UCG Reports on ABC

The February edition of UCG’s United News is now available electronically and has a couple of articles related to its Ambassador Bible Center (ABC).

The first is a lead article from its president, Clyde Killough, who reported:

We are pleased to announce that in September 2008, the Ambassador Bible Center will begin its 10th year of operation by expanding to a nine-month program that will match the standard university academic calendar.

As the current seven-month program has evolved over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to effectively accomplish our goals within that time frame.

The second one was a related news item:

Ina McLemore, a deaconess and 2007 ABC graduate, took on the job of home office receptionist the week of Jan. 22. Besides answering phones, this job involves work with mail processing and personal correspondence areas. She will also be handling the catering of meals for major meetings in the home office.

She replaces Wendy Lovelady, who will now be administrative assistant to Larry Salyer, Media and Communications Services operation manager.

The Media area is also hiring four ABC students part-time. Jim Springer and Devon McCaulley are working in the mailing area, and Michael Ball is assisting Clint Porter in the video area. Karen Claunch is working in the mail processing data entry area.

Hence, while it does not seem to gain ministers from its ABC program, UCG does seem to be using it to provide entry level employees.

UCG has indicated that it needs to have a more comprehensive program than its current ABC to train ministers (please see the news item United Church of God Announces Finances & Other Statistics). Presumably, increasing the duration of ABC is one such step.