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

  Wednesday, February 23, 2000 ö Cincinnati, Ohio

The Council of Elders convened at the Home Office in Cincinnati today, as Chairman Bob Dick welcomed members to a jam-packed six-day docket of business. Following regular reports and updates, discussion moved briskly to material from the task force on ministerial workload and remuneration, and General Conference of Elders planning on the Strategic Plan, Operations Plan, and the budget for fiscal year 2000-2001.

Administration Reports

With minor adjustments, the eleven Council members present as the morning session convened approved the minutes of the last face-to-face Council meetings, December 1-6, 1999, and a teleconference December 13, 1999. Richard Thompson taught his current class on the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ at the Ambassador Bible Center as the day began, but joined the group by mid-morning.

Roger Foster and Wil Berg

Secretary Gerald Seelig sought Councilâs approval of balloting procedures to be used during the May meeting of the General Conference of Elders. In compliance with section 7.5.4 of the churchâs bylaws, outside auditors will supervise the balloting for Council members, but church staff may process all other ballot issues. Council consented to his cost-saving plan.

President Les McCullough welcomed the Council back to Cincinnati and heartily encouraged all members to visit the ABC facility adjacent to the church administrative offices. Enthusiasm among staff and students continues at a high level, with this yearâs 24 students suggesting making more room for next yearâs class ö which they confidently assert will be 100! Ten applications for the class of 2001 have already been received.

The presidentâs report dealt with building a base this past year for the development of the churchâs work. A substantial step forward in this area, it is hoped, will shortly be finalized with Readerâs Digest. Media Operations manager Peter Eddington reported on negotiations that should result in an ad for the Good News magazine being placed in all twelve million copies of the U.S. circulation of the June 2000 issue of Readerâs Digest! Although a subscription renewal procedure is expected to pare the current list by 35,000-40,000 subscriptions, a 0.5% response to the June advertisement would add 60,000 new names to the list.

Mr. McCullough referred to two other items in his opening remarks. Although returns are not yet complete, a survey of all employed ministers has yielded little in the way of surprises regarding the current church administration. Most are content with the present configuration, with a few suggesting various changes of differing magnitudes.

The president commented briefly on the report by the task force on ministerial workload and remuneration; much more detailed discussion followed later in the morning.

Strategic Planning

Roy Holladay led discussion on the Strategic Plan to be presented to the entire General Conference in May. Some fine-tuning of the Plan involves recognition of continuing progress, slight alteration of three strategies for accomplishing goals, and more local involvement in the individual Plan objectives.

Comments on local involvement predominated. A sampling follows:

"I think it will help the work and the church a great deal to come out clearly and specifically that we support that [local involvement] and encourage that" (Dennis Luker).

"I think that the more we can involve brethren in what they are capable of doing, the more ownership they take for the whole organization· I do believe stating it is one thing, and fulfilling it is another. ÎHope deferred makes the heart sick.â If this is something we agree upon · as a church, then we ought to be looking at methods to involve [members]" (Gary Antion).

"I feel itâs important for the administration to praise the good [projects]· I canât stress enough how important it is to follow through with actions after we have made a statement· We need to make it very clear that [local involvement] is validated· that we are happy with it and appreciate it·" (Victor Kubik).

"There is a coordination. If there are good things, we share it with everyone. Of course, [then] everyone wants to get on the bandwagon, and it impacts the budget. So, the pastors need to be able early on in the budget process to bring forth their ideas· Remember this year in the budget we were all asked to fill out, there was a lot there for local evangelism. Tom [Kirkpatrick] said he did not turn anybody down for what they put down in local evangelism" (Roy Holladay).

"The education and coordination of it· the minister is thinking about what he can do in his local area to involve the people in his area. He will coordinate it with the Home Office. The Home Office will be supportive if they think itâs a good idea and it is supportable· maybe it can be done in many areas. Itâs not just a Îlocal initiativeâ. Thatâs trying to get to the point where we can share whatever is being done" (Don Ward).

"I think the United News is a very good vehicle to publicize, to let the members know what some of these efforts are" (Leon Walker).

Following clarification of the officially proposed text, the eleven Council members present unanimously approved delivering the Strategic Plan for 2000-2001 to the General Conference of Elders for its consideration.

Task Force Report

The morningâs session concluded with an extensive review of the task force report on ministerial workload and remuneration. Mr. McCullough expressed his appreciation for the extensive amount of work done by task force chairman Richard Thompson and all who helped him; several Council members voiced the same sentiment and were encouraged by the president to send their comments directly to task force members. Although retirement concerns were not within the original parameters of the task forceâs assignment, they asked for and were given permission to express opinions on this sensitive issue as well. Mr. McCullough welcomed the conclusions reached, saying he agreed with them; but serving as one who must work with the income levels of the church as they presently are, he simply stated that some are beyond our current reach.

The foremost concern many have had is: what constitutes a full time workload? The committee recommended the following general guidelines. Any pastor with no other official church responsibilities (such as camp director, Feast coordinator, editor/reviewer, etc.) who has one congregation with at least 100 in average attendance; or two congregations with at least 80 in total average attendance; or three congregations with at least 60 in total average attendance, should be considered to have a full time responsibility. Other duties would adjust the basic formula slightly, as would the distance between congregations. A related recommendation involves having no one pastor serve more than three congregations.

Much discussion followed the presentation of the basics of the executive summary of the complete report. One area of special concern, given the aging ministry of the church, is retirement. As Mr. McCullough noted, the current help given in 403b retirement plans is an illustration of the administrationâs desire to help individuals plan for this time in their lives. But there was concern expressed about programs that are vested, since this becomes a fiduciary responsibility of the church, which can turn into a financial liability and potential audit problem. Perhaps this area was best summed up by Aaron Dean, who stated "Basically, if you look at the biblical aspect of the Levites, if Israel went downhill, the Levites went downhill· if the Levite kept his life on track spiritually, then [the nation was] blessed, and the Levites were blessed· Frankly, weâve really come down to [the fact that] weâre a Îfaith retirement program.â We feed the flock and the flock grows. They will give us some wool when we need it. If the flock goes down, we go down. Weâre trying to guarantee something we canât [guarantee]."

Mr. Dick noted that this material was actually a step away from moving in a direct line from the Strategic Plan to the Operations Plan to the budget, which the dayâs agenda called for. Direction shifted accordingly to the recommendations of the task force dealing with the concept of full time responsibilities. Ministerial services manager Richard Pinelli provided information on the number of partially salaried ministers at present (eleven). These individuals have chosen to remain at partial salaries for the time being.

The task force realized the need to implement any decisions gradually in order to minimize disruptions to individuals and congregations. Task force Richard Thompson stressed this point, considering that goals and recommendations are tied in to job performance as well, an area just recently addressed with self-evaluation forms for the ministry (a first step). Mr. Pinelli stressed that Ministerial Services has in mind a time frame of up to three years for implementation of any Council directives formulated from the task force report. Mr. Thompson then called attention to the "other side" of the recommendations ö that the guidelines also point out what levels of work the task force felt required full time attention from a pastor. Task force member Matthew Fenchel stressed the view those working in this area had as their primary consideration ö the spiritual health of the congregation.

The Council devoted the afternoon to an executive session addressing preliminary budget review and some personnel issues. Budget material will be completed on Sunday, February 27, and will be handled in the report for that day.

- Doug Johnson

©2000 United Church of God, an International Association