United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report

Milford, Ohio

Monday, August 17, 2020

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Bob Dick, John Elliott, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online.

Chairman Martin welcomed everyone. The last Council meeting minutes were approved. The agenda for the week was approved with an updated later start time to help those on the west coast connecting online.

Randy Stiver, as the ethics committee chairman, was asked to read the Council code of ethics, which is customarily done in the August meetings.

President’s Report—Victor Kubik

President Victor Kubik greeted everyone. He mentioned the importance of seeking and understanding God’s will from Ephesians:5:17 and his appreciation for God sparing His Church and His people during these difficult times. He appreciates the new leadership of Chairman Martin and the deputy chair, Aaron Dean, who serves as an “historic anchor.” Mr. Kubik enjoys his Thursday morning talks with Mr. Martin and his organization skills of these Council meetings. He then discussed some of the recent news since the May meetings:

• Nationwide Press Release: The United Church of God, IA (UCGIA) and Beyond Today launched a nationwide press release on Tuesday, August 4. The release, found on PR Newswire, points the public to answers and hope during these difficult trying times.
• Ambassador Bible College: ABC is about to welcome its 22nd class of students. They are expecting 19 students (8 women and 11 men) with in-person classes starting next Monday, August 24.
• International Areas: News and events were mentioned from Nigeria, Ghana, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Myanmar, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and French speaking areas.
• Planned Giving: Howard Marchbanks has done a recent podcast with Mr. Kubik on “What is Planned Giving?” Mr. Marchbanks will also give a presentation at the home office in a September Monthly Focus Meeting.
• COVID Shutdown: Mr. Kubik commented how the shutdown began with the possibility of it being for only one or two weeks. He explained how it progressed with the GCE meeting being online and ABC going to online.
• Online Speaker Training: We will start more speaker’s training for our ministry online with senior mentors. In the most recent member’s survey, ministerial speaking was listed as an area that could use improvement.
• Pastoral Development Program: The PDP has been an effective program and now we would like to have it become a Refresher Program for all ministers. We would like to hold two sessions annually at the home office with about 20 couples in each one.
• Church History: We have only a few who know the UCGIA history. This history needs to be recorded and passed down before it is lost.

Operation Manager Reports:

Ministerial and Member Services (MMS)—Mark Welch

Current statistics include:

• 398 elders in the United Church of God (UCGIA)
  • 111 outside the U.S.
  • 287 in the U.S.
    • 79 church pastors
    • 8 associate or assistant pastors
• 2 ministerial trainees
• 195 churches and Bible study groups in the U.S.
• 22 U.S. baptisms since the May meetings (58 baptisms so far in 2020)

Mark Welch summarized some manpower changes since the last meetings in May:

• Three elders were ordained:
  • Brent Baker, East Texas
  • Kerby Burton, Lexington, Kentucky
  • Sheldon Sitter, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• One elder has died since the May meetings, Herb Vierra, Los Angeles, CA.
• One elder’s wife has died since the May meetings, Diana Cheesman, of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania congregation, wife of Les Cheesman.

• Frank Fish was hired as pastor for Bakersfield and Los Angeles, CA.

   

Some of the most significant challenges for MMS since the May meetings:

• Meeting halls – still quite a number of our local meeting halls are not available to us due to their own restrictions. Almost no schools are allowing outside groups to meet at the present time.
• About 70% (121) of our congregations have resumed meeting in person in the U.S.
• Some congregations began meeting but had virus outbreaks in their communities and were not able to have services again.
• All preteen and teen camps were canceled for the summer.

• Feast planning has been very challenging, but we are striving to serve our members the best we can.

   

Some of the MMS activities completed since the May meetings:

• One-day NW Regional Conference online just completed
• MMS Regional Pastor self-assessment/congregational input reviews are mostly completed.
• Regional Pastors are now beginning to have self-assessment reviews with all the pastors in their regions.
• MMS pastoral reviews/assessments with each pastor to be completed by the end of 2020, including congregational input from the 2020 survey.
• MMS now beginning work on a Ministerial Refresher Program to begin in 2021.
• MMS beginning work to propose speaking clubs for pastors and elders for 2021.

Treasurer and Financial Services Report—Rick Shabi

As the August Council meeting is the first of the new fiscal year, Rick Shabi began his report by reminding the Council that the Church’s fiscal year ended June 30, and that since that time the financial department has been focused on year-end closing procedures and preparing for the annual external audit, which is beginning on this very morning.

The last four months of the fiscal year were the pandemic months where the nation went through lockdowns and a historic number of layoffs. What would be the effect on the Church’s members and the Church’s income during this time? We were surprised and gratified by God’s blessing as the Church’s income was very strong during this time, resulting in a fiscal year that recorded income well above budget and prior year levels.

Mr. Shabi distributed detailed financial reports for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, and for the month of July, 2020, accompanied by notes so the Council would have the opportunity to go through a more extensive review of the information later if they so choose.

He led the Council on a review and discussion of the year-end income statement; a recap of Holy Day offerings for the year, discussing the “success” of member donations online and by mail of Spring Holy Day offerings; department expense reports and balance sheets. Key operating statistics for the fiscal year were also presented.

Mr. Shabi briefly reviewed and commented on the July 2020 financial statements, noting that income had dropped by a significant amount from the previous months, but that through the first half of August, income levels had returned to budgeted levels.

While the Church’s income and financial condition is very strong at this point, for which God is to be thanked, the Council was reminded that the state of the nation’s economy is tentative and that at some point it will “break.” God can see us through any time that may confront us, but we must keep our eyes open and be prepared for difficult financial times that could be ahead.

Media and Communications Services—Peter Eddington

Peter Eddington went through some of the following statistics as of January 31 this year:

• United News circulation is now at 17,717. This is barely down from last July, and just under our high of 17,795 from September 2019. Approximately 47% of United News copies go to coworkers and other non-UCG readers.
• Our coworker count is at 7,321—an all-time high. And that’s a 17% increase over the same time last year.
• Our donor list now includes 9,331 people. That’s a 26% increase over last July. Our peak number was 9,564 in June of 2016.
• 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—16,652. That’s a 22% increase over the same time last year.
• U.S. Beyond Today magazine subscribers total 248,721. This is a 4% increase compared to the same time last year. Our plan is to increase U.S. subscribers by about 15% this year. Our recent peak was 261,408 in September 2018.
• The total Beyond Today magazine print run stands at 305,260. This is a 4.4% increase over the same time last year, and 6% below our peak of 324,738 from November 2017. Our all-time high was 567,309 in May of 2008.
• The number of telephone and website responses from Beyond Today TV since 2006 stands at 357,086. Responses for 2020 will be about 25% less than 2019 because of less money to be spent on airtime.
• The Church’s Beyond Today YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/BeyondTodayTV has had 12.7 million views (a 13% increase over a year ago), has 56,700 subscribers (a 12% increase over a year ago), and hosts 2,255 videos (12% more than a year ago). The most popular programs are:
  • The Moment After You Die [2010] 2.2 million views (1% more than a year ago).
  • The Lost Tribes of Israel: Why They Matter [2012] 667,000 views (25% more than a year ago).
  • Moving Beyond Tragedy [2011] 483,000 views (36% more than a year ago).
  • Who Are the Two Witnesses? [2017] 278,000 views (8% more than a year ago).
  • You Can Understand Bible Prophecy (advertisement) 241,000 views.

Some other items Mr. Eddington talked about were:

• Booklet Printing History: The United Church of God has printed 10,917,000 copies of its booklets since 1996. Most of those have been distributed, with an inventory of about 20,000 of each title being kept on hand for fulfillment.
• New Online Donation: In 2018, we implemented a new online donation option when a person requests a piece of literature or reads an article. So far, a total of $97,206 (a 164% increase over the same time last year) has been given online through 5,719 donations during the literature request process ($17.00 average each—a 22% increase over same time last year). Ninety-nine percent of the donations have come from non-members.
• President’s Letters: Donations that come from Victor Kubik’s letters to our donors, coworkers and subscribers offering a booklet each time now totals $1.81 million since March 2014, from 61,514 donations for an average of $29.50 each.
• UCG.org Website: We are pleased to report that UCG.org has broken into the top 10 list of Christian denomination websites again. We are currently ranked at #10. This is the highest ranking we have seen since August 2019 when we reached #9. And UCG.org is currently ranked #35 of all Christian websites globally.

• Amazon Smile Donations: The United Church of God was issued a quarterly check of $963 from the AmazonSmile Foundation for April through June, 2020. We are very thankful for those who are using this program to benefit the Church. More than $12,300 has now been donated to us from AmazonSmile (a 36% increase over the same time last year).

   

   

Committee Chairman Reports:

Education Committee—Aaron Dean

The Education Committee (EC) is working on an article for the United News addressing some concerns over a few songs in our hymnal. We do not yet have consensus on an article to be able to address the concerns. Music can be subjective with people of different backgrounds, so it can be a delicate subject. We want the article to send members to our website to read the UCG position paper. If they still have concerns, then we will direct them to the music committee to state exactly what the specific concerns are. This will allow those working with the hymnal to respond directly. When the EC has an article ready we will give it to the entire Council for input and approval.

Members on the EC: Aaron Dean (chair), Jorge de Campos, John Elliott and Tony Wasilkoff.

Media and Communications Committee (MCC)—Scott Ashley

The MCC is mandated to preview the president’s report and media operation manager report before each quarterly Council meeting. This was done on August 13. There was an extensive question and answer follow-up for each report. There are no other mandated duties or assignments before the MCC.

Members on the MCC: Scott Ashley (chair), Jorge de Campos, Darris McNeely, John Miller and Tony Wasilkoff.

Ethics Committee—Randy Stiver

The Ethics Committee has no mandated duties or assignments at this time.

Members on the Ethics Committee: Bob Dick, Darris McNeely, Mario Seiglie, Randy Stiver (chair) and Tony Wasilkoff.

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee (SPFC)—Dan Dowd

The SPFC has had three online meetings this summer to follow up on a mandate given to the committee last winter, which also included Chris Rowland and Rick Shabi. A potential revision of the Retiree Discretionary Assistance Policy is being worked on. Since 2009, new hires were not to be under this policy, but that is being reconsidered in part in order to make sure all future retirees of UCG will have sufficient funds upon retiring. The SPFC has discussed potential revisions to this policy taking into account a number of different factors, and plan on being more fully prepared to discuss any potential revisions in the December meeting.

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

Doctrine Committee (DC)—Mario Seiglie

Due to the nature of the DC, we always have a lot to do. On August 4, the DC had an online meeting to discuss pending doctrinal papers. The DC is presently involved in reviewing four doctrinal projects and has completed two projects that will be reported to the Council later in the week.

Members on the DC: Scott Ashley, Jorge de Campos, Mario Seiglie (chair) and Randy Stiver.

Roles and Rules Committee (RRC)—John Elliott

One aspect of the responsibilities of the RRC is the annual assessment of the officers (President, Secretary and Treasurer). Our business this quarter has been in processing the annual review of the Treasurer. This will be done later in the week.

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

Planned Budgeting—Dan Dowd

Dan Dowd led the discussion with the Council on planned budgeting for emergency situations for when the income is impacted or when it increases. How can we make sure our priorities are still covered and look for ways to plan prudently? The Council discussed this for about 90 minutes.

Rick Shabi mentioned that he was working with Mr. Kubik on a scenario for cutbacks of 10% if it were needed. It is good to have a plan and hopefully it wouldn’t be needed. God continues to bless us, but we still do our part to plan. Looking at areas to cut also helps us to focus on what is really important.

The Council discussed the importance of continuing to preach the gospel during these difficult times and not go into a defensive mode. Getting the gospel message out in a more effective way and funding those options will be looked at through the week.

Literature Translation into the Afrikaans Language—Jorge de Campos

Jorge de Campos presented the proposal to fund the translation of the UCGIA booklets into the Afrikaans language. The South African National Council (SANATCO) made the request for assistance in this process. After two options were discussed the Council unanimously approved the proposal to add to the monthly subsidy for the SANATCO for the current fiscal year for translating UCG booklets into Afrikaans, and posting them on-line.

The Church’s Responsibility During These Times—John Miller

John Miller brought up the awareness of the times we are in and how we as a Church are to be continuing to prepare for the future. What is the responsibility of the Church in these times? The Council discussed the importance of the Church’s responsibility, preparing and the challenge to think on this further.

Council Reporter Expectations—Len Martin

Chairman Martin addressed the role of the Council reporter, who provides information from the Council meetings for the elders and members to read. Mr. Martin mentioned how the Council could help the Council reporter get the information out in a timely manner. He also explained that there is no document that spells out the expectations of the Council reporter or who he reports to and asked if a job description should be created. Chairman Martin remanded to the Roles and Rules Committee this task.

The Council adjourned at 5:26 p.m.

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Bob Dick, John Elliott, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were on

Formalization of Organizational Partnership—Jorge de Campos

Jorge de Campos requested a process to formalize our relationship with partner organizations in international areas. The GCE approved the document “United Church of God, an International Association MANNER OF APPROVING MERGERS WITH OTHER RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS” in the May meetings. Mr. de Campos asked how to formalize an agreement that both sides sign for an organizational partnership.

The Council discussed and unanimously authorized the administration to formalize organizational partnerships in a way that spells out the prerequisites for such a partnership: adherence to the fundamental beliefs of UCGIA, the ministerial code of ethics and sexual misconduct policy.

Amendment/Restatement of Section 125 Premium Only Plan document—Chris Rowland

Chris Rowland asked the Council to amend a restated “Section 125 Premium Only Plan with HSA Module” to be effective January 1, 2020, replacing the previously approved plan that was effective January 1, 2013. This Plan allows employees to pay for medical benefits and contribute to Health Savings Accounts with pre-tax funds. The Council unanimously approved the restated Plan.

GCE Planning Task Force—Charles Melear

Charles Melear, the chair of the GCE Planning Task Force, led the discussion to explain the purpose and parameters of the task force. The Council was asked if the GCE Planning Task Force is still needed. Bylaw 8.7.2.9 covers the Council’s responsibility to approve the agenda for the annual meeting of the General Conference.

The Council members expressed their appreciation for the GCE Planning Task Force and acknowledged that it is the meeting of the GCE and not the Council. The Council Chairman is also the Chairman of the GCE. The GCE should have more involvement in the planning process.

The recommendation was for the Chairman to be involved with the current GCE Planning task force with more input from the GCE. The Council also voted to approve the addition of Andy Lee to the GCE Planning Task Force. The current GCE Planning Task Force consists of: Charles Melear (chair), Dan Berendt, Peter Eddington, Lisa Fenchel, Frank Fish, Andy Lee, Darris McNeely and Tony Wasilkoff.

Discuss Date for 2022 GCE Annual Meeting—Peter Eddington

The Council reaffirmed the dates for the 2022 GCE that were approved in the December 10, 2019 meetings and gave the reminder for 2021 dates.

2021: May 1-3, 2021

2022: May 14-16, 2022

Archiving Historical UCG Documents—Bob Dick

Bob Dick led the discussion of the importance of our preserving our historical church documents. There are just a few who have the memory of certain events and have the documents that show our history. We are rapidly approaching a time when that history can be forgotten. The importance of archiving our UCGIA historical documents was discussed and also recording videos of those recalling that history.

The Council unanimously approved a resolution to begin archiving these historical UCGIA documents and to create an ad hoc committee consisting of Bob Dick, Frank Dunkle, Darris McNeely and Katherine Rowland to begin going through this process.

The Council went into executive session to discuss a related item for 10 minutes.

Social Media—Dan Dowd

Dan Dowd led the discussion of an article that was requested from the former Chairman, Dr. Ward, to be written on the subject of social media for the United News (UN). The members should know that the UN goes to a circulation including co-workers and is also posted online for the general public. After discussion, Dan Dowd will amend the current article on the subject of social media and send it to the Media and Communication Committee for review.

Doctrine Committee Update on Various Projects—Mario Seiglie

Mario Seiglie, chair of the Doctrinal Committee (DC), presented two doctrinal projects to the Council. These projects did not receive any support from the DC or their sub-committees. Presenting these projects follows the guidelines for the DC to inform the Council of their completion and the authors were informed there was no support. These projects were #52, “Women at the Tomb” and #66, “Pentecost in Full and the order of Feasts.”

Mr. Seiglie concluded his remarks by mentioning the four current projects being reviewed and thanking the DC and its subcommittees for all their work. Chairman Martin also thanked Mr. Seiglie and the DC for all their work.

Metrics that Matter—John Miller

John Miller presented the importance of metrics to measure organizational effectiveness. He discussed some trends in income as well as attendance in the Church over the past 25 years and how can we improve in looking at how to be more effective in what we are doing as the Church. The presentation also noted that baptisms, although tracked by the administration, are currently not listed in our strategic plan. The Council discussed this presentation for about an hour. Mr. Miller requested this topic be remanded to the Strategic Planning & Finance Committee for further review but a majority of the Council did not approve it to go further. The possibility of further discussion on the topic at a Council retreat was suggested.

The Council adjourned at 5:06 p.m.

-end-

Council Reporter

Shawn Cortelyou

[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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