VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 07:53:29 05/23/06 Tue
Author: Brother Steve - UCMI
Author Host/IP: 216.241.144.79
Subject: Re: Support for UCMI
In reply to: Tom Donoho 's message, "Re: Support for UCMI" on 22:59:54 05/22/06 Mon

Hello Tom,
Do you actually believe that a church is a building? A church .........any church is the collective of people (believers) that bond together to a common cause in Christ and the Kingdom.

Now in consideration of the above statemen, Please explain how any 'collective' of churches and ministers are supported?! All Denominations and Conferences supply credentials and charters to their respective membership. So do you believe that they are not part of the "Church"? DO they serve no function in facilitating or providing the basis for their churches to exist?

Finally to address your statement of how does anyone or any ministry "Drain" resources; I guess I thought you read the last post that I placed on this thread?! It is expensive to operate a ministry of this size. I receive requests daily for letters and phone calls to be made in behalf of our ministers and or their ministries. There is the matter of recording and reporting said ministers and their ministries and this is not without costs either. It is kind of like a PBS station....... if all watch and none support then the station could no longer exist. It costs UCMI $8.00 per minute to receive legal counsel over the phone so that we can make determinations and give counsel to our ministers who require direction in a legal matters concerning their ministry and its activities. If these same ministers are non supporting members then are they not "draining" the funds from the ministry for their own purposes?

Licensure and ordinations as well as church charters are not something that is free to UCMI. These all have costs connected to them. Many come to UCMI seeking this same licensure and or charters and once received they are never seen or heard from again. No communion (communication) and no support either. We cannot keep accurate records on these ministries without an Annual Report and we cannot exist without some form of support either.

The question therefore is this; Are you willing that your giving be used to support those who only wish to be credentialed with UCMI and not to keep in good communion (communication) and in some form of support? Do you believe that this is a fair and reasonable use of the funds that you send in to UCMI? Would this be good stewardship on UCMI's part? Wouldn't you prefer that your giving be used to support some needed mission work? To expand and establish new areas of ministry within UCMI? Should UCMI not act responsibly in the area of financial stewardship? Should UCMI offer covering to those who do not take seriously the responsibility of being in ministry and in filing required reports and in helping in the finance of their covering? I think you see the point here.

Last point, there seems to be concern for more information and disclosure from UCMI. It costs UCMI nearly $4,000 to send out one single mailing to its members VIA US Mail. It requires time away from daily work to publish email and web pages to broaden communications as well. It requires time just to answer the banter offered here in this communication forum. If there is enough support coming in, then more staff could be paid and there would be more time available to post much more information and correspondence with the body. That is if you believe that we are a 'Body'....... I seem remember your inferring that UCMI is not in any way a church!

Brother Thomas, UCMI is only trying to grow and be both legal in the law of the land and pleasing in the Lord's eyes as well. It is no simple task to hold hands with nearly 5,000 ministers and keep them all smiling without any being offended or put off. Jesus couldn't keep every one happy and I do not suppose for one minute that I can do it any better. However I can see to it that UCMI keeps within biblical covenant as well as civil law in the running of this ministry.

God bless.

Yours in Christ,
Brother Steve
UCMI

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Forum timezone: GMT-6
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.