March 19, 2026 | Deacon Meeting Minutes

Attendance: John Genskow, James Martin, Aaron Libner, Denny Denk, Chuck Falch, Bruce Winkler, Gail Graese, Adam Urberg, Mark Oldenberg, Stan Norman
Pastors: Ethan Luhman, Mark Schulz, David Forke
Guests:  Tonya Ida, Caleb Haack
Recording Secretary: Sue Gumz

John Genskow opened the meeting at 6:32 pm.

Mark Oldenberg led us in a devotion (Job 9:1-12) and prayer.

Staff Presentation – Caleb Haack, Dir. of Children & Family Ministry
Has been at Peace about 1 ½ years now. Family ministry & youth ministry is making a transition to offer first communion in 5th grade instead of during middle school. Anna is thinking about implementing some milestones for high school students. 

Masters in Family Life Education: has applied and been accepted through Concordia, NE. Heard about this at the NADCE conference in January. Family ministry, family law, and psychology classes. Start in August. Believe he could relate better to families, crisis prevention and intervention, special needs. This program seems to fit his interest, and the congregation has various needs for the children. It will require 5 hours of studying, and then T/Th 7-9 online. Endowment scholarship funds might be available to help with this. More information and decisions to come.

Consent agenda
A motion was made by Aaron Libner to approve the consent agenda items being the January 15, 2026 meeting minutes and the pastoral report. Bruce Winkler seconded. Motion carried.

Financial Report
One Fund giving is down but people have been donating to Celebrate the Journey.

A motion was made by Chuck Falch to approve the February Financial Report. Denny Denk seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Standing Committee Updates

• Operations/Building (Chuck Falch)
  - Heat pump replacement for ASR is needed.
  - Roof replacement over the office, original church, RecZone, and children’s wing. This would encompass about 90% of the shingled roof.

• Policy (Bruce Winkler) – see below

• Personnel (Denny Denk)
  - Worked on the organization chart.
  - Looked at Kristin Brantner’s workload and are looking to get her some help. Adam Urberg has been helping with videos. Pastor Ethan wants to push into social media more, more videos.  Pastor Ethan’s wife, Sherry, is gifted in social media and is thinking about bringing her on to help as either a casual employee or a 1099 contracted employee. The precedent has been set with having pastors’ spouses on staff. If this happens, we need to have a budgeted position and follow hiring practices per the chair.

• Finance (Gail Graese) – see below

• Mission (John Genskow)
  - There is not a committee since Erika Zank has resigned her deacon position. Pastor Ethan is putting together a team to handle missions.

• Audit (Mark Oldenberg)
  - The first round of audit information has been turned in. We are waiting on CLA to see what additional information will be needed. Luke Kempen provided information about an audit vs financial review. Our policy manual states that don’t always need to do a full external audit each time. The Finance team will come back with some specific wording to explain what kind of audit/review we need per our bylaws.

Follow-Up Items

• Visioning Process Update (Ethan)
  - Ethan has been meeting with Jeff Myers for about 3 months to help staff walk through the Story Brand. This will be a season of refinement and clarity.
  - Mission statement: Peace fully guiding people to live as followers of Jesus. Suggestion: helping people discover a whole life in Christ.
  - Values: Pursuing Jesus, Encouraging one another, Activating gifts, Caring for our community, Empoweringleaders
  - Strategy: currently Discover Grow Go with a shift to Pathway to Peace (focus on growing and going)
  - Measures: shift to growing into Christ, building into others, sharing our story, and taking risks for the kingdom.
  - Next steps: keep pushing forward as staff and invite deacons & key leaders, bring in Jeff Myers and have him lead next part, establish metrics.

• Building Exterior Update (John G./Chuck Falch)
  - Started contract with building stucco repair. The company found some issues with our control joints. To fix it we now need an additional $42,550 to fix and refinish the building.
  - Chuck Falch made a motion made to acknowledge the change order to the contract with Accent Finishing of $42,550 for additional stucco crack repair and to amend the budget and authorize use of money from the Momentum fund to pay for it. Aaron Libner seconded the motion. Motion carried.

• Policy B1 – Board Practices
  - Changed the wording on Policy B1 under Tasks regarding board meetings to state: Email is not to be used to conduct board meetings. An electronic meeting such as Zoom can be easily called, allows real time discussion easily allows for creating minutes, and provides the congregation the opportunity to attend. This maintains transparency with the Congregation. 
  - Make sure notices are included in the bulletin board to state that there is an upcoming board meeting coming up. Special meeting notification comes from the board chair.
  - James Martin made a motion to accept the proposed changes. Adam Urberg seconded the motion. Motion carried.

New Items

• Deacon Terms and Re-election status (John Genskow)
  - Erika Zank (resigned)
  - Bruce Winkler, Gail Graese and John Genskow’s terms are up. They will not be running again.
  - Adam Urberg will chair the nominating committee again. Please submit the names of potential candidates to Adam Urberg.

Training/Annual Calendar Tasks

• Review budget process and identify potential changes to the Annual Budget priorities
  - Mission budget – 10% of budget
  - Investment made into youth/children’s ministry via technology and digital items
  - Refuge space for HS youth
  - Continuing education for staff (Caleb – endowment; David SMP – budget dollars were used)
  - Someone to help manage the staff (i.e. Terry Gilbertson’s role of Dir. of Operations)
  - New Budget Item for an ongoing capital fund

• Building updates & upgrades – a lot of maintenance is needed. Encourage above and beyond normal giving.

Upcoming Board Meetings
May 21, June 18, Annual Congregational meeting June 22, and July 16.

Closing Prayer (Stan Norman)

Denny Denk made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Bruce Winkler seconded the motion. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:43 pm.