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

 Wednesday, May 8, 2002 - Cincinnati, Ohio
 

Wednesday the Council heard reports on operations in Australia from Bill Eddington, work of the Doctrine Committee by Leon Walker, a plan of action for the Ministerial Education Task Force from Don Ward, activities and suggestions from the work of the Ethics, Roles, and Rules Committee by Gary Antion, and a financial report from Tom Kirkpatrick. They concluded the day in executive session discussing ministerial personnel. 

Australia 

Chairman Clyde Kilough welcomed the Council to the new home office building today, and its first meeting in the facility (yesterday’s meeting took place at the Holiday Inn Eastgate). Mr. Kilough then introduced Bill Eddington for the day’s first presentation. 

Mr. Eddington, chairman of the Australian National Council, gave the Council of Elders an update on operations there. In a country with just under 20 million people that is geographically nearly the size of the United States, three pastors, one salaried elder, and seven active non-salaried elders serve over 500 brethren in 15 congregations. The work of the Church in Australia is also affected by the aging of the ministry, and Mr. Eddington estimates that up to five new elders will be needed within five years.

The Church is registered as a Public Company Limited by Guarantee, with the name “United Church of God-Australia.” This form gives the best protections and benefits under Australian law. UCG-Australia has a Constitution, but no separate Bylaws, which are incorporated into the Constitution. The National Council is composed of ten individuals, of which a majority must be elders – a challenge, considering there are only nine in the whole country, and Council work is time-consuming, making it difficult for some to devote the time needed to serve. An amendment is being considered to drop the number of members of the National Council to eight, with the option to expand to ten, as need dictates.

Mr. Eddington gave an overview presentation via PowerPoint on the work of the various departments of the National Council. One system he believes is unique to the Church in Australia is what is called a “Sweep Operation” in the banking procedures. Members may contribute their tithes and offerings locally or to the National Office, as in a number of other countries where the UCG operates. However, in Australia the accounts are linked. On a prescribed day each month, the bank automatically checks the balance in each of the local congregational accounts. A minimum amount needed to function in each location has already been determined, and if the balance is below the needed amount, the bank “sweeps” sufficient funds from the central account into the local congregational account to “top it up” to the minimum level. If the balance in the local account is higher than the agreed-upon minimum, the bank “sweeps” any funds in excess of the specified amount the opposite way, from the local into the central account. “The system works well,” Mr. Eddington stated.

All audits the Church has received have given unqualified opinions (a good thing!) on the state of the finances of UCG-Australia. The subsidy from the Church in the United States amounts to about 13% of the annual budget; this amount is greatly needed and appreciated. Two other indirect forms of subsidy are given: Cincinnati pays church pastor Bill Bradford’s salary and supplies all the literature for the Australian operation.

Successful ad campaigns in Reader’s Digest are used to increase circulation, as are “letter box drops” – a technique that would be illegal in the United States! Members simply place a mail-in subscription card directly into personal mailboxes – permissible under Australian law. Waiting room programs (virtually every doctor’s office and dentist’s office in the country has been offered the Good News – close to 90% have accepted it) flourish here, and a fledgling newsstand program is underway. Approximately 850 students are enrolled in the Bible Study Course. The donor/coworker list stands at roughly 200, nearly double the amount from a year ago.

The successful youth programs in Australia feature United Youth Camp for the teens and an annual Leadership Camp for young adults (up to age 25).  

Doctrine Committee 

Leon Walker updated the Council on work being done for a study paper on the subject of the Last Great Day. Since comments from one Council member have been very recently received, others have not had sufficient time to study his comments and committee member responses. Mr. Walker proposed delaying discussion on the paper until the August meetings, and Council agreed. 

Committees of the Council 

Council chairman Clyde Kilough raised the issue of the structure of the committees of the Council. Changes to membership will necessitate changes to the membership of the committees; but if those changes are delayed until August, at least two Council members will not be able to participate in any of the pre-Council committee meetings. After some discussion, Council members agreed that changes might be desirable, at least to committee membership (if not also to the entire structure of the Council committees). Mr. Kilough will schedule a teleconference as soon after July 1 as practical, and asked members to give thought to the changes they would like to see. 

Ministerial Education Task Force 

Don Ward recapped developments from the meeting of the task force on Ministerial Education, which met Thursday, May 2. Membership of the task force: two Council members (Clyde Kilough, Don Ward), Ministerial Services operation manager (Richard Pinelli), ABC liaison (Gary Antion), two Ministerial Services team members (Jim Franks, Doug Horchak), two non-salaried elders (Dan Deininger, Dan Salcedo), two regional pastors (Dave Register, Paul Suckling), and two church pastors (Doug Johnson, Randy Stiver).

The plan of action for the next year, as determined from the meeting, would be to strive to focus particularly on people skills and speaking development. Dave Johnson’s presentation on teaching skills at the recently completed GCE sets a very timely tone. The intent to stress “prescriptive” or “how to” speaking, and make sure it’s balanced with the more common “descriptive” style is important. The committee identified fourteen skills they believe to be central in ministerial education, and seven areas that describe what a minister does – all coming under the wider umbrella of servant leadership. Effort in many of these areas is already underway (for example, the presentation on counseling delivered by Gary Antion at U.S. regional conferences last year).

Dr. Ward pointed out the challenges for ministers to continually work on the relevance of their messages to a variety of generations, and the specific challenges in focusing on helping young adults (roughly ages 20-40) engage more fully in the processes and operations of the Church itself.

Ethics, Roles, and Rules 

Committee chairman Gary Antion brought a number of items of business to the floor:

·        Committee voting. The Council discussed its practice on votes within committees. Areas of concern will be addressed at the July teleconference.

·        Revision of officer evaluation tools. Some changes to clarify evaluation procedures needed the Council’s action.

·        Scope of responsibility of the Ethics, Roles, and Rules committee. Changes to the current document were worked out and approved unanimously by the quorum present (Roy Holladay absent).

·        Mr. Antion put forward a proposal for a Council parliamentarian to advise on matters of form and adherence to the Church’s governing documents as the Council conducts its work. He nominated Matthew Fenchel for the responsibility. Messrs. Antion, Dean, Dick, Jewell, Kilough, Kubik, Seiglie, Thompson, and Ward voted in favor of the proposal. Mr. McCullough and Mr. Walker abstained. The measure passed.

·        Mr. Antion proposed displaying a plaque with the names of all past Council members and their dates of service in the Conference Room of the home office. Messrs. Antion, Dick, Jewell, and Kubik voted in favor of the proposal. Messrs. McCullough, Seiglie, Walker, and Ward opposed it. Messrs. Dean, Kilough, and Thompson abstained. The measure failed to pass.

·        The Council reviewed the wording for plaques to be presented as awards to two ABC students, and approved it without ballot.

·        Members discussed at some length a proposal to establish an advisory committee to plan the 2003 General Conference of Elders. Several names were suggested for service on the committee. In the end, the Council quorum present balloted unanimously in favor of setting up the committee with Dave Register as chairman, but merely suggested possible names to him for other committee members. Messrs. Antion, Dick, Jewell, Kilough, Kubik, McCullough, Seiglie, Thompson, Walker, and Ward supported the measure; Mr. Dean and Mr. Holladay were absent for this ballot.

·        The Ethics, Roles, and Rules committee proposed an amendment for the Council to sponsor to amend Section 7.1 of the Bylaws, to clear up possible ambiguity. Secretary Gerald Seelig with work with Mr. Antion to propose exact wording by the August Council meeting (meeting the August 26 deadline for submitting amendments for consideration at the 2003 GCE).

·        Discussion of Amendment Committee members was brief. One member’s term has expired; Mr. Antion will ask the GCE member in question if he will consider serving another term, reporting back to the Council.

·        Lastly, the Council rescinded a January 1997 resolution forbidding its members to publicly discuss issues before the General Conference. Members stated that this hampered the efforts to explain an amendment to Bylaws Section 9.1 proposed this past year by four Council members, following questions by GCE members and expressions of opinion on the Elders’ Forum. The ballot was unanimous by the quorum of ten members present.

Finances 

Treasurer Tom Kirkpatrick reprised and updated his presentation to the GCE from earlier in the week by simply bringing the Council up to date on the state of the finances through May 7. He still estimates that the Church will come very close to breaking even on income vs. expenses by fiscal year end on June 30. The loan for the home office building is due to be signed May 29.  

Mario Seiglie inquired as to the current level of financial reserves. Mr. Kirkpatrick stated that with the closure of the loan instrument, the reserves would settle back to the annual average of ten weeks’ operating reserves – around $4 million. 

The Council then moved to executive session to discuss personnel matters until the close of business for the day.

Doug Johnson

© 2002 United Church of God, an International Association