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

Friday, December 7, 2001 - Clearwater, Florida

Friday, the Council of Elders dealt with miscellaneous committee matters, reviewed a proposal on how to more effectively use the Internet as a vehicle in preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and discussed possible ways to honor those who have given 40 years of service to the Church.

Committee Reports

Chairman Roy Holladay introduced committee matters for the day by reviewing committee memberships, to ensure Council members are able to contribute to committee work as effectively as possible. No changes were made at this time.

Leon Walker, Doctrine Committee chairman, updated the Council on the work of the committee. Melvin Rhodes has been added to the Prophecy Subcommittee. Jim Franks, chairman of the Doctrine Advisory Subcommittee, has requested additional help due to the increased workload of the subcommittee. A study paper on the Covenants is nearly ready for review by the entire Council, and will be presented at or before the next face-to-face meetings in Cincinnati February 27-March 5, 2002. Two other study projects are in the hands of the subcommittee at present ö the issue of voting in political elections, and a review of the observance of new moons.

Aaron Dean, chairman of the Strategic Planning/Finance Committee, reported on that committeeâs deliberations held before the Council meetings began Wednesday. He urged clarifying policies regarding Council travel budgets, and asked that Victor Kubik keep track of and coordinate international visits by Council members, as he has Council membersâ domestic travel and church area visits.

Mr. Dean also asked the full Council to recall its earlier discussion of inserting $50,000 into the budget for fiscal 2002-2003 for purchase or construction of local church buildings. There was some discussion on this, as there is an administrative policy currently in place on construction of church buildings, which some viewed as sufficient without a separate budget item. In a straw poll, Messrs. Antion, Dean, Holladay, Jewell, Kilough, Kubik, Seiglie, Thompson, and Ward favored including this amount as a budget item in the Councilâs proposed budget for the next fiscal year, Mr. McCullough and Mr. Walker opposed it, and Mr. Dick abstained.

Mr. Dean then asked the Council for its views on how to convey more financial information to the General Conference of Elders in advance of the annual meeting (when the GCE must approve the budget). The decision was made to distribute summary information on each major budget area, with the offer to supply more detail to any elder who requests it. Lastly, the presidentâs proposal to include an amount sufficient for a 4% across-the-board raise in salary for all church employees (which would be the first such across-the-board raise since the May 1995 inception of the United Church of God) was discussed. Mr. Walker pointed out that the last previous raise in our former fellowship (before the founding of the United Church of God) was in 1986, so that it would be entirely possible that some employees had had no raise of any kind for nearly 16 years. Mr. Kilough asked if Mr. McCullough had the information on how much this would involve in the 2002-2003 budget ö Mr. McCullough answered that it would be in the vicinity of $250,000 to $300,000 (the entire budget for fiscal 2001-2002 is $17 million). Some Council members expressed concern about the timing of the proposal, but Mr. McCullough pointed out that if it canât be worked into a balanced budget proposal it could be dropped. He asked that the Council give the Administration the latitude to include it in the planning. Mr. Holladay concurred, noting that it would be simple to remove if the budget canât be balanced in another way. The Council agreed with the chairman and the president.

Internet Proposal

Dan Deininger, an elder serving in Helena, MT, presented the results of the work of the Internet Task Force. Sixty individuals volunteered to participate in the study. Based on the contributed materials and suggestions, Mr. Deininger prepared a submission for the Council on how the Church can more effectively use the Internet to preach the gospel. He traveled to the Council meetings to present that synopsis of their work.

Mr. Deininger asked the Council to consider the purpose of our Web sites (there are five official sites for the United Church of God ö ucg.org, gnmagazine.org, youthmagazine.org, ucgyouth.org, and vcmagazine.org). Do they fulfill a primary or secondary role in pursuing the mission of the Church? That is, is the Internet used primarily to promote print publications, or to actually deliver the gospel itself in a manner optimized for the Internet? He stated his belief that it currently serves in a secondary role, but could be optimized to actually deliver the gospel itself (just as the print publications do).

Mr. Deininger outlined several suggestions for that optimization:

ð Design a fresh, cohesive look for all the official UCG Web sites
ð Have regular, even daily, updates that feature articles from the Good News, World News and Prophecy, Virtual Christian magazine, the youth (online) magazine; and supply selected news source links
ð Regularly update and promote the Good News Radio program, any future TV specials and current cable access TV productions, and featured Sabbath cybercasts
ð Add online Bible study (e-learning)
ð Increase cybercast capability to 1000 streams from the current 60, and feature different Sabbath services from different time zones in the United States
ð Continue to place Internet advertising to draw people to our sites
ð Hire a ãManaging Editorä for Internet Services in a half-time capacity
ð Subcontract as needed for projects
ð Identify and define volunteer tasks
ð Establish standing Internet advisory teams
ð Increase budget as needed for these proposals ö approximately $55,000-$70,000 above current estimates for fiscal 2002-2003.

The Council reacted enthusiastically. Mr. McCullough pointed out that this is an avenue we could quickly pursue ö in contrast, for example, to trying to develop a regular TV program at this time. Mr. Kubik stressed how this would put the United Church of God at the ãcutting edgeä of Internet use in the proclamation of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Mr. Kilough recalled the poor response to our print promotion direct mail packages specifically targeting college-aged youth and predicted that this avenue would prove a much more successful way to reach that audience.

In the end, the Council passed the following resolution:

ãWhereas, the Internet has become a primary means of communication to deliver the messages of the United Church of God, an International Association, in an effective, timely and cost effective manner through the use of Web-based printed pages, streaming audio video, and e-mail,

Now therefore, it is hereby resolved, that the Council of Elders directs the administration to include, as a budgetary and Operations Plan item, the hiring or subcontracting of a Managing Editor of Internet Services, under such terms and conditions as shall be determined by the president, whose responsibilities will include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Work as a part of Media and Communications Services
• Work with a team consisting of the Media Operations Manager, Media/Communications Committee of the Council, Good News Managing Editor, World News & Prophecy editor, and others.
• Coordinate and supervise daily Internet and Web-site operations
• Manage volunteers in Internet related projects
• Manage subcontractors of Internet services and projects
• Development and implementation of daily Web-site updates
• Development of and transitioning of certain UCGIA publications to Web-based e-learning programs for the general public

So that UCGIA can more effectively, fully and faithfully accomplish its mission.ä

The ballot for the resolution was unanimous (Robert Dick absent). The Administration will include this in its proposed budget for fiscal 2002-2003.

Miscellaneous

Richard Thompson asked the Council to consider some manner of recognizing those elders and employees of the Church who have reached the milestone of 40 years of service. He asked what the Council or Administration thought would be appropriate, pointing out that there are 46 ministers alone who will reach this milestone of service within the next 10 years. Richard Pinelli, manager of Ministerial Services, said that his office has already asked for cost estimates for awarding a watch with the UCG logo on its face to all employees with 25 yearsâ service. The Council agreed that it will pursue a way to recognize the service of full time ministers, non-salaried elders, and all employees. The straw poll supporting the project was unanimous. Mr. Thompson will gather more information and report back to the Council at its Cincinnati meetings in late February/early March.

The Council adjourned for the weekend, with its members spreading out to speak in various church areas in Florida and Georgia for the Sabbath of December 8, 2001.

This report will be the last until an update for the meeting on Tuesday, December 11, 2001. The Council will convene in closed session on Monday, December 10 to interview candidates for the post of president of the United Church of God, as previously reported.  

-Doug Johnson

© 2001 United Church of God, an International Association