On his last day as vice president of the Pacific Union Conference, Wayne Shepperd, who is recovering from a recent heart attack, opened the Aug. 31 union executive committee meeting with a devotional message entitled, “Getting Through the Tough Times.” Jesus, he said, has endured the toughest times and can handle anything we face in our lives. The committee will name Shepperd’s replacement at its November meeting.

In the most far-reaching action of the day, the committee voted to help churches in the union have attractive websites, useful for evangelism, and automatically updated. The website program, netAdventist.org, has been developed by Tagnet, a lay Adventist organization, now part of HART Research.

According to Danny Houghton and Jesse Johnson, Tagnet leaders, 79 percent of Adventist churches in the Pacific Union have no website, and only 13 percent of the existing websites have been updated in the last six months. The committee voted to pay the initial $200 set-up fee for every church that adopts the program within a set time and to pay the $35 monthly fee for the first three months. Watch the Pacific Union Recorder for additional information.

The committee voted to approve the retirement of union treasurer Leon Sanders and will name his replacement at the November meeting. The quarterly financial report, presented by Sanders and Ted Benson, undertreasurer, showed a 9.25 percent tithe increase for the year to date, largely the result of one major donation in one conference. The union’s operating income is slightly above budget and operating expenses are slightly below budget.

The committee voted to revoke the ordination of two ministers; Jonathan David Flores and Stephen D. Lewis, both from the Southern California Conference. The committee took time to pray for both men, their families and other affected individuals.

The committee voted the following to serve on the nominating committee for the 2005 North American Division year-end meetings: Thomas Mostert, Lawrence Geraty, Naomi Yamashiro, Linda Walton, Margie Yanez, Marvin Wray and Ricardo Graham.

For several years, Alan Reinach, religious liberty director for the Pacific Union, has participated in meetings of the NAD Jewish Advisory. The committee appointed Reinach director of Jewish ministry for the union.

Ernie Castillo, secretary of the Pacific Union, focused his report on information reported by Mark Finley during the recent General Conference session. According to Finley, during the last five years, five million people have been baptized into church membership, while 1.4 million have been dropped from membership — a loss ratio of 27.7 percent. During that five year period, the loss ratio has increased from 20 percent in 2000 to 34 percent in 2004. Finley challenged church members around the world to study ways to retain members.

As Castillo reported at the previous committee meeting, the loss ratio in the Pacific Union is more than twice the international levels: 56 percent in 2000 and 89 percent in 2004. Committee members agreed that local conferences and churches should give serious study to this challenge, with special emphasis on retaining the church’s own youth and young adults.

After brief reports from the three minority ministries of the union, African-American, Hispanic and Asian, the committee voted several loans for churches and schools: Phoenix Camelback (AZ), $286,345; Valley Crossroads (SCC), $550,000; Merced Bethel (NCC), $32,500; St. Helena Spanish (NCC), $25,000; Loma Linda University (SECC), $4.5 million; Norco (SECC), $100,000; and Vallejo Drive (SCC), $560,000.

The union executive committee will meet next on Nov. 17.