January 2022
Council Corner
The council continued moving forward with the call process at its most recent meeting. We have reached out to Deacon Brenda Tibbetts from the Northeast Minnesota Synod for guidance in this journey. She has communicated with us the necessary steps that Babbitt Evangelical Lutheran Church (BELC) and Hope Lutheran Church (HLC) have to take to help us get a new pastor in place within the foreseeable future.
Deacon Tibbetts hopes to meet with both churches sometime in January. However, before we can do this, both churches need to have a Call Committee in place. Membership on this body numbers six with each church providing three members apiece. This cannot include existing council members from either church. While BELC has already named and approved three people to its committee, HLC is still waiting to approve its slate of members. The council hopes to have our group officially in place no later than the beginning of January 2022.
In other news, the council changed the way we pay the people who plow our snow. We approved a plan to pay them a stipend of $100 apiece for the entire winter instead of paying them each time they plow. We felt this would be a better way to compensate our plowers. Most of them choose to volunteer their time and do not submit any type of bill for plowing. Council felt that a stipend would be an appropriate way to say “thank you” to each person.
Our next council meeting will be on January 19, 2022. This will serve as our budget planning meeting. At this time, members will put together a proposed budget for the 2022 fiscal year that will be considered and hopefully approved at the annual meeting in February. Please feel to reach out to a council member by this date if you have any questions or concerns that you would like to see addressed during this process.
As our year draws to a close, I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year on behalf of the HLC church council. It has been an honor to serve as your representatives during this time. We hope that you have a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that God grants you abundant strength, faith, and wisdom as you move into 2022.
May God grant you peace until we meet again next month…….
In God’s Name,
Lance Kupka
Council President
Hope Lutheran Church of Embarrass