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Minutes of
THE PRESBYTERY OF SCIOTO VALLEY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTH STATED MEETING 
Circleville Presbyterian Church134 East Mound StreetCircleville, OhioApril 21, 2009
T
HE
P
RESBYTERY
G
ATHERS AS THE
P
EOPLE OF
G
OD
 
STATED MEETING
The Presbytery of Scioto Valley of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) held its TwoHundred Eighth Stated Meeting at the Circleville Presbyterian Church, Circleville, Ohio,on Tuesday, April 21, 2009, at 2:00 p.m.Moderator Rev. David Downton convened the meeting with prayer at 2:00 p.m.
WELCOME AND ARRANGEMENTS
Host pastor, Steve Moulton, welcomed presbyters and detailed arrangements for themeeting.
NEW MEMBERS/CORRESPONDING MEMBERS
Elders attending presbytery for the first time as commissioners were introduced andwelcomed. Cynthia Burse, new pastor at Bethany Church, was introduced. Presbytersand guests joined in passing Christ’s peace.
FORMATION OF THE ROLL
The presence of a quorum was recognized by the Stated Clerk, Richard Hays. Hemoved that the roll be as established by the written sign-in sheets. Motion carried.
AGENDA APPROVED
The Stated Clerk moved the adoption of the agenda as distributed.The Stated Clerk moved the consent agenda:
1. PRESBYTERY MINUTES.
Approve the minutes of the February 17, 2009 StatedMeeting held at Broad Street Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio.
2. COUNCIL MINUTES.
Receive the minutes of the Presbytery Council meetingsheld February 23, 2009, and March 23, 2009, at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church,Columbus, as a record of all that occurred in those meetings and attach them to theminutes of the Presbytery. (Attachments 1 and 2).
3. APOINTMENT OF ENROLMENT CLERK.
Appoint Dagmar Romage as
 
 
Enrolment Clerk for today’s meeting.The motion to adopt the consent agenda was approved.
FOR INFORMATION:
 From the Committee on Preparation for Ministry:
In March the CPM Committee received Amanda and Brian Beverly as Inquirers.Brian and Amanda are members of the Fredericktow
 
n Presbyterian Church. Theyare in the process of being enrolled in Dubuque Seminary’s 3/3 program. Theprogram involves two components: a) three years of undergraduate study whichmust include at least 30 credits in the University of Dubuque college program,and b) three years of graduate course work at the University of DubuqueTheological Seminary.
THE PRESBYTERY RELFECTS ON ITS MISSION AS GOD’S PEOPLE
Vice-Moderator Ralph LeVan introduced the process for presbyters.The Council of the Presbytery of Scioto Valley has covenanted to a “new openness tothe presence of God in the Church.” In our work we constantly strive to “lift high thePresbytery as one portion of the Body of Christ” as we are all called to be a provisionaldemonstration of the “transforming activity of God in history.”In 2007 we challenged the presbytery to a discernment process to help us determinewhere God is calling us to ministry. We conducted several listening gatheringsthroughout the Presbytery where we asked a series of questions to help identify whatindividual congregations desired from the Presbytery and to identify our common needsin serving out our call.One hundred and seventy-eight people representing seventy-one of the 114congregations that make up the fabric of the Presbytery of Scioto Valley shared theirthoughts, ideas, and passions at these listening sessions. The council then took all ofthe various responses gathered, examined them through the lens of our missionstatement, and distilled them down to three priorities for our efforts over the past twoyears. These priorities were: Mission, Equipping Leadership, and Transformation. Wethen took each priority and linked specific actions to them.In the area of Mission, we celebrate today the Fall 2008 Mission Trip to Gulfport that isto be followed up by another trip this fall. We held a rescheduled Mission Fair thatallowed our congregations to share the good news of their own mission efforts with theirbrothers and sisters in Christ in the presbytery. We continued, when possible, to fundsession endorsed mission grants, and we are developing an ever-expanding onlinenetwork of mission contacts within each local congregation. One goal that we did notachieve as of yet was a series of regional mission workdays to put both our hands andour hearts in motion to service others. This event is now being planned for July 25,
 
 
2009. You will be hearing details about this event later in today’s meeting. We seek toenable joint mission efforts which otherwise would not be possible if led by an individualcongregation.Equipping leadership remains a high priority for the staff and leadership of thepresbytery. The regular PIE events, recently highly successful SpringFest conference,and the upcoming Church Professionals retreat all strive to provide practical continuingeducation for clergy and lay alike. These programmatic efforts are one aspect ofleadership development and we do this well. Where we still hope to grow is indeveloping stronger interpersonal connections between and among our members. Theregional breakfast meetings led by Dana and Jeannie are one effort in this direction. Inthe near future we hope to formalize links between small and large congregations aswell as develop specific training modules in the areas of evangelism, stewardship, andcongregational redevelopment.The most challenging area of our three priorities undoubtedly is Transformation. Wehave led two sets of book studies and hosted two authors to share their insights with us.The first was on Martha Grace Reese’s Unbinding the Gospel and the second DianaButler Bass’ Christianity for the Rest of Us. While both of these book conversationshave given us much to think about, neither offers a clear blueprint to describe the futureof the Presbytery of Scioto Valley. Part of what we hope to do today is to further ourown understanding of where we collectively see God calling the Presbytery of SciotoValley for the future.As a result of the current financial realities in which we find ourselves, the council iscurrently re-examining our various cost centers and fiscal resources including thepresbytery office, mission support efforts, our land assets and our staffing. Theseconversations are being done in partnership with the Trustees and the Staff Servicescommittee. The council has affirmed that our staff is our most critical resource and ourstaffing level is the bare minimum needed to live out our mission statement. We will stillneed to push each other and everyone to value their obligations to our connectionalchurch, but at the same time we need to be even more careful in managing thestewardship of our resources.Today we will be dividing into conversation groups for about the next 30 minutes. Duringthis time of sharing, please be intentional about joining a table that includes some folksthat you may not know as well as others. A member of council will serve as the tablehost and will lead you through these three questions developed out of our missionstatement.That statement reads:As Members of the larger Body of Christ and the Presbytery of Scioto Valley, God callsus to live out the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. We do this by buildingpartnerships, communicating with, and supporting congregations and leaders, andreaching out into the world with the love of Christ.
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