United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Videoconference Report

Milford, Ohio

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Chairman Robin Webber called the meeting to order at 4:11 p.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. A quorum of the Council of Elders (Council) members was present. Those absent were Carmelo Anastasi, Bill Bradford and Donald Ward. Mark Mickelson was able to join for a short time, but was on Church assignment in Africa, which made it difficult.

President’s Report—Victor Kubik

President Victor Kubik greeted everyone and updated the Council on these various activities in alphabetical order:

• Ambassador Bible College (ABC): The ABC Task Force discussed the recently concluded survey of ABC students, alumni and faculty. The survey has shown that ABC has been a positive tool in teaching and developing leadership and a spirit of service. The full results will be reviewed by the Council in February’s Quarterly meetings. There have already been five applications for next year’s class.
• Budget: The administration has held discussions to prepare a budget for Council discussion and approval. Media and Communications Services will be seeking more resources, mostly to increase magazine circulation—giving the Church more readers to interact with as the year progresses. Aaron Dean is planning to visit East Africa for Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. The projected Ministerial and Member Services (MMS) budget is slightly less than this current year because of some partial salaries and stipends for pastors serving smaller churches.
• Media: The new time slot for Beyond Today has been airing on the ION television network on Friday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern for the past three weeks. Responses are starting out slow, which is expected when reaching a brand new audience, but overall it is increasing each week. Currently a new designer is being sought to create a new logo for Beyond Today. Several options are being studied. The Good News print advertising card packs are beginning to be sent out and are getting good responses. The semi-annual letter that was sent out from Mr. Kubik has received donations over $150,000—which far exceeds the cost of reaching out to these readers.
• Ministerial and Member Services (MMS):
  • There are several new assistant and associate pastors: Tom Adams (Jacksonville, North Carolina), Gary Beam (Tupelo, Mississippi), Rod Foster (San Antonio, Texas), Craig Scott (Raleigh, North Carolina) and Kevin Kenady, pastor (Bowling Green, Kentucky).
  • Noel Horner is retiring on Feb. 1.
  • The next area conferences will be in East Texas on April 19-21. Portland is planned for November and Los Angeles in April 2016.
  • The Educational Task Force is developing classes for the public. The first one will be the book of James.
  • Labor in the Word, Rightly Diving the Word of Truth was a topic discussed at the Council’s retreat in December. One thought is to use the General Conference seminars in May to cover these topics.
  • Online training for the ministry is well into its third year.
  • The Feast of Tabernacles coordinators conference will be next week (January 26-27) as a WebEx videoconference. Plans are to have another live Feast webcast, this time from the Wisconsin Dells.
• Recent Trip: Victor Kubik concluded his report with his recent trip to California, Hong Kong and the Philippines. More detail can be found on his Travelpod blog at www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/victorkubik/15/tpod.html.
  • California: Victor Kubik performed Larry Darden and Patti Bergstron’s wedding on Jan. 1 in Oxnard, California. On the Sabbath of Jan. 3 Southern California congregations gathered at the Los Angeles congregation to hear from Mr. Kubik.
  • Hong Kong: About 12 members meet regularly at Mary Ong’s home. Earl Roemer is the new senior pastor of this area. A Feast site will be held in Hong Kong this year.
  • Philippines: The annual national council meeting was held on Jan. 11. Larry Darden (legal counsel) and Earl Roemer (senior pastor) were also present. The national office has been moved from Davao City to Manila.

Treasurer’s Report—Rick Shabi

Treasurer Rick Shabi then gave an update on several things pertaining to the finances of the Church. He reported that for the fiscal year-to-date, the Church is running well ahead of budget in income. That trend continues in January, as of this date.

Currently, administration is in the process of preparing budgets for the next fiscal year. Mr. Shabi reported that everything is going quite well and that it is expected the budgets will be submitted to the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee two weeks before the next Council of Elders meetings, where the budget will be a major area of focus.

For the last several months, a planned giving brochure has been being developed, and is now in final review before printing and distribution. The brochure will offer assistance to members and others who may be interested in including the Church in any of the many forms of planned giving that they may be considering. Mario Sieglie suggested that when the brochure is complete, it should be distributed to pastors to be made available at local churches, so anyone can pick up a copy.

Finally, we are happy to report that there is significant interest in the Denton, Texas, property by a buyer who is qualified to complete the deal. More information will be provided as talks continue.

Roles and Rules Committee—Roc Corbett

Roc Corbett began his section by quoting 1 Corinthians:14:40: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” Mr. Corbett also mentioned the importance of the process of amending our Fundamental of Beliefs. The Council went through this extensive review after recent experience in dealing with proposed amendments in a process over 15 years old that had never been fully tested in practical application.

This updated proposed procedure adds almost two months for careful review and discussion by the committees and Council and provides the General Conference of Elders (GCE) 75 days (instead of only 30 days as in the current procedure), to consider proposed amendments to the Fundamental Beliefs at a critical point in the process. Since it is the duty of the GCE, as outlined in the UCGIA Constitution, to approve any changes in doctrine, the 30 days allotted to congregational input in the current procedure was deleted and that time added to the step for consideration by the GCE.

Procedure for Amending the Fundamental Beliefs

Whereas, Article 2 FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS, Section 2.1 PREAMBLE, of UCGIA’s Constitution states “Questions about doctrine and belief will be addressed by a process adopted by the Council of Elders (the Council) and approved by the General Conference of Elders (the General Conference),” and

Whereas, the “Provisional Manner of Amending the Fundamental Beliefs”, adopted on February 28, 2000, and ratified by the General Conference of Elders on May 7, 2000, needed further clarification, and was never meant to be a permanent document, and

Whereas, the Council desires to rescind the “Provisional Manner of Amending the Fundamental Beliefs” and approve the “Procedure for Amending the Fundamental Beliefs” and seek further ratification by General Conference at the 2015 Annual Meeting,

Now therefore, it is hereby resolved that, the “Provisional Manner of Amending the Fundamental Beliefs”, as adopted on February 28, 2000, and ratified by the General Conference on May 7, 2000, is rescinded, and the “Procedure for Amending the Fundamental Beliefs”, a copy of which is attached and made a part of this resolution, is approved and authorizes the secretary to place “The Procedures for Amending the Fundamental Beliefs” on the agenda for the May 2015 Annual Meeting of the General Conference, with the recommendation that the General Conference rescind the “Provisional Manner of Amending the Fundamental Beliefs” and ratify the aforesaid “Procedure for Amending the Fundamental Beliefs.”

The quorum of the Council unanimously passed this resolution. Mark Mickelson abstained because, even though he was able to get online from his travel in Africa, but wasn’t able to hear all the discussion. Mr. Mickelson later had to drop off because of his poor connection.

This Council-approved proposal will now move to the GCE in May for approval. A copy of this will accompany the Call and Notice for the General Conference.

Policy and Procedure for Suspension and Expulsion From the GCE—Roc Corbett

Mr. Corbett commented that this document is being reviewed to make sure it is up-to-date for the sake of every elder that may need this and that a good and equitable system continues to be in place. This is for the protection of the elder and for the Church.

Policy and Procedure for Suspension and Expulsion From the GCE

Whereas, the Council recognizes the need to clarify the “Policy and Procedure for Suspension and Expulsion from the General Conference of Elders,”

Now therefore, it is hereby resolved that, the “Policy and Procedure for Suspension and Expulsion from the General Conference of Elders” is amended, a copy of which is attached and made a part of this resolution.

The quorum of the Council unanimously passed this resolution. A copy of this will be posted in the GCE Library, which is a new resource library located on the ministerial website.

Procedure for Appealing of Suspension or Expulsion from the GCE

Whereas, the Council desires to amend the “Procedure for Appealing of Suspension or Expulsion from the General Conference of Elders,” and

Whereas, Article 4, Section 4.7.2, of UCGIA’s Constitution states “an elder who is suspended or expelled from the General Conference, may appeal according to a procedure adopted by the Council and approved by the General Conference,”

Now, therefore, it is hereby resolved that, the “Procedure for Appealing of Suspension or Expulsion from the General Conference of Elders” is amended, a copy of which is attached and made a part of this resolution, and directs the secretary to place the aforesaid amended procedure on the agenda for the May 2015 General Conference Annual Meeting, with the recommendation that the General Conference ratify this amended “Procedure for Appealing of Suspension or Expulsion from the General Conference of Elders.”

The quorum of the Council unanimously passed this resolution. This Council-approved proposal will now move to the GCE in May for approval. A copy of this will accompany the Call and Notice for the General Conference.

The Council went into executive session for the last 35 minutes.

The Council adjourned at 7:50 p.m.

-end-

Council Reporter

Shawn Cortelyou

© 2015 United Church of God, an International Association