November Board Meeting

The Lord's presence was very evident last night at the Board meeting. We started out looking at John 17:20-23 and Psalms 133 and discussing Jesus's desire for unity among believers. We believe that it is consistent with that desire to have unity on the board - not uniformity - but unity. God loves diversity and we are stronger when that diversity is united in its beliefs and action.

With that backdrop, we started tackling some key fundamental issues with the intent of attaining unity on these matters. We discussed the following issues: 1) are we a ministry or a business, 2) do we have a bias for action immediately, 3) are we carrying out our Mission Statement well, and 4) what is/are our point(s) of differentiation. We had unity about the first 3 points in a rather quick timeframe. There is an ongoing discussion about point 4. I believe we are close to agreement, but it warrants more prayer, thought and discussion.

I don't feel at liberty yet to share the position statements yet as several of our board members could not attend last night, but when we reach agreement, I will be sharing the statements here. Are there key, foundational issues that you would like clarity from the Board and the Administration about who Maranatha is, what are our priorities or where are we headed? Next up for us are 1) Financial priorities and actions and 2) What "growth" means...how would you define it?

- Enrollment is stable.
- We are on budget.
- We formally approved the budget for this fiscal year.
- We have completed the retaining wall at the North Campus.
- We are targeting to have the new monument sign in place in the next few weeks.
- We will start work on the roof at the North Campus next week.
- We are moving towards hiring a development director in the 2011-12 budget year
- We are thoughtfully developing succession plans for key personnel for that time when those plans will be needed.
- We reviewed reports from the administrators which were rich in content concerning our efforts to instruct with a Christian worldview, develop Christian character and achieve academic excellence.