Discipline Changes
The Discipline revision proposals are divided into four sections:
Referenda (changes to the UB Constitution).
1. Change how we determine the eligibility of ministers as delegates.
2. Remove outdated references to annual conference.
Local Church Proposals
Some of these involve minor changes. Some more substantive ones:
Allow missionaries to hold dual membership (in a UB church and in another church)
Remove the requirement that the senior pastor be a member of the board (make it optional).
Revise the role and duties of lay delegates, to conform to the structure adopted in 2005.
Recommend that money from the sale of closed churches be given toward church planting.
View local church proposals online.
National Conference Proposals
Some of the more substantive proposals include:
A new process, less rigid, to follow when churches don't sign the covenant.
Make national directors (finance, communications, higher education, etc.) voting members of the National Conference.
Define the qualifications needed for a licensed minister to be a voting delegate (hold a national conference license, and be employed in a UB ministry).
Add four items to the "Duties of Bishop," and remove one item.
Add three items to the "Duties of the ELT," remove four items, and tweak one other.
Rewrite the paragraph about the purpose of clusters, to clarify what we intend.
Rewrite the paragraph on the formation of clusters, and give the bishop--not the ELT--authority to approve or not approve new clusters.
Remove chapters on these leadership teams: Administrative, Global Ministries, Healthy Church, and Church Multiplication. Give the bishop the freedom to create or use whatever leadership teams he desires.
View all National Conference proposals online.
General Conference
A change in the international by-laws, which would give each national conference two voting delegates (rather than base delegations on size). We are only affirming this potential change, not actuallyl making the change.