United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Meeting Report

Quarterly Meeting Videoconference
August 8-9, 2012

Part 3 of 3

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Council met all afternoon in executive session to review ordinations, credentialings and other personnel issues, plus other legally sensitive matters.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

After the roll call, Chairman Rhodes called the meeting to order just after 4:00 EDT and asked John Elliott to open with prayer.

The first order of business was to set the dates for the February 2013 videoconference for the 25th through the 28th. The December 2012 in-person meeting dates are 10-13 at the home office.

The Council then discussed edits some had offered on the statement on Sabbath of attire, especially for those who speak, give prayer, lead songs or perform special music.

Update on Ministerial Code of Ethics—Mario Seiglie

Mario Seiglie first reviewed the history of developing the Code with special focus on the version passed by the Council last year, which received objections requesting Council review and reconsideration. He explained that at Council's request the Ethics Committee went back to the drawing board and produced a new Code, which is much shorter and fairly similar to our original Code, with several additions.

As Mr. Seiglie read the new draft and Council members discussed numerous points and making some minor edits primarily for clarity of wording. He began the process of making the edits so the Council could take action on the document later in the session.

Other Business

The next action item discussed was the populating of the Doctrine Advisory Subcommittee and Prophecy Advisory Subcommittee, both of which will serve under the Doctrine Committee of the Council. Scott Ashley suggested planning for five to seven members on each subcommittee. Bob Berendt then read a resolution for the Council to vote on that would first rescind the previous resolutions (of years past) about the subcommittees and then declare the formation of the new subcommittees. It passed unanimously. The Doctrine Committee will now begin the process of selecting members for the sub-committees.

The second action item was to ballot on giving consent without resolution to the wording of the new Code of Ethics discussed earlier. The Council unanimously gave that consent. The Code will next be sent the General Conference with provisions for how to give input. After that input is received, the Council will revisit the Code for further edits and final balloting for a formal resolution.

GCE Responsibility Advisory Committee—John Elliott

John Elliott reported on the GCE Responsibility Advisory Committee which reviews the processes of the General Conference and makes recommendations for how the GCE could better fulfill its responsibilities listed in the governing documents. They are particularly analyzing duties of the GCE that presently have no due processes for fulfillment. The committee plans to submit its first recommendations for Council consideration at the December meeting.

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee—Robin Webber

Robin Webber reported on the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee's progress providing an "awareness report" about issues the Council needs to discuss and plan ahead for the next fiscal year budget of 2013-2014. He reviewed the Home Office and Pastoral Employee Survey taken late last year making the Council further aware of its conclusions. The committee is proposing that the next surveys of members, employees and ministry be taken a year before the next strategic planning exercise in 2014 so that the Council and administration have more time than it has had this time to fully review the data.

During a minor breakdown in some of the videoconferencing that required Mr. Webber to reconnect, Mr. Seiglie commented on the overall benefit of using the videoconference format in spite of the occasional connection lapses. He pointed out the huge savings in productivity for the Council members because they can still be at home working on all their other duties. That significantly adds to the dollar savings of having no travel and lodging costs for the two Council meetings per year that will now be videoconferences.

Robin Webber reconnected and continued with Strategic Planning. He pointed out that we have been operating under challenging circumstances since the recent need for re-organization in December 2010 and now need to get back to a numerically-balanced budget and to rebuild our eight-week reserve so we may sustain our viability and vitality for a sustained effort to perform the work of God. The committee recommends focusing on these two key points: 1) proposing a numerically-balanced budget to the GCE and 2) to maintain an eight-week financial reserve before entertaining any proposal of increasing the size of our media facilities. The strategic concern is that we rest upon an age-challenged ministry with added stress challenges due to increased work responsibilities over these last several years. Part of the risk we face strategically to perform God's work efficiently is the challenge of rising health care costs. The committee's recommendation is that the administration by December of this year have further healthcare proposals before the Council so we can better formulate a numerically-balanced budget for next fiscal year.

Mr. Seiglie suggested that being only one month into the new fiscal year, we still need to be patient for God to fulfill the faith line in the budget. Mr. Webber explained that the committee supports our current fiscal budget of 2012-2013 and how it is composed with a faith column. But having used some emergency reserves, it is the Committee's responsibility is to look beyond this current budget and to inform the Council so they can plan wisely into the future. Mr. Seiglie emphasized the need for a faith line in the budget because we need to be challenged and to need to seek God for His blessing. Bill Bradford (also on the Strategic Planning Committee) agreed with Mr. Seiglie but again reiterated that the Council must also focus on future proposed budgets rather than the currently established and functioning budget.

Don Ward asked if we were planning this year's budget based on the income that came in or on the faith line. Aaron Dean and Gerald Seelig confirmed that the budget was based on the actual income received during the fiscal year. In 2011-2012 fiscal year we received slightly more income than we projected, but we needed to spend somewhat more than expected to service congregations without fulltime pastors.

Dr. Ward led the closing prayer, and the meeting ended at 7:15 p.m.

-end-

Randy Stiver
Council Reporter

© 2012 United Church of God, an International Association