At its June 9 meeting, the Pacific Union Executive Committee rather quietly started a process that could change the way the church functions in this union. With evident commitment but little discussion, they set up a committee to study areas of duplication within the organizations of the Pacific Union. The members are: Elwin Dunn, Meredith Jobe, Ellie Kaanaana, Paula Lind, Bill McVay, Thomas Mostert (chair), Elliott Osborne, Darold Retzer, Richard Roethler, Joan Ryan, Velino Salazar, Leon Sanders, Nelson Tabingo and Ralph Watts III.

The recommendations of similar committees in the past have resulted in broad changes, including elimination of staffing in the union office that duplicated positions in local conferences—such as leaders of youth ministries, personal ministries and Sabbath school ministries—and the elimination of ministry directors from local conferences when those services could be combined and done more effectively and inexpensively at the union level—for example, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty; and the Western Adventist Foundation, which combines the management of trusts.

“But there are still places where money can be saved and ministry can be done more efficiently,” said Tom Mostert, Pacific Union president. “This committee will study church organizations in the Pacific Union and will bring recommendations for more effectively fulfilling the mission of the church.”

Adventist Health

Once each year, Adventist Health (AH), the organization that manages the Church’s hospitals and other health-care facilities in the western United States, reports to the Pacific Union Executive Committee. On June 9, Donald R. Ammon, president and CEO, reported to the committee that AH is currently managing 20 acute care hospitals (controlled, managed or leased), numerous clinics and outpatient facilities, 16 home care agencies and three joint venture retirement centers. Altogether, there are 18,300 employees and 3,100 beds in the system.

Ammon reported positive responses to the system-wide effort to enlist every employee in the mission of the Church—the compassionate, healing ministry of Jesus. Doug Rebok, chief financial officer, reported that 2003 was a good year financially, with a profit margin of 2.5 percent and an operating margin of 0.35 percent. But 2004, he said, will be much more challenging due to new staffing requirements for nurses in California and lower reimbursement rates for long-stay Medicare patients.

Bob Carmen, chief operating officer, gave an extensive report of new facilities, including a new hospital wing and major renovation at Castle Medical Center in Hawaii, plus major projects in California: a new surgical center and medical office building in Glendale, a new 144-bed hospital in Hanford, expansion of the Redbud Community Hospital in Clearlake, a major expansion of San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, rebuilding and enlarging Simi Valley Hospital, a new hospital building in Sonora, a new outpatient pavilion at Ukiah Medical Center, and a major expansion of White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles.

After the formal presentation, members of the committee asked questions, including: are any Adventist hospitals being sold? (None has been sold for over 14 years, and none is now for sale, Ammon said.) Are the hospitals really “Adventist,” and are they fulfilling the mission of the church? (Ammon offered to take committee members on a tour of any AH hospital and show them the mission of the Church in action). Are the millions of dollars coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to repair our hospitals and make them more earthquake-proof loans or gifts? (They are gifts, with no strings attached, except the requirement to show that the money is spent as intended). Do our hospitals result in people joining the church? (Both Ammon and Carmen told of recent conversions, including staff and patients.)

Regular Business

After the Adventist Health report, the executive committee heard a brief report from Alan Reinach, director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Pacific Union, and then addressed its regular business.

The committee approved ordaining or commissioning to gospel ministry Gustavo Orozco, Nevada-Utah Conference; Tracy Baerg and Victor Merida, Northern California Conference; Michael Mupfawa, Samuel Nuñez and Eric Penick, Southeastern California Conference; and Zachary Thorp, Southern California Conference. They also voted to void the ordination of Gordon Hernandez, Central California Conference.

The committee voted ministerial scholarships for Renato Valenzuela, Ron Taylor and Jonathon Thornton, from the Arizona, Hawaii and Northern California conferences. And they approved an additional quarter at the seminary for Sean Seangthip, from Northern California, and a Doctor of Ministry program for Yami Bazan from the Southeastern California Conference.

Assistance was voted from the Evangelism Endowment Fund for two projects: $7,500 for Jesus Our Hope, at the Oxnard, Calif., church; and $8,000 for Finding and Reclaiming Former Members, Arizona Conference. And the committee voted $6,000 to assist the Fresno Spanish church in building a new church in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Holbrook Indian School, which was once an Arizona Conference school but is now operated by the union, requested that $86,789 in a fund for a now-discontinued project be re-directed to help them reinstate their vocational training program. The committee approved.

The quarterly financial report showed that tithe in the union is up 3.7 percent this year as compared to last year. Leon Sanders, union treasurer, who answers “Frequently Asked Questions” at each committee meeting, addressed the questions: Why doesn’t the union grant money for evangelistic projects, and why doesn’t the union help fund local church schools? Sanders answered that, unlike other unions which consider money that comes to them theirs to spend, the Pacific Union automatically sends almost all their education and evangelism funds to the local conferences and lets the conferences decide which projects to assist. In the last five years, the union has forwarded $12 million for evangelistic projects and $17 million for education, in addition to $7.5 million the union gave to La Sierra University and Pacific Union College.

The Pacific Union holds reserve funds to help conferences and union schools weather financial fluctuations. The committee voted to renew lines of credit to the Arizona Conference ($1,000,000), La Sierra University ($2,500,000) and the Southern California Conference ($1,000,000). And they voted to continue a secured term loan to the Southern California Conference for $5,300,000.

Ernie Castillo presented the quarterly membership report, which showed that the only conference with an increase in members this year is the Arizona Conference. He expressed hope that the Net 2004 meetings this fall will spark more increases.