Council of Elders Meeting in Cincinnati Ohio
United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report
Monday, February 28, 2000 ö Cincinnati, Ohio
Day Five of the current round of Council meetings covered subjects ranging from initial discussion of a Church Outreach program to working out plans for the General Conference of Elders meetings in May, 2000, including several miscellaneous items left incomplete earlier in the week.
Outreach
Gary Antion brought material on a potential outreach program to the Councilâs attention as meetings got underway Monday morning. His experience in working with the Ambassador University program of some years ago serves as a basis of familiarity with potential in this area. He found that misconceptions about us as a group of people could be cleared up by simply living a way of give to others. One official connected with the accreditation process stated "We believe that you feed on yourself. All you are is caring about yourself. What do you do about others?" The university outreach program completely reversed his initial impression.
ABC class in session.
Dr. Ralph Levy teaching
Mr. Antion recently surveyed U.S. church pastors about the concept, and approximately 30 responded. Roughly two-thirds of those who answered either had programs in operation, or were interested in some type of centrally designed approach. Others felt their congregations were too scattered or small to work with such an undertaking. Mr. Antion stated that he understood this too ö clearly there were opportunities available to a college of several hundred young people that are not to any congregation. But the concept of giving is the key.
A number of comments were made about the idea itself:
"I feel that the Church needs to make some kind of statement about how it deals with the world· that we are concerned about the world, about our communities. Sometimes people donât ask us what we believe, they ask us what we do· [Letâs] start something in a way that draws people, doesnât force people [to participate]" (Victor Kubik).
"Iâd like to see it move ahead· youâre not forcing it on any congregation· I support it strongly and encourage it" (Dennis Luker).
"I suggest we write up a Mission Statement, some goals, some ideas of what people can do·" (Don Ward).
"I get the idea that [pastors] want to be able to select and choose· hereâs a panorama of things you can do·I would be for us moving ahead and going forward" (Roy Holladay).
"I agree that some people want to have a choice· to make sure it [the program] fits their congregation" (Burk McNair).
"If you had a list of lots of programs you could do, you would see what [your] church could do. Letâs say you had an elderly church. They could do the cards and flowers program·" (Gary Antion).
Summing up the input, Mr. Antion acknowledged some of the various activities already being done, such as food bank donations at Feast sites. The Council agreed to pursue the idea, and Mr. Dick asked Mr. Antion to work with the Education Committee on research and making a formal proposal, either by teleconference or at the next Council meetings in May.
General Conference of Elders
Planning for the upcoming General Conference of Elders (May 6-8, in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky) occupied center stage for the remainder of the morning session, and on into the afternoon. Assistant to the President, Matt Fenchel, worked with Mr. Dick in hammering out the proposed schedule, which was covered with the Council in detail.
Call and notice will be sent by Secretary Gerald Seelig on or about March 8. In general terms, the weekend planning has incorporated many proposals made by General Conference members. Some of these were requests for more time for fellowship, continuation of international reports, fewer but longer "breakout" seminar sessions, and more time to hear from the featured keynote speaker (for 2000, Dr. Howard Baker, professor at Northeast State University of Monroe, LA; former faculty member at Ambassador University and United Church of God member). As in past years, the official business portion of the meetings will be between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 7. Phone hook-ups will be arranged for those elders not able to attend in person. More details will be sent to each elder with the Call and Notice packet.
Miscellaneous Items
Several smaller, miscellaneous items of business rounded out the day.
Ethics Committee chairman Gary Antion presented material on church identity, and the Council worked on hammering out a statement reflecting its belief. A final draft is to be returned the Council for its approval on Tuesday, February 29.
Richard Thompson returned to the Council with further international input on the proposed Outside Speaker policy, this time from Germany and South Africa. The Council decided to follow the advice of Leon Walker, who suggested waiting until the international meetings just prior to the General Conference of Elders, at which time it will be possible for Council members to discuss any concerns face to face with the ministers who will be attending from the international areas.
Treasurer Tom Kirkpatrick presented an updated version of the Operations Plan for 2000-2001, with the edits requested by Mr. Holladay (adding the Strategic Objectives fulfilled in each area of the Plan). Council gave its unanimous approval (Aaron Dean and Gary Antion being absent).
Mr. Dick presented the Council with an edited draft of the provisional manner of amending the Fundamentals of Belief, which the Council approved unanimously (Aaron Dean and Gary Antion being absent) for presentation to the General Conference of Elders. The word "provisional" is intended to reflect the fact that the General Conference will have up to one year to suggest edits before the proposal then becomes part of the governing documents of the United Church of God.
During the afternoon break from the meetings, the Home Office staff joined the Council, and the staff and students of the Ambassador Bible Center in surprising Les and Marion McCullough with a cake in honor of their celebration of 48 years of marriage on February 29, 2000. Congratulations!
- Doug Johnson
