Meeting Minutes List

Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasiCommission on Finance, Administration, Pension, & Benefits AGENDA NOTES – THURSDAY, April 16, 2026
ATTENDING:
1 Harrison Bell
2 Sam Gregory
3 Vivian Kinnear
4 Bishop Auta (NT) OUT
5 Luvo Thwethwa (SAT)
6 Sung-Soo Kim OUT
7 Jennifer Lineberry OUT
12 MEMBERS; 2 STAFF ATTENDING
8 Sherry Austin
9 Chris Akers
10 Jim Noble
11 Joy Perry
12 Matt Seel
13 Rhonda Bourgeois 14 Richard Croll
15 Olandor Boyce (LT) STAFF:
1 Molly Williams
2 Mike Schafer OUT 3 Matt Conover
WELCOME AND PRAYER –HARRISON
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES FROM LAST MEETING – VIVIAN
• Commission approved April 9th meeting minutes with edits.
Connectional Council Update (Sam)
• Proposal for the formation of a GMC Foundation initiated by the Assembly of Bishops and modified by this commission at the last meeting was approved. The commission agreed to cover establishment costs in the range of $10,000.
o Next steps include gathering nominations for the Foundation board chair and other members. These nominations will go to the Connectional Council for approval. Once a preliminary board is established, they will work on the bylaws and build out the organization.
o Harrison to send out email with nomination process details, and this commission will discuss at the next meeting.
• The three petitions from the last meeting have been submitted to the General Conference. The Connectional Council agreed to sponsor and submit to the General Conference our proposed legislation regarding the elimination of the 90% connectional funding limitation.
Finance
• Quarter 1 Financials (Matthew/Molly)
o The March 2026 preliminary financials were approved after celebrating the prepayment success while addressing non-paying churches. Professional fees are over budget due to GuideStone fees and contracting for Immigration legal fees.
o The delay to close in March 2026 is the wait for credit card receipts. The commission needs to be aware of how much time Molly is spending following up on the collection of credit card receipts. The cause of the delay comes primarily from the bishop's delay in turning in their receipts.
▪ Harrison will have a conversation with Chris Ritter about episcopal practices after creating a list of issues for discussion, including receipts and personal items being charged on the GMC credit card.
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▪ General conference delegates want to know about ongoing issues when re-electing bishops. The GEC is working on a process for gathering information on complaints to share.
▪ Bringing on an Administrative Assistant for the bishops should help with receipt submission.
o Financial statements are current through December 2025 on the website, although there is a need to improve presentation order and the website navigation.
• Audit Update
o The 2023 audit ending June 2023 is almost complete; auditors are testing receivables after resolving the recognition issue of the health insurance program.
o The next audit will cover 18 months from July 2023 to December 2024 and will clear all WesPath-related items.
o Future audits beginning for 2025 will be cleaner with only connectional funding to test. o We will continue with the same firm through the 18-month audit.
o Mike will sign an engagement letter for the next phase.
• Churches that have not paid Connectional Funding
o 45% of churches have not paid anything. Discussed possible reasons: they are tiny, missional, or closed churches, they don’t know what connectional funding is or how to pay, some are paying only annual conference share, many wait for bills before paying, and bills are not going out.
o A report will be sent to conference superintendents, number twos, and treasurers identifying those churches in their conferences which have not paid.
o Harrison will draft an email requesting church information updates, including the identification of closed churches, as well as payment reminders.
o Conference administrators need to update Atlas with accurate church information. Some of this was done recently with their FTE submissions for the delegate count.
o Also, missional status is being added to financial tracking reports when the conference notifies the general church of the change in status.
o Connectional funding calculations are included in some charge conference packages. o Connectional funding collection methods need to be considered, i.e., electronic vs. check payments.
o Janelle sends quarterly statements to listed treasurers automatically.
o Conferences collecting on behalf of the general church should include the amount they are remitting by church name and number.
Non-US Finances
• Connectional Funding Strategies (Olandor / Rhonda)
o There is a need to communicate to all conferences, including the US, about what connectional funding is. Rhonda proposed creating a template brochure with consistent messaging plus conference-specific information.
o The Liberia conference is piloting this implementation. Olandor asked for clarification on the maximum percent. Matthew stated that it is 6%, 5% for annual conferences, and 1% for the general church.
o Luvo stated that there is a need for clear communication flow; some conferences are receiving funding from partnerships. Mathew stated that partnership funding is outside of connectional funding and doesn’t affect the percentages.
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o Harrison will connect with Olandor, Rhonda, Matthew, and Diane to start content development.
• International Financial Training Request – Deferred to April 30 meeting.
• Nigerian AV Lawsuit Update
o The circuit court ruled GMC’s registration process was wrong and illegal, and GMC’s process of changing the name and taking property was illegal. The GMC has appealed to the Nigerian Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. A Christian umbrella organization in Nigeria is trying to mediate between denominations.
o (Note from Bishop Auta post meeting: The process undertaken to effect the change of name before the Judge was not properly conducted and is therefore invalid. Consequently, the properties in question remain vested in the duly elected trustees, as originally registered
under the authority of the Book of Discipline 2016 with C.A.C. These properties are not to be transferred to either the United Methodist Church (UMC) or the Global Methodist Church (GMC).)
Administration
• Boy Scouts Update (Chris)
o Met with the insurance agent on Scouting America's possible solution.
o Some conferences require a Certificate of Insurance, naming the annual conference or connectional council.
o Insurance companies are requiring annual conferences to request a Certificate of Insurance from churches, taking a bottom-up approach.
o Agent presented a voluntary insurance and risk management program proposal, and more information will be forthcoming.
o Need a meeting regarding MinistrySafe.
• Insurance Update (Chris / Richard)
o Joy created a poll for conference superintendents and number twos regarding health insurance. It will be reviewed by the commission before distribution.
o A comprehensive insurance update will be given priority at the next meeting. CLOSING PRAYER - SAM
Next meeting: April 30, 2026, at 7 AM Central Time (Daylight Savings Time)
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