Meeting Minutes List

Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasiCommission on Discipleship, Doctrine, and Just Ministry
November 18, 2025 minutes
Opening Prayer by Bishop Jones
Attendance: Bishop Scott Jones, David Watson, Suzanne Nicholson, Anna Vargas, Kenneth Collins, Lou Staggs, Tesia Mallory, Gabi Kopas, Angel Vendrell, Bulu Audu Daniel, Walt Warriner.
GMC Rep: Teresa Marcus.
Teresa shared that the connectional council decided commission minutes will be posted on the denominational website. If there is information we need to redact, we may do so. Any unredacted minutes will still be available internally in Microsoft Teams, but we will share redacted versions (when needed) publicly.
We unanimously voted to approve the August minutes.
Articles of Faith Update
• Bishop Jones shared that several individuals oTered feedback, and the deadline for that has passed. Our commission has received those comments to review. o We had a short discussion on some of the items within those comments, and David recommended that we send these comments back to our writing team for them to discuss and incorporate.
▪ Kenneth brought up the issue on the section regarding entire
sanctification and the language of “inbred sin”. The document needs to clear up any linguistic misunderstanding without losing the
conceptual understanding.
o The writing team will need a two-hour block of time to work through these comments, and send it back to our committee.
o Overall, there was a lot of possible feedback.
• After the writing group revises the document, our team will review it before we share it publicly for denominational conversation.
Ordination Working Group
• Tesia shared that the group met earlier in October for an introductory meeting. We gathered resources regarding the role of deacon, and elder along with supply pastors and certified lay ministers.
• Teresa asked if the Board of Higher Ed and Ministry was aware of this working group, and we shared that it is a cross-commission group convened by the Assembly of Bishops. (Note: here is the listing of this working group)
Jeff Greenway
Assembly of Bishops
Leah Hidde-Gregory
Assembly of Bishops
Brian Ebel
Board of Higher Ed and Ministry
Magarita Todorova
Board of Higher Ed and Ministry
Thadius Sales
Board of Ministry Cohort
Bonface Wanyama
Board of Ministry Cohort
Tesia Mallory
Commission on Discipleship, Doctrine, Just Ministry
Suzanne Nicholson
Commission on Discipleship, Doctrine, Just Ministry
Kathy Rohrs
Commission on Discipleship, Doctrine, Just Ministry
o Our commission aTirmed that it is important for us to have a clear theological understanding of deacons and elders, so that we can build legislation that reflects our theology.
Cross-Commission Collaboration
• Because of the overlap in “discipleship” with evangelism and missions, the Kingdom Advancement Commission has asked for a cross-commission group to meet regularly and work together
o Kathy made a motion for two members of our commission to serve on KAC ex-oTicio and two members of KAC to serve on our commission ex-oTicio. The motion was seconded by Tesia. Kathy will reach out to the KAC and request their cooperation.
No discussion. All voted in favor.
• Recommended Resources for Online Library
o Requested from Kingdom Advancement Commission as well; work led by Amber Tolbert
Campus Ministry Approval
The Connectional Council would like our commission to create a template for annual conferences to utilize as they develop their processes for approving campus ministries.
• The template would outline a basic application, vetting, and approval process that might guide annual conferences as they set up their process.
o Bishop Jones reached out and made contact with Hugh GriTith to help with this.
Bishop Jones suggested a 4-person task force to work on a template. Lou Staggs recommended letting Hugh GriTith take on that work, along with other leaders in campus ministry. Tesia recommended reaching out to Greg McElyea who is organizing students at Asbury in class meetings and it is going very well.
• Bishop Jones will reach out to Hugh GriTith to develop a minimum approval process for campus ministries, and have him reach out to Greg McElyea from Asbury Seminary as well.
o This will come back to our commission for discussion and approval. Commission Website
• Teresa will be in communication with David to consider what items we would like on the website.
Regarding, the Kingdom Advancement commission ex-oTicio members:
We nominated Luther Oconer and Gabi Kopas to serve as ex-oTicio members of the Kingdom Advancement Commission. Kathy will reach out to them to see if they are willing.
Calendar Schedule for 2026 – forthcoming.ze this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.