United Church of God
an International Association
Clyde Kilough Roy
O. Holladay
Chairman President
December
6, 2002
Greetings everyone, on behalf of the Council of Elders,
I’ll keep this letter from the Council of Elders
rather short and simple. We are really focusing our attention now on next
week’s quarterly meeting of the Council in Cincinnati. As always, we ask that
you would join us in asking God for His guidance and wisdom in all of our
proceedings. We never take for granted, even with regular “daily bread” issues,
the absolute necessity for His direction.
Even though you can read the meeting reports as they come out, we always like to share with you ahead of time what is on our docket.
Roy
Holladay will be giving the regular president’s report updating the Council on
the home office’s projects, trends in the Church and future plans. He will also
discuss with us several areas of financial management, the most significant
being next year’s budget. Some of the other fiscal issues concern long-range
planning for employee retirement, expense policies and whether to exercise the
option to secure a small piece of property adjacent to the home office.
On
the agenda for doctrinal discussion is our first review of a study paper on the
subject of “born again,” and consideration of several questions concerning
Sabbath observance.
We
also have a host of miscellaneous issues to cover, including:
·
Media and
Communications Services update and future needs.
·
Planning for the
2003 annual meeting of the General Conference of Elders.
·
Proposed
amendments and edits to the bylaws.
·
Discussion about
the focus and content of our general media messages.
·
Updates on the
work in Asia.
·
UCG’s official relationship with LifeNets
humanitarian efforts.
·
Clarifying the
question of whether operation managers, Ministerial Services team members or
regional pastors can serve on the Council of Elders.
·
Feast of
Tabernacles matters, including a report on the past Feast, planning for next
year’s Feast video and the issue of applause for music and messages.
·
A plan to address
the subject of “modesty” for the youth and Church as a whole.
·
Ministerial
credentialing and ordination requests.
·
Several executive
session topics regarding personnel matters.
The
U.S. regional pastors will be in town Sunday through Tuesday for their annual
meeting, and on Monday we’ll be joining with them and the home office staff for
a seminar on Christ-centered servant leadership. All in all, we have a wide
variety of things to cover, but we certainly anticipate having productive
meetings that will bear fruit for everyone in the Church. Thank you in advance
for your support.
In Christ’s service, on behalf of the Council,
Clyde Kilough