United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report

After a break for the Sabbath, Council meetings resumed Sunday with time devoted to strategic planning topics, an update on contact sought by a group in India, material from the Education Committee, and miscellaneous business items. An executive session dealing with manpower and international issues concluded the day's business.

Strategic Planning

Two main areas of strategic planning took center stage on Sunday.

First, the Council reviewed its own resolution of August 25, 1997, calling for quarterly operations reports from the president and operations managers. Upon discussion, members felt that circumstances prompting the earlier resolution had changed, and that semi-annual reports would be sufficient, especially in light of the fact that, in effect, a third report is made at the General Conference of Elders in May on a regular basis anyway. The Council unanimously passed the following resolution:

Whereas, the Council desires to rescind the resolutions of August 25, 1997, with regard to the evaluation of the Strategic Plan and Operations Plan and put in place a new evaluation plan for the Strategic Plan and Operation Plan,

Now therefore, it is hereby resolved, that the resolutions of August 25, 1997, with regard to the evaluation of the Strategic Plan and Operations Plan are rescinded, and

It is further resolved, that, at the Council meetings nearest the mid point of the fiscal year, the president and operation managers provide the Council of Elders with progress reports based upon projects and programs within the Operation Plan and, at the end of the fiscal year, the president and operation managers provide a year-end analysis based on the projects and programs for that previous Operation Plan.

Chairman Roy Holladay then opened discussion on the concept of servant leadership, which was featured at the General Conference of Elders in May. Several Council members felt that elements in the Church at large had misunderstood the thrust of the discussion in May. The general sentiment of the input in today's meeting expressed the belief that by far the majority of the ministry have in fact been trying to practice "servant leadership." The material in May, for example, focused on modeling, mentoring, and teaching. Numerous elements of the Church's Strategic Plan point to the same approach. While there is always room for improvement, as John Jewell and Roy Holladay articulated, Victor Kubik voiced his concern that some individuals who seem to be promoting the concept as if it is something new in the Church are in fact simply critical of the current Administration of the Church. Mr. Holladay agreed, suggesting that perhaps in light of the "baggage" that seems to be attached to the term, an alternate designation such as "Christian leadership" might be helpful in promoting a truly godly form of service and leadership.

Donald Ward asked if we've really defined service in regard to the ministry. Is a minister truly serving in the most helpful way by setting up chairs, or answering people's questions and counseling those who seek advice from God's Word? As he stressed, Acts 6 needs to be carefully considered. He also noted, citing Matthew:7:21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven., that "Service is not [the same as] conversion. And in addition to that, there are different kinds of service, there are different kinds of gifts…some who want to 'level' the ministry begin to say, 'oh, he's a servant minister because he's digging ditches and setting up chairs…' That is not necessarily servant leadership. So we really need to define more specifically what we mean in the ministry by 'servant leadership.'… We really need to define our terms before we 'ride this' too far."

Later in the day, the Council returned to this topic to discuss whether the Education Committee should interface more directly with the Administration. Ministerial Services has clearly been pursuing this avenue already (Richard Pinelli noted that at least half of the Strategic Plan references to the topic had been initiated, plus other material from the Pastoral Epistles presented by Clyde Kilough and Dave Johnson). Opinion was divided, with some Council members feeling Ministerial Services already had so much material in progress that Council involvement directly was unnecessary, and others expressing a desire to get involved more closely on the Council level. Mr. Holladay asked for a "straw poll" to indicate which direction to proceed. Eight members asked for Council involvement through the Education Committee: Messrs. Antion, Dean, Jewell, Holladay, Kubik, McNair, Seiglie, and Ward. Four voted against it: Messrs. Dick, McCullough, Thompson, and Walker. Mr. Holladay instructed Committee chairman Don Ward to pursue the matter more directly, in light of Council's wishes.

India

Matthew Fenchel brought some communication from a group in India who have contacted the United Church of God recently. In a similar manner to the initial contact from the Remnant Church of God in Ghana, we have been approached by elders representing numerous members of Sabbath-keeping groups who wish closer ties with us. After discussion, and upon reviewing input from church pastor Dave Baker (who has extensive service experience in Asia), the Council decided to ask Mr. Fenchel to pursue further contact, with an eye to an information-gathering trip (perhaps by Mr. Fenchel and Mr. Baker) as soon as is practical.

Education Committee Dr. Ward updated the Council on the meeting of the Education Committee, held Tuesday, September 12. The committee reviewed a report from Richard Pinelli, outlining the numerous projects underway under the auspices of Ministerial Services, including projects in the fields of general, member, ministerial, and focused education.

Dr. Ward then moved the discussion to topics related to the Ambassador Bible Center. Requests have been made for taped copies of course material from the classes. While this isn't practical on a wide-scale basis (there are well over 800 hours of instruction involved!), the concept of taping one course of instruction per academic year has merit. These courses could be sent to church libraries, and over time, much of the ABC curriculum could be made available. Other ABC related discussion centered on "marrying" ministerial candidate instruction into the program, occasionally bringing field ministers in for a Sabbatical-type program for an academic year, and endorsement of the "ABC sampler" avenues being explored this year.

Mr. Antion conveyed the most recent information on the contact with an accredited college. This small (3,000 students on two campuses) private college is considering working with ABC in providing college credit through their program of studies for 18 semester hours of instruction selected by the ABC faculty. If this were approved, for a fee of $50 per unit students would be able to receive accredited status from this college for the designated coursework taken at Ambassador Bible Center. The college has an extensive presence in Internet-based education, in both graduate and undergraduate studies, and might even be able to assist us in bringing international students to Cincinnati for study at ABC (if they also enrolled in that college as students via the Internet).

The proposed three-day regional conferences for the ministry filled the rest of the time for this presentation. Input from Dr. Ward, Robert Dick, Richard Thompson, and Richard Pinelli all served to illustrate the need for a more interactive approach (seminar-style rather than lecture-style) for the next round of conferences. This explains the need for three days, as opposed to one or one and a half, as in the past. Mr. Dick pointed out that we've simply reached the point in our society, and in the length of service of our ministry, that interaction is the answer - just more lectures or articles will do little good in truly helping to promote growth in ability to serve more effectively.

Miscellaneous Business Several "housekeeping" items needed to be covered, and were promptly dealt with. Material on protected corporate designations, signature authority for our new health care provider, and reiteration of deadlines for submission of amendments for consideration at the next General Conference of Elders were rapidly dispatched. Notice of proposed amendments to sections 8.2.1 and 8.7.5 of the Bylaws was brought to Council's attention by Council Secretary Gerald Seelig, and will be finalized at the Tyler (TX) meetings in December. A proposed change to Bylaws, Section 8.3.1 was unanimously passed and will shortly be forwarded to all elders.

Following the change in Council membership and responsibility in the wake of the May General Conference and Mr. Holladay's appointment as chairman, the committees of the Council were reconstituted. As they now consist, here are the Council committees (an asterisk indicates Committee chairman; the Strategic Planning/Finance Committee will need to select a new chairman):

• Executive - Aaron Dean, Roy Holladay*, Burk McNair, Leon Walker, Don Ward
• Strategic Planning/Finance - Aaron Dean, Les McCullough, Mario Seiglie, Richard Thompson, Leon Walker
• Doctrine - Robert Dick, John Jewell, Burk McNair, Mario Seiglie, Leon Walker*, Don Ward
• Media and Communications - Robert Dick, John Jewell, Victor Kubik*, Les McCullough, Don Ward
• Education - Gary Antion, Victor Kubik, Mario Seiglie, Richard Thompson, Don Ward*
• Ethical Review/Roles and Process - Gary Antion*, Aaron Dean, Robert Dick, John Jewell, Burk McNair, Richard Thompson

The final committee is a combining of two previous committees into one in a revised structure.

In a follow-up to Friday's discussion, the Council passed (eleven in favor, Gary Antion abstaining) the following resolution regarding operations in New Zealand:

Whereas, the Board of the United Church of God, Limited in New Zealand has formally requested that the Council of Elders of the United Church of God, an International Association, assumes the role of appointing trustees to the charitable trust, United Church of God New Zealand, and the Council of Elders understands that the membership is aware of and, as a whole, in support of these requests,

Now therefore, it is hereby resolved, that the Council of Elders, effective on the date of a Deed of Variance implementing the same shall assume the role of appointing and removing trustees to the charitable trust, United Church of God New Zealand, subject to the Council of Elders right to approve any amendments to the Trust Deed or any other related governing documents of United Church of God New Zealand, and

It is further resolved, that the Council of Elders names Marcel Morreel, Art Verschoor and Leon Walker as trustees to United Church of God New Zealand, in accordance with the recommendation by the Board of the United Church of God, Limited.

An executive session closed out a busy day's proceedings.

-Doug Johnson

© 2000 United Church of God, an International Association

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