The ELT Recommendation to
Join the Missionary Church

Note: Bishop Paul Hirschy sends a monthly newsletter to all United Brethren ministers. It is called B-Mail. His November issue explained the process which led to the recommendation to join the Missionary Church. This is also available in PDF format for download.

Paul Hirschy, bishop

November 2003

James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

We need to focus attention on the decision of the Executive Leadership Team to recommend to the US National Board the joining of the Missionary Church.

I sent a letter dated October 20, 2003, and an information sheet to all pastors. They have been received with a wide range of reactions. Questions are being raised as to how this has come to be a discussion item and a recommendation to the US National Board. Let me give you some background.

The Executive Leadership Team meets twice a year to hear reports and conduct business in between sessions of the US National Board. The Executive Leadership Team regularly talks about the future of the US National Conference, and the best possible direction for the United States Church. In the spring meeting, March 10-11, 2003, serious concerns arose concerning the financial income for the first two months of 2003. Both Mid-Atlantic Conference and Central Conference were considerably behind on their assessment payments to the national ministries. This concern opened the discussion to various options which may need to be considered for the future.

The Executive Leadership Team scheduled another meeting to talk further about the best option. The conference superintendents were coming to Huntington for a meeting April 22, 2003. The ELT decided to meet the day before, and then hold a joint meeting with the superintendents to solicit their input. The ELT offered a recommendation to do one of two things: do a radical restart of the denomination, or join another denomination. The joint meeting ended after considerable discussion with no sense of which direction would be the best. The ELT set another joint meeting for October 14, 2003, to continue the discussion.

The conference superintendents asked me to distribute a response form at the summer annual conferences, and determine if we get any consensus from those responses. The forms asked people to comment on what benefits they feel a denomination can or should provide. We received only a few responses. Some called for radical changes, while others did not see much need to change. In most of the annual conferences, I tried to clarify the rumors that were being passed around concerning merging with another denomination. At that time I made it clear that no decision had been made, and that those rumors were not accurate. Joining with another denomination was just one of the possible options.

In preparation for the October 13-14, 2003, meeting of the Executive Leadership Team and conference superintendents, I appointed a Structure Study Committee to bring a recommendation to the Executive Leadership Team for discussion. The committee considered four basic options, recognizing there could be many variations of these options, and made the following recommendation:

• Most favorable option - Joining with another denomination.
• Next favorable option - Significant change in the US National Conference structure.
• Less favorable option - Maintaining status quo.
• Least favorable option - Disband the US National Conference in 2005.

Most of the ELT discussion focused on the most favorable option. Following the meeting with the conference superintendents, the Executive Leadership Team reconvened to consider how to proceed. The Executive Leadership Team then passed the following motion:

"The Executive Leadership Team recommends to the US National Board to pursue the joining and receiving option with the Missionary Church, USA."

I've heard critical comments that this was done in secret and intentionally kept from the pastors and the members of the Church. I specifically asked the Executive Leadership Team and the conference superintendents not to talk about this until we had a specific recommendation to discuss. Unfortunately, the rumors are circulating with some wrong information. This is exactly the reason why I did not want to have all of the options presented for general discussion before the ELT had settled on a specific recommendation.

Now we can provide information that will inform the discussion and answer questions regarding the specific recommendation. A meeting has been set for the Executive Leadership Team and a team of leaders from the Missionary Church which will be held on December 9, 2003. We will discuss many of the issues being raised by individuals. We plan to share the answers to those questions in various ways, including future issues of B-Mail, the UB website, and public meetings.

After the first of the year, I plan to schedule discussion times in all of the annual conferences. The scheduled meetings are listed in the sidebar. I hope we can set up more meetings where lay people will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear why the Executive Leadership Team thinks this is a good path to follow. If your church would like to host a meeting in your area, please contact me with your request. If I'm not available on your preferred date, we may be able to find an open date, or we can ask some other member of the Executive Leadership Team to attend your meeting in my place.

This is just the beginning of a process with three major decision points before a final decision could be made to join the Missionary Church. The first is the US National Board meeting on April 20-21, 2004. This board will need to approve the recommendation from the Executive Leadership Team and authorize a referendum for the issue to proceed.

The second decision would then be a referendum voted on by the members of local churches when they vote for delegates to the US National Conference. This voting will take place during the month of October 2004. The referendum must receive over 50% approval of all ballots cast in order for the US National Conference to consider the item for discussion.

The third decision will be at the US National Conference, where approval must be given by two-thirds vote of the voting delegates. The date for the US National Conference is June 20-24, 2005.

As you can see, this issue is a long way from being a "done deal" as some of the rumors are saying. Please be patient as we meet and get answers to the questions that are being raised.

The verse from James 1:5 is an important verse for all of us as we discuss this issue. My prayer is that all of us will ask for Godly wisdom as we respond to those who hold different views than our own.