National Board Report

Tuesday Morning, February 15, 2005

This report is written by Steve Dennie, the UB Communications manager. It is not intended to be strict "reporting," but rather notes and observations from the meeting. It was written and published live, as the meeting occurred.

February 14 - Afternoon | February 14 - Evening | February 15

The Tuesday morning meeting began with a brief prayer time. At 8:45, Bishop Hirschy launched us into the business. He invited comments on where we need to go from here, based on the decision made last night--to do away with the annual conferences and have just one national conference.

Several were expressed:

• Develop the idea of being a "membership organization," as expessed in the UBHope document. Every two years, a church would need to sign an agreement or covenant, stating their agreement to meet the standards for being a United Brethren church.
• Develop the cluster group idea and what they look like.
• Perhaps include in the Discipline a definition of "health," as it relates to churches, so we all know what are standard is for "health."

Membership Organization

This one drew the initial discussion. Who would sign this covenant? Probably the local conference. How often would they need to sign this covenant? Probably every two years, perhaps around the national conference time. Could churches decide to be in this two years, but not the next two years, because they don't like the bishop or something? Hmmmm. If a church drops out for a couple years, what happens to the pastor's pension? How will it affect denominational operating revenue if a number of churches don't participate? What about a rogue pastor who comes in and unduly influences a congregation?

There was a lot more discussion about the idea of churches opting in and opting out. It turned a corner into talking about assessments--what if churches don't pay, should we use a different word than "assessments," other aspects.

Finally, Bishop Hirschy asked for a motion. Mike Newman made it:

I move that the Church of the United Brethren in Christ become a membership organization that requires every church to sign a covenant prior to each national conference that affirms:

1. They are committed to the Confession of Faith
2. They are passionate about fulfiling the Great Commission in their local church.
3. They are interested in partnering with other like-minded churches.
4. They agree with the core alues of the National Conference.
5. They be willing to pay an annual partnership fee.

The motion passed 28-0 (there were some abstentions).

Next, Bishop Hirschy said he wanted everyone to talk about the groupings that would be a major component of the structure.

Mike Newman said that in order to avoid having major shifts in the Discipline, could we redefine annual conferences as having no boundaries, and they could have any grouping of five or more churches? That's basically it. Any of these cluster groups would be defined as a conference. That would avoid some of the Constitutional and Discipline problems with doing away with the term "annual conference." Redefine an apple to meet the criteria of an orange, but still call it an apple.

Tom Brodbeck said he preferred that we be honest about what we're doing, rather than redefine words to mean something they haven't meant before, and playing pretend games. He'd rather say, "This is where we're going. We can't get there until 2007, but you'll just have to follow us, and we'll get there. We can't make all the changes we need to make right now, but we will. It'll just take time." He said we can sell anything, as long as we're open and honest with people about what we're trying to do.

He gave a couple analogies. The Continental Congress, or the interim/transitional government which has been elected in Iraq.

There was more discussion about having a transition period during which we phase things in and work out the Discipline bugs. We could "live in the spirit" of changes even though those changes aren't official yet.

Break time.

10:10

It's 10:25. Back to business. Bishop Hirschy directed attention toward the cluster groups--how they would operate, be assigned, etc.

Michael Mudge said that while he liked much of what he has heard about the groups, he wanted the groups to have a high degree of freedom to determine their own associations and purpose. He doesn't like the idea of the bishop appointing the leaders or groupings.

Anthony Blair, wanting to "get something on the tables," made this motion: "That the National Conference consist of clusters of pastors and congregations. That each pastor and each congregation be required to join and participate in at least one such cluster. That such clusters be approved by the Executive Leadership Team. And that the assignment of clusters be voluntary on the part of the pastor and congregation."

It's now a half hour later, and I haven't reported anything. Not sure what to report. Lots of discussion about standards for the groups, about churches that can't find a group that wants them (and end up affiliating with a bunch of other unhealthy churches in one unhealthy uber group), about how many churches can be in a group, about lines of authority, how groups are formed, the Bishop's authority. Stuff like that.

Luke Fetters said when the referendum failed, he wanted to see several things happen:

• One national conference
• Strengthen the role of the bishop; elect a person who can really lead with vision and influence the lower levels and hold churches accountable (even though he recognizes that that goes against post-modern and UBHope ideas).

He said the Bishop's proposal and the UBHope proposal differ in regard to the authority of the bishop. The Bishop's proposal has appointed leaders, and is more of a top-down approach. The UBHope proposal is more grass-roots oriented.

An amendment was proposed which says the bishop would appoint the leaders of all of the groups. A lot of discussion followed, particularly related to accountability: if the groups are kept loose and voluntary, can there be real accountability? However, the amendment lost 14-13.

Anthony Blair said perhaps we could have "primary" groups that include accountability, and "secondary" groups that exist for other purposes (church planters getting together, for instance).

Anthony Blair offered this amendment: "That a cluster be defined as a group of five or more congregations whose primary purpose is acountability and relationship for pastors and congregations." Any other groups would be called associations, or something like that. This means the group would be responsible for accountability among themselves, rather than the bishop or others up the ladder.

They voted on the amendment. It passed 15-12. That's the second consecutive highly-divided vote.

11:50

Back on the main motion.

There was a motion to delete the words "at least" from the main motion. It passed, with just one "no." Back on the motion as amended, which is this:

• That the National Conference consist of clusters of pastors and congregations.
• That each pastor and each congregation be required to join and participate in one such cluster.
• That such clusters be approved by the Executive Leadership Team.
• That the assignment of clusters be voluntary on the part of the pastor and congregation.
• That a cluster be defined as a group of five or more congregations whose primary purpose is accountability and relationship for pastors and congregations.

Luke Fetters said he felt this was a "mess." That it didn't strengthen the bishopric, didn't provide real accountability. He said he would vote against it.

The motion passed with only a few "no" votes.

Time for lunch.

12:05

The meeting resumed at 1:15. Bishop Hirschy led the group quickly through several business items.

• Appoint Todd Fetters as secretary of the National Conference
• Appoint Craig Burkholder as parliamentarian of the National Conference.
• Appoint Dennis Miller as chairman of the Nominating Committee.

Back to the structure talks.

The Bishop's Role

What's the role of leadership? That question had been raised, and was a point of difference between the two proposals. The Bishop's proposal leaned toward a top-down approach, and the UBHope proposal emphasized grassroots input.

Mike Newman said he felt the bishop should be able to hire the people at headquarters, including the Global Ministries director. That way, the bishop could put together whatever team he wants in order to get the job done. He also felt the bishop should have the responsibility of appointing the cluster group leaders.

Mike then made this motion:

That the bishop will serve as the spiritual leader of the church with the following responsibilities:

• He will hire other staff/directors to assist him in fulfilling his work and the initiatives established by the National Conference.
• He will appoint cluster group leaders.

It was clarified that these would be additions to the current duties of the bishop already spelled out in the Discipline.

Anthony Blair said he's okay with the idea of the bishop appointing or hiring the Headquarters staff. He also feels the bishop has a role in creating initiatives that will advance the church. But he's more in favor of letting people exercise creativity in devising solutions within their context (as opposed to merely adopting solutions offered universally). But if we're going to articulate from the top down all the specifics, he has trouble.

The motion passed.

An Assessment Cap

Next: the idea of a cap on assessments. After wandering around rather aimlessly for a good deal of time, the idea was tabled. We just didn't have enough information on hand to deal with setting a cap.

The Bishop then asked, "What other items need to be dealt with?"

Dave Burkett thought we should deal with the idea of a new staffperson at Headquarters to be called Healthy Church Director (as presented in the Bishop's proposal).

Mike Newman spoke against it. He said it could be that the Bishop would be the best person to handle healthy church issues, and then hire someone to focus on administration. Depends on the bishop's abilities and passions. He didn't want to tie the bishop's hands in determining his staff.

Anthony Blair moved, "That we eliminate the National Board, in light of this new structure." He thought the ELT could fulfill that function. The motion passed, with a few no votes.

What about a group to flesh out all of the details needed to implement the new structure? Motions passed today and yesterday give some guidance, but there's much more to figure out.

Denny Miller made a motion to let the ELT executive committee--Paul Hirschy, Brent Birdsall, and Pat Jones--appoint the necessary committees. The motion passed.

And that was it. The meeting adjourned.

2:15 pm