The workgroup met at Unity CC with 21 persons present. Rev. Dr. Gary Edens opened with prayer and a devotion on Matt. 25:31-46 about the separating of the sheep from the goats. Gary noted that the subject in this parable was judgment with the emphasis on serving the “least of these.” Gary shared a personal story from his family with the point of the story being that by living faithfully, even in the face of dire circumstances, it is best to live in such a way as to finish with no regrets. For us, the point is that we should not leave things undone that we should do. Let us be faithful in all things.

The minutes were read by Rev. Lynn Maxwell and approved by the group without changes.

Everyone agreed that Nov. 7^th would be an acceptable date for our next gathering at Richlands. Lyn Stowe noted that we should include the youth in the services, but not necessarily have a youth only service. Lyn liked the format we had last April with the 902 Praise band. Lyn noted that he witnessed both young and old tapping their feet. We will follow the same basic format for our next gathering and possibly change the format in the one to follow.

Rev. Kim Holley will contact the 902 church and coordinate with them on planning for the youth.

Gary asked the group who they would like to speak at the upcoming gathering, and there was a motion from Judy Greer and second from Danny Bailey to invite Michael Ten Eyck again if he was available. The workgroup agreed with the motion. Gary will invite him and if he is not available he will seek recommendations from DHF.

Gary asked for volunteers from the churches to help plan the upcoming gathering. Betty & Lyn Stowe from Unity CC volunteered – Judy Greer & Joan Harrell from Pleasant Hill CC – Danny Bailey from Amity CC – Kim Holley from FCC Richlands. Lynn will check with Ottway and Comfort to see if they have someone who would like to participate. Kim will also coordinate with the 902 Church.

The group discussed the make-up of the Leadership Council and how the rotation of officers would be handled. The main concern was that there needs to be adequate time to train the new members before the original leaders rotated off of the council. After much discussion a motion was made by Kim Holley and seconded by Lyn Stowe that the original four (Gary, Lynn, Roger, and Betty) would serve for two years and the additional three on the first council would serve for three years. After two years the original four would rotate off and new council members would replace them, thus allowing for overlap to train them. In order to implement this action, Judy Greer recommended that we develop an Addendum to the Constitution to cover the initial establishment of the Leadership Council since the Constitution calls for a two-year rotation. The motion was approved by the workgroup.

The members of the first official Leadership Council will be; Gary Edens from FCC Richlands, Roger Noble from Tuckahoe CC, Betty Stowe from Unity CC, Danny Bailey from Amity CC, Jack Mumford from Ottway CC, Kim Holley from FCC Richlands, and Lynn Maxwell from Pleasant Hill CC. Lynn was to call Jack Mumford to see if he would accept, and after all had been confirmed it was agreed that the Council would become effective as of August 1, 2015. Gary thanked everyone who has so faithfully worked for the last almost two years to bring us to where we are today. Many thanks to all who caught hold of the vision and dedicated their efforts to make the DHF of NC a reality. As a side note, Rev. Jack Mumford from Ottway CC graciously agreed to serve on the Council.

Lynn was asked to set up a page on our website for church announcements or possibly a calendar.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lynn Maxwell

The DHF of NC Workgroup Meeting was held at Pleasant Hill Christian Church with 21 persons present. The meeting was opened with prayer by Rev. Lynn Maxwell, and the devotion was presented by Rev. Rick Vernon from the 902 Church in Kinston.

Lynn reported that he and Gary had visited with Cove City CC and made a presentation to the church on our fellowship. The Pastor of Cove City is Rev. Frank Witham. We were warmly received and enjoyed meeting with those gathered. Please pray for Cove City and their decision about joining with us.

Lynn asked the group to review and discuss the pros/cons of our first DHF of NC gathering that was held on April 25, 2015. Comments were as follows:

· Betty Stowe said she liked that we celebrated Holy Communion.

· Everyone thought the schedule was very good; from 9:00 a.m. till around 3:00 p.m.

· Everyone enjoyed the food, fellowship, and music.

· Church displays were popular.

· Everyone glad to see Campbell University there, and hoped that next time we could get Mount Olive University to attend.

· Based on the success of the previous gathering, Rick Vernon said he felt that attendance would be even better at the next one.

Our next topic of discussion was on what we would like to see in our next gathering. Comments are as follows:

· Rick Vernon said we should make every effort to include more youth in the next event. He also said we should plan for a breakout session for the young people and let them have something relevant to them.

· Let one of the services be more directed to the youth.

· Richlands indicated that the costs to FCC was around $600 – $800. Lynn suggested that the DHF of NC should pick up the costs for future events. Of course, this means that churches should be faithful in their financial support to the fellowship.

· Due to the size of the facilities at FCC Richlands, everyone thought the next gathering should also be at Richlands. Rick said that the 902 church would be going through major renovations in the near term and that maybe in the future the 902 church could host a gathering.

· Mara Adkins and Rev. Kim Holley suggested that it might be good to plan something for the women’s and men’s groups from each church to meet together to plan some kind of joint mission project. Kim noted that the women’s groups had historically been identified as the CWF and that maybe they might all want to come up with some other identification.

· A date was discussed for the next gathering and Nov. 7th at Richlands was agreed upon. Of course, this will have to be coordinated with all the churches before a firm date can be set. The workgroup seemed to believe that we should strive to have two gatherings a year if possible. Once the date is set we would call on representatives from each church to help plan the event.

The next item of discussion was to discuss the process we will put in place to move from our current working group to the leadership council as described in our constitution. We reviewed a copy of the constitution and then opened the floor up for discussion.

· Lyn Stowed and Rick Vernon felt like it was very important for the four ministers that led the development of the fellowship to remain in place for the first two years before any rotation of those individuals took place. They felt it was important to keep those individuals in place to train the other three who would be joining the leadership council. After the first two years a normal rotation should begin. The four individuals are: Rev. Dr. Gary Eden, Rev. Roger Noble, Rev. Betty Stowe, and Rev. Lynn Maxwell.

· In order to broaden representation, it was suggested that the other members come from the other churches currently in the fellowship. As per the Constitution, leadership council members should only come from those churches that have joined the fellowship.

· The details for accepting nominations from the other churches was not discussed. We solicit any comments from other churches within the fellowship on this matter.

It was agreed that our next working group meeting would be held on July 26th at 4:00 P.M. at Unity CC.

We received the membership form from Comfort CC, so “WE WANT TO OFFICIALLY WELCOME COMFORT CHRISTIAN CHURCH INTO THE DHF OF NC.” We look forward to working with and sharing in ministry with all of them.

Respectfully submitted,

Lynn Maxwell

The Disciple Heritage Fellowship of North Carolina (DHF of NC) workgroup met at Pleasant Hill Christian Church with 29 persons present. The meeting was opened with a devotion by Rev. Lynn Maxwell. The minutes from the previous meeting were read and approved.

Comments were solicited regarding the content of our web site (http://www.dhfofnc.com). Some in the group noted that they had a difficult time finding the web site using various search engines. Lynn will look into ways to make it easier to find. Churches that have a Facebook site were encouraged to include a link to our web site. Lynn still needs to provide info on how churches can donate to the fellowship. Rev. Gary Edens is also looking at developing our Theology statement for the web site.

Danny Bailey and Rev. Roger Noble had been assigned to review the “Ordination Guidelines for Local Churches” and report to the workgroup. Danny noted that although God is love, some churches have used the word “love” as a bridge to mean the acceptance of almost anything in the name of love. Danny emphasized that there is also an accountability side to God’s love and that needs to be considered. It was recommended that we change the word “love” on page 5 to “God’s love” in order to clarify the statement. The sentence should read as follows:

“Leader: Since God’s love is revealed in Scripture as the highest and greatest of all virtues, will you conduct yourself in your ministry so as to express love for God and love for neighbor, remembering the words of Scripture which declare, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7,8).”

Rev. Lynn Maxwell and Rev. Rick Vernon had been assigned to review the “DHF Membership Application” for ministers desiring to join and be recognized by our local fellowship. Both Lynn and Rick felt that the requirement to give an opinion on the “Declaration and Address” was unnecessary for those ministers desiring to affiliate with our local fellowship. If a minister desires to be recognized by the DHF in Lovington, Illinois, then the requirement to comment would need to be met. We do feel that expressing an opinion on the DHF “Statement of Theological Understanding” should be required. Lynn made a motion that we omit the need to comment on the “Declaration and Address” from our local DHF Membership Application for ministers. Danny Bailey seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.

Robert Reynolds presented printouts of all the proposed logos for our fellowship and asked everyone during our break time to review them and check the ones they liked best. Robert will tally the votes and strive to work on the most popular ones and present them back to the workgroup for further consideration.

Rev. Edens presented the work group with a list of ideas to consider as we plan for our fellowship gathering on April 25th, 2015. (list attached to minutes). After much discussion, it was decided that it would be a one-day event to be held at Richlands FCC. A suggested time schedule was from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Gary asked for volunteers to work on planning the event and to report back to the workgroup. The planning workgroup will be led by Mrs. Mara Adkins from Richlands FCC along with the following members:

Mrs. Janice Noble – Tuckahoe Christian Church

Mrs. Judy Greer – Pleasant Hill Christian Church

Mrs. Joan Harrell – Pleasant Hill Christian Church

At the beginning of the meeting we received membership forms from two churches; Tuckahoe Christian Church, and Richlands First Christian Church. We now have four churches officially aligned with the fellowship. Lynn noted that we could now begin to identify and approach other churches that might be interested in joining the fellowship. It is our policy that we will not solicit any active churches of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but we will freely solicit former Disciples of Christ (DOC) churches. It was also noted that we would also consider churches that freely identify with our Theological position.

Lynn presented a preliminary tri-fold advertisement for our fellowship. All agreed that it was too wordy and needed to be presented in more of a bullet outline format. Lynn will continue to work on this and present it at a later time. We will also begin work on a Power Point Presentation to present to churches desiring more information on our fellowship.

Our next workgroup meeting will be held at Tuckahoe Christian Church, 6212 Hwy 41 W., Trenton, N. C. on Feb. 22, 2015 at 4:00 P.M. If anyone needs detailed directions, please contact Lynn Maxwell.