During the February/March meetings, the Council determined it would evaluate and revamp its approach to the creation of the Church's Strategic Plan.

At the May 11 Council meeting Chairman Robert Dick emphasized that an effective strategic plan has a horizon of about three years. The Church's current Strategic Plan has been modified and updated from year to year. However, Mr. Dick emphasized, it is now time to rethink and reprioritize the strategies it enumerates.

As an initial step in that direction, Mr. Dick led the Council in a brainstorming session. Prior to this session, Mr. Dick had asked each member to be prepared to discuss what he felt were the Church's three most urgent issues and how they can be met.

The format was a "roundtable" discussion, with each member in turn enumerating the items on his list. Council members will give further thought to these items in preparation for the meetings in August.

As a brainstorming session, this two-hour discussion was a free-flowing expression of thoughts and ideas. It was not intended to lead to decisions or conclusions. The following summaries are a composite of the comments, some of which are overlapping or may even seem somewhat conflicting. The purpose was to put ideas on the table to provide a platform for further and more specific discussions in future meetings.

As each Council member added his comments, a theme and consensus quickly became apparent. The primary issues that were addressed were the spiritual health of the Church, development of pastoral leadership and media efforts in preaching the gospel message.

Comments dealing with the spiritual health of the Church included:

•A reminder that we must always focus on getting ourselves in "working order" if we are going to take a message to the world.

•The Council should emphasize that, as individuals and as an organization, what we teach must be consistent with how we live.

•When United was first formed, doctrine was a driving force. While doctrine brings us out of the world, it is vision and mission that holds us together. It is a unified, passionate voice of the Church that holds us together.

•Our teachings should emphasize the critical importance of the "basics" of our Christianity through prayer, Bible study, meditation and fasting. When most of the Church does these things most of the time, there will be stability and growth.

•We should be able to articulate a more effective defense against those who attack United or leave because they don't think this Church can provide what they need.

•We need to remind members to be watchful and alert.

•When we create the proper environment in a local congregation, the future leadership we need will emerge.

•A sense of mission and urgency must be maintained in the Church.

Specific dangers include:

•A lack of commitment to God and His way of life.

•Falling into the "cares of the world" and materialism.

•Ongoing doctrinal criticism on matters, most of which seem to recycle every few decades and that negatively influence members, such as calendar issues and the use of sacred names.

Comments dealing with developing and strengthening the ministry included:

•Continue to develop the ministerial training program and focus on developing younger leaders for the future.

•We must do what we can as a Church to facilitate growth, education and opportunities for God to work through His people.

•The Church has a pool of potential leaders (30 to 45 year-olds) who already have a great deal of training. We need to provide them with opportunities.

•Encourage the ministry to continue their education and to hone their skills.

•Provide older and retired elders with opportunities to continue to serve.

•Empower and encourage pastors to make them feel part of what the Church is doing.

•The pastoral ministry needs to have confidence that administrative leadership will support their efforts in doing what needs to be done and vice versa.

Comments dealing with media efforts and message included:

•We need a more unified direction and strong leadership for media efforts.

•We need to establish a stronger and more visible "trademark" or "brand" that sets us apart.

•We should ask ourselves, "How well does our message resonate with people's needs both on a rational level and on an emotional level?"

Mr. Dick concluded by again emphasizing that this kind of "think tank" session will help the Council continue the process of strategic thinking and planning in the August meetings. For complete Council reports, see www.ucg.org/about/council/updates.htm. UN

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