United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report

Milford, Ohio

Monday, February 28, 2022

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. Eleven Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Mario Seiglie joined at 9:22 a.m., after teaching an Ambassador Bible College class. Scott Ashley and Paul Wasilkoff joined by video conference.

Chairman Martin welcomed everyone. The last Council meeting minutes were approved. The agenda for the week was discussed and approved. Chairman Martin mentioned the diligent work that Shawn Cortelyou had performed as Council Reporter.

President’s Report—Victor Kubik

President Victor Kubik greeted everyone. He reflected on the recent death of Shawn Cortelyou who will be missed sitting in the Council meetings as reporter. He also mentioned the death of Mike Arritt this past weekend. President Kubik read Isaiah:57:1-2 from the New Living Translation: “Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die.” We have lost four active pastors in the last six months: Ken Martin, Randy D’Alessandro, Patrick Read and Shawn Cortelyou. The topic of manpower is a discussion at the home office daily.

We need to honor and value one another as brothers; we don’t know what will be around the corner.

Events happening in Ukraine could change our world very quickly. This is the largest military aggression since World War II—it is an assault on a nation of 45 million people. Ukraine has been a haven for Sabbath-keepers throughout history. We have distributed a large quantity of United Church of God literature into Ukraine over the past 30 years. We are no longer able to communicate to the many subscribers that we had in the Lugansk area.

The first century Church suffered hardship and trial. It might be good to read Jeremiah and Lamentations about the effect upon the local population when a nation is invaded. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations:3:22-23). The general epistles talk about how to respond to conflict originating from outside of the Church as well as dealing with persecution from within the Church. We still don’t know the effect that the current world crisis will have on us.

Where do we go from here as a Church? “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm:127:1). God is the One who builds His Church. The vision for the Church is the outcome of what things will become: “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation” (Hebrews:2:10, NLT).

We need to pray that God’s will be done. President Kubik is thankful for the support of our Church members and their efforts to continue the stability of the Church through the difficult times of the past two years.

President Kubik mentioned the various departments of the Church who work together to share the truth of God and his gratitude at how their work is performed. He reviewed many of the responsibilities he has fulfilled in the role of president.

Our biggest initiative now is related to the Internet and involves updating our UCG.org website and the systems we use to manage the relationship that we have with our subscribers. We have held over 100 meetings with the company helping to develop our new platform and they are impressed with the skills of our staff and the vision that we have set for the project.

Women’s Services recently went through a transition and is now headed by co-leads Kay Schreiber and Barbara Welch. Many resources are available and were recently described in the eNews.

Ambassador Bible College is well into the Spring semester and operating normally. They are looking forward to the first live charity auction in three years, coming up next month. At present, we have six students who have applied to attend next year, which is the same as this time last year.

President Kubik detailed some of the ways that Good Works has helped brethren over the past quarter for projects in India, Zambia, Kentucky and Zimbabwe.

Upcoming co-worker and donor letters will offer some of the individual lessons from the Bible Study Course as a standalone study aid. We have been planning for ways to communicate with our donors through small inserts in the envelope with their contribution receipts. We have also designed a new baptism card to send to new members, replacing a letter that we had previously been sending.

Let’s walk worthy of our calling in truth and love.

Operation Manager Reports:

Ministerial and Member Services (MMS)—Mark Welch

Mark Welch welcomed everyone. God has continued to provide a way to care for our brethren, despite the traumatic past six months with the death of three U.S. pastors. Our prayers are with their families and friends.

Doug Collison was active in helping members with the aftermath of the tornadoes in western Kentucky.

The Education Committee has been meeting with MMS regularly over the past three months to discuss the Church’s education programs.

MMS meets with the regional pastors each month.

A couple of planned trips in late December had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. In January, Mr. Welch visited the Fort Wayne, Indiana, congregation. He also visited the congregations in Beloit (Wisconsin), Elkhart (Indiana) and Munster (Indiana).

The Light of Hope helpline was launched in January, supported by Church members who are clinical professionals in a number of areas who can provide mental health and addiction resources to those in need.

The Festival Coordinator meeting was held at the end of January. We are planning to continue bringing new coordinators into the process.

The Word Fitly Spoken clubs will be launched again in March but will be more streamlined in its implementation, with fewer official sermon reviewers and meetings held every other week.

Current statistics include:

• 396 elders in the United Church of God (UCGIA)
  • 108 outside the U.S.
  • 288 in the U.S.
    • 76 church pastors
    • 9 associate or assistant pastors
• 191 churches and Bible study groups in the U.S.
  • Discontinued the congregation Sierra Vista, Arizona
• 18 U.S. baptisms since the December meetings (9 baptisms so far in 2022)

Since the last meetings in December:

• One elder was ordained:
  • Tony Stith (Twin Cities, Minnesota)
• New re-credentialing:
  • James Ginn (Jacksonville, Florida)
• Four elders have died since the December meetings:
  • Dudley Trone (Sacramento, CA); widow Louise Trone
  • Bruce Anderson (Little Falls, MN); widow Phyllis Anderson
  • Shawn Cortelyou (Munster, IN); widow Beth Cortelyou
  • Mike Arritt (Roanoke, VA); widow Rita Arritt
• Changes in assignment:
  • Troy Phelps now pastor of San Francisco Bay Area and Petaluma (CA), replacing Tim Pebworth.
  • David Meidinger now pastor of Albuquerque (NM). Randy Schreiber is now associate pastor.
  • Bill Bradford now pastor of Munster (IN), after the death of Shawn Cortelyou.
  • Devin Schulz now pastor of Elkhart (IN), after the death of Shawn Cortelyou.

Media and Communications Services—Peter Eddington

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

• U.S. Beyond Today subscribers is 3% higher than last year, and worldwide circulation is 2% higher than a year ago.
• Our donor count is 3.5% higher than a year ago—our highest ever.
• The Sermon YouTube channel has had 19% more video views than last year.
• Our donation mail is up 1.5% over last year.

Two-Minute TV Spot Tests: We tested 2-minute Beyond Today TV short-form programs and the results of those spots were presented to the Council, along with the cost per website visit for each week. The four stations varied from a $17.91 average per website visit to a $78.31 average per website visit. Discussion is underway to spend some of the remaining funds for 16 additional weeks focused on Blaze TV, which is the network that yielded the lowest cost per response to date. The goal will be to get the cost per response under $15.

Broadcast Television: We are on nine broadcast stations at the moment, plus two nationwide networks, i24News TV and The WORD Network.

UCG Annual, Unique Website Visitors: The number of unique visitors to UCG.org has decreased since 2019. Viewers prefer to be entertained rather than consume serious religious material after the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. Entertainment distracts them from the current realities.

Our content is now considered “biased” and is being shadow-banned from the larger search engines, so it no longer appears on the first page of search results. Keeping up with what Google deems relevant is an ongoing challenge to keeping a high ranking for our material. It appears that consumers are seeking short Q&A-type pages on religious subjects, and the 260 pages we have in that genre are very popular. We are working to develop more of this type of content, including video Q&A segments. Additional search engine optimization is one of the goals of our upcoming website redesign.

Charts were provided that show the Alexa traffic rankings for UCG.org compared to a variety of Church of God groups. It seems that some of the downturn we have experienced for the past 24 months has begun to turn around—whereas that is not the case for other church groups.

Treasurer and Financial Services Report—Rick Shabi

Rick Shabi distributed a Treasurer’s Report including a packet of financial reports. He acknowledged the good work of his staff. The overall financial health of the Church is very strong—God has provided for us. “As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper” (2 Chronicles:26:5).

January was a good month, but it was a little different from what we are accustomed to seeing. Between January 2021 and January 2022, we took a significant dip in general contributions, but it was still above budget. That trend has also continued into February. Stock and estate donations were higher due to a number of stock donations that came in at the end of the calendar year.

For the fiscal year, we are above last year and considerably above budget for income. As we come out of the COVID-19 period of last year, expenses are beginning to increase to expected levels. Our total assets have grown by 13% during this fiscal year.

Other pertinent details of the financial statements were discussed.

Committee Chairman Reports:

Doctrine Committee—Mario Seiglie

The Doctrine Committee completed a doctrinal paper, Appendix A of the Hebrew Calendar paper, and it will go over it with the Council. The Hebrew Calendar Summary was already approved in the December 2021 meetings. Since it is such a large paper, and it is quite technical, what used to be the Hebrew Calendar Summary will now be the main body of the paper, with four appendices which are about 25-30 pages each. The first appendix will be reviewed this week. The additional appendices will be reviewed in future meetings.

Currently there are three papers being worked on: Appendix B of the Hebrew Calendar paper, the paper “Did God the Father Forsake Jesus Christ at His Crucifixion?” and the voting and involvement in politics paper.

Members on the Doctrine Committee: Scott Ashley, Jorge de Campos, Darris McNeely, Mario Seiglie (chair) and Randy Stiver.

Education Committee—Aaron Dean

The committee was commissioned with Strategic Planning to look at Education activities. It started with looking at the education component of the use for any properties we purchase (such as a Camp property). It was determined to more completely define the various uses to make sure any properties fit the needs. As this includes educational programs, and properties it was determined that the two committees would meet together.

Both education and Strategic Planning has been meeting every other Monday evening. We had presentations on all aspects of education, Ambassador Bible College, Camps, Young Adults, Ministerial and Focused education. We were determining how to best focus on these educational aspects. Darris McNeely was chosen to chair this coordinated meeting and there will be further presentation concerning these meetings and the best way to direct, organize and facilitate these efforts.

Members on the Education Committee: Aaron Dean (chair), Jorge de Campos, Brian Shaw and Paul Wasilkoff.

Ethics Committee—John Elliott

The Ethics Committee has one project, one which liaises with MMS. An update on that project will be given later during these Council meetings.

Members on the Ethics Committee: John Elliott (chair), Mario Seiglie, Randy Stiver and Paul Wasilkoff.

Media and Communications Committee—Scott Ashley

The committee previewed the media portions of the president’s report and media operation manager report that were given today. They will also discuss website progress during these Council meetings and have been considering reasons for the decrease in Internet traffic to UCG.org. They also previewed the Public Proclamation budget for the next fiscal year which will be presented this week.

Members on the Media and Communications Committee: Scott Ashley (chair), Jorge de Campos, Darris McNeely, Randy Stiver and Paul Wasilkoff.

Roles and Rules Committee—Dan Dowd

The primary business before the Roles and Rules Committee, since the December meetings, has been to facilitate during these meetings a discussion, and then balloting, as to whether the Council allots another term to the president and secretary, whose terms expire in May of this year. Depending on those decisions, business moving forward will be implementing the timeline for selection of a new president or secretary, or if one or both are affirmed for another term, the timeline for assessment of performance will be overseen by this committee.

Also, during these meetings, this Committee will work with the Secretary on the matter of choosing individuals to serve on a couple of the Council sub-committees. The Committee will also lead a discussion on the process for selecting a new Council reporter.

Members on the Roles and Rules Committee: Dan Dowd (chair), John Elliott, John Miller and Brian Shaw.

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee—John Miller

The Strategic Planning and Finance Committee has been working on the following projects:

• Three-year update to the Strategic Plan
• Metrics and Organizational Heartbeat have been incorporated into the Strategic Plan
• Truth in Love concept has been incorporated into the Strategic Plan
• Review of the Building Policy was completed
• Regional Property Plan got moved into an ad hoc committee
• Review of Salary Categories has been completed
• Employee Retention

Mr. Miller wanted to share a summary statement about Truth and Love which is on page five of his report: Truth in Love provides a roadmap to our Vision to be “a Church led by God’s Holy Spirit, joined and knit together by what every member supplies, with all doing their share and growing in love to fulfill God’s great purpose for humanity to bring many children to glory.”

He said that “Truth in Love seamlessly maps the path to the Vision at the conceptual, strategic, operational and program levels. More importantly, it provides individuals whom God is calling a way to examine themselves in terms of Truth in Love and map a path forward that encourages everyone to learn, grow, mature and be more like Him. Truthing in Love is living the Word of God in the Spirit of God.” He believes that this will be the hardest thing that we have ever done.

Members on the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee: Aaron Dean, Dan Dowd, Darris McNeely, John Miller (chair) and Brian Shaw.

Updated Logo Artwork for New Website Design—Peter Eddington and Clint Porter

Peter Eddington addressed the need for the Church to consolidate its logo so that people will seamlessly recognize the Church when they see our efforts. The logo must be relevant internationally, no matter what language may be used. Organizations that are highly international tend to go with a simpler approach to their logo.

The team continued work from the initial logo that they presented in the December meetings and considered some of the feedback provided since that time.

Clint Porter said that one of the goals is to make the logo simpler. The current logo has 13 words on it, which makes it challenging to adapt to different situations. Some of the challenge is that the current logo is based on pictures rather than vector graphics. We are trying to achieve more simplicity in a logo—an asset that is simple will be valuable because it can be represented in many ways.

We have two separate major identities—Beyond Today and United Church of God—that have different looking logos. There is no unified system that helps them to look similar so that people recognize they are dealing with the same organization.

Since December, a circle has been added around the “flame ribbon” in the suggested new logo for the Church and Beyond Today. The new logo system will solve the 13-word problem by making “an International Association” something that is not an integral part of the logo, like a sidecar that can appear or not appear. Other items could be swapped into that same space without losing the identity. The logo would also not be married to the exact shape of the words. It can work for symmetrical or stacked formats—it would be flexible.

Brian Shaw indicated that the two parts of the ribbon can represent truth and love, and that one of the reasons for the gold color in the suggested logo could be to reflect the warmth of the flame.

Dan Dowd said that he felt the suggestion of the circle or a globe around the ribbon image helps to set apart the suggested logo from those that incorporate a similar graphic.

Paul Wasilkoff said that what he sees in the new logo should work well with a lot of different reproduction types and has many factors that will make it easier to use.

Brian Shaw felt that the new logo could have a tremendous impact on our church membership, particularly the younger ones. It can create a bridge to what we are striving to be and to become.

Clint Porter presented a second logo suggestion that had a simpler representation that looked more like a lantern or a light bulb with a filament.

Brian Shaw pointed out the importance not to define too narrowly what the symbolism on the logo might mean because it is okay for people to interpret it in multiple ways. He said, “the logo does not make us—we make the logo.” John Elliott agreed that we should be careful that we don’t define each element because it can have many meanings.

Clint Porter also showed a third logo suggestion that is based on a logo that has been developed and used for the French website. It also uses a flame motif that has some similarity to a leaf; it is based upon the design for Pour l’Avenir magazine.

Peter Eddington said that he felt the first of the three logos lends itself to a wider variety of associations and interpretations than the other two.

Dan Dowd said that he likes the use of a two-color palette in the logo rather than blending in additional colors because it would add complexity that is not needed.

Peter Eddington urged each elder to take an hour to watch the video recording of this session so that they would understand the development of the logo, what it can mean and why it is a good approach.

Scott Ashley mentioned that he preferred the name of the Church, when appearing to the right of the logo, to be represented with three stacked lines of text rather than on two lines to better balance of the amount of text on each line.

Peter Eddington read a proposed resolution to use the updated logo palette to consolidate and simplify the Church’s media identity. The proposed resolution will be discussed again during Thursday morning’s session.

The Council went into scheduled executive session beginning at 2:45 p.m. for the remainder of the day.

The Council adjourned at 5:35 p.m.

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 9:02 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. Eleven Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Mario Seiglie joined at 9:21 a.m., after teaching an Ambassador Bible College class. Scott Ashley and Paul Wasilkoff joined by video conference.

The Council was in scheduled executive session until 10:05 a.m.

When open session resumed, Secretary Frank Dunkle reported that during the previous executive session Kevin Call and Nathan Ekama were selected as alternates to the Fundamental Beliefs Advisory Committee.

Update on Web Development Project—Victor Kubik, Richard Kennebeck and Peter Eddington

President Kubik introduced the presentation about the Web Development Project. He explained that there are four stages to the current two-year project. First came a confirmation path where we determined which path to take and the platforms to be used for development. This was followed by the discovery stage where we came to definitions and approach for going forward. We are currently in the design stage, which will be followed by the implementation and installation phase.

Richard Kennebeck explained that one of the primary purposes of the new platform is to engage people and to build relationships. The core and center point will be this Web Development Project, and other systems and apps will integrate with it. The new system will improve the visitor’s journey by providing a better call to action and next step recommendations. Another goal is to make it easier for visitors to find the content that they are looking for.

The new system will better connect our offline subscriber and member relationship activities (to bring them online) and connect them with our online website presence as a whole. It will dramatically increase the marketing reach of our website and make it more agile to be able to move into more areas as they present themselves.

The new platform—with its integrated content management system (CMS) and customer relationship management system (CRM)—will become our mission delivery platform and become the source for much of the work that we do.

Peter Eddington opened the presentation to questions about the project.

The Council went into scheduled executive session beginning at 11:29 a.m. and ending at 12:23 p.m.

Ad-hoc Committee Report on Education—Darris McNeely

Darris McNeely brought a preliminary report from the ad hoc committee on education that was formed after the December 2021 Council meetings. He explained how the concept of purchasing a camp facility transformed into a study of the Church’s education programs. The ad hoc committee consisted of the members of the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, the Education Committee and three members representing the administration, Mark Welch, Steve Myers and Gary Petty.

The committee reviewed the history and status of the education programs in the Church. The weeks of review of educational projects and programs determined much has been done in various areas. Mr. McNeely shared excerpts from the meeting minutes of the committee. He walked the Council through the various programs that were reviewed by the committee: young adult initiatives, Ambassador Bible College, United Youth Camps, ministerial education, focused education and youth education.

The committee had also been asked to give consideration to the appointment of an education coordinator. The consensus of the committee was that a coordinator for education is needed to give the needed focus and to drive the Church’s education programs. The committee felt that this education coordinator could either be a role that reports to Ministerial and Member Services, or it could be a role that reports to the president. Further discussion will be needed with the president and Council to explore how to proceed with this preliminary recommendation. Len Martin recommended that the ad hoc committee not be dissolved until further meetings can be arranged with the president.

The Council went into scheduled executive session beginning at 2:46 p.m. for the remainder of the day.

The Council adjourned at 4:54 p.m.

-end-

Interim Council Reporter

Chris Rowland

[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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