United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report
Feb. 28, 2011—Cincinnati, Ohio

Council Chairman Melvin Rhodes called the quarterly meeting to order just after 9 a.m. and asked Robin Webber to give the opening prayer. Mr. Rhodes then greeted the Council members and guests. After the minutes of the early February meeting were approved, he introduced President Dennis Luker for the president’s report. All 10 Council members were present with Darris McNeely joining the meeting in progress after he finished teaching his ABC Doctrines class.

President’s Report

Mr. Luker addressed the fact that we have come through some serious times. Due to a drop of 40 percent in income, we will need to urgently address the budget.

However, he explained, we have urgent spiritual issues to focus on. It’s time to examine ourselves in the ministry before Passover even as we give messages to the brethren about doing the same. Mr. Luker then gave four points to consider.

1. We need to forgive those who have sinned against us.

This is a critical subject that’s often hard to understand, but there is a lot of hurt in the Church. Matthew:6:9-12, 14 makes it clear that we must forgive if we want to be forgiven. Also, for healing to take place, we must forgive—and repent of our sins.

Mark:11:25-26 says that if you have anything against anyone—forgive him. Only God can forgive sins by blotting them out through the blood of Christ. But we must forgive others ourselves so that we don’t harbor bitterness. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that they’re not guilty of doing wrong. But we must learn to forgive like God forgives us.

In Matthew 18 Peter asked, “How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” “Seventy times seven,” was Christ’s reply. Forgiveness must be from the heart. We must forgive others from the heart. Ephesians:4:31-32 teaches us, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.”

2. Love, pray for and do good to those we consider enemies.

Christ said to love your enemies—not a brotherly love, but agape love (Matthew:5:43-48). Even though they may not be your close friends, “If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men…if your enemy hungers feed him…overcome evil with good” (Romans:12:18-21).

3. Work for reconciliation whenever and wherever possible.

Remember that as God has been merciful to us, so we should be to each other. As Paul wrote, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation… Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians:5:18-20).

We need to make peace, break down “the wall of separation” and put to death anger, resentment and enmity, “thus making peace” (Ephesians:2:14-15).

4. Stay humble and be examples of Christlike service.

We started off humble in United in 1995, but when income started coming in, the old ways returned and humility left. Those of us here now have remained committed to those things we started with.

Mr. Luker stressed that we need to recognize the sin of others (such as those who departed), but stay humble. “If I get out of line and get cocky or vain, come and tell me,” he said, and also stated that we need to do that for each other.

“It’s not about ‘I’ or ‘me,’ it’s about Jesus Christ,” he pointed out, citing parts of Philippians 2:3-5, 19-21, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself… Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Referring to the example of Timothy, Paul said, “For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.”

Mr. Luker concluded by pointing out that if we will love and do good to those who have hurt us, stay humble and serve like Christ, then He will bless us. We should follow Christ’s example, do the hard things and be examples of Christlike service.

Ministerial and Member Services (MMS) Report

Victor Kubik started by saying that we have suffered loss, but we also have a new period of opportunity. We have been witnessing the unearthing of new leadership, attitudes of sacrifice and service.

He told his wife Beverly that he wanted to work in MMS when it was fun (it wasn’t fun in the last years of WCG, nor in the past months), but he said that he has a positive attitude for the future.

Recent events have been like a volcano erupting onto the Church. We still have some lava flow. December was hard—one day we received 18 resignations. He described that at one point he was the only MMS employee at the home office. Mr. Kubik pointed out that when things are bad, it only lasts so long—then you hit bottom.

At our high point we were at 492 elders, of whom 392 (62.8 percent) we retained. The percentage of salaried ministers who left was 46.1 percent, or 61 of 131. The United States has three times as many paid ministers as the rest of the world combined. Presently, in the United States we have more than 7,500 people attending—down from over 11,000. January, however, tends to be a low attendance month because of weather and illness.

The ministerial conference at the end of January and beginning of February was a terrific success! The sense of friendship and camaraderie was excellent.

Mr. Kubik described his recent (early January) trip with Melvin Rhodes to southern Africa. They were told that all the ministry and membership had left. We have able to reclaim all of northern and some of southern Zambia. We are working on regaining the property we own in Zambia, especially a 12-acre property for the Feast. We also hope to have a youth camp there in April and a United Youth Corps project there soon. The church is mostly intact in Malawi, with the exception of the former pastor and his extended family. The work in South Africa is continuing with members stepping up to stabilize the church.

Many elders and pastors have stepped up to the plate to care for abandoned congregations, and we have been unearthing leadership in many places. Although we have lost 54 men from the field ministry, we are planning to hire 10 men soon and several more later.

We have revamped and upped our communication with the ministry. Mr. Kubik’s new assistant, Chris Rowland, recently ordained as an elder, has absorbed three jobs and made them more efficient in MMS. Chris was able to help trim the budget down to the $6 million mark. As we look to the budget—even with a 40 percent reduction, it is doable. Mr. Kubik is very optimistic about the Church and MMS, but there are things to consider:

• Departures: Some are leaving for reasons other than the new group—perhaps harboring anger at someone, being upset with a minister or just not being deeply convicted of God’s truth. We need to be cautious and rebuild relationships.
• Assets: We have two thirds of the membership who really believe in UCG. We have new people coming to services from all over the United States and international areas. Thanks were offered to all who have been so helpful and supportive. We need to continue comforting our people—assuring them with hope for the future.
• Budget: We have a similar budget situation to that of 1998, but we plan for no layoffs, although there will be cuts.
• Camp: We will maintain our camp program.
• Feast sites: We are planning for 11 Feast sites along with three special sites.
• United Youth Corps in Jordan: We will continue to serve our young adults there spiritually.
• Humanitarian projects: LifeNets and the Good Works Program will function together transparently. LifeNets will assume Latin America scholarships.

Media and Communications Services Report

Peter Eddington expressed thankfulness that God has blessed us with being able to maintain momentum with our media efforts. He said that it is a pleasure to come into the office to work on preaching the gospel of the Kingdom!

Two new media employees were hired: Mitch Moss, who is now editor of internal publications and Nick Bizic as our new proofreader and personal correspondence copy editor.

Mr. Eddington reported on the Kingdom of God Seminars. Topic development is underway. The church areas initially in the program will have four special Sabbaths over 16 to 18 months. These will feature three 50-minute seminars with a light lunch served. Between eight and 10 reviewers are working on the project, and the goal is to launch in May or shortly after.

The new ucg.org website is scheduled to launch in May. It will feature a customizable home page for each viewer and will aggregate all our websites into one. It will be relationship oriented and will include author profiles so readers can interact with our writers. The layout of this site will be unique to the COG groups.

The media department is under budget by about 10 percent so far (through reduced travel expenses and salaries).

Gary Petty asked to be taken off the Beyond Today schedule for a couple of months since he now has two additional church areas. We’re sending a crew to San Antonio in April to record three messages by Mr. Petty as he delivers them to his congregation. This will allow our longer-term viewers to see that we do have congregations.

Plans are to soon send a letter to as many of our Good News subscribers as we can afford. The letter will plug Beyond Today and offer the How to Understand the Bible booklet. Our largest subscription development mailing in the past was to 200,000 households—this will be closer to 250,000 and could be piggybacked by the Canadian office to send the letter in that country. Often such mailings motivate new donors and coworkers and thus end up paying for themselves.

Our coworker and donor list has remained consistent, in spite of the recent crisis. These individuals contribute about $2 million a year to the work.

For years we have sent a “respond if you received this” card with the first issue of any international English Good News. If it isn’t returned, we suspend the subscription. We will now do the same for the Bonnes Nouvelles and Las Buenas Noticias (French and Spanish versions of The Good News).

Visits to members.ucg.org have been increasing over the year. The Council of Elders website (coe.ucg.org) always spikes after Council meetings.

The Good News moved to annual renewal,which started a downward trend toward its core base (about 200,000 subscribers) and will require more advertising funds to keep it higher. The United News print run has been dropping since only attendees, members and associates receive it.

The question was asked why we have no live webcasting to the general public. The answer was that the Council decided that services or sermons must be reviewed by a local review team (often elders and deacons) prior to being publically available. We need to watch for statements that might be insensitive in other areas of the world. During the crisis and for the foreseeable future, Cincinnati East obtained an exception to this general rule.

Gary Antion commented from the audience that we have removed from the website certain ABC lectures that were given by those who left us. We are replacing them as we record new lectures.

Strategic and Financial Services Report

Aaron Dean thanked Mr. Luker, Mr. Kubik and Mr. Rowland for their help in establishing the new budget.

He explained that we are looking at cutting everything except our faith and our beliefs. He will be asking for certain policy revisions—an example is restrictions on retirement funds. The Council needs to discuss policy on when to use reserves.

Because during the first part of the year we had a higher income, we should end this fiscal year with about $18 million in income. Mr. Dean went through the cost centers budget report for all present. We must look to Christ to direct us. Also we should pray for our departed brothers—they are having their own financial problems.

Cash reserves are staying up by God’s blessing. Mr. Dean concluded that the other group says that they have all the good speakers and the rich members, but that we would much rather have the widows’ mites.

After the lunch break Mr. Rhodes asked a Council member to deliver an opening prayer and then introduced the Council committee reports.

Doctrine Committee Report

Bob Berendt distributed a handout and discussed the need to provide more time for the General Conference of Elders (GCE) to review doctrinal reports. He cited several doctrinal papers that were in process and as yet incomplete. Mr. Berendt then outlined the need to clarify the doctrinal process through appropriate channels.

Darris McNeely suggested the need to maintain an archive of our doctrinal processes and decisions throughout United’s history—essentially a paper trail. Mr. Berendt explained that the previous chairman didn’t hand on anything to the committee in that regard.

Ethics Committee Report

Four members populate the committee: Robin Webber, Scott Ashley, Darris McNeely and Mario Seiglie. They have one item on the docket: finish writing the sexual misconduct policy for the ministry. From the previous committee members they have a 13-page paper that was pared down by UCG legal counsel Larry Darden.

Executive Committee Report

Since this committee seldom meets except in very urgent circumstances, there is presently nothing to report.

Media Committee Report

Mr. McNeely stated that the committee will bring information for decisions by the Council later in the meeting.

Roles and Rules Committee Report

Bill Eddington stated that there was nothing to report at the moment, but the committee would meet that evening to address two matters.

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee Report

Mr. Webber stated that the committee is presently in a three-stage process to rethink our new realities and future opportunities. We are doing a “work of faith.” He had sent out the notes of the committee for everyone to read earlier.

Treasurer and Finance Report

Mr. Dean handed out the report in the same format as in the Strategic and Operation and Budget plan that is distributed at the GCE every year. He explained that we have to use the last couple of months for planning purposes rather than the past year due to the crisis.

Mr. Dean took last year’s budget and multiplied it by a factor of 0.6 (60 percent) of the income that we had before. Additional pages of the handout projected the budget in the case that  income should increase to 65 percent or to 70 percent.

The current level of reserves is $3.9 million. We will need to tap into our reserves, but the question remains of to what extent. Nearly one third (31 percent) of the budget is for public proclamation. He discussed the pros and cons of initiating a fleet program for the ministry. A fleet program could save significant funds.

Regarding hall rental costs, he expressed the need for congregations to reevaluate the halls they are using so as to economize where it is possible. This is especially if the group is smaller or if rent has been raised beyond reason.

There will be somewhat smaller international subsidies this coming year due to decreased membership in those areas. Also the proposed Council of Elders budget (the cost of Council meetings) is not cut because it has been reduced voluntarily by the Council to close to its base minimum.

-end-

Randy Stiver
Council Reporter

© 2011 United Church of God, an International Association