Council of Elders Meeting Report: August 28, 2012

United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Meeting Report

Videoconference

August 28, 2012

The web videoconference meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (U.S.) by Chairman Melvin Rhodes who asked Council member Bob Berendt to open with prayer. All Council members were present, and also present were Church president Dennis Luker, Church treasurer Aaron Dean, Ministerial and Member Services operation manager Victor Kubik, Media and Communications Services operation manager Peter Eddington, Church legal counsel Larry Darden, Chris Rowland, Bill Eddington, Daniel Porteous, Gerald Seelig, Aaron Booth, Tom Disher and Clint Porter. Chris Stewart was also present to help provide technical assistance with the Web conferencing.

Proposal to update our website—Darris McNeely

Chairman of the Council, Melvin Rhodes, called upon the chairman of the Media Committee, Darris McNeely, to introduce the first item for discussion—which was a review on progress related to a proposed updated website.

Mr. McNeely briefly reviewed the mandate of the committee to implement strategic objectives five and nine of the Strategic Plan. He stated that the Media Committee wanted to further show the Council the direction of the implementation proposal so far and that Media Operations was not at this time seeking a resolution from the Council. He asked Peter Eddington to show three sample pages of the new website design.

Peter Eddington provided slides of what the new website would look like by employing the addition of Beyond Today Media as UCG's section on the website for proclamation efforts. The redesign would feature one identity, the United Church of God, on the front page with two branches. One would be primarily for internal Church-related content that focuses more on the "preparing a people" part of the Church's motto. The second branch would be for public proclamation media content focused on the "preaching the gospel" part of our motto. It would be there that that our media products like The Good News and Vertical Thought, articles, blogs, Beyond Today television, BT Daily, etc. would be linked under a Beyond Today Media banner.

The Web presentation focused more on the "look and feel" of the media-related branch of the website and demonstrated how our public proclamation products would be easier to access and use from mobile devices such as iPods, tablets and smart phones. Mr. McNeely added that the surge of the use of such mobile devices (especially for many international areas) was the main reason for Media and Communication Services planning the streamlined redesign.

Mr. Eddington added that the media department is not asking for a Council decision now, but will wait for when the Council can discuss it at the face-to-face meetings in December.

Mark Mickelson asked whether The Good News will be presented on the website as a publication of Beyond Today Media or of United Church of God. Mr. Eddington answered that it is and will be published by the Church, and that Beyond Today Media is simply the media production arm of UCG.

Bill Bradford asked if the website redesign was the main issue for this meeting. Mr. Eddington explained that we need to redesign our websites to make them compatible with mobile-first technology, and then eventually streamline our media output of the gospel. The Web design for mobile first is a technical redesign to take advantage of the movement of people surfing the Web by mobile phone or other mobile devices rather than the desktop computer of the past few years.

Mark Mickelson commented that UCG was portrayed as having a number of elements flowing from it but it still looked to him as essentially a dual focus: that of UCG for the church, and that of Beyond Today for our media. Peter Eddington responded that UCG.org is the main site and the Beyond Today Media site would come under it. The primary site would still be that of the Church.

John Elliott, calling into the conference from Kenya, spoke of his concern that connecting all our output could work against us. One member there commented that "once you identify something negative with Beyond Today, then you reject anything connected to it." He said that we presently have many portals that people can reconnect with us. President Dennis Luker cited his experience talking with a member in Zambia who came in contact with the Church through the website and was able to download or read online all about God's truth that led to his baptism. He gave positive credit to the website that has provided ready access to the gospel. Mr. Luker also expressed his appreciation for the men who work on our website are trying to make it as effective as they can.

Peter Eddington, commenting on John Elliott's concern, pointed out that those who are being called and like what they see of our writing and video messages will find it easier to learn from a more easily identifiable and coordinated website. Clint Porter added that people tend to remember who—or what website—they feel positive about and not so easily remember those they disagree with.

Gary Antion asked if he typed "Beyond Today" in his Web browser, would it bring up UCG.org or Beyond Today? Tom Disher answered that it would bring up Beyond Today just like it does right now.

Mr. McNeely asked what the Council would like the Media Committee of the Council to do between now and the December meeting. Robin Webber commented that he would like to see the Committee continue to review this project.

Mario Seiglie and Bill Bradford asked if the Committee could show an organizational flowchart of the website architecture to make it easier to see where everything fits. Peter Eddington put a website flowchart up on the screen of the proposed redesigned website followed by one from the present configuration of the site.

Referencing the portending economic troubles in the world John Elliott asked what the website would look like five years or so down the line. Mr. Eddington said that it would look fundamentally the same—and that the media team has been considering such dire possibilities. If printing and mailing becomes too expensive, we would still need to produce the content (articles, programs, etc.), but publish them on the Web only.

Last Great Day or Eighth Day Questions

Chris Rowland reported from Ministerial and Member Services that a number of questions have come in asking about the use in our publication of "Eighth Day," the name given God's seventh festival in Leviticus 23, rather than the "Last Great Day," which came into popular use in the Church's past. Scott Ashley explained that "Eighth Day" is the term used in Leviticus:23:36 and that using this terminology was discussed in 2009 under the previous administration to be consistent with doctrinal papers approved in 1997 and 2002. He pointed out that our booklets and Good News magazine articles have used this terminology for several years now and that there is no doctrinal change involved—the meaning of the day and how we observe it is unchanged, as those booklets and articles make clear. He noted that the purpose of this change of terminology is to use the specific wording found in Scripture for this Holy Day ("Last Great Day" is derived from John:7:37, where the exact wording is "the last day, that great day of the feast," with "day" inserted by translators).

Some beneficial discussion ensued among Council members and administration personnel about various details of the research and history of the study papers. Ultimately it was decided to remand the subject to the Doctrine Committee for further review and recommendation.

Executive Session

The open session ended at 5:45 p.m., and the Council went into executive session.

-end-

Randy Stiver
Jorge De Campos
Council Reporters