the committee. Pam recommended that the search committee disband for now. Council accepted this recommendation, and more discussions about next steps for calling a settled associate pastor will be discussed in the coming months. The charge to the Associate Minister Search Committee included a focus on efforts to recruit a diverse pool of candidates with the potential aim of diversifying our pastoral leadership team. The Council spent some time in the June meeting thinking about other steps we might take to advance our commitment to being an antiracist church and becoming a more multicultural faith community.