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Council President’s Page
Mary Beth Hill
Making that quick update to our Constitution
As you remember, we held two information sessions for the congregation at the end of 2025 (November 30 and December 7), where we discussed our 2026 Ministry Plan (budget) and the need to revise our Constitution to proceed with our Church Council elections.
We also included information in several weeks of Pilgrim’s Progress, our weekly newsletter.
We will meet again.
We scheduled another congregation meeting for January 11, 2026, after Worship. Giving our congregation the same 30-day period to consider the Constitution change before voting.
As you remember, the changes to the constitution recommended by your Council involve amending section (Chapter 12.01 and 12.02) dealing with council elections.
Since we’ve already had those information sessions about the budget and the constitution and included information in issues of Pilgrim’s Progress and in special issue emails, we will not hold more information sessions. However, let’s review this once more.
As you know, Pilgrim Lutheran Church’s Congregation (Church) Council currently consists of Pastor Mary Anderson, Treasurer Wade Miles, Congregational President/Council Chair Mary Beth Hill, Vice President Jimmy Smith, and Members Keith Galloway, Melissa Hendrix, Joe Kaminer, Jennifer Schwabe, Kathleen Shutt, and Wally Steinhauser (making not more than 13 members).
Joe Kaminer has two more years remaining on his term, while Wally Steinhauser has one more year remaining on his term. Keith, Melissa, Jennifer, Jimmy, and Mary Beth Hill were elected in 2022. Kathleen was elected in 2024 to finish out someone else’s term. According to our current constitution, we would ordinarily roll off and be ineligible to run again for two years.
However, because finding individuals who feel called to serve has not been successful, we are in a situation we do not believe is good for Pilgrim. We believe a council of four is too small to provide a fair representation of the members and, quite frankly, to finish the work we have begun (eliminating the mortgage; positioning the congregation to enter the call process with more stability, financial strength, and focused mission; renewing trust in our congregational leadership, developing new leaders in the congregation, developing a deeper culture of hospitality, finishing out our new constitution process, welcoming new members, and deepening our relationships with the Lexington community, Mission Lexington, the SC Synod, and our churchwide partners).
In the past, when this has happened, members of the council and even the president/council chair have been allowed to continue for another year of service or another term — even though our constitution currently requires that break in service.
After studying this in depth, Pastor Mary Anderson and Mary Beth Hill reached out to Pastor Ozzie Herlong in the SC Synod for advice. Pastor Herlong reached out to the ELCA. Then, they shared their collective wisdom and advice with us.
Your Council considered their advice, the changing church, and some things that seem to hold people back from serving on council, and we came to this. We believe that the three-year commitment holds some people back. Also, Pastor Mary notes that after COVID, many people returned to in-church attendance across many churches, but not to in-church leadership positions.
We recommend that we change one paragraph in our constitution to a paragraph (C12.01) recommended by the ELCA in their 2025 (August) Model Constitution. This new change in Chapter 12 will allow members to remain on Council until their successors are elected, and allow us to shorten the term of council members to two years.
To clarify, C12.01 and C12.02 in our current constitution state this.
C12.01 The voting membership of the Congregation Council shall consist of the pastor(s) and not more than 13 members of the congregation. Any voting member of this congregation may be elected, subject only to the limitation on the length of continuous service permitted in that office. A member’s place on the Congregation Council shall be declared vacant if the member a)ceases to be a voting member of this congregation or b) is absent from four successive regular meetings of the Congregation Council without cause. Consistent with the laws of the state in which this congregation is incorporated, this congregation may adopt procedures for the removal of a member of the Congregation Council in other circumstances.
C12.02 The members of the Congregation Council, except the pastor, shall be elected by written ballot to serve for three (3) years. Members shall not be eligible for reelection to the council until a period of two (2) years has elapsed since their term of office ended. The term of office for a council member shall begin on January 1 and end on December 31 of the appropriate year. Newly elected Congregation Council members shall be installed at a worship service prior to assuming office.
C12.01 and C12.02 in the (08-2025) MODEL CONSTITUTION FOR CONGREGATIONS, with our revisions, would state this.
C12.01 The voting membership of the Congregation Council shall consist of the pastor(s), [the deacon(s),], [the officers of this congregation,] and [ _ members] [not more than _ nor fewer than_ members] of this congregation, at least one of whom shall be a youth and at least one of whom shall be a young adult. Any voting member of this congregation may be elected, subject only to the limitation on the length of continuous service permitted in that office. A member’s place on the Congregation Council shall be declared vacant if the member a) ceases to be a voting member of this congregation or b) is absent from four successive regular meetings of the Congregation Council without cause. Consistent with the laws of the state in which this congregation is incorporated, this congregation may adopt procedures for the removal of a member of the Congregation Council in other circumstances.
C12.02 The members of the Congregation Council, except the pastor(s) [and deacon(s)] shall be elected by written ballot to serve for 2 years or until their successors are elected. Such members shall be eligible to serve no more than two full terms consecutively. Their terms shall begin at the close of the annual meeting at which they are elected.
As you see, the change we recommend would also enable the members who agree to stay one more year (Melissa Hendrix, Jennifer Schwabe, Kathleen Shutt, and Mary Beth Hill) the ability to do so.
Wondering about Keith Galloway and Jimmy Smith? Keith still feels called to lead the Property Team but would like to do that outside of council, and Jimmy feels called to continue to lead other ministries but would also like to do that outside of council.
Your council believes that continuity is vital. This council has accomplished almost all its goals, including eliminating the mortgage, and we want to finish. We also do not want to leave Joe and Wally with only two new council members, as we’ve learned that staying organized and on track throughout the year takes all of us working closely together.
This council works very well together and has the experience to not only accomplish our goals but also to complete preparations to begin a full-time pastor search in 2026.
Finally, some people believe they will be ready to join the council next year but are not quite ready this year. We hope the change to a two-year term will give them the initiative to do that.
Once this process is completed, we will put together a ballot for council elections and another Constitution Committee in 2026 to make the other changes required in the (08-2025) MODEL CONSTITUTION FOR CONGREGATIONS and to incorporate some information from the current by-laws to the Constitution, if needed. We do not want to fall behind on our Constitution changes again.
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