United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report
Milford, Ohio
Monday, August 15, 2022

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 9 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Scott Ashley and Paul Wasilkoff were online via Zoom.

Chairman Martin welcomed everyone who was in attendance. The last Council meeting minutes were approved. The agenda for the week was discussed, with a few edits it was approved.

President’s Report: Rick Shabi

President Shabi greeted everyone and made a few personal comments concerning how he felt giving his first presentation to the COE as the president. He spoke about situations such as this that we may face in our lives that we would never imagine God would call us to. He relayed that our strength comes from the faith we have in our God to supply what we need to be able to do what has been asked of us.

He thanked everyone for their prayers and commented that he starts and ends every day asking God to order his steps and direct his path so that God’s will is being done. President Shabi mentioned that as he thinks about his first few months in this role that Proverbs:27:23Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. comes to mind, “Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds.” He explained how this proverb has guided his approach and he has spent much time observing, asking questions, and making assessments in order to understand the resources God has provided.

Mr. Shabi then continued his report by briefly speaking about the areas that he has been involved in so far:

• The next ABC class that will be starting up soon
• Recent and Upcoming MMS events
• Feast of Tabernacles
• UYC (United Youth Camps)
• Media and IT developments
• Personnel changes at the home office
• Good Works program
• Operations Plan
• UCG international ministerial work

Operation Manager Reports:

Ministerial and Member Services (MMS)—Mark Welch

Mark Welch greeted everyone and then gave a short rundown of the major events in MMS since the May meetings.

• In-person Sabbath attendance numbers continue to increase month by month, as they draw closer to approaching pre-pandemic levels.
• Recent deaths: five elders and two elder’s wives
• Change in ministerial assignments:
  • Jorge de Campos replaced Stan Martin as pastor for Dallas and Ft. Worth, TX and Lawton, OK.
  • Greg Musgrove replaced Skeets Mez as pastor for New Orleans, LA and Laurel, MS.
  • Skeets Mez replaced David Mills as pastor for Columbus and Central Georgia.
  • Nick Lamoureux transferred to North Dakota as associate pastor.
  • Michael Fike left North Dakota to pastor in New Zealand for three months.
  • Richard Kennebeck was appointed to pastor the Orlando and Jacksonville, FL congregations.
• 92 Baptism so far in 2022
• UYC Camp Program Update: (combined attendance 1,831)
  • Seven preteen camps: (1,037)
    • 392 campers
    • 488 adult staff
    • 157 teen staff
  • Five teen camps: (794)
    • 470 campers
    • 324 staff
• Steve Nutzman is retiring as the UYC Coordinator after 11 years of service. MMS is now gathering input on appointing a new UYC Coordinator. Going forward the teen and preteen program will have one coordinator.
• Feast of Tabernacles update: The United Church of God is providing at least 41 sites around the world, plus assuring that anyone can have daily access to at least two live webcasts in the United States. Feast registration for all sites internationally, as of today, is just under 8,000 people. We expect another 600 to 1,000 people to register between now and the Feast. Of course, some who attend don’t register and these numbers do not include nine international sites.
• Prayers were requested for God to supply a Feast site for the Northern part of Florida for 2023.
• Round two of The Word Fitly Spoken clubs has been completed. This time we had 10 clubs with nearly 80 ministers participating, including 20 local church elders.
• Conducting regular Regional Pastor meetings.
• The monthly congregational church reports have been moved to an online format.
• Trip to North Dakota over Pentecost and a visit with Ken and Dianne Skorseth, Mike and Nancy Fike and our brethren in the Fargo, Bismarck and Minot congregations
• Round two of the Pastoral Boundary Waters Adventure: Mark Welch, Marcus Lucas, Scott McKeon, Troy Phelps, David Meidinger, Kevin Kenady, Nathan Ekama, David Jones and Len Martin participated.
• Tacoma Men’s Retreat
• NW Regional Conference at Camp Magruder

Media and Communications Services—Peter Eddington

Peter Eddington began his presentation speaking about a biblical archeology conference he and a few elders attended in Albuquerque, New Mexico last week. He mentioned the information they gathered would be used in upcoming Beyond Today media and sermons.

He also shared some thoughts about overall media outreach, saying, “We are reaching millions of people with the gospel message and making a difference. Although the numbers in attendance don’t reflect this, people are using our material to help themselves and others.”

He added that we are using the Good News section in United News to provide content geared towards our coworkers in order to stir their interest, to encourage them to become more involved and to get them to visit our congregations.

Mr. Eddington then went through some of the following statistic results to date:

• United News circulation for July is now at 18,555. This is up 1% from last July and 4.7% more than two years ago. Approximately 48% of United News copies go to coworkers and other non-UCG readers.
• Our July coworker count is at 8,966—just below our all-time high of 9,023 in May. And that’s a 4.4% increase over last July.
• Our donor list now includes 10,330 people. That’s a 4% decrease over last July. Our peak number was 10,913 in January.
• Combined with our coworkers, we continue to have more of our readers and viewers contributing to the work of the Church than the total number of members in the U.S. and abroad—19,296. That’s a 2.9% decrease over last July.
• U.S. July-August Beyond Today magazine subscribers total 285,250. This is a 6.2% increase compared to the same time last year.
• The total July-August Beyond Today magazine print run stands at 335,467. This is a 6.9% increase over the same time last year. Our persistent advertising in print, online and on television has raised our subscription numbers as we planned. Our all-time high was 567,309 in May of 2008.
• The number of people on our U.S. database who say they are associated with UCGIA (members, youth and associated) stands at 11,918 which is 1.2% less than a year ago.
• The number of telephone and website responses from Beyond Today TV for 2021 was 17,943. For the first six months of 2022 we are at 7,736.
• Internet literature responses totaled 213,671 for calendar year 2020. And Internet literature responses totaled 216,013 for calendar year 2021. So far for 2022 we have received 136,549 Internet literature responses, so we are on track to exceed the previous two years. More than 95% of these are the result of our various online advertising campaigns through three different advertisers: Google, Bing and PureProfile.
• Total impressions to our Bing and Google ads for 2020 was 152 million. For 2021 it was 101 million, and so far for 2022 it is 42.5 million. Total impressions since 2004 stands at 12.6 billion.
• The Church’s Beyond Today YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/BeyondTodayTV received 1.46 million views for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, and 892,000 views for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
•  Since it Began the Church’s Beyond Today YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/BeyondTodayTV has had 14.99 million views since it began (a 6.3% increase over a year ago), has 67,600 subscribers (a 5.5% increase over a year ago), and hosts 2,536 videos (3.5% more than a year ago).

Mr. Eddington listed the top ten BT program views on YouTube for 2020-2021 and compared them to 2021-2022. The change in responses year over year can likely be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the height many people were stuck inside with plenty of time to watch TV or surf the Internet.

He then presented a few statistics about our booklet and Bible Study Course printing history.

• The United Church of God has printed 11.432 million copies of its booklets since 1996. The top-ten most printed titles are as follows.

• 681,000 of “The Book of Revelation Unveiled”
• 540,000 of “Are We Living in the Time of the End?”
• 530,000 of “You Can Understand Bible Prophecy”
• 520,000 of “The Ten Commandments”
• 505,000 of “Why Were You Born?” (formerly, “What Is Your Destiny?”)
• 470,000 of “The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy”
• 470,000 of “Jesus Christ: The Real Story”
• 455,000 of “What Happens After Death?”
• 450,000 of “The Middle East in Bible Prophecy”
• 430,000 of “How to Understand the Bible”

• During the 2021 calendar year, our home office mailroom sent 275,369 “special request” pieces of mail—primarily individual booklet requests.
• Through June of 2022 we have mailed 173,408 so we are on track to easily surpass last year. These are in addition to the millions of editions of our magazines and newspapers that are mailed directly from print houses.
• This works out to 22,950 pieces per month, or 1,043 per business day.
• We have printed 3.26 million copies of our Bible Study Course lessons since it began in 1999. During the 2021 calendar year, five of the 12 lessons were reprinted, and four lessons have been reprinted so far this year—for a total of 45,000 copies.

Mr. Eddington commented that these figures are very encouraging, in that they show our readers are engaged and wanting more biblical information from us. We find these requests spike after each issue of Beyond Today magazine is mailed—showing that our readers are opening the magazine, reading it, and finding other literature mentioned within its pages that they want and request.

• The PDF downloads of our literature from our website during fiscal 2020-2021 totaled 235,664 copies, by 118,408 users. PDF downloads during fiscal 2021-2022 totaled 178,981 from 92,702 users.

In addition to booklets printed and mailed from the home office, we also publish eBooks online with various publishers and bookstores. As a result of these other outlets, we have “sold” (for $0.00) more than a million eBooks. So, considering printing, advertising and postage costs, this has saved more than $1 million if we would have printed and distributed hard copies.

• The Roku App is doing very well, with an average of 26,000 ads currently running per day. During the past 12 months an average of 262 videos have been watched per day.

He presented the Roku App advertising results for the past 12 months: Please note, these views and channel installs are only for Roku. We are also running Beyond Today television programming on Apple iOS devices, Amazon Fire TV, Android devices, LG smart TVs and Samsung smart TVs. We had 9.5 million advertising impressions on Roku over the past 12 months.

• 49,848 advertising clicks.
• 37,817 channel installs.
• 113,380 unique viewers.
• 148,510 channel sessions.
• 95,286 videos watched.
• 61.27 average minutes on channel last six months.

Our cost per advertising impression is currently 1.5 cents.

• The Church’s UCG-Radio app, developed by our UCG-Australia office, had 121,183 listeners from July 2021 through June 2022. This is a 9.2% increase over 2020-2021. This came from 23,479 unique listeners (a 33% increase over 2020- 2021).

He noted that these figures have already surpassed the 2021/2022 UCG-Radio goals. Please promote UCG-Radio with your congregations. Many listeners find it a convenient and interesting way to consume UCG content while driving, jogging or around the home.

Finally, Mr. Eddington presented a graph showing the final results for testing our 2-minute Beyond Today TV short-form programs on Blaze TV. And as previously reported in February, tables were also given for testing done on Newsmax, NewsNet TV and OANN.

• $295,894.48 total was spent from the Council’s approved additional budget of $310,500 (from additional, unbudgeted Church income to test this program).

Treasurer and Financial Services Report: Rick Shabi

The position of Treasurer is still vacant, so Rick Shabi presented the fiscal year-end financial statements and noted another year that ended with greater than expected revenue. He commented that our income continues to increase in an economy that’s suffering and attributed this to God’s blessing toward the people and the Church as a whole.

He thanked Gerald Seelig and Jake Trone for their work that has contributed to keeping everything running smoothly and accurately during the transition from him serving as treasurer to president. He mentioned that the annual external audit, required by our bylaws, is scheduled for the week of September 19, 2022. The complete audited financial statements for UCG fiscal year 2022 will be presented in the January 2023 United News. He then presented a few statistics concerning the Church’s income and accounts.

Financial Statement/Balance Sheet Highlights:

• Every major financial category exceeded budget by a wide margin (first/second/third tithe and Holy Day Offerings)
• Estate and stock donations exceeded budget by $500,000
• Overall income exceeded budget by more than $2 million or 11.6%
• The trend in strong income continues as July 2022 income was 9% over budget.
• We have a strong balance sheet, with current assets up 24% over a year ago. Total assets (which includes fixed assets) are up 18% over last year.
• During the year, loans on the Big Sandy, TX and Wichita, KS church buildings were paid off.

Mr. Shabi continued his presentation by discussing department expenses and some key operating metrics. Following his presentation, he answered questions from the Council. 

Committee Chairman Reports:

Doctrine Committee (DC)—Mario Seiglie

Mario Seiglie reports that the DC has completed Appendix A on the “Hebrew Calendar” paper and is now working on Appendix B. Mario Seiglie stated that due to the Appendix B portion being over 50 pages, it has been divided into sections. Section One will be presented to the council this week.

Mario Seiglie stated that the paper, “Did the Father Forsake Jesus” had a preliminary overview by the DC and will also be presented to the Council this week as well.

The DC currently has only one other doctrinal project in the docket, the review of “The Voting and Involvement in Politics” paper.

Members on the DC: Scott Ashley, Jorge de Campos, Darris McNeely, Mario Seiglie (chair) and Rex Sexton.

Education Committee (EC)—Aaron Dean

Mr. Dean reports that since our last meeting we have had all our teen, preteen and challenger camps. This summer the Camp COVID-19 policy was implemented. It was quickly realized that the policy was too restrictive in practice and allowed us virtually no latitude as written. This became apparent at Camp Pinecrest where we were forced to close the camp a couple of days into the session, even though there were no further extensive breakouts of COVID-19. The COE was able to meet before any other camps started and modified the plan to give more leeway to the camp directors.

ABC Orientation is next Monday with classes beginning the next day. We have 26 students registered. We have two international students from Australia and Canada, but the six applicants from Latin America had difficulties with visas and could not come. Some are trying to come in January for the second semester.

Aaron Dean has been updating the new president about international operations and we will be looking at how to address all the educational needs in all international areas. While COVID-19 created travel barriers and still creates some difficulties, airline flight cancelations have also created problems in trying to keep schedules. As the president works with international areas, the committee will watch over and assist as requested.

Aaron Dean ended his presentation stating that the EC has no new mandated duties or assignments at this time.

Members on the EC: Aaron Dean (chair), Jorge de Campos, Rex Sexton, Brian Shaw and Paul Wasilkoff.

Ethics Committee—John Elliott

John Elliott reported that the Ethics Committee has no mandated duties or assignments at this time.

Members on the Ethics Committee: John Elliott (chair), Mario Seiglie, Rex Sexton and Paul Wasilkoff.

Media and Communications Committee (MCC) —Scott Ashley

Scott Ashley reports that since our last Council meetings we met via Zoom conference on August 8, 2022. Len Martin and Peter Eddington were also in the meeting.

The media committee is mandated to preview the media reports ahead of the quarterly Council of Elders meetings and General Conference of Elders, so we previewed Peter Eddington’s MCS report which we heard this morning. We also discussed a number of follow-up questions.

Members on the Media and Communications Committee: Scott Ashley (chair), Jorge de Campos, Darris McNeely, Brian Shaw and Paul Wasilkoff.

Roles and Rules Committee (RRC)—Dan Dowd

Dan Dowd addressed the following topics:

• Assisting the Secretary with populating a few sub-committees that still need the minimum number of members.
• Assessment of the Treasurer is required according to the Constitution and Bylaws of the United Church of God. Mr. Dowd highlighted the fact that we do not currently have a treasurer—but also that our president asked for time to give proper consideration to proposing a candidate to the Council.
• Proposed edits to the Timeline and Selection of a New President. Having gone through this process from February until May, the Chairman asked that RRC present those proposed edits at the August meeting.
• Updated Council on the database Dan Dowd has been working on with his brother, Ed Dowd. This database will assist the RRC Chairman with keeping track of all of the due dates for RRC items.
• John Elliott and Dan Dowd will lead a presentation on interpreting the bylaws.
• Proposed updates on the Scopes & Responsibilities document and other documents so that they include more material by reference instead of copying that into the document itself.
• Consideration on how an elder is readmitted to the General Conference of Elders (GCE).
• How an elder in good standing who had voluntarily removed himself from the GCE can be readmitted to the GCE. (Presentation later in week)

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

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee (SPFC)—John Miller

John Miller began the presentation discussing the SPFC’s current projects:

• Regional property plan
• Employee retention
• COE—stipend
• 2023-2024 Strategic Plan (Collaborative Work Plan for the Development of Strategic & Operation Plan & Budget)—Weekly meetings have been paused until after the Feast of Tabernacles.

Mr. Miller then read the COE Resolution concerning the development of the Strategic Plan and discussed how this works. He then presented the SPFC’s priorities.

• Align with God’s Word and will.
• Key questions
• What should we start doing?
• What should we keep doing?
• What should we stop doing?
• Establish priorities for next version of plan (COE Resolution)
• Build out the Ephesian Framework model of truth in love
• Objective measurements of efficacy
• Rank priority of initiatives
• Implement in order
• Focus on key outcomes
• Simplify, simplify, simplify

He ended his presentation with the top issues the committee has for 2023-2024:

• Operational and organizational metrics
• New website—CRM Project
• Education
• Ministerial
• Youth
• Home School Support
• Regional properties
• Event facilities
• Church buildings
• Media
• Effectiveness of spending
• Evaluate alternatives/additions (including potential creation of a UCG app for various devices)
• Employee recruiting and retention

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

Chairman Martin reminded everyone that there is an Executive Committee that consists of Scott Ashley, Aaron Dean, Dan Dowd, Len Martin (Chair), Darris McNeely. He mentions that the executive committee has not had to meet for about two years, because it is used only for emergencies.

At 12:00 p.m. the Council took a break for lunch.

Chairman Len Martin called the afternoon session to order at 1:30 p.m. and immediately went into the scheduled executive session and remained in executive session for the remainder of the day.

At 5:06 p.m. the Council came out of executive session and adjourned for the day.

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 9 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. 11 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Scott Ashley and Paul Wasilkoff were online via Zoom. John Miller was absent.

Chairman Martin encouraged the Council members to take the time this week to visit the home office staff and meet the new employees. After reviewing the morning agenda, the Council went into the scheduled executive session.

At 10:49 a.m. the Council ended the executive session.

Chairman Martin presented what the current GCE Forum moderators have put together concerning the guidelines for monitoring posts on the GCE Forum. Before presenting the document, Chairman Martin reminded the council who the current GCE Moderators are: Randy Love, David Meidinger, Devin Schulz, Tim Seelig, and Len Martin (Chairman of the GCE).

Chairman Martin clarified that this document is the GCE Moderator’s Guideline only, not the GCE Forum policy. During the discussion, suggestions and edits were made to the document. The document was then sent for proofing and approved by the Council for posting on the GCE Forum.

GCE Forum Moderator Guidelines

The General Conference of Elders Forum (GCE Forum/Forum) is a vehicle by which elders can communicate in a professional manner on matters facing the General Conference of Elders (GCE) and the Church. The Forum is designed to focus on two major areas:

• Matters set officially before the GCE for ballot, including (but not limited to) Strategic Plan, Operation Plan, Budget, amendments, resolutions and balloting for Council members.
• Iron Sharpening Iron topics where the Forum can be used to share with others advice on pastoral responsibilities such as counseling, sermon preparation and other subjects affecting their duties as elders.

The purpose of the Forum moderators is to monitor the information on the Forum confirming that it is positive, constructive and in keeping with the instructions set forth in the official GCE Forum Policy (https://trainucg.remote-learner.net/file.php/1/policy.html). The guidelines are as follows.

Process for Posting Forum Submissions

• All Forum messages are immediately posted to the Forum at http://gceforum.ucg.org.
• Messages will not be automatically distributed to Forum participants who are in “digest” mode.
• All messages submitted after 5 p.m. (Eastern) on the previous date and before 5 p.m. (Eastern) on the current date will be distributed in digest form to those registered on the GCE Forum at approximately 5 p.m. (Eastern).
• All moderators will receive all posts as they are submitted.

Process for Forum Message Review

• As posts are made on the Forum, moderators will review each submission for adherence to the official GCE Forum Policy.
• Any post that does not comply with the standards set forth, will be flagged.
• The moderator who initially flags a post will notify all fellow moderators.
• Any post for which at least two moderators determine to be in violation of standards will be removed by the moderator who initiated the review.
• Prior to removal of any post, the content of said post will be preserved for reference.
• A moderator who flags a post, but does not receive a second moderator objection, may request the chairman of the GCE to provide additional direction. The chairman of the GCE may reach out to appropriate Council committees or administration for said direction.
• If any member of the GCE raises concerns about a post, the moderators will confer and review the post.

Process for Interacting with an Elder who Posts in Violation of Forum Policy

• For infractions, an email will be sent by the moderator who initially flagged the violation to the author of the post explaining how the post violated policy. For consistency among moderators, all such communication will be cc’d with all moderators.
• To assist the process, any moderator may suggest alternate wording to the author of the post in order to bring the post into compliance with the GCE Forum Policy.
• When a major infraction occurs (as agreed upon by three or more moderators), the chairman of the GCE will take the matter to the Council of Elders for resolution and the user may be suspended or removed from the Forum.
• Major infractions would include the following:
• Purposeful demeaning of other people.
• Subversion of the Council of Elders, administration, or doctrines of the United Church of God.
• Deliberate infraction(s).
• Three or more infractions over a one-year period.

If an elder is suspended or removed from the GCE Forum, he can write to the chairman of the GCE for steps he needs to take to be reinstated.

Approved by the Council of Elders
August 16, 2022

At 12:00 p.m. the Council took a break for lunch.

At 1:30 p.m. Chairman Len Martin called the afternoon session to order and the session was opened with prayer.

On behalf of the Doctrinal Committee, Mario Seiglie presented a summary of what has previously been approved, The Hebrew Calendar Paper Summary and Appendix A.

He then presented the Appendix B, Section One (up through B.4.6) of the Hebrew Calendar Paper. Many edits were made and approved to move forward to section two. However, the paper itself will be presented for approval for distribution once all Appendices (A - E) are completed and presented as a whole document. The Council also discussed a plan to review the remaining sections in a timely manner so that the full paper can be released by Passover 2023.

The Council unanimously approved the release of the section, The Hebrew Calendar Paper Summary, once the editing and proofing process has been completed.

Dan Dowd led a discussion concerning formulating a policy for the process of being admitted and/or readmitted to the GCE. Mr. Dowd mentioned that Chairman Martin previously requested the RRC to develop a policy that would clearly address the process for elders seeking to be a part of the GCE. The Council outlined the definitions of Admittance and Readmittance as follows:

• Admittance - An elder who has never been admitted to the GCE due to a decision made by the elder himself at the time of ordination.
• Readmittance - (two scenarios in which an elder left the GCE previously).
  • An elder decided to leave due to personal reasons/health.
  • An elder removed for misconduct/infractions.

After discussion and ideas were submitted, it was agreed upon that the RRC be remanded to put these ideas into a policy and submit to COE for approval concerning all three conditions in which an elder is admitted and/or readmitted to the GCE.

At 4:55 p.m. the Council adjourned for the day.

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 9 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. 11 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Scott Ashley and Paul Wasilkoff were online via Zoom. John Miller was absent.

The Council immediately went into the scheduled executive session to discuss the doctrinal paper that has been reviewed by the DC, Did the Father Forsake Jesus?

At 12:42 p.m. the Council came out of executive session and took a break for lunch.

At 1:30 p.m. Chairman Len Martin called the afternoon session to order and the session was opened with prayer.

Guest speaker, Dave Bensinger, gave an update on our congregations in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Mr. Bensinger mentioned that the biggest issue facing the brethren at this time is that the country is in the middle of a civil war and potential conscription of the young men into the army. There are two congregations of believers in Myanmar, one in the north of the country (28 brethren) and one in the south (25-30 brethren). Both congregations still have the ability to meet every Sabbath and receive a sermon via Zoom. Mr. Bensinger reported that he is able to give a sermon via Zoom every six weeks with the help of a translator, Davidson Leh Bey who is located in England and speaks on the other Sabbaths.

He reports that both of the congregations have very limited resources and church material. Most of the brethren are rice farmers and are very poor. Mr. Bensinger added that regardless of their situation they are a faithful group of people who appreciate everything they have. Thankfully just before the coup and closing down of visitor visas and limiting money transfers. We were able to buy about six acres of land in both locations where members can grow rice and vegetables to sustain themselves. He ended by thanking the council for allowing him to speak concerning the needs of the Myanmar brethren.

Aaron Dean followed by presenting the documents that have been drafted concerning the Constitution and Bylaws for both New Zealand and Sri Lanka. These need approval of the COE and Mr. Dean wanted direction on how much the COE wants to be involved in creating these documents or simply be informed as they are all run though our legal departments, a lawyer in that country for compliance, the senior pastor and administration. Any changes could restart what has usually been a multi-year process.

Mr. Dean showed compliance to UCGIA and the Rules of Association built into the documents and how any assets are protected in the event of any split.

Mr. Dean stated we are building into the documents, where legally possible, is the protection of UCG, its physical and spiritual assets, and its membership. The COE, in simple discussion, agreed that if legal, and if the senior pastor and administration are happy with the documents, then they agree to simply being informed and doing the necessary resolutions; they do not need to be involved in wordsmithing the actual documents, which would create delays.

Mr. Dean ended his presentation by discussing a few of Mike Fike’s roles and responsibilities when he arrives in New Zealand. Mr. Dean explained that the goal was to eventually get to the place where New Zealand UCG can operate independently, but at this point, it’s necessary to operate under Australia’s Ministerial support and UCGIA’s financial support.

Dan Dowd presented the document outlining the process and timeline for the selection of the president. He then led a discussion to review previous edits and solicited for new edits to help clarify the entire process.

Mr. Dowd and Chairman Martin reminded the Council that this is not a policy, but an approved document of guidelines to help with the process of selecting a new president only. The document was reviewed and suggestions with edits were made, and then sent for editing and proofing. The document was unanimously approved by council.

John Elliott presented a document that contained information that was gathered concerning how and what it means to interpret the bylaws. Mr. Elliott mentioned that we must not only know and understand what it means to interpret, but the responsibility that comes with interpreting.

Dan Dowd presented a review and clarification of Bylaw 8.6, regarding the Council stipend. This review was due to questions concerning Council members who are non-employees and/or retired; do they receive the stipend? No change was needed and no resolution necessary.

Chairman Martin reminded the Council of the dates of the next scheduled council meetings, the 2024 GCE meeting, and led a discussion for possible dates for the 2025 annual GCE meeting.

Upcoming COE Dates

• December 5-8, 2022
• February 13-16, 2023
• May 9-11, 2023

Upcoming GCE Dates:

• May 6-8, 2023
• May 4-6, 2024
• May 3-5, 2025

He ended his discussion with a quick review of the Council’s agenda for tomorrow’s meetings.

At 4:47 p.m. the Council went into executive session.

At 5:31 p.m. the Council came out of executive session and adjourned for the day.

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 9 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. 11 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Scott Ashley and Paul Wasilkoff were online via Zoom. John Miller was absent.

The Council immediately went into the scheduled executive session to ballot on ordination/credentialing requests.

At 9:05 a.m. the council came out of executive session to discuss the unfinished business for the week.

Chairman Martin led a discussion concerning Congregational Practices and Customs as it pertains to allowing children to read scriptures to the congregation as part of Church services along with a number of aspects of our traditional service format. Chairman Martin moved that this subject be remanded to a committee for further discussion and come back at the next COE to present this in more detail so that we remain consistent according to God’s standards when it comes to our congregational practices and customs.

It was then approved that it be remanded to the EC with instructions to review our current practices and customs of Sabbath services and Holy Days. The committee will work with the president and MMS and will return in December with a report on existing policy, any current approved variations, as well as any recommendations.

Aaron Dean presented the next item of unfinished business: Resolution for International Bylaws. Mr. Dean presented the resolution for both New Zealand and Sri Lanka. No suggestions or edits were required.

Mr. Dean moved to accept both the New Zealand and Sri Lanka Resolutions as read, John Elliott seconded, both documents unanimously passed.

President Shabi led a discussion concerning the purchase of land/church building in Salem, OR.

This was brought before the council because the Salem congregation needs permission to make an offer with all its contingencies in order to show the property owner the intent to move forward with the process of purchasing. Larry Darden was asked to draft a resolution to be presented later in the meeting. The resolution was later presented, discussed, edited/proofed and unanimously passed.

The Council moved onto the next item of unfinished business, which was the approval to release to the membership the summary portion of the Hebrew Calendar paper. The council approved the release of the summary section and requested that it would contain a notice that appendices will follow at a later date.

The council also approved the presented Appendix B, Section 1 of the Hebrew Calendar paper with its suggestions and edits so that the DC can move forward to Section 2 of Appendix B.

The council then discussed the paper, “Did the Father Forsake Jesus Christ?” It was requested that a deadline be set for any comments/suggestions/concerns from the Council. November 1, 2022 was agreed upon.

The Council then discussed the need to develop a paper on the subject of the sanctity of marriage. Chairman Martin moved that it be remanded to the EC in conjunction with the DC and report to COE with its progress. The project to produce a study paper was unanimously passed.

Rex Sexton presented a proposal to survey the current ministry to ascertain the education and experience level of our ministry.

A discussion followed, and it was decided to remand this project to the EC. The EC will work closely with the president, MMS, and the Education Ad Hoc Committee in order to put together a plan to present to the COE in the December meetings.

The next item discussed was led by Mario Seiglie concerning the preteen camp program. Mario Seiglie shared his experience and thoughts about the effectiveness of the preteen camps. He expressed how valuable these experiences are for our children, as it helps instill a vison of what God desires for them in their young hearts and minds. He asked for more focus and for the Council to review the funding, formats, and possible expansion of the preteen camp program.

Mark Welch added that we currently have seven preteen camps and are willing to conduct more preteen camps. He mentioned that the program does need to be improved, but he feels that we are doing a great job in working toward making those improvements. Aaron Dean asked that we keep the international camps in mind when these decisions are made. Chairman Martin asked that following the upcoming annual camp director’s meeting, the administration give a brief camp update at the December COE meetings.

Jorge de Campos requested that the Council discuss the issue of sexual matters impacting the Church.
He then shared his thoughts concerning how these issues are affecting our brethren, especially our youth. He mentioned that our children are being impacted by society’s corrupted and ungodly ideals, especially in the area of education/schools.

Jorge de Campos stated that our children are being forced to deal with many things that are an abomination in the eyes of God. He encouraged the Council that we need to guide and advise the ministry as well as parents to deal with these Sodom and Gomorrah mentalities. He added that we can’t stop the slide, but we can defend against how we allow it to affect us and our families. He said it’s our responsibility to equip our brethren and especially our children with the resources they need in order to defend the holy things of God. It was agreed upon that we can’t ignore these issues and they must be a priority in the Council meetings.

The last item of the day was presented by Chris Rowland. At the request of Chairman Martin, Mr. Rowland presented a short tutorial on the use of a Council shared folder. This was created so that the members of the COE could upload and edit documents that will be presented during the COE meetings.
At 11:53 a.m. the Council adjourned the meetings.

-end-

Council Reporter
Ryan Hall

[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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