Meeting Minutes and Agendas

To keep these minutes current. let me include the latest and the previous two meetings only. An archive of older minutes and agendas are attached. See the links below.

Meeting Minutes – June 17, 2009

The meeting opened at 7 pm in the nursery.

Attending: Ed Willekens, Mark Savarese, Eugene Pongratz, Ken Pritchett, James Hodson, Hal Pawlowski

Table Leader: Edward Willekens

Prayer Leader: James Hodson led the group in the Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, & Supplication (ACTS) prayers to start the meeting. He chose the theme of God's gift of eternal salvation and opened with the song “Rock of Ages” and closed with “Amazing Grace”

Sunday Scripture Readings
• Reading 1 – Job 38:1,8-11
• Reading 2 – 2 Corintians 5:14-17
• Gospel – Mark 4:35-41
Common thread: All things obay the Lord.

Witness Talk – Hal Pawlowski – Christian Community
Hal talked about the multiple communties:
initial Family, Peer Group, our current family, our church

Challenge Questions:
1. Do YOU feel a part of a Christian Community now?
2. Are you contributing to maing it better (more Christkue) How?
3. Can you be a memver of more than one Christian Community simultaneous? Are you now?

Men’s Club Fall Retreat
Kevin Saunders, is still on track for our November 7 retreat.
Other talks will have to be selected in August.

Book Assignment: “A Still More Excellent Way” by Joseph Durepos
2nd Reflection.
The next book will be "The Jesus Myth" by G.A. Wells

The assumption of the table leader is that James closed out the evening with a closing prayer, the assumtion is made because the table leader had to leave early to pick up his boyscout

Meeting Minutes – June 10, 2009

The meeting opened at 7 pm in room 7

Attending: Ed Willekens, Mark Savarese, Eugene Pongratz, Ken Pritchett, James Hodson, Hal Pawlowski

Table Leader: Ken Pritchett

Prayer Leader: Hal Pawlowski led the group in the Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, & Supplication (ACTS) prayers to start the meeting. He chose the theme of Spirituality and opened with the song “Fight the Fight” and closed with “Was That You Lord?”

Sunday Scripture Readings
 Reading 1 – Exodus 24:3-8
 Reading 2 – Hebrews 9:11-15
 Gospel – Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
It was agreed the common thread was offering sacrifices to God. A lively discussion ensued regarding the evolution of blood sacrifices through many variations and culminating in the ultimate sacrifice which we commemorate at each mass.

Witness Talk – James Hodson – Spirituality
Jim used readings from 2 Corinthians and Ephesians 18 to begin his talk on Spirituality. He shared thoughts and experiences from his life. He shared his experiences of searching for a religion and how each of these experiences left him wanting for more. After being married he eventually converted to Catholicism where he found a balance of body, mind, and Spirit. James shared with us Levels of Intimacy taken from the book “Knowing God Intimately” by Joyce Meyers. His challenge questions led to an excellent discussion on how we change our behaviors to be more in line with God’s will when we grow in Spirituality.

Men’s Club Fall Retreat
We had a quick discussion about Help letters and whether or not it is logistically feasible to try to incorporate them into the retreat. Probably not, but not ruled out completely. Hal also stated that he would talk to the guest speaker, Kevin Saunders, to make sure there is no confusion about the theme for the retreat “Relationship of Scripture to Modern Man.”

Book Assignment: “A Still More Excellent Way” by Joseph Durepos
A discussion of the introduction led us all to believe that the author was just an ordinary guy who felt compelled to study and reflect on the writings of Saint Paul. The first reflection, “Ashamed of the Gospel” was discussed and we all agreed that our Men’s Club meetings are a step in the right direction to fulfill the task outlined by Paul: Do not be ashamed of our story. According to the author we do this best by studying scripture, by prayer and instruction, and by learning the story of Jesus.

Next week we will discuss the 2nd reflection “Paul’s Astounding Conversion.”

We also discussed reading and discussing another book along with the St. Paul reflections. “The Jesus Myth” was generally accepted and Hal will send us information on the author, so that we can begin acquiring the book for next week.

Hal led us in a closing prayer to conclude another fantastic experience of sharing and fellowship

Meeting Minutes - 6/3/2009

Attendance: Ken Pritchett, Ed Willekens, Mark Savarese, Jim Hodson, & Richard Craney

This week’s Mens Group Meeting was started off with Jim Hodson leading us in the ACTS Prayer Service with the Theme Of God’s Great Love for us. He stated by reading the poem “How Do I Love Thee.” We then sang the hymn of “How Deep The Father’s Love” to begin the four portions of the service. The service was concluded with the Hymn “Lord I Lift Your Name On High.”

We then moved into the Sunday Mass Scripture Study. This Sunday’s Readings are Deut 4:32-34, 39-40; Rom 8:14-17; and Matt 28:16-20. We all agreed that the common theme was God establishing a relationship with His people and giving guidelines on how to live in a manner pleasing to Him.

We then received a Witness talk from Ken Pritchett on the CRHP Theme of “New Life In Christ.” Ken mentioned a few Scriptual Characters in the New Testament which were good examples of WHEN their New Life In Christ began. He then related his own life’s journey to New Life as a gradual response to realization that Jesus is calling him to be a SPECIAL MAN in this world! He cited several instances as he became more aware of Our Lord’s continual GENTLE and LOVING call during the most recent years of his life.

We then had a short Current Events discussion concering the recent murder of Dr. Tiller (the abortion Doctor responsible for 60,000 Abortions!) as well as the Current Scandal of Father Alberto in Florida who has had an ongoing affair with a woman for years.

We then moved into our Literature discussion section. We are starting the book, A STILL MORE EXCELLENT WAY--ST Paul Points US To Jesus By Joseph Durepos. Our assignment for the week is to read the Epilogue and Reflection one by next week. We also agreed that we will cover only one Reflection Per Week as well as selecting another new book very soon. The reason the group decided to do it this way is because we didn’t want to dilute Mr Durepos’ book by assigning several Reflections per week and not be able to discuss each of them.

Assignments for Meeting 6/10/09: Prayer Leader---Hal Pawlowski; Witness Talk On Spirituality---Jim Hodson; Table Leader---Ken Pritchett

The Meeting was finished with a closing prayer by Jim Hodson---Have A Great And Blessed Week That Is ALL FOR HIS GLORY!!!

Meeting Minutes 5/27/2009

ATTENDANCE: Ken Pricthett, Jim Hodson, Ed Willekens, Hal Pawlowski, Mark Savarese, Harry Abbey, & Richard Craney

Last evening's meeting began with the ACTS Prayer Service led by Ken Pritchett. Ken carried the Prayer Theme of Temptation throughout each phase of the service. Ken shared that we all are tempted and Our Lord's help is ALWAYS available to us in order not to turn Temptation into Sin. Ken had us open with the Hymn “Thy Word Is A Lamp Unto My Feet” and closed us all with “Make Me Holy.”

We then proceeded to our Sunday Mass Scripture Study---We read together the Sunday Mass Pentecost Readings (The Saturday's Vigil's Readings Were Different). The First Reading was Acts 2:1-11; The Second Reading was three different sections of 1Cor 12; & The Gospel Reading was Jn 20:19-23. The common thread of all three readings was God's desire for order in our lives as He first empowered the Apostles with His Own HOLY SPIRIT in order to preach The Gospel to all nations.

Hal Pawlowski then gave a Witness Talk on the CHRP Theme of Discipleship. Instead of starting off with Jesus' own words about discipleship in the New Testament, by the way which are usually HARSH, Hal took another approach. Hal shared four different aspects of being a disciple of Jesus. The first was defining a disciple in both the religious and secular forms. The second was progressing from a true believer into a true follower of Jesus. Hal's third area of emphasis was to constantly monitor our own progress and his fourth point gave specific guidelines on how well we are doing. They were: Bible Study, Attend Retreats, Spend Time Each Day With Christ, Listen To What He Is Asking of us, Be active in the Church and in Receiving the Sacraments, and finally Strive to live as He would want us to.

We followed with a short discussion of the upcoming Men's Retreat for November 7 th . We have the facilities and the Guest Speaker already reserved and we are all VERY excited about trying this new approach in order to attract more men into our meetings and activities.

We will start our new book study next week of A Stiil Excellent Way: How St Paul Points Us To Jesus by Joseph Durepos.

Meeting Assignments For The Meeting 6/3/09: Hal Pawlowski Table Leader; Jim Hodson Prayer Leader, Ken Pritchett Witness Talk On New Life In Christ.

This Fantastic Meeting Was Finished With Ken Pritchett Leading Us In A Closing Prayer.

Meeting Minutes - 20 May 2009

The 20 May 2009 meeting of the Men's Group was held in the Nursery of St. James. The meeting started at 7 pm.

Table Leader: James Hodson In attendance: Hal Pawlowski, Ken Pritchett, Harry Abby, Eugene Pongratz, Ed Willekens, and James Hodson

Prayer Leader Ed Willekens led us in the prayer portion of the meeting. His theme for the evening was our God is an awesome God. He opened with the scripture verse JN 14:15-27. We followed with the song" Here I am to worship". Ed used the ACTS format showing the wonders of God in our lives. Ed also used the scripture verse Luke 12:22-26 to help show how God will influence our lives. We ended the prayer service with the song"Awesome God".

Sunday Scripture - We next moved into the scripture readings for Sunday, 24 May 2009.         1st reading --- ACTS 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26
2nd reading --- 1 JN 4:11-16
Gospel --------- JN 17: 11b-19
After a discussion we agreed that the common threads were: the Apostles, the origin of the Church, and Love.

Witness - Renewal - Eugene Pongratz gave a witness talk on renewal. He spoke on the expectations/culture shock of his first time at St. James. He also spoke on his changing values and perception of St. James. He used the following scripture references to help show his renewal.
1 Samuel 11:14
Psalms 51:10
Lamentations 5:21
Ephesians 4:23
2 Corinthians 4:16
Colossians 3:10 2
Corinthians 4
He also used the book "Gut Check" by Tarek Saab and part 4 of the CHRP handbook. He left us with the following questions:
1) How can I help renewal in my parish?
2) Can I do any more than pray?

Retreat Planning - The men's retreat will be a one day affair on 7 Nov. 2009. Kevin Saunders will be our guest speaker.

Group Assignments: 27 May 2009 Table Leader : Mark Savarese Prayer Leader: Ken Pritchett Witness Talk - Discipleship: Hal Pawlowski

Book Assignment - We decided that our next book will be: "A still more excellent way: how St. Paul points us to Jesus" by Joseph Durepos.

Closing - Ed led us in the Lord's prayer as we closed another meeting. A spiritually uplifting evening was felt by all.

Meeting Minutes – May 13, 2009
The meeting opened at 7 pm in room 7

Attending: Harry Abby, Ed Willekens, Mark Savarese, Eugene Pongratz, Ken Pritchett, James Hodson, Hal Pawlowski and Richard Craney

Table Leader: Hal Pawlowski

Prayer Leader Mark Savarese led the prayer opening the meeting. Hymns selected included My Place In This World and He is Exalted. Special prayers were offered by the group for Gene’s special intention and Richards upcoming medical treatment.

Sunday Scripture Readings

Reading 1 – Acts 10:25-26, 34-35,44-48
Reading 2 – 1John 4:7-10
Gospel – John 15:9-17
It was agreed the common thread was love.

Witness Talk – James Hodson – Father’s Loving Care
Jim opened with a reading of the Matt 5:3-16 version of the Beatitudes. He shared thoughts/experiences from his rural life in Indiana and memories of his dad. After a tour in the Army he handled a bad job market by an enlistment in the Navy. He married Maria during his Navy tour. He accepted the role of caregiver as Maria’s health deteriorated, ending in her death 2 years ago. Since her death Jim has been active in the Bereavement Group Ministry, Rummage Sale Ministry and Men’s Club. He is developing material for a Caregiver’s Guide he plans to publish as an aid for those thrust into role by choice or necessity.

Men’s Club Fall Retreat
A proposed Retreat agenda and notes were reviewed which highlighted a planned date of November 7th. The general description remained:
General Retreat Description – A ONE day retreat on Saturday November 7th with the St. James Parish Family parish hall as the venue. I see it as an intense 8 am to 7 pm all day affair. It features an outside speaker, witness talks by members followed immediately by related discussions, a catered lunch (Pizza?), a carry-in family dinner and attendance at 4 pm Mass. A Reconciliation Service would precede the Mass. Planning on a priest in attendance for at least part of the day.
It was decided the retreat theme would be, “Relationship of Scripture to Modern Man”
Hal was to finalize lining up Kevin Saunders as the guest speaker for the retreat.

Book Assignment: Gut Check by Tarek Saab
All had completed the book and comments indicated it had been a worthwhile read. Tarek is an amazing young man with his book describing his move from ambitious and capable young man, to one that had reestablished his values to be oriented toward his spiritual future.

We closed the meeting @ 9:05 pm with a prayer. A great meeting.

Minutes of the 29 April 2009 Men's groups meeting:

The Men's Group met on Wednesday 29 April 2009 in the Nursery. The meeting was opened at 7pm

Attending: Hal Pawlowski, Ken Pritchett, Eugene Pongratz, Mark Savarese, Harry Abby, and James Hodson

The prayer portion of our meeting was led by Ken Pritchett. His theme this evening was the power of prayer. Ken started with the Scripture verses "Mathew 18:19-20, when 2 or more are gathered in my name." He followed this with the "Prayer to the Holy Spirit". The song " Come Holy Ghost" led us into prayer. Ken used the ACTS format to show how the power of prayer enriches our lives. We closed this portion with the song " Open the eyes of my heart Lord".

We next turned our attention to the retreat. We felt we wanted to accomplish the following 2 goals for the retreat.

1) Must be very spiritual
2) Have a large turn out of men from the parish

We had also heard that overnight was a turnoff and an excuse not to join us. We also felt we did not want to separate part of the men's group. Hal suggested a one day retreat with the following items:

1) 2 witness talks with a discussion period after each.
2) Guest speaker based on theme with a discussion period after.
3) Reconciliation service
4) Participate in Mass & Eucharist.
5) Family supper and introduce family.
6) Clean up.

We liked the idea and have made it an agenda item for future meetings.

We next turned to a discussion of Notre Dame. The discussion centered around the relationship between the Bishop of Fort Wayne and the head of Notre Dame.

Ken closed out the meeting with a final prayer. A spiritually uplifting was felt by all.

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Minutes of the 22 April 2009 Men's groups meeting:

Attending: Hal Pawlowski, Ken Pritchett, Eugene Pongratz, Mark Savarese, Ed Willekins, Harry Abby, and James Hodson

Table Leader: James Hodson

The meeting opened at 7:00 pm in the nursery. We opened up the meeting with a prayer service led by Ken Pritchett. Ken's theme for this evening was service. He opened with Proverbs 11:1-10 and followed with the song "Above All". Ken used the ACTS format to show our service to God. He closed the prayer portion with the song "Lay It Down".

We next move in the Scripture readings for 26 April 2009.
1st Reading; ACTS 3:13-15, 17-19
2nd Reading: 1 JN 2:1-5a
Gospel: Luke 24:35-48
After our discussion, we concluded that the common thread of the readings was the forgiveness of sin.

The Eucharist witness talk was presented by Eugene Pongratz. He opened with Mathew 26:26-29. He explained the differences between Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John's versions of the last supper. He explained how Jesus comes into us from the Eucharist, and how special that is. He left us with the following questions.

1) What mental preparation should I complete before reception?
2) What should be my mental frame of mind while receiving the sacrament?
3) What should I do after reception of the sacrament?

We next moved into current events. We discussed the incident with Miss California question about marriage. She spoke of her religious beliefs instead of the politically correct answer. Are we willing to stand up for our beliefs even when it flies in the face of being politically correct?

We moved into the discussion of the men's retreat. We came up with a few different ideas on how we wanted to put on a retreat. We are devoting the whole meeting next week (29 April 2009) for this discussion. If you can not attend and would like to make a suggestion, please pass it on to me so that it may be considered.

We continued our book discussion on the novel "Gut Check" by Tarek Saab. In chapter 3 and 4, Tarek as a college student was looking for a deeper understanding of God. He was trying to seek answers on how and why does evil exist.

Next Assignment: Ch 5, 6, 7, and 8 for 6 May 2009.

Ken closed the meeting with a final prayer. A spiritual uplifting was felt by all.

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March 11, 2009 Meeting

Attendees: Hal Pawlowski, Ken Pritchett, Eugene Pongratz, James Hodson, Ed Willekins, and Harry Abby

Table Leader: James Hodson

Prayer Leader: Ken Pritchett Ken open up the prayer portion of the meeting with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, followed by Psalm 37: 3, 4 & 5. He then led us in the song "Psalm 119:5 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet". Following this, he used the ACTS (Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication) format and focused on the theme of everything is possible with God. He ended with the song " Let the river flow".

Sunday Scripture: 3/15 Readings and Discussion 1st Reading -- EX 20:1- 17 2nd Reading -- 1 Cor 1: 22- 25 Gospel --------- Jn 2:13- 25 After our discussion we determined that the common thread was that God and Christ gave us the laws and that God is all powerful.

Witness Theme and Presenter: Spiritually by Harry Abby Harry gave us an outstanding talk on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. He open his talk with ACTS 2:1- 12. He shared with us how the Holy Spirit has moved his life and how he has seen it come into others. he challenged us with the following: 1) When did the Holy Spirit enter your life? 2) How has the Holy Spirit effected your life?

Business: No men's group meeting on 3/18 3/25 assignments: Table Leader: James Hodson Prayer Leader: Mark Savarese Witness Theme and Presenter: Christian Community by Eugene Pongratz

Novel Discussion: What Paul Meant by Garry Wills Assignment: Afterwards and Appendix The author, Gary Wills does an excellent job of reminding us that Paul was not only a Jew but educated as well. Also that Paul was a Pharisee before he followed Christ. Wills also discussed the Hebrew language. It is not a dead language , but has evolved over the last 2000 years. A lot of the words we use for the Church and Paul did not exist in Paul's time.

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3/4/2009 Meeting Minutes

Another outstanding evening of Prayer, Discussion, and Fellowship.

Attendees - Ed Willekens, Mark Savarese, Jim Hodson, Harry Abby, Gene Pongratz, Hal Pawlowski, John Ingram Jr. and Ken Pritchett

Table Leader - Ken Pritchett

Prayer Leader - James Hodson

Jim used the ACTS (adoration, contrition, thanks, & supplication) format and focused the prayer session on God the Father's love and forgiveness. He opened and closed the session with the songs "How Deep a Father's Love For Us" and "Are You Washed In the Blood."

We prayed about the many blessings in our lives and thanked God for His unconditional love and forgiveness. We asked God for His help to move away from whatever is keeping us from being closer to Him.

Witness Theme and Presenter – New Life in Christ by Hal Pawlowski
Hal gave an excellent talk that challenged of us to think about our "old life in Christ." He pointed out that in order to have a new life in Christ one must have an old life in Christ. He used his own background to illustrate his journey through life and talked about the various groups that helped him accept a "New Life in Christ." He talked about how the "new life in Christ' was one that was much more rewarding and meaningful.

Hal challenged us with these questions
1. Did you experience a "leaving" of an old life in Christ? When?
2. Is your current life with Christ everything you want it to be? What could make it Better? Are you willing to make the changes needed?
3. What is keeping your current life with Christ from being all it should be? Environment? Companions?

Scripture for March 8th Review and Discussion
Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 Romans 8:31b-34, Mark 9:2-10

After completing the readings, the group discussed how all 3 readings dealt with Father and son relationships.

Novel Discussion – What Paul Meant by Garry Wills
Chapter 8 – Paul and Jerusalem
Chapter 9 – Paul and Rome
The author, Garry Wills, does an excellent job of letting the reader know just who Saint Paul really was. It was agreed that Wills does not hold the writings of Luke in very high regard. He points out many contradictions between what Luke wrote about Paul and the actual writings of Paul. We will conclude the discussion of this book at our next meeting by discussing "Afterword: Misreading Paul" and "The Appendix: Translating Paul."

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