More than 320 Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders and laity from across North America are meeting October 29 to November 1 to hear reports, elect personnel, debate agenda items, and deal with the business of the church in North America (or North American Division (NAD)).  The annual year-end meeting brings together the division’s executive committee to discuss issues ranging from remuneration of church workers, to retirement plans, to strategic plans for church management and growth.

In his keynote address on Sunday, October 29, Don Schneider, NAD president, cautioned that the business issues, although important, should not obscure the fundamental mission of the Adventist Church in North America. “When Jesus comes,” said Schneider, “I want to be able to tell Him that I did His work; not that I got the retirement issues resolved, but that I brought my neighbor to Him.” Schneider re-emphasized NAD’s priority areas of the past five years: Metropolitan Ministry, Church Planting, Public Image of the Church, and Lay Empowerment.

NAD treasurer Juan Prestol told committee members in his October 30 presentation that the church in North America is on a firm financial footing. Prestol reported that tithe income for 1999 exceeded $610 million, a gain of about seven percent. He also told the executive committee that the division’s operating capital exceeded requirements for the first time at the close of 1999. 

A three-hour discussion about retirement plans highlighted the second day of the meeting, focusing on two alternate retirement plans—the plan recently adopted by the division in January 2000, and a plan favored by the division’s regional conferences. Regional conferences are administrative units within the Adventist Church in North America that minister to largely African American church communities.

Under the division’s new plan, employees must actively manage their own financial future by contributing to individual retirement funds.  The regional conferences’ alternative plan, which is similar to the division’s old plan, creates a pool of funding, managed by the employer, that pays retirees based on years of employment.

Schneider chaired the discussion, presenting the history of the division’s approach to retirement plans and the rationale for the new plan.  He explained that, since 1910, all NAD conferences, schools, and other institutions had worked together to support a common fund to care for retired church workers. 

Three regional conference presidents, Alex Bryant of Central States, Joseph McCoy of South Central, and Norman Miles of Lake Region, outlined the alternative retirement plan.  This plan, said Miles, reflects the regional conferences’ belief that retirement plans are the responsibility of the employer, not the employee. McCoy, in his presentation, assured members of the executive committee that regional conferences would not unilaterally quit paying for what church leaders call the “tail;” the leftover portion of the old, division-wide plan that must still be funded for current retirees.  “The regional conference plan will not destroy or seriously damage the church,” McCoy said.

Bryant reviewed the number of times the regional conferences had expressed reservations about the equity of the church’s retirement plan, starting at the inception of regional conferences in the mid-1940s.  Bryant also cited a recent study that said regional conferences contribute 16 percent of revenue to the retirement fund, but retirees from regional conferences draw only four percent. “Let’s do what’s fair,” he said. 

The regional conference presidents also said that retirement benefits under the church’s plans, either the current plan or the old plan, were inadequate.  The new regional retirement plan projects benefits significantly higher than either of the church’s plans.

Miles outlined the regional conferences’ basic stance toward the retirement plan issue: regional conferences have agreed to recognize the critical necessity of funding the left-over portion of the old, division-wide retirement plan; the regional Conferences will not fund this left-over portion at the nine percent level currently being paid by their conferences; regional conferences have called for a study to determine the extent of their liability for funding the left-over portion; and, they have pledged to responsibly address their part in funding the left-over portion.

Wrapping up the discussion, Schneider said: “If you ask me if we have all this figured out, well as of right now I’m going to have to say that we don’t.  I’m also going to say that, to the glory of God, this will be solved—some way or other.  I don’t know what the solution is, but it will be solved.  And we will do this as we respect all people, no matter what position they hold on this issue and other issues.”

No executive action was taken regarding the retirement plan issue, but Schneider has indicated that there will be further study into the situation. For a more detailed report on this and other year-end meeting news, go to NAD’s Web site at www.nadadventist.org