(New Minister) Just Got My Packet, Have A Question

TobyJ96

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Rev Douglas Trouten Honorable Friend

Rev Douglas Trouten

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TobyJ96,

I am going to guess you received the order from the ULCHQ in Modesto, correct?

The Universal Life Church Agreement is if you have a congregation that you would like to affiliate with (ie be sanctioned by) the ULCHQ in Modesto, CA. Before you can have a congregation affiliated with Modesto you do need to have a board of directors consisting of at least three individuals, the pastor, the treasurer and the secretary. if you do decide to go this route you are obligated to send in a $35donation (a filing fee) with the agreement, after that you have a $5 per month donation along with either monthly or quarterly reports (the $5/month can be sent in monthly or quarterly as a $15 "donation")

If you don't have a congregation or you don't want to worry about being affiliated/sanctioned with ULCHQ right now you can ignore the Agreement. Even though I have a "congregation" (its a informal group of myself and now 8 others), we have opted not to go the sanctioning route since 1) we are an informal group, 2) the only money we handle is the money we all pitch in to order pizzas and 3) we dont have any board of directors nor do we plan on having one.

Also welcome to the ULC family and the forums.

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Rev Douglas Trouten Honorable Friend

Rev Douglas Trouten

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This is an interesting topic.

I received my packet back in 2005 and I don't think t got the Universal Life Church agreement with mine.

Since I am soon going to start a congregation and I would like to be affiliated with headquarters in Modesto.

What should I do to get the agreement?

You can order one from the ULCHQ in Modesto along with the other forms that the HQ will require or recommend you use once your congregation is approved, they are also available on the Wedding Words and More Disc for sale here at ULC.net (a great resource with a plethora of useful information for you and engaged couples who come to you to marry them along with some nice extras such as the forms) or as a download here http://www.ulc.net/index.php?page=forms

I do recommend you read the Congregation Agreement before you fill it out and send it in, it details what you and your congregations requirements to the ULCHQ are (a $35 donation/initial filing fee and the Monthly (or Quarterly) reports along with a $5/month donation/filing fee). Now don't quote me on this I may be wrong, once your congregation gets its ULCHQ affiliation, while you are part of the ULC you are still an independent congregation and have to apply for your own Tax ID (both Federal and State), incorporation with your state or municipality, etc... Its up to your congregations board of directors to make sure your congregation is within all laws relating to non-profit and/or tax exempt status's (if the congregation applies for these status's) and to know what activities are and are not covered by said status (ie holding a bake sale to raise money for say a new roof or to help operate a soup kitchen or homeless shelter is acceptable as a tax free venture but operating a gas station isn't, your congregation would have to pay taxes on all profits from the gas station).

Remember in order to start a congregation you need at least three people who are 18 years of age or older, the Pastor (you?), the Secretary and the Treasurer 9these are the three required to sign the agreement), though I would suggest having a couple more members on the Board so it totals maybe 5-9 members (if you have your own building you can then have other officies for the additional Board members such as Director of Youth Services {Sunday School}, Director of Facility Maintenance {head of a committee that insures that the Church and its property are maintained}, etc...). One of the first things the Board of directors will need to do is come up with a set of by-laws for the Church and its operations, a good source to get an idea on running a Board meeting is the book "Robert's Rules of Order" this book is about the parliamentary procedures that your Board of directors will be using to make, amend, debate, vote, etc... on motions related to the churches operations, such as the motion to set aside funds raised to help Rev. Joe Blow offset the cost to go to the ULCHQ convention in Modesto, CA, or a motion for the church to purchase new robes for the choir to were for choir competitions and special occasions such as a Christmas service.

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Pastor Charles Registered User

Pastor Charles

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Posted

This is an interesting topic.

I received my packet back in 2005 and I don't think t got the Universal Life Church agreement with mine.

Since I am soon going to start a congregation and I would like to be affiliated with headquarters in Modesto.

What should I do to get the agreement?

Oh cool, I do have the Wedding Words disc and will check that out tonight.

Thanks again, :derisive:

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Rev Douglas Trouten Honorable Friend

Rev Douglas Trouten

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Posted

Oh cool, I do have the Wedding Words disc and will check that out tonight.

Thanks again, :derisive:

The files are in the Starting_a_congregation folder (at least they are on my copy of the disc), you can also download them from here with the link provided above. I will also reprevide the link in this post, the files for a congregation agreement, Board of Directors meeting minutes, Board of Directors resolutions, and the monthly reports can be found here http://www.ulc.net/index.php?page=formsAt that link the forms are available for download separately in the following formats, RTF, Word and PDF or as a download with all formats and all files in one convenient .zip file

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