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

Thursday, May 13, 1999 — Cincinnati, Ohio

Thursday’s session began with a presentation on Strategic Planning. Committee chairman Roy Holladay asked each of the three operations managers to give an overview of their areas of responsibility. Richard Kennebeck, responsible for church information systems, detailed the church’s situation regarding the Y2K issue, and Mr. Holladay led a discussion on balanced and wise Y2K preparation. An executive session dealing with personnel issues concluded the day’s meeting.

Here's the strategic plan Roy Holladay

Strategic Planning—Ministerial Services

Richard Pinelli discussed the current church situation from Ministerial Services’ viewpoint, keying his report to the points of the Strategic Plan. Dissatisfaction with the direction of the church led some ministers to choose to leave our fellowship in the past year; a predictable result was an improvement in overall ministerial morale. The year 1999 may become known as the "year of the policy," reflecting increasing stability when so much time is not required to deal with crises. That time can be directed toward crafting much-needed administrative guidelines. The Ministerial Services team members and various Council members had to travel frequently to troubled areas during earlier times of trauma in the church; while some have left our fellowship, conflict resolution has dropped off tremendously of late.

Initial festival registration for 1999 stands at 10,480 and is expected to reach 11,000 (U.S. and Canada). Past experience indicates the final attendance will be higher. The biggest festival planning challenge involves balancing ministerial manpower at each Feast site.

Education program projects are all progressing. The issue of educating and developing an effective ministry is rising to the fore this year. The Ministerial Quarterly provides elements of that education and development; Atlanta pastor Dave Johnson’s work and Sacramento pastor Clyde Kilough’s seminar, both on the pastoral epistles, are further tools. The late-winter pocket conferences generated good feedback in general. Developing job descriptions for the ministry is progressing well, with an evaluation system next on the docket.

The Bible Study Course, special projects, and Fundamentals of Belief sermon tape project are all part of the General Education program. The flagship of our Youth Education program, United Youth Camps, continues to be one of the church’s most popular education programs. Jim and Judy Servidio and a team of church members are progressing in the development of Sabbath school lessons available to any church area.

Focused Education projects include two recent articles on alcoholism, one article on abuse, and split sermons on prejudice recorded by Kevin Epps and Dave Myers.

Mr. Pinelli’s conclusion was that after navigating the difficulties experienced from April to June, 1998, remarkable progress occurred.

Strategic Planning—Finances

Operations manager Tom Kirkpatrick spoke next. The first segment of his report dealt with operational issues, summarized as "a year to weather the storms that we encountered, and to establish a base for future stability and growth. With the merciful help of God, both happened. In the midst of all the challenges, significant progress was realized with regard to our primary operational goals."

Highlights from Dr. Kirkpatrick’s report:

• New accounting software now in use suits our needs better than past systems.
• Auditors from PriceWaterhouseCoopers will audit our financial statements within a few weeks. We expect unqualified opinions for 1998 and 1999.
• Excellent input from a field ministry task force on housing subsidy and expense accounts helped establish new policy.
• Regular financial reports from management are given to the Council, as requested some time ago.
• Net fund balances at March 31, 1999 stood at about $1.5 million.
• The CPA firm of McNeely and McNeely, in Hawkins, Texas, handles our human resource function.
• Richard Kennebeck manages information systems for the church, with a current focus on Y2K compliance added to his usual duties.

Dr. Kirkpatrick addressed one issue from the Strategic Plan, issue #7: how will we collect and process contributions? The actual trend over the last year shows fewer and fewer congregations collecting tithes locally. In the last six months, only 25 congregations have sent repeated donations to the Home Office; approximately 90% of U.S. congregations receive a Home Office subsidy to pay local expenses. At the suggestion of the Finance Committee of the Council, Dr. Kirkpatrick will ask our auditors what obligations the Home Office of the church has in seeking feedback regarding the funds it distributes for local church expenses.

Strategic Planning—President

President Les McCullough broached the subject of cable access TV. Should this be our primary representation and TV presence? Church areas wishing to use cable access TV provided by either of the two church areas currently producing programs must come through the Media Committee of the Council and the Home Office. Galen Morrison, an elder in Beloit, Wisconsin, is currently working on a new series of TV spot ads and on developing half-hour TV programs. A team of ministers and members based in Portland, Oregon, currently produces TV programs as well. At issue is whether the Council wishes the Home Office to develop and administer such a program more directly. This is a policy decision, and therefore should be decided at the Council level, not by Home Office administration.

Mr. McCullough briefly updated the Council on two manpower issues. Mike Bennett has sold his home in Idaho and purchased one in Cincinnati. He will shortly arrive to begin his new job editing the church’s internal publications. Second, sending Jeff Caudle to New Zealand for three years on a "missionary visa" will meet the church’s need for a pastor, as Mr. McCullough noted in a recent letter. The Home Office will employ Mr. Caudle, with the church in New Zealand meeting his job-related expenses. His experiences in Thailand in past years will help in this international assignment.

Strategic Planning—Summary

Mr. Holladay summarized, from Regional Pastors’ responses to his questionnaire, the major issues and challenges facing the church at this time, greatest strengths and weaknesses of the church, and recommended actions to strengthen the church. Mr. Holladay led the Council through a further discussion of the details of these materials. Mr. Antion suggested addressing the key issues facing the church through a proactive approach in recorded sermons to be played in all churches. These messages would deal with the members’ concerns before they became crises. Several Council members commented about the importance of helping ground brethren in the basic truths of God’s Word. They need to know how they’re going to cope with life, noted Don Ward. How does God’s Word help them do that? That’s the challenge facing the ministry. To face that challenge, the church has strengths to draw on, such as the maturity of the membership and ministry, doctrinal integrity, and the gradually snowballing impact of the work being done.

Strategic Planning—Y2K

Mr. Kennebeck updated the Council on the Y2K problem, expanding on its impact on the church. The church has all its major computer applications in compliance but one (cc:Mail, the church’s internal e-mail system). Problems continue to surface in various computer systems, but Mr. Kennebeck stated that 65% of companies with programs affected so far have fixed their problems within one day. Only 12% have had problems for over one week. "We simply have to get past that one week in January, 2000," he stated. To bring the e-mail system into compliance, the church will switch over to an Internet-based system later this year. E-mail addresses will remain the same for all church employees. Updating address lists poses the greatest challenge, but this should be resolved by the end of August, the target date for Y2K compliance of the church e-mail system. This changeover will greatly reduce the demands on Mr. Kennebeck’s time.

Aaron Dean and Burk McNair

Mr. Holladay raised the issue of dealing with this problem in local church areas. A congregational plan to handle any natural disaster (consider the Oklahoma and Kansas tornadoes) could be adapted to deal with potential difficulties from Y2K problems. Victor Kubik expressed concern that precautions be taken in a wise manner, so as not to have an unbalanced approach dominate any plans. "Just because there are people out there who are alarmists doesn’t lessen our responsibility as a Council to take care of the church," stated Gary Antion. Mr. Antion reported that the Toronto, Ontario, congregation he pastors has simply tried to make common-sense preparations to ensure all the brethren are looked after in the event of temporary power outages or similar disruptions.

Executive Session

The second day of meetings ended with an executive session to discuss personnel issues.

-Doug Johnson

© 1999 United Church of God, an International Association

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