Scott’s Column: Stating the Faith, Part 2 by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 14, 2025 | NewsContinuing from last week's column. You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all...
Scott’s Column: Stating the Faith, Part 1 by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 7, 2025 | NewsI feel that the lectionary in the last few months has afforded some opportunity for me to return to some of my core theological ideas, to emphasize them one more time. ...
Scott’s Column: Leadership & Decision-making by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Mar 31, 2025 | NewsBack in February I facilitated part of the council retreat for Countryside Community Church. I had been asked to talk about how leadership and decision-making work in...
Scott’s Column: The Stories & Relationships by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Mar 24, 2025 | NewsSince announcing my pastoral transition, I've used these weekly newsletter columns to survey the highlights of our fifteen years of ministry together and to offer my...
Scott’s Column: Opportunities & Challenges by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Mar 13, 2025 | NewsWhat opportunities and challenges do I see for First Central in the years ahead? A few of you have asked me that question over the last month, so I thought I'd put my...
Scott’s Column: Flourishing in Crisis by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Mar 10, 2025 | NewsThis post is the third in a series discussing the highlights of my ministry at First Central the last 15 years. The final period of my pastorate begins with the onset...
Scott’s Column: The Fruits of Our Labor by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Mar 2, 2025 | NewsThis post is the second installment of a series exploring the highlights of the last fifteen years. Those first six years were full of to-do lists and goals, and you...
Scott’s Column: So, Everything? by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Feb 24, 2025 | NewsMy fifteen years of ministry at First Central can be easily broken down into three time periods. The first begins with my arrival in summer 2010 and extends to around...
Vacation Bible School 2025 Registration by Katie Miller | Feb 10, 2025 | Education, Events, Newshttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMZuikxvUfX5_YoBzuzWxf-NfU098Ozp7JNeKU0fWweObvFw/viewform?usp=sharing
Scott’s Column: State of the Church 2025 by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Feb 6, 2025 | NewsHere is the text of my annual State of the Church Address, delivered to the Annual Meeting of the Congregation on Sunday, February 9. We live in difficult and...
Scott’s Column: The Cruelty by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Feb 4, 2025 | NewsThe first really concrete thing I noticed occurred when I arrived for pick-up of my son from the after-school program two weeks ago. Next to the sign-out sheet were...
Scott’s Column: A Big & Beautiful Life by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 27, 2025 | NewsDo we have the resources and skills we need for this age of crisis? Last week I wrote about the discussion of leadership development at Conversations, the annual...
Scott’s Column: How Are You Developing Your Leadership Skills? by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 22, 2025 | NewsHow are you developing your leadership skills for our current times? That was one of the key questions of this year's Conversations gathering of United Church of Christ...
Scott’s Column: A Cold Night in Zurich by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 8, 2025 | NewsA cold night in Zurich. As historian William Estep describes it, "the chill of the winter wind [was] blowing off the lake" as a dozen men "slowly trudged through the...
Scott’s Column: Two Titans by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Dec 30, 2024 | NewsLast week two titans of the liberal Mainline Protestant churches died--theologian John Cobb and hymn lyricist Ruth Duck. About a dozen of Ruth Duck's hymns appear in...
Scott’s Column: Wicked by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Nov 25, 2024 | NewsThis last weekend was Wicked. I'm only playing with the slang use of the word from my youth. I really mean the opening of the new film version of the popular Broadway...
Scott’s Column: More on Awe by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Nov 18, 2024 | NewsOften I get asked after a sermon, "What's that book you mentioned?" For our autumn series on Awe, the main text I've used is Dacher Keltner's Awe: A New Science of...
Scott’s Column: A Pastoral Word for Young LGBTQ+ People After the Election by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Nov 12, 2024 | NewsFor young people, particularly young LGBTQ+ people. I know that the election results have left you confused, sad, afraid, heartbroken, and angry. These are proper...
Scott’s Column: Gustavo Gutierrez by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 28, 2024 | NewsEarlier this year, Jurgen Moltmann died. He was the great living theologian, at least the greatest Protestant theologian in the post-Second-World-War-Era. And then...
Scott’s Column: The AI Metaverse by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 15, 2024 | NewsLast week a handful of Nobel prizes went to people working in the fields of artificial intelligence. I just so happened to be reading a book on what's possible in an...
Scott’s Column: Restoring the Light by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 7, 2024 | NewsDuring our fall worship season, we are exploring Awe. The psychologist Dacher Keltner writes about how our experiences of awe and wonder get turned into ritual, art,...
Scott’s Column: Sacred Sounds by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 1, 2024 | NewsI've spent this lovely day with my office door open to the courtyard where I can hear the fountain running. I've been working on the vespers service for Friday night...
Scott’s Column: God’s Presence by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jul 23, 2024 | NewsSunday I preached about God's presence. Though it didn't make it into the sermon, that week I read a beautiful description of the presence of the Spirit in our lives...
Scott’s Column: The Life of Hope–Remembering Jürgen Moltmann by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jun 5, 2024 | NewsThis week the greatest living theologian died. Jürgen Moltmann was 98 years old. He did not grow up religious, but found God and religion when he was in a prisoner of...
Scott’s Column: Happy 300th Immanuel Kant by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | May 28, 2024 | NewsBack on April 22nd, I messaged Fred Nielsen, "Happy 300th Birthday to Immanuel Kant." To which Fred replied, "Will you be celebrating in a particularly philosophical...
Scott’s Column: Summer Theology Book Club by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | May 13, 2024 | Events, NewsOne Sunday before worship, Lou Lamberty said, "I read God's Monsters. I really need to talk about it." I had read the book not long before that and mentioned in...
An Interview with . . . Allison Hardy by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | May 8, 2024 | Interview With . . ., NewsHow long have you been a member at First Central? I've been a member of First Central since 2018. What is your occupation? I'm a corporate attorney at Kiewit. What do...
Scott’s Column: Curious about Psychedelics & Spirituality by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 23, 2024 | NewsSometime back in 2020, stuck at home, binging lots of Netflix, I watched the documentary Fantastic Fungi that I'd seen friends talking about on social media. What an...
An Interview with . . . Sophie Feng by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 16, 2024 | Interview With . . ., NewsHow long have you been a member at First Central? 15 years with the church What is your occupation? Professor What do you find meaningful about your work? Helping...
Scott’s Column: Knowing Each Other by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 4, 2024 | NewsHow well do we humans understand one another? Apparently, not very well. In his excellent book How to Know A Person David Brooks cites the research of William Ickes...
Books on Grieving by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 4, 2024 | Education, NewsBooks on Grieving By Daryl Malena The task of eventually moving out of the house my family has lived in since 1977 turns out to be every bit as difficult as I expected....
An Interview With . . . Marian Fey by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 3, 2024 | Interview With . . .How long have you been a member at First Central? Since 1998 (I think), although I attended as a child with my mom and Pipi & Pete. What is your occupation? I'm the...
Scott’s Column: The God Revolution by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Mar 18, 2024 | Education, NewsThe last three weeks in First Forum I've taught a series on recent theological insights into God. A number of folks asked that I put together a bibliography of all the...
Scott’s Column: Spiritual Experiences by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Mar 6, 2024 | NewsWhat are your most profound or memorable spiritual experiences? Currently in our Wednesday Night Family Night's we are exploring and discussing spiritual experiences,...
An Interview with Yvette Polinsky by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Feb 28, 2024 | Interview With . . . What is your name, and how long have you been a member at First Central? Yvette Polinsky. I grew up in the church but was not an official member. My family moved...
An Interview With . . . La Dell Diaz by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Feb 8, 2024 | Interview With . . ., NewsBringing back an old feature of our newsletter, which will explore the myriad ways our congregants are working in the community to change lives and change the world....
Scott’s Column: Open & Nimble by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Feb 5, 2024 | NewsThis is the sixth and final in a series of personal reflections on the State of the Church in 2024. 6. Given all of that I want to return to the theme I’ve been trying...
Scott’s Column: Impacts on Churches by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 30, 2024 | NewsThis is the fifth in a series of personal reflections on the State of the Church in 2024. 5. What are the impacts, then, on churches? There are the trends we are well...
Scott’s Column: Cultural Trends by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 22, 2024 | NewsThis is the fourth in a series of personal reflections on the State of the Church in 2024. 4. As if all of that weren’t enough, there are other cultural trends and...
Scott’s Column: In a Context of Crises by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 14, 2024 | NewsThis is part three in a series of personal reflections on the State of the Church in 2024 3. Beyond the demographic trends, what else shapes the context in which we are...
Scott’s Column: Changing Religious Demographics in America by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 4, 2024 | NewsThis is part two of a series of reflections on the State of the Church in 2024. 2. Even thirty years ago Mainline Protestantism was grappling with decades of decline. ...
Scott’s Column: The State of the ‘Big C’ Church by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jan 2, 2024 | NewsNormally in late December I begin working on my Annual Report and my State of the Church presentation for the Annual Meeting. Over the past year or so I've been trying...
Scott’s Column: Christology Against White Supremacy by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Dec 18, 2023 | NewsSo, like I did in the First Forum class last summer, I'll draw this exploration of some contemporary Christology to a close by focusing in on one particular thinker, J....
Scott’s Column: The Power to Transform Humanity by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Dec 13, 2023 | NewsThe great 20th century Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov wrote that "All human beings will be resurrected without exception." Why? Because, as he draws...
Scott’s Column: Riffing on Christ by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Dec 12, 2023 | News"The inability to articulate just how God was present in Christ and how that reality shapes the character of our life together destroys the very integrity of the...
Scott’s Column: Happy Allhallowtide! by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 31, 2023 | NewsHappy Allhallowtide! That's one of the formal names for this season in which the church remembers and honors the dead, made up traditionally of the three days of All...
Scott’s Column: Why We Care for Children by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 16, 2023 | Education, NewsFaith Formation: Why We Do It In our struggle with time—how to tell it, how to keep it, what to do with it, how fast or slow it goes—what we truly long for is a feeling...
Scott’s Column: How Faith Formation Happens by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 9, 2023 | Education, NewsFaith Formation: How Does It Happen? Note: this is part three in a series on the principles undergirding Christian Education. You can read the first installment here...
Scott’s Column: Habit-Making Practices by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Oct 2, 2023 | Education, NewsForming Our Faith—Habit-Making Practices Note: this is part two in a series on the principles undergirding Christian Education. You can read the first installment...
Scott’s Column: A Way of Seeing by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Sep 21, 2023 | Education, NewsForming our Faith: A Way of Seeing Back in the spring I taught a three-part First Forum series on what principles shape Christian Education, after that question had...
Scott’s Column: Happy (Belated) Labor Day by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Sep 5, 2023 | NewsHappy (Belated) Labor Day! Last week a Washington Post article declared the eight-hour work day to be dying. It stated “only about half of office visits now last for...
Scott’s Column: Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Aug 17, 2023 | NewsLast week was the fiftieth anniversary of Hip-Hop. In his book Blue Note Preaching the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, III, Senior Minister of Trinity UCC in Chicago, wrote: Now...
Scott’s Column: Passport to Exploration by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Aug 14, 2023 | NewsOn the final day of our recent family summer vacation, Sebastian and I visited Pipestone National Monument in southwest Minnesota. There's a short, easy trail that...
Scott’s Column: Resources for Living–Grief by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jul 27, 2023 | News“For as one reweaves the fabric of one’s life after a loss, and as the thoughts around which one has defined one’s aims and aspirations change tense, one becomes to...
Scott’s Column: Resources for Living–Forgiveness by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jul 20, 2023 | NewsI was listening to Leonard Cohen’s final album You Want It Darker and the moving second track “Treaty.” The lyrics of the refrain are: I wish there was a treaty we...
Scott’s Column: Resources for Living-Sex by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jun 27, 2023 | NewsThe best book I've read on sex from a (liberal) Christian perspective is Good Christian Sex by UCC pastor Bromleigh McCleneghan. I met and befriended Bromleigh earlier...
Scott’s Column: Happy Pride! The Struggle Continues by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jun 13, 2023 | NewsFor most of my pastorate I've been a regular contributor to the From the Pulpit feature in the Omaha World-Herald. When I was first invited to submit, we were asked to...
Scott’s Column: Pride Books for Kids by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | May 30, 2023 | NewsJoyce Wilson, who died in April, loved penguins. And her favorite children’s book was And Tango Makes Three which tells the real-life story of two male penguins at the...
Scott’s Column: Resources for Living–Mental Wellness by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | May 18, 2023 | Mental Health, NewsMay is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the United Church of Christ recognized Sunday, May 21 as Mental Health Sunday. In our worship, we used the liturgies they...
Scott’s Column: Resources for Living–Changing (Dis)Abilities by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | May 11, 2023 | NewsIn the first column for this series, I asked if there were any topics you all thought I should write about, and I’ve received one request so far stating, “I think that...
Scott’s Column: Resources for Living–Anger by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 24, 2023 | NewsHow to deal with anger is a question I’ve often been asked by congregants seeking pastoral care. So that’s a great topic for my second installment in this series of...
Scott’s Column: Resources for Living–Awe in Nature by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Apr 18, 2023 | News“We create wonderful places by giving them our attention, not by finding ‘pristine’ places that will bring wonder to us.” So advises biologist David George Haskell in...
Tug, My “AA” Buddy by Kerrie Kleppin-Winn | Oct 7, 2020 | Events, NewsThank you Kathy Hoyt sharing this story of her faithful Tug at this year's Pet Blessing! Unlike the rest of us, Tug is getting older. He’s not the same one or...
Pandemic Spirituality by Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones | Jun 24, 2020 | NewsThis spring Senior Minister Scott Jones wrote a series of five essays connecting our pandemic and quarantine experiences with the spiritual wisdom of the church. Here...
From the Pulpit, 7/6/2025 by Lizz Brennfoerder | Jul 9, 2025 | NewsInterim Senior Minister Sarah Rentzel Jones contributed the following piece for the Omaha World Herald's "From the Pulpit" series on July 6th: As a Christian and a...
Guest Preacher – Rev. Jean Morrow by Lizz Brennfoerder | Jun 18, 2025 | EventsDear friends at First Central Congregational Church, I feel privileged to be joining you on Sunday for worship and feel as though I already know you. I...
First Central Church – Who’s in Charge? Part 5 by Lizz Brennfoerder | Jun 18, 2025 | NewsIn the last few newsletters, I’ve described the various decision-making bodies in First Central’s organization. But where do you fit in? First of all, take a little...
First Central Church – Who’s in Charge? Part 4 by Lizz Brennfoerder | Jun 11, 2025 | NewsLast time I talked about Teams. But what about Committees? The First Central ByLaws has this definition: “A Standing Committee is a work group focused on a recurring or...
First Central Church: Who’s in Charge? Part 3 by Lizz Brennfoerder | May 28, 2025 | NewsIn last week’s column, I introduced Ministries and Teams. Teams provide the arms and legs (and the mouths and the hearts, etc.) to carry out First Central’s work in the...
First Central Church – Who’s in Charge? Part 2 by Lizz Brennfoerder | May 21, 2025 | NewsWhen we restructured our church governance in 2012, we aimed at streamlining the organization and making it more flexible in order to keep our focus on mission and...
First Central Church – Who’s In Charge? by Lizz Brennfoerder | May 14, 2025 | NewsAt First Central, we have a Senior Minister, a Moderator, a Council, 5 Ministries, and various Committees, Teams and Staff. We’re also part of the United Church of...
