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

Thursday, January 14, 1999 - Tyler, Texas 

The Council of Elders opened meetings today in Tyler, Texas, with too much work and too little time. The rare experience last November, of having more time available than items on the agenda, was short-lived, as Chairman Bob Dick informed the group that this meeting’s to-do list is far larger than what can realistically be covered in one week.

President Les McCullough giving his report to the Council

He first outlined the priority tasks: "We have two critical issues that, time-wise, have to be covered: the budget package, and all the things related to it,...and this is also the last opportunity to discuss those things related to the General Conference of Elders [annual meeting]." After his short introductory comments, the Council hit the ground running in a long session that ended at 6:15 in the evening.

President’s Report

After the Council approved minutes from previous meetings, Les McCullough gave the President’s report, the traditional opening presentation in all Council meetings. Although he gave only a brief overview of the budget, preferring to save details for budget talks scheduled for later, the short summation was highly encouraging.

Treasurer Tom Kirkpatrick stepped to the board to illustrate the income trends on a time line from April, 1998, to January, 1999. During the 58 banking days between April 1 and June 23, category one income averaged $37,453 per day. About this time financial concerns rapidly peaked because operations depended on a $45,000 per day budgeted income. From June 23 to July 14 the average remained around $37,400, but during this time the special offering "bump" of $700,000 came in. Unpredicted, though, was the steady surge during the next 112 banking days between mid-July and January 8, especially after the fall Feasts, when income average climbed to $43,943. A late-December spike is not unusual, due to many contributors rushing to beat the tax-benefit deadline, but that does not account for the longer, steady positive trend. Mr. McCullough’s interpretation for the upswing was, "More confidence in what is going on in the Church and people are being more supportive."

"It appears that God is allowing blessings to come to us and that He has backed us up in what we have striven to do," he said. For example, in the past few weeks several unexpected and sizable donations from Good News subscribers have come into to the Cincinnati and Toronto offices. "The Good News is beginning to reach out and touch people and people do have a recognition that something is going on."

As a result of all these factors, the cash balance has now grown to 2.395 million dollars. "Have we been blessed?" Mr. Kirkpatrick asked. "You can draw your own conclusions." While everyone is very pleased and grateful for the upturn, both he and Mr. Kirkpatrick stressed the need to be cautious and wise in spending patterns for this year and in planning next year’s budget.

Mr. McCullough went on to say that the semi-annual letter garnered around 7,500 replies, which is an excellent 15% response (10% has been historically considered very good) and new booklets rolling out in January through March should stimulate additional responses.

In other developments, he reported that television ads on all three major network stations in Cincinnati will start running next week. February sees another TV ad campaign, in conjunction with print ads, begin in Oklahoma City. Later on, plans call for trying a "take one" card advertisement in supermarket outlets.

Turning to some of the international areas, Mr. McCullough said, "You all read that John Jewell had this unexpected windfall with the Reader’s Digest in Britain, to cover all the British Isles. How do you explain this sort of thing? They tell us on the one hand we cannot put it in the Midlands edition, but on the other hand we can put it in all the editions for the UK and charge you what we were charging for the Midlands. It doesn’t make sense—but we don’t complain!" The Church paid only 6,000 British pounds for the ads which normally would have cost ten times that amount.

He also announced that $8,000 had been sent to Toluta’u Ha’angana, pastor of the Tonga members, to assist his producing a radio broadcast in the Tonganese language. Despite local opposition to religious broadcasts, because of Mr. Ha’angana’s reputation and connections he has had opportunity to go on the radio.

Mr. McCullough concluded with the news that Charles Melear, who handles Feast and General Conference of Elders planning, in addition to other staff duties, will continue to work full-time for the Church. Since announcing in November that his employment would cease, the Home Office staff determined that his responsibilities require a full-time position.

The Annual Meeting of the GCE

A considerable portion of the day was devoted to matters of organization for the Annual Meeting of the General Conference of Elders, March 6-8 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Jim Franks (left) confering with pastor John Jewell visiting from the United Kingdom

Aaron Dean, chairman of the Rules and Process Committee, and Jack Elliott, Chairman of the Amendment Committee, first spent some time reviewing the status of all the proposed amendments on the docket for the conference. Preliminary versions sent a few weeks ago to all GCE members will be replaced by a final lot that will go out with the call and notice packet. Five have since been withdrawn by the authors, and the committee asked the Council to resolve some potential problems with a few of the remaining ones.

The biggest problems are conflicting amendment proposals for the same article, and two amendment proposals that were submitted in a timely manner, but were inadvertently left out of the original mailing. In the latter situation, the Council ruled that in rare cases where clerical errors result in glitches that are not the fault of the submitters, it will accept the liability and the proposed amendments will go forward even though they are presented outside the time frame.

A thornier problem concerns having two differing changes proposed for the same article, which occurred in a couple of cases. For example, two amendments are on the table for Article 1 (Mission Statement) of the Constitution. Theoretically, both could be approved by the required 2/3 majority, since each proposal is voted on independently. Such a situation would obviously complicate the matter. On the other hand, a second scenario has neither one being approved even if the majority of the GCE would like to see a change made.

One possible solution calls for the Council putting forward a new amendment proposal blending the two, but that would work only if the previous submissions are withdrawn. Solutions may not be found for all the conflicts, but any necessary changes that are developed will be explained to the members of the GCE in the final ballot packet they will receive before the meeting.

Mr. Dean highly commended the diligent labor of the Amendment Committee members and Mr. Elliott, who in turn especially complimented the input of Roc Corbett, whose eye for detail helped immensely.

Cybercasting the annual meeting

The Council then gave unanimous consent to a proposal from Dan Deininger, an elder in Montana, to set up an Internet system by which the annual meeting can be cybercast to elders unable to attend. "By making the audio portion of all sessions available over a password protected Internet web site, many elders will be able to participate—even if not physically in Cincinnati—at a very reasonable cost," Mr. Deininger wrote in his presentation. The cybercast, which will be available to a maximum of 59 locations, will supplement, not replace, the telephone hookup for the official session.

The $1,000 budget for this project will pay for all the costs, including Mr. Deininger’s expenses. An additional benefit, several Council members noted, is that in the world of burgeoning communication avenues, this will provide a strong test for a new option that could be used in other ways as well. For example, Mr. Deininger has already coordinated Sabbath and Feast services cybercasts in the last two years.

Priority for this service will most likely be given to international areas. Other details for implementing the plan must also still be worked out, and they will be communicated to the GCE as soon as they are finalized.

Brainstorming on how to use the non-business time

Sunday afternoon’s session is dedicated to the business portion of the meeting when the balloting occurs, so the Council turned its attention to ideas for creating an effective program for the Saturday evening, Sunday morning and all-day-Monday slots.

They heavily favored leaving Saturday night open for fellowshipping, with some type of "structured socializing" opportunity (perhaps even including an entertainment segment featuring various GCE members' talents). The President and Chairman will speak in Sunday morning’s session, and the Council encouraged them to give a type of "state of the union" address that would give, as Don Ward said, "the vision of who we are and where we are going—the clear clarion that can only come from the President." "It is a time to inspire and be inspiring," added Leon Walker.

Jim Franks advocated developing this conference more along the traditional lines of a ministerial conference, observing that, "We lost something when we bridged over to viewing the GCE as a business meeting." Even though the elders must deal with annual business items, that portion also "turns some people off," he said. He and others thought participation at the conferences could possibly improve by designing more practical, instructional portions during the remaining time. Feedback from the past two meetings indicates a general frustration over breakout sessions that have solicited input but have not necessarily resulted in a concrete product.

To that end, the Council spent considerable brainstorming time focusing on ideas for instructional sessions on Monday. The hotel layout provides as many as eight rooms for concurrent meetings, Mr. Dick noted, so conference planners can construct a variety of options. "What would you like to see taught?" he asked, also inviting the other elders present to offer their input.

Frank McCrady III, Dallas North pastor, recommended that sessions be geared to topics of practical application for the ministry. "We’re good on philosophy but short on how-to," he said. The round-table conversation that followed generated many potential subjects along that line. They included how to inspire, encourage and motivate people in an apathetic time and culture; the calling of the ministry; dealing with loneliness in the scattered areas, especially internationally; personal finances; "practical consensus"—what it is from a biblical perspective; using the Internet for biblical research; church web sites, the modern role of the minister’s wife; writing for church publications; avoiding legal land mines; "the priesthood of all believers;" conflict resolution; avoiding burnout; working with other church groups; counseling abuse victims; growing as an elder; the spirit of service; shepherds versus sheriffs; understanding what the Church is and the role of the UCG as an organization; preparing the next generation—working with youth and young adults; and effective working with small congregations.

Other miscellaneous GCE meeting items covered

Council members twice through the day grappled with how to get a proposed absentee ballot procedure adopted for use this year. Secretary Gerald Seelig drafted the outline, and the Council approved it, but it has to be ratified by the GCE before it can be implemented. The problem is time—procedurally, the ratification steps require more time than we have before the conference. They explored the possibilities of waiving or shortening certain time frames, but as Mr. Franks said, "I don’t think we can find a way to get it done without creating bigger problems than we solve." He stressed, "We want to make sure that everyone understands that...without an absentee ballot no one can ballot unless they are [physically] present or on the telephone." In Mr. Dick’s opinion, it will likely be put on the ballot this year to approve for future conferences, but the issue remained unresolved and was tabled until later in the meetings.

The Executive Committee determined in a December 24 meeting to continue the custom of paying the way for one individual representative from each international area to attend. Since the Rules of Association is a major discussion item this year the committee felt it especially important to have those representatives on hand. All of the international areas have accepted the invitation; now it is up to each area to choose whom to send. Legal counsel Larry Darden, the only staff member living outside the Cincinnati area, is also invited.

January 20 is the deadline for submitting agenda items. This date is firm, as the Secretary and Chairman need a 10-12 day window to prepare the mass of paperwork for mailing to the GCE.

As occurred last year, local congregations will be able to connect to Sabbath services on March 6 via telephone hookup to Cincinnati.

The budget for the pay-your-own-way conference is $45,000, and Mr. Dick expressed hope that "we will be comfortably below that."

Mr. Kirkpatrick is currently seeking bids from local accounting firms to oversee the balloting. Attendees at last year’s meeting will recall how flight delays prevented the accountant from Los Angeles from arriving on time and postponed the schedule by one day.

Miscellaneous "housekeeping" items

Gary Antion announced the results of the balloting for the Expelled Elder Appeal Committee, but asked that the names not be released until these men are officially notified by Mr. Dick. The committee members will serve as an impartial board to review any appeals from elders expelled from the General Conference, as well as any allegations of unethical activity by Council members.

The Council gave unanimous consent to a request from Global Church of God representatives to use some of our Home Office relocation study, compiled before the move to Cincinnati.

It also spent one hour before lunch in executive session discussing the situation in Holland, where the congregation recently resigned its membership from UCGIA.

The Council welcomed John Jewell from England and Tony Wasilkoff from Canada, initiating a new program of inviting a couple of representatives from the international areas to attend each of its meetings. Joel Meeker, scheduled to arrive Friday, was absent from today’s meeting.

- Clyde Kilough

© 1999 United Church of God, an International Association

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