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

Monday, February 27

The opening session of this quarterly meeting was called to order by chairman Melvin Rhodes at noon. With the exceptions of just two grammatical corrections, the minutes of the previous meeting were approved, as was the proposed agenda for this meeting. All 12 Council members were present with 15 guests. Mr. Rhodes then introduced Dennis Luker for the president's report.

President's Report—Dennis Luker

Mr. Luker outlined the order of the administration report and discussed Darris McNeely's recent transfer to the home office area to serve as associate media producer. He and Steve Myers are now able to generate the daily Internet video blog called BT Daily.

The television and Internet programs are keeping our video production team very busy. Likewise our UCG.org Internet managers have logged long hours keeping up with the increased interest in the gospel. Commenting on the huge number of electronic booklet downloads for Kindle and other formats, Mr. Luker expressed amazement at the various ways that we can spread the gospel today.

The Kingdom of God Bible Seminars are going very well. Mr. Luker mentioned that the seminar concept was originally conceived by Howard Davis (presently serving as the interim pastor for the New York City church) and is proving to be a wonderful way for God to call people to repentance and ultimate fellowship in the Church.

He commented on The Good News magazine's excellent production and distribution, citing Portuguese language coordinator Jorge de Campos, who met a taxi driver recently on the border of Brazil and Guyana (while on a Feast site planning trip) who had a copy of the latest Good News in his vehicle. He then read a special greeting card from brethren in the Seabrook, New Hampshire, area, thanking all the ministry and staff at the home office for their combined efforts in Christ to proclaim the gospel of God's Kingdom.

By the way of "preparing a people" he spoke of the success of the Portland, Oregon, and Cincinnati Winter Family Weekends that brought many brethren together for encouraging fellowship and spiritual education, helping to build much stronger relationships within the Body of Christ.

He reported that Ambassador Bible Center is going very well for the class of 2012, and that we have 15 accepted students with five more applications to process for the class of 2013. The normal rush of applications does not usually begin until spring break, putting us well ahead of last year at this point.

The Women's Weekend Retreats are providing opportunity for women mentoring women, as in Titus:2:3-5[3]The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;[4]That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,[5]To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.. Our wives in the ministry and the women within the Church serve the overall good of the Church very much. These weekends are very successful in fostering growth and good friendship among the women.

Internationally, Aaron Dean's visits to Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines in December were highly valuable. Jorge de Campos had another successful visit to Brazil. The Kubiks, with UCG legal counsel Larry Darden, visited our 320 brethren in Zambia in January while the Lukers traveled to Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile, visiting many brethren while accompanied by Mario and Caty Seiglie, who serve the Latin American congregations and did the translating. Melvin Rhodes recently visited churches in the UK and conducted a KoG Bible Seminar there. Chuck Zimmerman and Chuck Smith are traveling and stabilizing the churches in the Caribbean. Finally, he reported on a comprehensive Skype video conference he, Victor Kubik and Peter Eddington had with Tim and Maryse Pebworth about progress being made in the French-speaking areas of UCG.

Ministerial and Member Services—Victor Kubik

Mr. Kubik described how he used to wake up at night filled with anxiety about how we would hold the church together, but now wakes up and thinks about how we can even better train our new ministers and how we can build on the unity and peace that we see now.

We presently have 333 elders around the world with 80 U.S. fulltime, part-time and volunteer pastors. We have brought back a new ministerial job description, "ministerial trainee," and have hired two men in this position.

Church attendance for 2011 from the monthly church reports are showing an average of about 7,400 per month in the U.S. Our attendance all around the world is about 11,000.

The festival coordinators' conference was held at home office with Roy Holladay presiding while the Kubiks were in Zambia. Planning calls for a number of smaller sites to serve the increasing health limitations of more of our aging brethren.

So far Ministerial and Member Services has successfully conducted two of the planned seven Area Ministerial Conferences. The area conferences focus on both instruction and discussion with special emphasis on training our new pastors who have asked many questions about key issues like: weekly sermon preparation, marriage counseling, ministerial time-management, divorce and remarriage questions, etc.

Gary Antion gave an area conference presentation about the best counseling training resources for the ministers, which has been very helpful. Chris Rowland gave a presentation about the new MMS website, which will soon replace the old ministerial website. Plans are to place sermon outlines as source material on the MMS website. It will also contain the ministerial policy manual and numerous other aids for the pastoral ministry.

Another new aspect of MMS is Women's Services, which has been launched to initially provide support for ministers' wives and is coordinated by LeeAnn Luker and Lisa Fenchel. We have launched a ministers' wives forum, which has generated considerable discussion on numerous topics.

Mr. Kubik commented about the Kingdom of God Seminars: "I don't know of anything that we can talk more about than the Kingdom of God!" This has been a joint production of MMS and Media and Communication Services and is progressing extremely well with numbers of new people attending church as a result.

A key area of concern is how we can best train our new pastors. Last year we conducted a pastoral training session prior to the GCE along with the annual Leadership Weekend and other events to provide training opportunities.

Another area of further development is "peace keeping" (which has been called "conflict resolution" in the past). "Who should know better about making peace than we in the ministry? What can we do to keep the peace that we have, how we can see the good in others, how do we get over things that have taken place in the past—these are the questions to which we must find solutions."

Our proposed budget is a third less than in the past, but we still have basic overhead—pastor salaries, hall rentals, transportation costs, etc.—that doesn't always or easily reduce by the same percentage. Thus we have had to work harder to manage our resources.

Remember that our work is all about the "sheep"—Christ's flock at the present and those God is calling.

Media and Communication Services Report—Peter Eddington

Mr. Eddington reported on the cost-effective results thus far of the member brochure distribution program. Next he reported on the effectiveness of the WORD Network airing of Beyond Today, the cost-per-response of which is continuing to lower. Recently we have dropped the Ion Network broadcasts in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and now Chicago due to low responses for the cost. Those areas are still covered by WGN and WORD Network however. Beyond Today is in its first few weeks of airing nationwide in Australia, and the Australian office is evaluating early responses.

The Amazon distribution of e-booklets is progressing, and we are now in the top 100 organizations as a source in the Christian Education category, with several of our booklets in the top five of distribution. We are distributing Good News brochures at homeschool conventions featuring the issue with "Bringing Up a Moral Child" magazine cover.

During the second round of Kingdom of God Bible Seminars, we had over 1,600 new people attending (the first round produced over 1,500 attendees by comparison). Some areas had numerous attendees, but even with one or two new attendees, local brethren were very pleased with the success. He commented that the every-four-month frequency is effectively building the interest and ultimate attendance response of Good News readers. He also provided a printout of a blog from Ireland where the writer commented extensively and positively about attending the recent seminar in Dublin. Her blog also listed the UCG.org website in significant detail—excellent and unsolicited publicity!

As a final aspect to the report he played the just-finished video advertisement about the Kingdom of God Bible Seminars.

Financial Services Report—Aaron Dean

Mr. Dean distributed a handout of the budget and expenses from July 1, 2011, to Jan. 31, 2012. He discussed the various expense fields on the sheet. We are trying, he pointed out, to bring everything in line by trimming here and economizing there. One area that will help is video conferencing where applicable—including for some of the Council's quarterly meetings. He reminded everyone that our employees are self-insured by the Church, so we need to be very prudent about health care, which very much includes taking better care of our own health and praying for each other.

He summarized that in the past year we spent to maintain our momentum, but it takes a time for income to catch up with the momentum.

Doctrine Committee Report—Bob Berendt

Bob Berendt summarized the doctrinal areas to be discussed at this meeting. The first was "when the unborn are scheduled for the second resurrection." The other was a paper about whether the Bible teaches how often one should eat unleavened bread during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Ethics Committee—Mario Seiglie

Mr. Seiglie reported that there is only one item on the Committee's agenda for this Council meeting that has to do with protecting the assets of the church, which will be included in an updated version of the "Ministerial Code of Ethics."

Media Committee—Darris McNeely

The Media Committee prepared a replacement for the Media Philosophy Statement, which is titled "Media Guiding Principles" to be reviewed by the Council later in the meeting.

Roles and Rules Committee—Bill Eddington

Bill Eddington reported that one area of the Roles and Rules Committee's work has been coordination of the Governing Documents Review Team. It has completed a preliminary review of the Constitution and is now up to article 8 of the Bylaws. The main focus is to identify what is unclear, ambiguous or needs to be otherwise improved and coordinated. The process will continue for another seven or eight months or so.

The need to develop a Risk Management Plan (RMP) for the church will be discussed by reviewing the existing Australian RMP at this meeting.

Mr. Eddington asked John Elliott to provide a status report on the newly formed GCE Responsibilities Advisory Committee. Mr. Elliott reported that a seven-man team had been formed and was currently assembling a list of the GCE responsibilities included in the governing documents. A further update will be provided in May.

The final item was the annual reports submitted to the Council by international areas. The reports have been submitted for the last three years, but Mr. Eddington expressed disappointment that they had not been formally reviewed by the Council as a body. He expressed the hope that the 2011/2012 reports will receive a proper review.

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee—Robin Webber

Robin Webber reminded everyone that strategic planning helps us to stay in step with each other while carrying on the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. He presented the 2012-2013 Strategic Plan as it presently stands to the Council and guests, prefaced by defining the key terms used in such planning.

Several Council and GCE members suggested half a dozen wordings for the vision statement (what the church will look like when it achieves its ultimate aim). Bill Eddington pointed out that the present vision statement doesn't clearly enough create such a vision. Mario Seiglie offered a re-stated vision statement. Mr. Antion suggested that less is better (in numbers of words that is) and that a shorter, more direct statement is preferable. Discussion centered on the specific purpose of a vision statement and exactly how to word it.

After a great deal of biblical discussion, the number of statements was reduced to two that might replace the present vision statement that the church has used since the mid-90s.

By way of reminder, this is our current Vision Statement: "The vision of the Church derives its inspiration, motivation and sense of urgency from God's purpose for humanity: bringing many sons to glory. God's desire is that all be saved and live eternally in His Kingdom and in His family. Assisting in the fulfillment of that vision is the mission of the Church."

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Tuesday's session began at 9:00 a.m. after the opening prayer by Gary Antion. Chairman Melvin Rhodes then gave the floor to the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee chairman.

Strategic Plan Vision Statement—Robin Webber

The vision statement selected by the Council on Monday afternoon was revisited for discussion with this result:

The finalized, new Vision Statement being put forward for approval by the General Conference of Elders is: "A Church led by God's Holy Spirit, joined and knit together by what every member supplies, with all doing their share and growing in love to fulfill God's great purpose for humanity to bring many children to glory (Ephesians:4:16From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.; Hebrews:2:10For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.)."

Media Guiding Principles—Darris McNeely

Darris McNeely gave some background on the statement that used to be called the Media Philosophy Statement. Changing the title to Media Guiding Principles (MGP) was deemed in Media Committee discussions to be more useful and instructive for our writers, speakers and video producers, plus especially helpful for training individuals for these jobs.

The Council then reviewed the MGP, making a number of edits. One section particularly drew discussion and agreement: "The United Church of God, an International Association (UCGIA), takes this responsibility [of preaching the gospel] very seriously. Therefore, we are compelled to boldly preach the gospel with a zeal and urgency that reflects the seriousness of the times (John:9:4I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.; Matthew:24:14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.)."

Considerable and interesting discussion ensued over each main point, focusing on the scriptures that establish each principle. Mr. McNeely commented that what was needed was a practical, working, internal document for our writers, presenters and producers that elaborates on the media philosophy that the passages define.

Mr. Antion moved that Council rescind the previous Media Philosophy Statement and adopt the new Media Guiding Principles. The ballot was unanimous in favor of the MGP.

Operation Plan: Public Proclamation—Dennis Luker and Peter Eddington

Dennis Luker and Peter Eddington presented the objectives for the Media and Communication Services Operation Plan, which projects results for one year through three years. Several Council members asked clarifying questions about the plan, which was very well received.

Operation Plan: Congregational Care—Dennis Luker and Victor Kubik

After his introduction by Mr. Luker, Victor Kubik commented on the wonderful spirit of unity that exists at the home office, which is like he has never seen before in UCG. He commented that in pastoral care we have gone from a reactive stance to a proactive stance in the past year.

Since a year ago we made a change with the education program so that it operates now as its own discipline and model under Mr. Antion, while interfacing with Ministerial and Member Services (MMS). He pointed out that the main difficulty with quantifying the effectiveness of MMS is that there is no hard number measurement that we can use. Bill Bradford suggested a management assessment of how various aspects of congregational care are doing, then use that as a baseline for objectives. Visitor Howard Davis suggested member engagement statistics measuring the involvement of the members in serving the church, clubs, youth programs, women's programs, youth attending clubs, etc. Mr. Antion commented on the subjectivity of working with people, but the objectives could rephrased to measure the numbers of events, programs, etc. that MMS outputs. Bill Eddington pointed out that strategic plans are not cast in concrete, but can be modified while moving forward.

The conclusion is that MMS will move forward with the stated objectives while developing baseline measurements in the coming year.

Operations Plan: Organizational Administration—Dennis Luker

Mr. Luker presented the objectives with the baseline stating simply: "To build upon the current high level of unity and satisfaction." Roy Holladay pointed out that in the past there were specific baselines, but after the major changes in the past year, he doubted that the old ones would now be applicable. The Council offered several edits to refine the strategies, critical success factors and barriers.

Budget—Aaron Dean

Mr. Dean explained the income stream over the past year, which was higher than budgeted and led a discussion of what the Council thinks may be the increase in the coming year. Secretary Gerald Seelig pointed out that significant estate donations last year made a huge difference, but that is a figure that is impossible to anticipate. Peter Eddington suggested that with our increased proclamation efforts that the co-worker and donor income may be higher than in the past (and they already provide 15 percent of our income).

The discussion centered on the realities of world events, economic trends and how all of that may impact the lives and jobs of members and thus affect the coming year's income. Mr. Dean suggested various creative ways that ministers and members can conserve the church's actual income in order to conduct necessary meetings. He then went through all the cost centers to familiarize the Council with potential areas that can be reduced. After a great deal of thoughtful discussion and after a final prayer for God's guidance and future blessing, the Council agreed in principle upon the final figures for the Budget.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Chairman Rhodes called the morning meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. After the opening prayer and a few minutes in executive session, the Council resumed open session for the next agenda item.

Possible Home Office Expansion—Dennis Luker and Peter Eddington

Mr. Luker introduced Mr. Eddington to give an update on the possible home office expansion, since he is coordinating those details as the church's representative interfacing with the architectural firm and any construction contractors. Mr. Luker stressed that this report is not in any way urging a rapid decision to begin the expansion, nor even for a building fund to yet be set up given the present economic situation.

Mr. Eddington then distributed copies of the planned layout of the future building construction and remodeling of part of the present building. The layout reflects considerable home office employee discussion and input. Flexibility of space has been a guiding principle in the planning.

He explained that 88 percent of our literature fulfillment (packaging and mailing) is contracted out already, but we do need an on-site warehouse for the special handling (like individual booklet requests, etc.) for the remainder. The plan is to put as much of space under one roof as is possible because it is much less expensive to do so at the time of initial construction rather than to piece it together later. Thus the proposed warehouse space (larger than now) includes windows on the rear walls and available square footage that can be internally remodeled into additional office space as the need arises in years to come.

The new plan also will substantially increase the size of the television studio, providing space and flexibility to greatly improve our production quality. It also easily supports our ABC program, although with a slightly smaller, but fully adequate, lecture hall.

The construction project is not in the coming year's budget. Things that could trigger the construction plans starting with setting up a building fund would include the sale of the Denton, Texas, property (which could potentially fund close to half the cost) or a steady church income increase over time.

One question centered on whether some of the proposed construction could be done in stages. Mr. Eddington explained that proposed construction is designed to not impact the work's day-to-day function, which in this case meant that the new construction would be completed first and followed by the remodel of parts of the existing building. The church has received a construction contract from ML Barnard, Inc. that is right at $2.7 million. The construction time from start to replanting grass is 12 months.

Home Office Expansion Financials—Aaron Dean

Mr. Dean explained that prophecy, world events and church income all factor into the planning, and that the expansion must wait until it becomes clear that God wants us to do so. He pointed out that our parking lot is large enough for the number of employees that building would hold during the week—or it would be large enough for a full auditorium of people for services on the Sabbath. Since we don't work on the Sabbath, the present parking lot falls well within the county zoning limits—both a cost savings and a convenience.

Roy Holladay asked whether we already have a general building fund, and Mr. Dean replied in the affirmative, but that it has not been widely publicized. Mr. Antion asked what our income condition was in 2001 when the present building was constructed, and therefore where does faith come in for moving forward with a building fund? Mr. Dean stated that we operate on a needs-centered basis, and we can pray for God to make the way clear. Robin Webber suggested that we all pray more fervently that God would send a buyer for the Denton property.

Mr. Dean explained that the contractor gave us a maximum dollar bid, and that the actual amount could be lower. Mr. Luker summarized the elder and member survey about the home office expansion and pointed out that the responses were very supportive for the expansion, but to go slow and avoid borrowing wherever possible. Mr. Dean reminded everyone to pray for greater success of the Kingdom of God Bible Seminars and for more members and coworkers to help us move forward with this and all aspects of God's work.

Bill Eddington suggested that Media and Communications Services produce a video to explain where technology is going as regards to the media part of the home office expansion. He also enquired what the "fire-sale" value of the Denton property was. Mr. Dean replied that a capital asset like the development property does have value and that the inventory of land in that area is decreasing, which increases the potential of the property.

GCE Conference Planning—Peter Eddington

Mr. Eddington distributed a handout with a proposed schedule/agenda for the GCE conference in May. The Council then discussed various details of the conference plans making corrections as points or suggestions were brought up. The overall format and schedule is very similar to the traditional GCE plan.

The Council went into executive session to discuss ordinations, personnel and private issues for several hours before resuming open session.

Doctrine Committee—Bob Berendt

Mr. Berendt read a letter produced by the Committee about the unborn and the second resurrection, which the Council was assisting the administration to answer. It was accepted and forwarded to the president. The Council chose to remand a paper on an aspect of unleavened bread to the Committee for further study. Also discussed were procedures for doctrinal analysis within the Committee and the Council.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The morning session commenced at 9:00 a.m. with an opening prayer by Bill Bradford.

Chairman Melvin Rhodes outlined the plan for the morning, which primarily focused on balloting on the Strategic Plan, Operations Plan and Budget for the fiscal year of 2012-2013.

Strategic Planning—Robin Webber

Mr. Webber led the final review of the details of the three items under discussion: Strategic Plan, Operations Plan and the Budget. Don Ward asked for clarification of the final line of the Strategic Plan that the Council had edited earlier in the meetings: "Educate and inspire all employees and elders with the vision and mission of the Church." Discussion concluded that the Church needs to be better informed and more inspired about the vision and mission that God has given us.

Mr. Rhodes presided over the balloting and the Strategic Plan passed unanimously, as did the Operations Plan immediately after.

Budget—Aaron Dean

As the budget discussion began the Council went into executive session for a few minutes to discuss sensitive budgetary issues. After returning to open session Mr. Rhodes presided over the balloting of the proposed $17.6 million 2012-2013 Budget, which passed with 10 in favor and two abstaining. The new budget is set to spend 30.5 percent of next year's income on the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom and 36.5 percent for congregational care to "prepare a people." The other third of the budget supports both sections as overhead and costs not specifically related to one or the other.

CoE Nominee Questionnaire—Secretary Gerald Seelig

The questionnaire is designed to provide the General Conference of Elders with pertinent and important information about each Council nominee and his thinking on important topics. The Council made several edits to the newly proposed questionnaire, which will replace the previous one. The new questionnaire passed unanimously.

Ministerial Code of Ethics—Mario Seiglie

Mario Seiglie led a discussion about the wording of the code of ethics. After a small but important edit in the preamble, he gave a reading of the rest of the code. The code contains statements of standards under the headings of "Personal Responsibilities," "Family Responsibilities," "Church and Congregational Responsibilities," "Responsibility Within the Ministry," "Responsibility Within the Community" and "Responsibility Toward the Governance of UCGIA."

One addition to the code of ethics that is notable and necessary in light of recent events is: "I acknowledge that all local congregations of UCGIA are, under our Rules of Association, a part of UCGIA. I further recognize that any and all physical assets, including local bank accounts used by or for those local congregations belong to UCGIA for the use as directed by the UCGIA administration. Consequently, I agree that should I leave that congregation(s), or not remain as an elder in UCGIA, that I am not entitled to take, and must return, any assets of UCGIA and/or a local congregation of UCGIA or its affiliates around the world."

After extensive review and careful editing of the Ministerial Code of Ethics the Council referred the document over the lunch hour for review by UCG legal counsel Larry Darden. Immediately after lunch the Council conducted a one-hour question and answer session with the ABC students, who had numerous thoughtful and positive questions. Upon resuming their session afterward, the Council unanimously approved the new Ministerial Code of Ethics.

Council Nominee Process—Bill Eddington

Due to the small number of CoE nominees (only 18 from the U.S. and 1 for the international areas this year) who notified the secretary to place their names on the list from which Council nominees are selected, the Roles and Rules Committee, serving also as the Nominations Committee, has sought to find a way to provide more elders for the list. As a member of the Committee, Gary Antion favored returning to the original system of asking elders to remove their names from the possible nominee list if they didn't want to be considered for the Council. Mr. Seiglie also expressed concern that we develop a better system due to the trend of so few names added to the list.

The Nomination Committee as a whole presented a new and possible solution: Establish a procedure that allows GCE members to nominate other elders of the GCE whom they believe are appropriately experienced and qualified to serve on the Council of Elders. They would first need to obtain the approval of the elder before putting his name on the list.

Robin Webber suggested a letter from the Council chairman to encourage and inspire more of the GCE members to submit their names for the Council selection process. Discussion of preferences went all three ways: the current system, the original system and the proposed new system—and two said they were fine with any of the three systems.

Mr. Eddington organized a straw poll to see how many Council members preferred which system. Afterward, the Council officially voted to accept the Roles and Rules Committee's proposed new system, which would allow an elder in the GCE to nominate another elder in the GCE (with his permission) to be placed on the potential nomination list. The new proposal was approved by a margin of seven to four with one Council member absent for the session.

Risk Management—Bill Eddington

Mr. Eddington provided a handout and explained the risk management program that UCG in Australia uses. This presentation was requested for the information of the Council as a possible way to improve risk management for the church in the U.S. The question he asked the Council is whether they consider that there is enough risk facing the church in the U.S. to consider developing a similar program. To be beneficial, the risk management plan must be reviewed and updated yearly. The administration will review the risk management system and report back to the Council at the August meeting.

Chairman Rhodes then coordinated the Council meeting dates for the August quarterly meeting on the 6th through the 9th of that month. As a potential cost savings, that quarterly meeting will test video conferencing for Council meetings. The next quarterly meeting will of course immediately follow the GCE conference in May.

After a closing prayer the Council meeting adjourned at approximately 3:00 p.m.

-end-

Randy Stiver
Council Reporter

© 2012 United Church of God, an International Association