Council of Elders Meeting Report

United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report

Milford, Ohio

Monday, December 8, 2014

Chairman Robin Webber called the morning session to order at 9:00 a.m. and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Mario Seiglie joined about an hour later because of teaching an ABC class.

Mr. Webber welcomed everyone and commented on how wonderful the retreat was the day before (Sunday) with all the Council members. He remarked how productive and beautiful it was to see God’s Spirit in action. To remind everyone of the spiritual tone of the meetings he turned to Philippians 2:1-5. He also read Psalm:119:103-105 about our love for God’s law and God’s word being our standard and the Bible being the foundation of knowledge. He then read through the mission and vision statements.

The last Council meeting minutes were approved as well as the agenda for the week’s meetings.

President’s Report—Victor Kubik

President Victor Kubik greeted everyone and also commented on how wonderful and productive the retreat with the Council was.

Mr. Kubik began by thanking God for His goodness and mercy in direction and providing resources to the Church to continue to preach the gospel and for the spirit of peace that exists on all levels. He also thanked the ministry and all the employees for their tireless work.

He covered brief updates regarding Media and Communication Services, Ministerial and Member Services and Financial Services of the Church that are covered in more detail later in the meetings.

Some of the other items that were covered were:

Modest bonuses and premiums for all employees were given at the end of November.
Planned Giving Brochure, which helps to answer often-asked questions about wills and other future giving.
Two Youth Corps missions, one to Eagle’s Nest Orphanage in Guatemala and the other to northern Brazil, where there is an agricultural program helping our remote brethren.
Health of our ministry is a concern right now.
The Philippines office is moving from Davao to Manila.
Larry Darden and Victor Kubik will attend the National Council meeting in the Philippines on January 11th and prior to that visit our brethren in Hong Kong for three days.
The Content Committee is working on a new songbook and considering a supplement of new songs for possible integration after seeing how they are received.

Mr. Kubik concluded his section by referring to the various communications he has with the Church and readership through letters and blogs. He expressed how happy he is with the United Church of God and our direction.

Operation Manager Reports:

Ministerial and Member Services (MMS)—Chris Rowland

Chris Rowland was filling in for Roy Holladay, who was traveling to see his brother-in-law in the hospital.

Mr. Rowland went through describing various activities:

Ambassador Bible College (ABC): The 16th year of ABC began on Aug. 17 with 30 students.
Ministerial Online Training: This is the third year of ministerial online training that began on Aug. 24. There are 18 students signed up for the pastoral care class and 24 signed up for the Epistles of Paul class by Don Ward.
Labor Day Leadership Workshop: From Aug. 29 to Sept. 1, the 13th annual Labor Day Leadership Workshop was conducted in Cincinnati. This year, there were 26 men and 20 wives participating.
Feast of Tabernacles: We counted over 13,500 as observing the Feast or receiving the DVD to listen at home because they were unable to travel to the Feast. This was 1 percent higher than our total for last year. This year instead of the video we tried a live webcast, which had overwhelmingly positive comments. We anticipate trying something similar next year.
Deuteronomy 6 Model: We recently completed the roll-out of the Deuteronomy 6 model of youth instruction. The theme of this year’s Family Study Guides, “Making God Real,” covers the foundational doctrines of the Bible. The first two guides can be found under the “Family Education” link at members.ucg.org, along with other resources for the program.
Camp Conference: This year’s camp conference was held at the home office from Nov. 10-12. The camp directors reviewed the past season with the goal of improving the camp experience for next year.
Leadership Workshop in Youngstown, Ohio: We have been holding regional “mini” leadership workshops as we travel to hold ministerial conferences. We held our third such workshop on Nov. 16, near Youngstown, Ohio. In these regional workshops, we make sure to cover different material than we do at the workshop that we hold at the home office over Labor Day weekend, so that attendees will get new material if they attend both. We had 84 in attendance at the Youngstown workshop, which was an amazing turnout. We had a cross section of ages who attended the workshop from teenagers to retirees. The emphasis was on Christ-like service based on humility.
Area Ministerial Conference in Youngstown, Ohio: We held our most recent area ministerial conference near Youngstown, Ohio, from Nov. 16-18. We had 24 ministers and 20 wives in attendance at the conference.
Sabbath Attendance: Sabbath service attendance in the United States is approximately where it was last year at this time. Attendance over the summer was lower, approximately 7,300, due to summer camps and other activities, but has returned to over 7,600 for September and October.
MMS Statistics: We have had three new elders ordained since the last Council meetings, bringing us to 362 elders currently credentialed by the Church, 281 in the United States and 81 in other countries. We have had several pastors begin new Bible study groups in outlying areas, bringing our number of congregations and Bible study groups in the United States to 198.
Retirement and Training: We are looking at eight potential retirees for 2015, which means that we have some work to do to identify and train replacements. Since our last meetings, we have hired Andy Diemer as an associate pastor for Worcester, Massachusetts, and Seabrook, New Hampshire, working with Len Martin. The plan is for him to replace Mr. Martin, who will be reassigned to the Columbus, Ohio, area next spring, as Vernon Hargrove’s successor.
New Projects: We have been discussing several new projects, including the feasibility of publishing a hard-copy magazine or newsletter for the youth and teens in the Church. We have also had some discussions on establishing some educational material for our young adults, possibly in the form of Web seminars and discussions that bring together groups of young adults at several different geographic locations on a regular basis.

Financial Services—Rick Shabi

Rick Shabi began his report by stating that the Church’s financial condition continues to be strong and that the trends for the first five months of the fiscal year, from July through November, are favorable. God is to be thanked for the continuing “higher than budget” tithes, Holy Day offerings, and other donations received by the Church.

The fiscal year-to-date Financial Report was distributed, and several factors and indicators were presented and discussed. Overall, the Church is running well above budget projections for this year, as well as over prior year results.

It was also reported that the independent audit had been completed and the report received. The Church received an “unqualified” opinion from the auditors and no internal control weaknesses were noted. The partner from the external audit firm was scheduled to make a presentation to the Council later that day. A copy of the complete audit will be published in United News.

Finally, an update on the Planned Giving program and accompanying brochure was presented. Mr. Shabi commented that this program is designed to offer support and assistance to those who would like to include the Church in their estate through a bequest in their will, as a beneficiary on a life or other insurance policy, or if someone wanted to donate stock, bonds, or mutual fund shares instead of cash. Comments from the Council were solicited, and it was stated that the brochure would then be finalized and be made available.

Media and Communications Services—Peter Eddington

Peter Eddington went through some statistics:

United News circulation is the highest it’s been in 45 months.
Coworker count is now the highest it’s ever been.
2013 was a five-year record for the number of personal correspondence answers sent, and 2014 is on track to be an all-time record.
Magazine insert cards and literature response cards processed for 2013 were the highest in five years, and 2014 is on track to surpass that.
Response to our subscriber development letter offering our Tools for Spiritual Growth booklet last December is more than 21 percent. This equals the highest response to a subscriber offer back in 2002.
Literature responses to the president’s last three coworker/donor letters are 10 percent of the combined 23,438 letters mailed. Financial contributions are 8.6 percent of the total letters mailed, adding up to more than $100,000. This is about four times the cost of printing and mailing the letters.
The president mailed a subscriber letter to all 151,275 U.S. Good News subscribers in November, which also included our membership. Including our members gives them a glimpse into our subscriber development process. Responses to the literature offered (Are We Living in the End Time?) are beginning to come in this week, including many with helpful donations to further the work of preaching the gospel. Donations received have already exceeded the printing and mailing costs of the letter (approximately $48,000).
The French Bonnes Nouvelles magazine print run now equals the highest on record.
Beyond Today responses are 17 percent higher for January through November compared to last year. The total number of responses has already surpassed 2013, with the month of December yet to go.
The cost per response for Beyond Today so far this year is less than it was for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, and it may end up being the lowest since the 2010-2011 year.

Mr. Eddington then discussed trends and future planning for the media department.

Committee Chairman Reports:

Ethics Committee—Mario Seiglie

The committee was working to fill the vacancy of one of the two Elder’s Forum (EF) monitors. As requested by the Council, a message was sent to the GCE for volunteers or recommendations and from the list of elders compiled, the Council selected Richard Kennebeck to fill the vacancy. The other EF monitor is Ed Dowd.

Media Committee—Scott Ashley

Scott Ashley reported that he had updated the committee on issues related to international areas impacted by our media. Some international areas are affected by anti-discrimination and hate speech laws in those countries.

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee—Bill Bradford

The committee looks at where we have been and the future planning. The Strategic Plan is part of this as we look to God for what He wants done. It comes down to what we do, but also what we must become.

Roles and Rules Committee—Roc Corbett

The biggest and most important current project in the Roles and Rules Committee is a thorough review and updating of the Bylaws. This past May the GCE overwhelmingly adopted the amended Constitution, and now it is time to finalize the preparation of the Bylaws for presentation to the GCE for possible adoption next May. In that regard, this week the Bylaws will be presented for review to the Council. Also being worked on are two documents that we hope to present for discussion this week, if time permits. These documents pertain to the work of the Expelled Elder Appeal Committee, and are in need of updating. The titles of these documents are “Suspension and Expulsion from the GCE” and “Appeal of Suspension or Expulsion from the GCE.”

The Roles and Rules chairman is also the liaison between the GCE Responsibilities Advisory Committee (GRAC) and the Council. Dan Dowd is the chairman of the GRAC, and has submitted the final report of the GRAC to the Council. As soon as time permits, the Council will review the report, write a complementary letter and send these to the GCE.

The ongoing and future projects of this committee are many. Some of them are:

Presenting of amendments from GCE members that have been brought forward by the Amendment Committee for Council review during the December meeting.
We have prepared a “Procedure for Amending the Fundamental Beliefs” and will present this for consideration at the next opportunity.
The library of approved documents is under construction, and is now officially open on the ministerial website. An announcement will be sent out soon with details.
Drafting a policy and procedure for nominating and selecting the Council chairman and the president.

Education Committee—Rex Sexton

The committee has heard positive responses on the Christian Education program and its Deuteronomy 6 program, which is currently on the second month. They are also working on the appraisal of ABC with the surveys that were sent out. They received 125 responses from alumni and church pastors.

Doctrine Committee—John Elliott

One of the primary responsibilities of the Doctrine Committee is in the statement: “Preservation of the truth is paramount to the mission of the UCG.” The Church welcomes the submission of doctrinal and prophecy papers from the ministry and membership and has established an orderly process for the review of papers dealing with these topics. The committee is working on several papers including the Last Great Day/Eighth Day study paper among others.

After a brief break the Council went into executive session until lunch.

External Audit Report—Bill Bradford

Following lunch, Bill Bradford, Chairman of the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, introduced Kerry Roe, who is a partner with Clark Schaefer Hackett—the independent accounting firm the Church engages to perform the annual audit. Mr. Roe made a presentation to the Council on financial highlights from the recent audit, showing how assets had increased. He commented that the Church’s condition is strong and that the audit went very well, with no internal control weaknesses noted and no needed adjusting of entries.

Strategic Exercise: Review of Members, Elders and Employee Surveys—Bill Bradford

The attendees, elders and employee surveys were initially reviewed in open session. There was much discussion about the input from the surveys and what can be done to improve. Certain key comments from the surveys were shared beyond the bars, graphs and figures of the surveys. Two major focus comments centered on the following: 1) The desire of the membership for increased spiritual edification via literature and programming, 2) Concern that the ministry is being stretched thin by current circumstances and what can be responsibly done about it with our current size and environment.

The Council went into executive session to further discuss the surveys.

Strategic Exercise: Review of Vision Statement, Guiding Principles—Bill Bradford

The Council began to go through the vision and mission statements and the Strategic Plan’s guiding principles to look at possible improvements and analyzed them with Scripture. There was much discussion and input as they went through these statements.

The Council adjourned at 6:24 p.m.

-end-

Council Reporter

Shawn Cortelyou

Council of Elders Meeting Report - December 8, 2014