BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF BIBLE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH
The Board of Directors continues to attend to the fiscal and corporate business of the denomination. Five meetings were held during the year.All of this business is conducted and overseen on a volunteer basis (as is also done on all of our boards and committees);therefore the Brethren are to be commended for their diligence and sacrifice of time.
Assistance and counsel was given to several churches and agencies relative to financial and property matters. Communication was further maintained with the Board of the Home relative to its progress in purchasing property and its expansion plans. Legal assistance was given to Victory Valley Camp and Pinebrook Junior College so that each was able to consummate the purchase of additional property.
The matter of maintaining separate liability for each agency was addressed, and presently legal drafts are being prepared to help ensure this.
The maintenance of the Fund to Promote Church Extension is also under the jurisdiction of this Board. Funds by request of the Board of Church Extension were utilized in the purchase of parsonages at Kutztown, Pennsylvania and Edison, New Jersey.
The insurance and retirement programs of the pastors are being analyzed. Therefore, in the future recommendations may be proposed so as to provide life and disability protection as well as medical protection.
This Board is also cooperating with the agencies to develop a recommended set of standards for computer hardware and software.
The funds held by the Board of Directors are deposited with the Farmers First Bank of Lititz, Pennsylvania. The accounts of the Treasurer and the Financial Secretary were audited by Walter A. Davis.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
We recommend that the Annual Conference approve the following:
1. That the annuities paid from the Ministers’ Retirement Fund beginning October 1, 1986, shall be $132.00 per year of service up to forty years of service for which an annuitant is eligible.
2. That the Administrative Budget for 1986-87 be approved for use beginning October 1, 1986.
3. That the Administrative Budget for the 1987-88 year be approved for circulation to the church in solicitation of their pledges by April 15, 1987.
4. That the rate of mileage reimbursement be .18 per mile effective 10/15/86.
5. That the proposed revisions to the Rules of the Ministers’ Retirement Fund be adopted.
Committee: Jansen E. Hartman, President; Carl C. Cassel, Vice President; James A. Beil, Secretary; Horace A. Kauffman, Financial Secretary; Robert W. Gehret, Treasurer; Alva C. Cassel; Bert N. Brosius, Jay H. Fasnacht, Kermit K. Gehman
ARTICLE VI
Funds Administered by the Board of Directors
Section 1. Minister’s Retirement Fund
I. NAME
The name of this fund shall be the Ministers’ Retirement Fund of the Bible Fellowship Church.
II. PURPOSE
The Ministers’ Retirement Fund shall be a permanent fund to provide and pay annuities to ministers of the Bible Fellowship Church who by reason of age have retired from active service and also to widows of such ministers according to the rules hereinafter stated.
III. ADMINISTRATION
This fund shall be controlled by the Board of Directors of the Bible Fellowship Church and operated by the Committee on Pensions under the direction of the Annual Conference.
IV. ELIGIBILITY
A. Every minister who is licensed or who has been ordained by the Bible Fellowship Church is a member of the Fund so long as he is working under the direction of the Annual Conference and his name continues to appear on the list of men eligible to serve as a pastor of a Bible Fellowship Church.
B. When a man receives license with the Bible Fellowship Church, the Ministerial Candidate Committee shall notify him of the requirement for payments into the Fund and its benefits.
C. A man having less than 25 years of active service to the Bible Fellowship Church and no longer meeting both requirements set forth in Paragraph A of this Section of these rules, ceases to be a member of the Fund, except as provided in Paragraphs D, E and F of this Section. When a minister ceases to be a member of the Retirement Fund, the money he paid into the Fund shall be refunded to him; and he by receiving this refund shall forfeit all further claims on the Fund.
D. Should a minister with less than 25 years of service no longer meet both eligibility requirements of Paragraph A of this Section because he is awaiting a call to the pulpit of a Bible Fellowship Church, his membership in the Fund will continue so long as he desires, and this period between calls will be included as years of active service as this term is used in Section VIII, Paragraph A,3. However, to maintain the continuity of his service, a minister covered by this Paragraph shall on April 1 and at Annual Conference of each year make his contribution to the Fund in accordance with the provision of Section V, Paragraph B based on the minimum salary currently prescribed for a pastor by Annual Conference.
E. Should a minister, after having accepted a refund as provided in Paragraph C of this Section, return to work under the direction of Annual Conference, he may return the refund to the Fund and the years of service represented by the refund, will be included in the base for calculating his annuity.
F. A man who has been a member of the Fund may continue his eligibility for an annuity when serving under the Board of Missions. His rights to payments from the Fund of a refund or an annuity shall be based only on the payments made to the Fund on his behalf.
V. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FUND
The Fund shall be maintained by the following:
A. Contributions through the Annual Conference Administrative Budget.
B. Contributions for each member.
1.Two percent (2) of each member’s annual salary and supplemental benefits, excluding medical insurance and excluding parsonage allowances for pastors providing their own housing, shall be paid into the Fund. To maintain his continuity of service, the contribution shall not be less than two (2%) of the minimum salary currently prescribed for a pastor by the Annual Conference.
2.The annual salary shall be calculated on the year beginning September 1 and ending August 31.
3.One half of this payment shall be forwarded to the Financial Secretary of the Board of Directors on or before April 1, and the balance shall be paid at the next Annual Conference.
C. Gifts, bequests and devises from any sources.
VI. RETIREMENT AGE
A. A minister of the Bible Fellowship Church who has attained the age of sixty-five (65) years may retire from active service.
B. It is mandatory that a minister retire at the end of the month in which he attains the age of seventy-two (72) years.
C. A minister who has given 25 years or more of service to the Bible Fellowship Church may retire from the active ministry prior to age sixty-five (65) and be eligible for an annuity at age sixty-five (65).
VII. DISABILITY
A minister who has given twenty-five (25) years or more of active service to the Bible Fellowship Church may become eligible for an annuity at the end of the month in which he becomes totally and permanently disabled.
VIII.ANNUITIES
A. For ministers
1. No annuity will be paid unless a minister has met the requirements of Section VI and has paid in full according to Section V, B at least five years.
2. The annuity for a retired minister shall be calculated at the rate established annually by Annual Conference by a two-thirds majority vote at one reading.
3. A minister’s annuity will be based on his years of active service to the Bible Fellowship Church subject to a maximum of forty (40) years.
4. Services rendered after the age of seventy two (72) years shall not increase the annuity.
5. If at any time the money in the Fund is insufficient to pay the annuities in full, the Board of Directors shall determine the amount of monthly installments pro rata.
6. No minister shall be entitled to the full amount of his annuity unless he has paid in full as according to Section V, B. The years of service shall be reduced for each year in which he was a member of the Fund, but failed to make the required payments.
B. Annuities for Minister-Missionaries
1.Annuities will be paid to men who have met the eligibility requirements of the Fund by combined service as a minister working under the direction of Annual Conference and as a missionary working under the direction of the Board of Missions.
2.Payment of the portion of an annuity earned by a man who has also served under the Board of Missions shall be made annually in advance to the fund by the Board of Missions.
C. Annuities for Widows
1. The widow of a deceased minister who has complied with the provisions of the Fund shall receive annuities beginning at the time of the death of the husband provided that the widow shall have attained the age of sixty-five (65) years or beginning at the time that she shall attain the age of sixty-five (65).
2.A widow’s annuity shall be calculated at 7/12 the rate of Section VIII, A for each year that she was the wife of a minister during which he was in active service in the Bible Fellowship Church subject to a maximum of forty (40) years.
3. The annuity shall cease if the widow remarries.
D. All annuities cease at the time of the death of the annuitant.