First Central Church – Who’s In Charge?

At 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 Christ, affiliated with its Nebraska Conference and Living Waters Association. But who’s really in charge? Who makes the decisions that affect the way we do things and what we support? Well, at the heart of it all, it’s our Congregation! That’s the UCC way. Unlike with other denominations, the national body of the United Church of Christ “speaks to the Church, not for the Church.” In other words, representatives from all UCC churches as well as the Conferences and Associations, get together every two years (soon to be every three years) at a meeting called a Synod. At this meeting, we discuss and debate issues of importance on which we feel we, as representatives of God’s work in the world, should take a stand. The Synod votes on these initiatives, and then reports back to the churches its recommendations on positions it believes the churches should prayerfully consider. See the difference?

But you’re really reading this to find out who makes the local decisions at 36^th & Harney. Everything from “Who do we call to be our Senior Minister?” to “How do we decide how to spend our money?” to “How do we care for sick and sorrowing (both within our church and outside of it)?” and much more. Again, we do it the UCC way! We have ByLaws (which we just amended this year) that specify that our source of authority is the Congregation. Only by vote of the congregation can we call a Senior Minister, adopt an annual budget, or amend the ByLaws. In between these official meetings, the Council is the body that represents the Congregation.

But the Council doesn’t do this in a vacuum. Our ByLaws seek to distribute the authority “as widely and as wisely as possible.” And so we have everything from Ministries to Committees to Teams to Staff to carry out the work of First Central. In short newsletter articles over the next few weeks, I hope to describe the functions and areas of authority of the various groups within the church as are laid out in our ByLaws. Stay tuned.

– Deb Kirwan