United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report

Milford, Ohio

Monday, February 22, 2021

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Scott Ashley, Bob Dick, Randy Stiver, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online.

Chairman Martin welcomed everyone. The last Council meeting minutes (with edits) were approved. The agenda for the week was discussed and approved.

President’s Report—Victor Kubik

President Victor Kubik greeted everyone. He began by reading John:9:4-5[4]I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.[5]As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. and Amos:8:11-12[11]Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:[12]And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. and mentioned there will be a time when the word of God will not be able to go out to the world because these verses may be fulfilled soon in our nation as they were in Amos’s time. Mr. Kubik then commented on some of the various events in his daily life as President of UCGIA since the December Council meetings.

• Two employees died that were close to Mr. Kubik through the years:
  • Diane Bailey: They worked closely for 10 years.
  • Earl Roemer: They had a long history that goes back to 1974.
• During a time of so much negativism and fear, Mr. Kubik commented how he appreciated the many words of encouragement received from individuals.
• Starting this coming Sabbath, February 27, the home office will start streaming a church service aimed equally at those present in the hall and those online. This will be a service for those who watch and read Beyond Today. This streaming church service will be once a month. It will follow the format of our typical Sabbath service.
• It has been a busy time of letter writing with the year-end receipt, bookmark, camp fund raiser, Holy Day offering envelopes, co-worker and subscriber development letter, and the weekly eNews.
• Women’s services has been hosting quarterly “Circle of Care” seminars to provide an opportunity for wives of elders to get to know one another better.
• The UCGIA website needs to be refreshed and reworked. It also has to be updated to the latest software upgrade to support Drupal 9.
• Inside United is a weekly podcast by Mr. Kubik that has completed 192 episodes so far. It reaches out to interview professionals and outsiders and people with a story to tell.
• Ambassador Bible College (ABC) is well into its second semester of the 2021 academic year. There are 20 students. The next academic year already has six students accepted so far.
• Our Planned Giving Program (PGP) continues to include an article on the back page of each issue of the United News (UN). The upcoming UN will have an article on “Gifts of Stock and Mutual Funds.” The PGP has received 35 requests in 2020 and 10 so far this year for additional information.
• Terry Franke is the new Senior Pastor for Hong Kong to replace Earl Roemer.
• A pilot “speaking club” has been created to improve speaking skills. There are eight in the pilot program who will then become future mentors in expanding the program. Those in the pilot program are: Bob Dick, Vic Kubik, Len Martin, Darris McNeely, Steve Myers, Gary Petty, Robbin Webber and Mark Welch.
• International travel is still restricted, so there has been no travel at this point.

President Kubik concluded by thanking all those who have helped him with a clean and pure heart to do the work of God. He loves his job and working with everyone.

Operation Manager Reports:

Ministerial and Member Services (MMS)—Mark Welch

Current statistics include:

• 394 elders in the United Church of God (UCGIA)
  • 109 outside the U.S.
  • 285 in the U.S.
    • 78 church pastors
    • 10 associate or assistant pastors
• One ministerial trainee
• 192 churches and Bible study groups in the U.S.
• Six U.S. baptisms since the December meetings.

Mark Welch summarized some manpower changes since the last meetings in December:

• Two elders were re-credentialed:
  • Ray Clore, Northern Virginia
  • Ed Szalankiewicz, Pittsburgh, PA
• Five elders have died since the December meetings:
  • Dael Baughman, East Texas; widow Alice Baughman
  • Preston Fritts, Murfreesboro, TN
  • Seldon Olson, London, KY
  • Earl Roemer, Anchorage, AK
  • Rex Spears, San Francisco Bay Area; widow Rita Spears
• One elder’s wife has died since the December meetings, Guiomar Pacheco de Machicao, of La Paz, Bolivia, wife of Raul Machicao.
• Jim Tuck retired on January 1, 2021, but is continuing to pastor Hawaii.

Mr. Welch expressed his gratitude for God’s blessings, which are very evident with our finances and the unity. Since the December meetings the following has taken place:

• Trip to Phoenix, AZ, women’s enrichment weekend, Jim Tuck’s retirement
• Regional Conference meeting for Southwest Region (online)
• Effective January 30, the Vero Beach, FL congregation is pastored by Chuck Smith, with Jeff Lockhart serving as assistant pastor.
• Trip to Roanoke, VA, to thank Mike Arritt for pastoring that area for the past five years. Jay Ledbetter is now the pastor in Roanoke.
• Robin Webber was appointed regional pastor for the Southwest region.
• Gary Smith was appointed regional pastor for the South-Central region.
• January 27, 2021, online regional pastor’s meeting.
• February 2, 2021, online pastor’s meeting. These online pastor meetings will continue every two months. Mr. Welch also wants to have online meetings with all the elders soon.
• In-person Passover services and the Days of Unleavened Bread services are being planned throughout the U.S. wherever feasible.

Treasurer and Financial Services Report—Rick Shabi

Rick Shabi began his report by updating the Council on Financial Services activities since the last Council meeting, including not only fiscal 2022 budget preparation, but calendar year-end preparation of employee payroll records, W-2s, and other government reports. The December-January two month period is one of three “high income periods” for the Church in the year (the other two being the spring Holy Day and fall Holy Day months). January 2021 saw the highest income of any January in UCGIA history. In the face of a troubled economy, we know that God is the reason for this, and to Him we are grateful.

Mr. Shabi then took the Council through the financial packet of information he regularly provides (balance sheet, income statements, department expense report, and key operating statistics) highlighting particular areas of interest, including:

• On the balance sheet, he noted that total assets are up by 21% over this time one year ago. Total assets now exceed $17 million.
• Income for the fiscal year to date (seven months, through January 31) is running more than 7% above budget, most notably in general contributions (first tithe and offerings); Festival Fund, Holy Day Offerings, and the Assistance Fund.
• While income is above budget, expenses are running about 8% under budget, largely due to the coronavirus pandemic which has limited meetings and travel.
• In operating statistics, it was noted that more than 20,000 new names were added to our database during the month of January. These are people who requested booklets or a Beyond Today subscription for the first time. This is the highest number in years, running about 25% above the normal 15-16,000 per month.

Again, we thank God for His provision and await His making known to us the reason He is providing these blessings to us.

Media and Communications Services—Peter Eddington

Peter Eddington went through some of the following statistics as of January 31 this year, due to God’s gracious blessing:

• Our coworker count is at 7,954 (16% higher than a year ago and our highest ever).
• Our donor list now includes 10,542 people (35% higher than a year ago and our highest ever).
• U.S. Beyond Today magazine subscribers for the March/April issue is at 262,298. That’s 8% higher than last March and the highest since March of 2012. Worldwide circulation stands at 313,673, which is 5% higher than a year ago.
• Our 2020 Operation Plan objective for the Beyond Today magazine was to have 279,000 U.S. subscribers by December 31 of this fiscal year, and 334,350 globally. As you can see above, we are short of that goal, but still have a healthy increase over a year ago.
• The November-December 2020 subscriber development letter from Victor Kubik was mailed to 187,199 subscribers. It offered the booklet, “Jesus Christ: The Real Story.” More than 7,640 responses have been received, along with $63,000 in donations to help further the work of the Church.
• The February Coworker/Donor letter was mailed to 18,500 households (a 30% increase over last February), offering “You Can Understand Bible Prophecy.”
• The number of people listed on our U.S. database as members and those who consider themselves associated with the United Church of God stands at 12,040. This is 4% less than a year ago.
• UN circulation stands at 17,925, which is 2% over last January, and a 6% increase over two years ago. The increases are mostly due to our coworkers requesting a subscription.
• The Church’s Beyond Today YouTube channel has had 13.57 million video views (a 12% increase over last year), has 61,900 subscribers (a 14% increase over last year), and hosts more than 2,359 videos (a 10% increase over last year).
• The Church’s Sermon YouTube channel has had 505,213 video views (25% more than last year), has 4,680 subscribers (28% over last year), and hosts 447 sermon videos (7% over last year).

Some other items Mr. Eddington talked about were:

• Newsmax TV: 2-minute spots: The following table shows results for the first eight weeks of running our 2-minute Beyond Today TV short-form programs on Newsmax TV. An average of 12 spots were aired each week. We are continuing to run spots which will most likely go through the end of April.

• Broadcast Television Stations: We have selected a number of television stations as short-term solutions to our cancellation on Newsmax TV. These TV stations are offering very favorable rates at good times on Sunday mornings which are the best time for response for religious programming. As of March 7, we will be spending $3,200 per Sunday.
• Roku App advertising results: Since November 26, 2016, we are seeing an average of 9,878 ads running per day and 325 videos being watched per day.
• UCG Annual, Unique Website visitors: The number of unique visitors to ucg.org during the 2020 calendar year (measured quarterly) was 11.57million (an 8.5% decrease over 2019 and a 9.4% increase over 2018).
• Indicators of Reader and Viewer Engagement: One indicator of reader engagement is the number of pieces of incoming subscriber mail. This shows our readers asking for more literature, asking a question, or making a donation. Here are the totals for 2020:
  • Donation Mail             66,889 (23% more than last year)
  • Reply Cards                117,842 (6% less than last year)
  • White Mail (letters)     27,349 (23% more than last year)

 

Committee Chairman Reports:

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee (SPFC)—Dan Dowd

The SPFC is tasked with oversight and input with the administration regarding budget and strategic planning. Mr. Dowd met with the President, Media operation manager and MMS operation manager in Cincinnati on January 19-20, 2021. The meeting was simply to get a feel for what the administration’s concerns and thoughts were moving toward the coming budget and strategic planning. These meetings were well received by all involved. The SPFC also had an online meeting on February 16. The Council had remanded to the SPFC two items that they are still working on (Building Purchase Policy and the Retirement Discretionary Assistance Policy), and they plan to have these presented to the Council in the May meetings.

Members on the SPFC: Aaron Dean, Bob Dick, Dan Dowd (chair), Darris McNeely and John Miller.

Roles and Rules Committee (RRC)—John Elliott

The Council performs an annual assessment of each officer of the corporation. These occur during the fiscal year and conclude at the May Council meeting. There are two remaining officer assessments for this fiscal year. The RRC will send out the related forms to the Council to finish up these reviews at the May meetings. The Council remanded to the RRC to produce a new Council member handbook. Mr. Dowd gave an update of this handbook. It will be an online resource for new and current Council members. It will help the new members to know their responsibilities and help remind current members as well.

Members on the RRC: Dan Dowd, John Elliott (chair) and John Miller.

Doctrine Committee (DC)—Mario Seiglie

The DC had an online meeting on February 15, 2021 and went over the “Born Again” paper that had been remanded to the DC by the Chairman in the December 2020 meetings. The updated paper will be presented to the Council later in the week for approval. The DC is continuing to work on the review of the “Calendar” paper and the review of the “Voting and Involvement in Politics” paper.

Members on the DC: Scott Ashley, Jorge de Campos, Mario Seiglie (chair) and Randy Stiver.

Ethics Committee—Randy Stiver

The Ethics Committee has no mandated duties or assignments at this time.

Members on the Ethics Committee: Bob Dick, Darris McNeely, Mario Seiglie, Randy Stiver (chair) and Tony Wasilkoff.

Education Committee (EC)—Aaron Dean

The EC has not needed to meet since the December meetings. With international travel restricted, online training has become even more important. The online Bible correspondence course that was presented to the Council in the December 2020 meeting using the Australian model could be important with online training becoming more prevalent. ABC housing is being purchased by a member to help with the upcoming school year.

Members on the EC: Aaron Dean (chair), Jorge de Campos, John Elliott and Tony Wasilkoff.

Media and Communications Committee (MCC)—Scott Ashley

The MCC is mandated to preview the president’s report and media operation manager report before each quarterly Council meeting. This was done on February 18 by an online meeting. There are no other items before the MCC. Mr. Ashley mentioned there are two booklets that are being worked on that will hopefully be done by the end of the calendar year. The subjects are Babylon and Transformation of Christianity.

Members on the MCC: Scott Ashley (chair), Jorge de Campos, Darris McNeely, John Miller and Tony Wasilkoff.

Strategic Plan Review—Dan Dowd

Dan Dowd, as chair of the SPFC, read through the Strategic Plan to the Council to see if any updates were needed. There were a few edits for clarity. Every three years there is a major review of the plan in more detail. This major review will take place in the next year.

Global Metrics – Organizational Heartbeat—John Miller

John Miller, as one of the members of the SPFC, presented the importance of using statistics to help measure where we are and where we want to be. Mr. Miller suggests that the Organizational Heartbeat would provide a critical link between the strategic and operation plan to clarify strategic expectations and provide a “pulse” of organizational activities, outcomes and effectiveness. The presentation and discussion were for about three hours. There will be further discussion later in the week.

The Council adjourned at 5:03 p.m.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Scott Ashley, Bob Dick, Randy Stiver, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online.

The Council began a scheduled executive session to review the budget and operation plan, salary ranges, the required annual review of the discretionary retirement assistance, ordinations and the legal update.

The Council came into open session at 4:41 p.m.

Update on Annual GCE Meeting—Charles Melear

Charles Melear, the chair of the GCE Planning Committee, explained that the May GCE meeting is again affected by uncertainties because of COVID-19. A survey was sent to all elders in the U.S. to see if they planned to come to the May meetings in person. 72 elders said yes. 126 elders said no. In addition, those who did not respond are also considered a no. Everyone but one person on the GCE Planning Committee wanted it online as well. So, the GCE Planning Committee recommended that the GCE will be online again this year. The Council agreed to have it online like it was last year.

Upcoming Council Meeting Dates

• May 3-5, 2021
• August 16-19, 2021
• December 6-9, 2021

The Council adjourned at 5:06 p.m.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Scott Ashley, Bob Dick, Randy Stiver, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online.

Doctrine Committee Update—Mario Seiglie

During the DC update on December 9, 2020, the DC was asked to further edit the “Born Again” doctrinal study paper to help with clarity. The DC had an online meeting on February 15 to go through the proposed edits. There is no doctrinal change. These edits are to help with clarity, consistency and the tone of the paper. Mario Seiglie, as chair of the DC, went through the proposed edits with the Council. The Council discussed and edited the paper for 2 ½ hours. The DC will update the paper and bring it back to the Council in the May meetings.

Online Presence Contingency Planning—Len Martin/Peter Eddington

With the recent news about organizations being deplatformed on the Internet, Chairman Martin brought up the topic, asking how the Church would be impacted if our online presence was shut down. Peter Eddington then led a broad discussion on how we could expect to be impacted and general plans on how we would manage an interruption to our website presence.

Mr. Eddington introduced Richard Kennebeck, Information Systems Manager; Tory Trone, Web Developer; Chris Stewart, Senior Programmer; Aaron Booth, Managing Internet Editor and Clint Porter, Senior Video Producer; who are all at the home office helping with our online presence. They each helped to explain what platform we are currently using and what could be done if we were shut down. They suggested potential approaches if those were ever needed.

Also explained was future upgrades to our ucg.org website, including upgrading to Drupal 9 framework from Drupal 7, and potential future improved site navigation and graphic design. This should be completed by November 2022.

Discussion on Vaccine Issues—Randy Stiver

Randy Stiver led the discussion with the Council to determine if there is a need to have a Church letter for any brethren who need exemption from any vaccine. Through the years there have been times when a letter was asked for and does the Church provide one.

Larry Darden, as legal counsel, stated that letters supporting the sincerity of those seeking an exemption were supplied, if needed, in the past when a few U.S. states required them. Now all states allowing an exemption for personal or religious reasons do so solely based on personal beliefs of the one seeking exemption and do not require some sort of expression of support from a Church, so such letters are no longer needed or supplied by the Church. Members can request information from Mr. Darden about State forms that may be available for requesting exemptions.

Our current Personal Correspondence Department (PCD) letter on this topic was read and edits were discussed and suggested. The proposed edits were unanimously approved by the Council and will be put on the ministerial resource site. The official position of the Church remains unchanged, this is a personal decision made by the individual and Christians should respect the personal decisions of one another.

Resolution to Change Name on Local Church Bank Account—Mario Seiglie

One of our congregations in California needed formal Council approval of a name change from a particular city to the county where they will meet because of certain bank and government requirements. A proposed resolution in that regard was read and was unanimously approved by the Council. It will be used to satisfy the requirements of the bank and government entities involved.

The Council went into executive session at 3:49 p.m. to discuss and approve the discretionary retirement assistance and further discussion on Organizational Heartbeat.

The Council came into open session at 5:42 p.m.

Approval of Strategic Plan—Len Martin

The Strategic Plan for 2021-22 was unanimously approved by the Council to go on to the GCE in May.

Approval of Operation Plan—Dan Dowd

The Operation Plan for 2021-22 was unanimously approved by the Council to go on to the GCE in May.

Approval of Budget—Dan Dowd

The Budget for 2021-22 was unanimously approved by the Council to go on to the GCE in May.

Having completed all business, the Council adjourned the February meetings at 5:54 p.m.

-end-

Council Reporter

Shawn Cortelyou

[These are not the official minutes from the Council meeting. Elders can find those at the Home Office with the Council Secretary. Video recordings are posted for the elders on the UCG Ministerial Resource Site.]

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