United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report
August 25, 2004—Cincinnati, Ohio

Chairman Clyde Kilough opened the session promptly at 9 a.m., commenting that the agenda would provide the Council the rare opportunity of time for informal discussions following the meetings.

The first order of business was the approval of minutes for the May 4 to 6, 2004, face-to-face meetings and the July 7, 2004, teleconference.

Since this is the first meeting of the new fiscal year, as mandated by resolution, Mr. Kilough asked Bob Dick, chairman of the Ethics, Roles and Rules Committee to read the Council Code of Ethics to the Council.

Also by resolution, the operation managers are to give the Council a report of the previous year's activities at the first meeting of the fiscal year. First up was the Church's president, Roy Holladay.

President's Report

Mr. Holladay began his report by summarizing his recent Church visit to Ghana. Along with Jim Servidio and Melvin Rhodes, Mr. Holladay visited Ghana during their youth summer camp program. There were 110 campers and 30 staff members.

While in Ghana, Mr. Holladay met with all 12 of the local pastors and 20 of the 23 elders. Mr. Holladay gave presentations on the subjects of what is a real Christian (a relevant topic because there is so much other "Christian" missionary work in the region) and on the importance of everyone speaking the same thing.

Mr. Holladay described his visit to a local orphanage. As a public service project, donations have been made to provide improvements to the restroom and shower facilities. During this trip, two Youth Corps volunteers installed curtain rods and curtains to provide more privacy in the bathroom areas.

On Pentecost 2004, Mr. Holladay visited congregations in Montana, where he found the local members to be very supportive and hospitable. Mr. Holladay also visited the Hye Sierra United Youth Camp in California and was very impressed with the campers and staff. He was pleased to note that the teens seemed to be very interested in being involved in the Church. He also gave a sermon in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and participated in marriage seminars.

Turning his attention to the Ambassador Bible Center, Mr. Holladay pointed out that ABC recently graduated its fifth class. This year there were 35 graduates, bringing the total in five years to approximately 175. Students this year distinguished themselves as especially dedicated to the Church and were service oriented. Eleven ABC students were baptized during the course of the academic year. The graduating class donated an enclosed bookcase to the ABC library, which will be used to store rare and valuable books. One of the highlights of the year was the annual talent show and auction for LifeNets, which raised some $2,800, to be used to help provide scholarships for UCG students from developing areas.

So far 23 students have been accepted for next year's ABC program and five other applications are being processed. There is normally an influx of applications after the Feast of Tabernacles, so ABC is on pace for 35 to 40 students for 2005.

Gary Antion and Ralph Levy just completed the annual one-week ABC sampler. This year there were 38 participants from 10 U.S. states, some of whom were repeat students from previous sessions.

The 10th summer of United Youth Camps has just been completed, with approximately 600 campers and 300 staff participating—a slight decline from 2003 because there was no Challenger camp in the Tetons this summer. Mr. Holladay commented that summer camps are second only to the Feast of Tabernacles as the highlight of the year for many of our teens and young adults. Much good fruit has been borne by the camps. One of the "problems" this year was that for some of the camps there were more staff applicants than there were positions.

The Church's "Good Works Program" was started this year. Completed projects include providing a roof for a church building in Ghana and the purchase of a van. Current projects include the purchase of food reserves and water purification systems for members in Kenya and the construction of two church buildings in Cameroon.

The first education conference was held in March of this year, with 23 participants. Based on topics discussed in the meetings, Mr. Holladay intends to develop a five- to 10-year plan that will be evaluated and adjusted each year.

In media efforts, the Church experimented this year with short brochure-style "first-contact literature" distributed on college campuses. There was very little response, indicating how difficult it is to attract readers in that age group.

Two new booklets were published this year: Jesus Christ: The Real Story and The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. Each had an initial printing of 80,000 and will need to be reprinted soon. In all some 440,000 booklets were reprinted in the fiscal year just completed, bringing the total to over 3 million copies in United's short history.

Additional media accomplishments this year include the inception of Vertical Thought magazine and its corresponding Web site, as well as an updated Good News magazine Web site.

Advancements are constantly being made in Internet and electronic media in preaching the gospel. For example there are now 9,578 UCG Web site update subscribers—a weekly opportunity to contact our Web site users at no additional cost. In addition, 8,074 receive the UCG member e-mail updates.

Mr. Holladay concluded his presentation by discussing some of the challenges and opportunities the Church faces today.

One of our greatest opportunities is the continuing development of our teens and young adults. Trends indicate that the Church is retaining a higher percentage of our young people now than in the past, and many are anxious to be involved with and participate in the Church.

There are many growth opportunities in international areas, where the greatest limitation is manpower and the amount of budget available to support the growth. As an example, note Mr. Franks' summary of a recent trip to Nigeria, which is included later in this report.

The Church has faced challenges over the last few months, as well. The home office administrative staff has been discussing how to deal with these situations on two levels. The first is how to make information available. Personnel issues can be delicate and any public discussion of them must take into account biblical, moral and legal standards. Recent communication on the subjects of the winter family tournament and the evangelism conference are examples of a more proactive approach that is being taken. Consideration is also being given to developing teams that are trained in conflict resolution that could be sent to help mediate situations that arise.

Mr. Holladay pointed out that another challenge facing the Church in doing its work is that, while we have a great deal to offer through our media and Internet efforts, there are many other organizations competing for people's attention and interest. We live in a culture that is much more diverse than in the 1950s and 1960s. Our message needs to be tailored to reach many different audiences.

Treasurer's Report

Tom Kirkpatrick presented the Council with a detailed final report on the budget and the auditor's report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004. Auditors once again gave the Church an unqualified ("clean") financial report.

The 2003-2004 fiscal year ended with income at just less than half of one percent (0.4 percent) above the budgeted amount and expenses at 98 percent of the budget. This enabled the Church to add about $500,000 to its cash reserves. By this coming fall, it appears that the Church will be able to reach the goal (established by Council resolution) of establishing a cash reserve equal to 10 weeks of expenses.

Dr. Kirkpatrick reported that two budget categories finished the year over budget—health care and insurance, and international subsidies. The following expense categories completed the year under budget:

• Council of Elders
• Home office
• Public proclamation
• Ministerial Services
• Assistance fund
• Festival fund
• Matching 403b
• General Conference of Elders

A full report on the 2003-2004 fiscal year will be published in an upcoming issue of United News.

The budget for the current fiscal year calls for a 2.25 percent increase in total income over last year's total. Compared to the first eight weeks of last year, the income for this year-to-date has been stable, with a slight upward trend. Income shows a 1.12 percent increase (through Thursday, August 26). We are early enough in the fiscal year that these percentages can change quite a bit from day to day, but the overall trend has been encouraging.

Ministerial Services

Richard Pinelli reported that there are currently 93 U.S. field pastors, serving 223 congregations—an average of about 2.5 congregations per pastor. Average Holy Day attendance is approximately 12,500 and average Sabbath attendance is 10,200 to 10,400. There is about a 2 percent growth in attendance over the previous year.

In the 2003-2004 fiscal year there was one regional pastor's conference and a one-day conference at 15 regional U.S. locations. Mr. Pinelli stated he is hoping to be able to plan regional three-day conferences in the coming year. Conference topics will include, among others, godly leadership and improving people skills.

Ministerial Services finished the fiscal year $258,000 under budget due to fewer transfers than last year and because qualified candidates have not been available to fill all open positions. There were two new-hires last year. Mr. Pinelli said he is hoping to fill a Ministerial Services position at the home office. He would like to hire someone with field pastor experience, but that will be difficult since the Church is already short on pastors to serve the congregations.

Personal correspondence continues to be provided by Cecil Maranville, who answers about 100 letters per month.

Festival administration added Alaska as a Feast of Tabernacles site for this year and is working on finding a replacement for the Hagerstown, Maryland, location.

Mr. Pinelli asked Mr. Franks and Mr. Horchak to summarize the general education and youth education efforts respectively.

Mr. Franks reported that much of the general education effort comes out of the home office in the form of sermon tapes and ABC class tapes. The ABC instructors provide an annual sampler at the home office and several mini-samplers in local church areas. Video Bible studies are being prepared on the topics of marriage, biblical textual development, the intertestamental period and the covenants. The next ABC class tapes that will be sent to the congregations are the General Epistles and the class on Daniel and Revelation.

Mr. Horchak summarized the youth education efforts, which include United Youth Camps, Vertical Thought magazine and Web site, United Youth Corps projects, the development of a parenting seminar video, young adults and teen weekend seminars, a young adults challenger camp, development of the "growing kids God's way" program and a young adults Feast of Tabernacles seminar titled "God, Politics and the World Tomorrow."

Mr. Pinelli reported that the ministerial education program has produced audiotapes of guidelines for baptism and premarriage counseling, in addition to the marriage seminar offered by Gary Antion during the 2003 GCE. Articles on improving speaking skills continue to be published in the Ministerial Quarterly. A survey has also recently been sent to the elders for input on the effectiveness of and suggestions for the further development of the Ministerial Quarterly.

Mr. Pinelli commented that there will be four different kinds of studies/seminars at the U.S. Feast of Tabernacles sites this year: a general Bible study, teen study, young adults study and a ministerial seminar.

This year's third annual Leadership Workshop will take place over the Labor Day weekend. There will be 13 couples at the workshop, bringing the total for the three years to 54. There have been good fruits from the workshops. Seven of those who participated in previous years have been hired into the ministry and two were ordained elders.

Media and Communications Services

Media and Communications Services operation manager Peter Eddington provided the Council with a detailed summary of efforts and progress in the 2003-2004 fiscal year.

• The Monday morning home office Compass Check has become a popular and effective Web site feature. Each week an encouraging message is presented on keeping our "spiritual compass" focused on God's way of life. The video is posted on the Web site for four weeks, rotating out when a new video is added. The number of views has grown from 580 in May to over 2,200 by July.

• Total incoming mail for the fiscal year was 466,148—a 27 percent increase over the previous year. In addition, 449,553 individual pieces of literature were mailed out of our mailroom, which is a 45 percent increase over last fiscal year.

• Two new booklets were published during the year, The Middle East in Bible Prophecy and Jesus Christ: The Real Story. Eighty thousand of each were printed and most have already been distributed. The Church now offers 31 booklets. During the year 440,000 copies of various booklets were reprinted, for a total of more than 3 million since United began.

• During the fiscal year 160,000 copies of the Bible Study Course were reprinted—bringing the total copies of all lessons to just over 1 million. As of July 31 there are 9,852 students enrolled. It is also anticipated that 3,000 to 3,500 readers will subscribe to the 12-month tape program offered to BSC graduates, in addition to the 4,012 current participants. As that one-year audiotape program is completed, subscribers are offered any or all of four further options: 1) a subscription to World News and Prophecy, 2) regular sermon tapes from a congregation nearest them, 3) to have a pastor contact them, and 4) the address of the United pastor and the address of the congregation nearest them. Since the inception of this offer, 2,475 out of 7,437 audiotape graduates responded to one or more of the four options (a 33.3 percent response).

• Since 2000, 93 27-minute Good News radio programs have been recorded, resulting in over 10,000 responses—an average of 49 per program.

• The Good News magazine subscriber list continues to grow. The total print run has been reduced as newsstand and waiting copies have been cut back. However, the number of household subscribers has grown from 249,364 for the July/August 2002 issue to 275,254 in July/August 2003 and 293,057 for July/August 2004.

• Print promotions for The Good News went into 7.5 million homes last fiscal year. This year the target is a smaller number (4.6 million) but should net strong results as advertising is focused on the young family demographic.

• Internet requests for The Good News and other literature totaled 122,827 (an increase of 133 percent over the previous fiscal year). Advertising using Overture.com has been very effective. In addition, the Internet continues to provide thousands of Good News subscribers at no cost as they find our Web site through various search engines, from TV ads, radio ads, etc.

• E-mail update utilities have also shown significant growth. There are currently 9,578 subscribers to our www.ucg.org Web site updates, a 66 percent increase over a year ago. In addition, 8,074 receive UCG member updates (a 136 percent increase over a year ago). The number of subscribers receiving Vertical Thought e-mail updates has increased to 1,073 (a 9 percent increase over a year ago). In addition, 10,264 currently receive a monthly "Good News Reader e-Letter," compared to just 582 subscribers just 15 weeks ago.

• In the 2003-2004 fiscal year, 1,131 messages were answered by the Personal Correspondence e-mail team—which consists of 23 pastors, each volunteering for one- or two-month shifts.

• There are currently 5,828 donors and 2,556 coworkers on file, contributing 8 percent of the Church's total income.

• As of July 2004, a total of 16,278 consider themselves part of United (baptized members, non-baptized adults who attend United congregations, non-baptized young adults, teens and preteens). That number represents a 12 percent increase over the total of 14,972 in July 2000.

• Cable-access television programs produced by local congregations in Beloit, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon, continue to provide Good News subscribers and requests for various booklets at a very favorable cost per response.

• To date, $30,000 has been contributed to the restricted fund for the proposed Media Center.

• Subscriber development efforts continue to provide letters and literature offers on a regular basis. In October 2003 a letter was sent to 126,000 Good News readers offering the Bible Study Course, resulting in 11,218 requests for the course (a 9 percent response rate). In March 2004 an offer of the Jesus Christ: The Real Story booklet was sent to 165,000 readers and 33,464 requests were returned (a 21 percent response). Three promotional letters are planned for the current fiscal year.

• World News and Prophecy subscriptions rose to 26,273—a 24 percent increase over one year ago.

• United News subscriptions stand at 14,015—a 9 percent increase over last year.

• The Media and Communications Services operation completed the 2003-2004 fiscal year 2.1 percent under budget ($77,805).

Report on Trip to Nigeria

Mr. Kilough asked Mr. Franks to report on a trip that he and Mr. Horchak recently made to Nigeria.

Fred Kellers is the pastor who serves the area of Nigeria. In 1999 there were 15 United members throughout the country. Another 16 were baptized by the Feast of Tabernacles that year. Attendance at the 1999 Feast was 31. By 2003, the number keeping the Feast in Nigeria had grown to 120, and in 2004 attendance could reach 200.

Early in 2003 a group called the Sabbath Church of God (with a total of 400 members in five congregations around the city of Owerri) contacted Mr. Kellers. Although they had leaders, there were no elders in their group. After learning about the Feast of Tabernacles, several of them attended the Feast in 2003. As a result of their contact with us, several members from the Sabbath Church of God came to consider themselves as part of the United Church of God. They began attending Sabbath services under the direction of leaders from the nearest United congregation in Benin City, Peter Aluyi, a deacon, and longtime members James Aghimien and Israel Igdaliah.

Mr. Kellers asked Mr. Franks and Mr. Horchak to travel with him to Nigeria to conduct a series of seminars for selected leaders from among the former Sabbath Church of God. Mr. Franks and Mr. Horchak spent 10 days in Nigeria and visited five congregations near Owerri, with a total attendance of 180. These are all new people who have departed from their former group, accepted the Holy Days and other teachings and expressed their sincere desire to be considered members of United. While it remains to be seen exactly how many will continue and remain part of UCG, it now appears that there could be as many as 200 at the two Feast sites in Nigeria this year. The men also visited the United congregation in Lagos.

A full report of the trip will be included in the next issue of United News.

Amendment Process Recommendations

Mr. Dick introduced Roc Corbett, who recently resigned his position as chairman of the Amendment Committee after serving in that capacity for six years. Mr. Dick emphasized that Mr. Corbett has handled with integrity and dedication one of the most difficult responsibilities in the committee system.

The Council of Elders invited Mr. Corbett to today's meeting to afford him an opportunity to share his experiences, observations and suggestions regarding the amendment process. Mr. Corbett pointed out that, in one sense, the amendment process is a small part of what we do to work together, but that it is important in our service to the Church.

As he started his presentation, Mr. Corbett provided each Council member a copy of Bylaw Article 12, which describes the amendment process. He then led the Council through a detailed review of the bylaw, pointing out instances in which the Council had not carefully followed the procedures it outlines and offering personal observations on how the Council could work more effectively with the Amendment Committee.

In particular, Mr. Corbett urged the Council to be more attentive to deadlines and other details of the process. For example, careful attention to the timeline in paragraph 12.2.2.4 (Opportunity for Elders to Suggest Edits) would eliminate many of the problems that have occurred in the past. For the upcoming amendment season, the 10-day deadline for distribution of amendments and "Statements of Justification" to the General Conference is September 17, 2004, and the 30-day period for communicating directly with the author(s) of an amendment expires on October 17. Of course the fall Holy Days fall within that period, which will require the Council and all elders to make a special effort to meet these deadlines.

He also reminded the Council to communicate to the Amendment Committee if it decides not to endorse an amendment (paragraphs 12.2.2.8 and 12.2.2.9) so that the committee can take the necessary action. Last year, for example, such information was not clearly communicated to the committee, which led to some confusion and difficulty.

Mr. Corbett's observations and suggestions to the Council were made in a very positive and respectful manner. He emphasized throughout his presentation that his purpose in highlighting the difficulties that had arisen during his term as chairman was to help the Amendment Committee and the Council work together more effectively. The Council was very receptive to his comments.

After citing his concerns and observations, Mr. Corbett concluded by listing eight recommendations for Council consideration, which he feels would improve their interaction with the Amendment Committee:

• As the amendment season begins, each Council member should carefully review Article 12 of the bylaws, inserting dates on the timeline and highlighting paragraphs that describe Council involvement.

• The Council should appoint one of its members to remind the others of the tasks and deadlines so that all the requirements will be met.

• No Council member should communicate with a member of the Amendment Committee or to the author(s) of an amendment as if on behalf of the entire Council unless asked to do so by the Council.

• The Council should repeal the "Statements of Justification, Concern and Congregational Input Guidelines" document. Mr. Corbett stated that it is not in compliance with the governing documents because it introduced a level of review that is not included in the process, it established a 15-day revision period that does not fit within the amendment timeline and it called for a different method of summarizing statements of concern and congregational input.

• The Council should consider drawing on the experience and expertise of the Amendment Committee much more than in the past. Communicating sooner and more often with the committee will afford them the opportunity to make helpful suggestions to the Council.

• All Council interpretations of the bylaws should be catalogued and footnoted into the text of the bylaws. The General Conference should be informed of the Council interpretations of the bylaws.

• Interpretations of the bylaws should only be changed by the amendment process.

• No Council member should pressure the Amendment Committee to reject or withdraw a proposed amendment that has met all the requirements to be placed on the ballot.

A brief discussion followed Mr. Corbett's presentation.

Leon Walker thanked Mr. Corbett for his presentation and suggested that the timeframe for the development of an amendment be extended from 250 days to 280. Council consideration of amendments would then begin with the August meetings and there would not be scheduling conflicts with the fall Holy Days.

Mr. Corbett commented that he agreed such a change would be helpful, but it would have to be accomplished by an amendment. He also suggested that the timeline be specified by calendar dates rather than by numbers of days.

Mr. Franks suggested that a representative of the Amendment Committee be present during the Council meeting when proposed amendments are discussed. Mario Seiglie and Mr. Horchak also expressed their support of the suggestion.

Mr. Kilough stated that the Council will further discuss the amendment process later in these meetings.

The Council concluded its business in executive session and adjourned for the day at 5:05 p.m.

Don Henson

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© 2004 United Church of God, an International Association