Becoming intercultural, medical plan, review of agencies top the business agenda.

Business for the 2007 Conference ranges from the future of the Brethren Medical Plan, to a final report from the Intercultural Study Committee, to recommendations to reorganize some church agencies, among nine items of unfinished and new business (full documents are at www.brethren.org/ac). The business agenda also includes reports from Conference-related agencies and committees, and an election of church leaders.

Unfinished business

Intercultural Study Committee report:

The Intercultural Study Committee states that its report "is a call for transformation." After three years of study, the committee reports that "God is calling us today, to be transformed into a whole body of Christ, so that we are SEPARATE NO MORE." Numerous recommendations are directed to the denomination as a whole, the Conference and its agencies, the districts, congregations, and Brethren individuals.

The recommendations section begins with two specific recommendations, to "bring us (the denomination) into conformity with the vision of Revelation 7:9," and to "formulate a mechanism to report intercultural ministry progress at Annual Conference through 2010."

In the several pages that follow, the committee calls for including the concept of intentional intercultural inclusion in the purpose and vision statement of Annual Conference and its reportable agencies, establishing a discernment process during hiring for the denominational agencies that considers candidates' intercultural competence and denominational needs, requiring annual intercultural orientation and education for staff and program volunteers of denominational agencies, and developing programs to include and formally mentor young adults of every ethnic and racial background into leadership positions, among others. The committee recommends a fulltime, funded specialist position in the Congregational Life Teams of the General Board to assist in facilitating intercultural activity in the denomination.

To districts, the committee recommends that all pastors have ongoing continuing education focused on intercultural activity, and that intercultural content continuing education units be required for re-ordination and re-licensing of ministers, as well as a formal mentoring program for new minority pastors, among other recommendations.

To congregations, the committee recommends the following "salient principles" of leadership, in order to become an intercultural family of God: intentionality, adaptability, and integrated worship. The committee calls on churches to reach out to neighbors from different backgrounds, and to become informed of conditions of life for ethnic and racial minorities.

To individuals, the committee recommends being intentional about forming authentic relationships with diverse neighbors, becoming better informed about racism and discrimination, and standing in solidarity with victims of hate crimes, among others.

The report includes steps to account for implementation. Appendices give a draft of the proposed new Congregational Life Teams position, signs of intercultural church development, principles of growing multicultural churches, and case studies from First Church of the Brethren in Harrisburg, Pa., and Peace Covenant Church in Durham, N.C. A resource list closes the report.

Brethren Medical Plan Resolution:

The Brethren Medical Plan Study Committee appointed in 2005 is making its report to the 2007 Conference. The Brethren Medical Plan is a program of Brethren Benefit Trust (BBT) offering a health insurance plan for pastors and church employees, district employees, employees of Annual Conference agencies and affiliated agencies and institutions, and their families. A resolution from BBT to the 2005 Conference called for this study. BBT had announced that the plan was in a "death spiral" caused by decreased membership, the erosion of a good spread of risk, increased health care costs, and increased premiums.

After two years of study the committee recommends that BBT phase out the medical insurance component of the Brethren Medical Plan for ministers and retirees, while continuing to explore viability of the plan for agency employees, and continuing to offer its longterm disability, life, vision, and dental insurance plans.

If the recommendations are adopted, BBT will be directed "to attempt to find alternative medical coverage for those current participants who would not otherwise be able to obtain or afford medical insurance."

Review and Evaluation Committee:

A regularly scheduled review of the program work of the denomination is carried out every decade by a Review and Evaluation Committee, with a new committee elected in the fifth year of each decade. This year the Conference will receive the report of the Review and Evaluation Committee elected in 2005.

In previous decades, the review was limited to the work of the General Board. With the reorganization of the board in 1997 and the expansion of agencies reportable to Conference, this review evaluates total denominational organization, structure, and program, including the Association of Brethren Caregivers (ABC) and On Earth Peace along with the General Board.

Among 10 detailed points of recommendation, the committee recommends the merger of the General Board and ABC into an entity called "The Church of the Brethren, USA," and encourages On Earth Peace to consider joining (the other two agencies--Bethany Theological Seminary and Brethren Benefit Trust--would continue in their present capacities). In addition, the recommendation is for the new board to replace the roles and functions of both the current General Board and the Annual Conference Council, uniting them into a single body.

"The duplication of resources expended for separate boards, separate finance and fundraising needs of each of these agencies has meant the draining of both financial and people resources within the denomination," the report says. "The hope is that a simpler structure can... minimize the footprint that the agencies within the church impose on the local church's mission and ministry."

The report includes other recommendations such as enhancing orientation for and care for church leaders, and promoting the core values and heritage of the Church of the Brethren, among others.

Doing Church Business:

The Annual Conference Program Feasibility Study Committee will report, as the group to which the Doing Church Business report was referred by the 2006 Conference. Delegates will address the Doing Church Business report in light of the feasibility study, resuming discussion at the point at which the business item was referred--when an amendment to delete a section on "Length of Conference" was on the floor. The Doing Church Business report has the potential to make significant changes in the format of the Conference and the way delegates address business. (For more about how the 2006 Conference dealt with this item, go to www.brethren.org/genbd/newsline/2006/AC2006/TuesdayBusiness.html.)

New business

Query: Child Abuse Prevention: Referring to church statements that include recommendations for the prevention of child abuse, the query from Michigan District, originating at Skyridge Church of the Brethren in Kalamazoo, asks Conference to examine how the recommendations are used and implemented by congregations, agencies, and organizations, and to bring a recommendation for implementation at all levels of denominational programming.

Query: Annual Conference Schedule: The query from Pacific Southwest District, originating with Papago Buttes Church of the Brethren in Scottsdale, Ariz., asks, "What is the best way for the denomination to schedule Annual Conferences, taking into consideration frequency, length, technology-based, and other options?"

Query: Reverse Membership Trend: The query from Idaho and Western Montana District, originating in Nampa (Idaho) Church of the Brethren, "confesses our sinful complicity with the declining membership of our denomination and asks when and how the Church of the Brethren can halt and reverse this trend toward extinction?"

Update to Annual Conference Polity: The Annual Conference Council recommends a change in polity for rotation of Conference locations, in order to hold the event more often in population concentrations of Brethren. The recommendation is to hold Conference in the East and Midwest four times respectively over a 12-year period, with other years of the cycle seeing Conference held in the Southeast once, the Northwest once, the Plains states once, and the Southwest once. Currently locations are rotated over the course of six years, to the East, the Midwest east of the Mississippi, the Midwest west of the Mississippi, the Southeast, the Midwest east of the Mississippi, and the far West, alternating every six years between the Northwest and Southwest.

Recommendation Regarding Christian Churches Together: The Committee on Interchurch Relations and the General Board jointly recommend that the Church of the Brethren fully participate in Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT), a new ecumenical organization that includes a broad representation of Christian denominations and Christian organizations including the National Council of Churches and the National Association of Evangelicals.

Source: 4/11/2007 Newsline Extra