Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Check In: Five Members present.

Prayer: led by GG

Approval of Minutes: approved

Treasurer’s report: Approved. nothing out of the ordinary. He will try to have the year end appeal letter to the coordinator by the end of the week.

            Coordinator’s report: He has been working a lot with the new ministry to laity and has an intern to help develop it. Several names for the group are under consideration: Lutherans Alive Again(LAA) and Fellowship of Recovering (FRL). It would be similar to FRLC only for Lutheran laity in recovery: newsletter, website, Lutheran resources for recovery, retreats, possible weekly meeting. At 200 members, the FRLC is about the size we would expect, based on recovery statistics that 10% of any group need recovery and 10% get it. The lay group has a much greater base. The coordinator met with a former member who came to the present church who wants to help finance it!

John McDougall, former Hazelden spiritual director (discussion of change in Hazelden philosophy), will be doing a 9 month lecture series at Transfiguration Lutheran  church on new book on “Be Sober, Be Happy”. Conference churches are on board as co-sponsors. Each church is being invited into process of being the first members of LAA/FRL and participate in shaping the worship service they are developing. Most recovery worship seems to be a Christian worship service that talks about recovery. The working title is “Conscious Contact”. It would be a spiritual experience for recovering people that could be replicated at any church w/o professional leadership (pastor or musician)—a 12 step meeting w time for meditation and prayer. It will have its own preamble/reading at the beginning with a disclaimer on Lutheranism about “you don’t have to believe like we do”. He would like some kind of  music which is generic enough to be accessible. They are looking at Native American drum circle for those who want to drum and prayer and meditation for those who don’t. There would be open sharing on a topic and would end with the Lord’s Prayer. More of a 11^th step meeting than traditional worship. ET is more interested in getting church people into recovery than getting recovering people into church. It would respect variety of spiritualities. He is looking for input. People seen to either like or dislike drum circles, and participants affirmed ET’s experience of recovery worship. He will keep us posted.

Old Business:

            E-newsletter and quarterly newsletter: BV will try to get content to the coordinator soon, and we trust he to figure out how to work it with the treasurer’s letter or separate from it.

Noon recovery meeting: GG shared about the interruption to the meeting a couple weeks ago. MMD called in on Thanksgiving Day and was the only one on the call. Other than that, it is going well.

            LCMS relations GG updated us on his thoughts. He has seen recovery materials produced by the church publishing house and articles in church periodicals that are positive about 12 step programs. Since it is a program of attraction, perhaps we can put an occasional article in church publications and encourage people who are active in the Fellowship to be in touch with their District people.

            2015 Cruise plans: Nothing new to report.

New Business: none.

Next meeting: January 7, 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm