Leadership Board

The next regular meeting of the Leadership Board will be November 11 @ 6:30-8 pm in Room 207.  Meetings are open to the public.  

Final town hall for 2025, originally set for Oct. 26 has been postponed.

 When it is rescheduled, the town hall will focus on how lifelong faith formation will be woven into the life of Chelsea First United Methodist Church. “We intend to make this session even more interactive by asking key questions about how each one of us can help infuse faith formation into everything we do as a church,” says Mike Vanderspool, chair of the church’s 11-member Leadership Board. The Leadership Board will review the calendar and select a new date for the town hall. When the decision has been made, the new date will be shared on the website and in the Pathfinder.

During the October 14 monthly meeting of the Leadership Board, Kasie Cousino led a discussion on the Wesleyan quadrilateral and its effect on discipleship and apostleship during the faith formation section of the meeting. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral describes John Wesley’s approach to theology and decision-making in Christian life.

The model highlights four key sources that guide theological reflection and Christian decision-making: integration of scripture, the role of tradition, the use of reason and the importance of experience.

Heather Hay led a discussion on the social principles of the United Methodist church during the meeting’s leadership development time. The early church first adopted a “social creed” in 1908. The latest revision of the social principles was adopted in 2024 and went into effect Jan. 1, 2025.

The social principles, while not church law or policy, are a strong statement of core beliefs and aspirations that ground the church’s ethical stands on social issues. The social principles cover a wide range of topics included in these broad areas: Community of all creation; the economic community; the social community; the political community.

Among other items addressed during the June Leadership Board meeting:

• Senior Pastor Joy Barrett shared that while the influx of new people attending worship has slowed a bit in October, invitations have been sent to 35 people to join a Nov. 8 “get acquainted with Chelsea First” session at the church. It runs 9:30 a.m.-noon. Joy also noted that each Sunday there re 30-50 people attending worship services online. In the future Joy also will bring data related to church attendance to better track trends throughout the year.
• Joy reviewed the nearly completed goals for 2025. Those include standing up a new hospitality and connections team; fully implementing the simplified accountable structure of church governance; and hiring the church’s director of lifelong faith formation as the launch of that churchwide effort. All have been implemented, although work will continue on these goals into the coming year.
• Joy and Mike also outlined the goals for 2026 that continue to be refined. Those include more fully implementing a culture of hospitality throughout the work of the church; continue to develop lifelong faith formation pathways, equipping people to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ; understanding our congregation and community demographics, gifts and interests to better serve the congregation. Refining the goals through connecting with the working groups of the congregation will continue into the first part of the new year.
• Monthly consent agenda items were approved unanimously. These items include the minutes of the September meeting and the August consolidated financial report. There was one guest at the meeting.

January 14 – Leadership Board meeting minutes

February 11 – Leadership Board meeting minutes

March 11 – Leadership Board meeting minutes

April 8 – Leadership Board meeting minutes

May Leadership Board meeting minutes

June 10 – Leadership Board meeting minutes

July 8 – Leadership Board meeting minutes

September 9 – Leadership Board meeting minutes