Session Updates

Our Session, made up of teaching and ruling elders, typically meets on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month to pray, plan, and discuss how to lead our congregation. Each meeting they send notes from their minutes for the congregation to look over. Session meetings are public meetings (with the exception of executive session) and you are welcome to attend.
November 27, 2022
  • Before the meeting our elders and deacons met for dinner. During this time Bryan challenged us as our officers to be intentional about our spiritual growth and to that end, we are each going to develop a personal spiritual renewal plan for 2023.
  • We briefly discussed our desire to reinvigorate our Sunday School program and Bryan will be bringing a proposal to our December meeting.
  • We discussed finance, membership, and attendance numbers. We are encouraged by how our congregation is giving and worshiping together.
  • We discussed recent testimonies provided by Henry Uzzell (son of Hank and Anna) and Josh Vanasse (married to Gabby Altman Vanasse) and voted to receive them into communicant membership pending their ascent to vows before the congregation. 
  • Doug Bull shared that he, Sherry, and several others will be in Guatemala for about a week on a mission trip. The session prayed for Doug and the others on the trip.  
  • Bryan presented a finalized document on what making disciples looks like for Clemson Pres and the session unanimously approved the document. We will be sharing this document in the near future. 
  • We discussed future staffing plans and how we can best plan for our long-term staffing needs.
  • We are looking forward to a single meeting in December around the Christmas holiday season and then presbytery will be held at Clemson Pres in January. It will be hosted on our campus by the RUF Campus ministers. We are excited to be a part of this meeting in whatever ways we are needed by the campus ministers.
  • Our meeting was closed in prayer around 9:30. 
OCTOBER 2, 2022
  • This week the session approved delegates to attend the fall presbytery meeting which will be Thursday October 27th. Mike Haas, WIll Huss and Doug Wilson will be our representatives at the meeting.
  • The Session also blocked time off to pray and dream about what kind of disciple God might use CPC to help build. We discussed what that disciple might love, know, and do. We hope to use these discussions to help make our mission to produce mature followers of Christ more concrete, and to be faithful to present our people mature in Christ (Col 1:28). Please pray for us in this.
  • The meeting was closed with a time of prayer over these thoughts and individual needs of the church body. 
SEPTEMBER 19, 2022
  • Session again enjoyed a time of fellowship and discussion with the deacons.
  • We received good reports of several new member candidate interviews and voted to receive them into membership pending the candidates assenting to the membership vows before the congregation. We look forward to them standing before the congregation in the very near future. 
  • We received a report on small groups. We have almost 20 active groups ministering to almost 200 people. 
  • We reviewed a proposal that was given to the mercy ministry team regarding a possible vision for ministry to orphans. 
  • The next Newcomers Sunday School class will start on October 9th. 
  • We will also begin a new Sunday School class on October 9th taught by Bryan based on the book "Gospel Centered Life". 
AUGUST 15, 2022
  • Session enjoyed dinner with the diaconate along with a joint devotional time.
  • This meeting was Bryan's first as moderator. He expressed thanks to the men who have acted as moderators during our time without a senior pastor and commended their good work. He shared some of his expectations and hopes about the future regarding the management of meetings and how we functionally operate.
  • We discussed having Steve and Matthew more actively involved in worship on a regular basis since Bryan will be taking the majority of the preaching time.
  • In order to free up bulletin space for ministry information we decided to remove the elder contact information from the weekly bulletin. However, to ensure that people know how to reach the elders, and deacons, we are going to make all officer contact information readily available through other means.
  • We received a great report about the church's support for the crates for Ukraine. The crates are packed and ready to be taken by Ron Sporer and his son next week. The crates will be visible this Sunday and we will be praying for the impact these crates will have during the congregational prayer this week. 
  • We discussed Sunday School and recognized that we need to review our current offerings and what we want to do long-term regarding the Sunday School time.
  • We are reviewing our process for receiving new members and as part of the review, we are no longer going to require new members to attend a session meeting as part of the process. We will have elders meet with new member candidates in a more private setting to hear candidate testimonies and talk about their faith. Then the elders will report to the session regarding the candidates. This will help eliminate extended delays before candidates are admitted to membership and stand before the congregation to be recognized as part of our body. 
  • Several members of our church family were mentioned as having particular needs and each was prayed for by members of the session before we closed our meeting in prayer.
JULY 18, 2022
  • We welcomed Bryan Counts to our session. It is a joy to have him with us.
  • We heard testimonies from Lydia Johnson and Bob & Sandy Moir and they were received as new members.
  • We approved a request from the Outreach Committee to add a designated giving line for Ukraine Relief Crates. 
  • We reviewed and approved the 2022-23 budget (except pastoral packages) and called a meeting for after Worship on August 14th to present the budget and vote on the pastoral packages.