Scott’s Column: So, Everything? Feb 24, 2025 | News My 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 the time of my first sabbatical and the arrival of Katie Miller in 2016. The middle years extend from then until the pandemic. And finally there’s the pandemic and post-pandemic period. Last fall a colleague asked me what I was proud of accomplishing at First Central in my early years, and I started ticking off a list of answers, and she grew increasingly amused and said, “So, everything?” In those early years there was so much to do, and my goals and to do lists were always long. What all did we do? Completed a revision of the governance structure begun in the interim. The new structure was more streamlined, reduced the number of elected positions, and shifted most functions from committees to teams based on interests and gifts. Helping the church complete and live into this change occupied much time and energy in the early years. The new structure also called for rewriting the bylaws and putting together a policy book, which we did next. Among my earliest areas of my focus were the youth group and the young adults. I taught a fun youth class Defense Against the Dark Arts of Real Life and took them on retreats and mission trips. There was a vibrant young adult group for a couple of years with fun parties and a fun campout. I feel all this work has born the most fruit in the last five years as some of these adults have returned to active involvement in the church now that they are in their thirties and are parents. And do you remember the 3 paid youth directors we had for a while? When I arrived there was also a capital campaign still underway, with projects to complete, the most significant of which was the remodeling of the sanctuary. I’ll never forget the words of longtime member Margaret Hole when she walked into the finished space the first time in 2014 and said, “It looks like how it always should have looked.” I’m very proud of the work we accomplished in the sanctuary, which has deeply enriched our congregational life. An identity survey of the congregation in the mid-Aughts identified spirituality as the lowest ranked interest or concern of the church. I set about an effort to address that through education, emphases in worship, and launching a weekly Spirituality Group. And for a brief while Rev. Don Wester was our Minister of Spirituality. I feel we’ve grown more fully into spiritual practices. Social media was still in its early days in 2010; we significantly expanded the ways we used it both to communicate about events and also for community-building. I feel our Facebook group has been a great space for people to share their excitement about the church and to reach out for help and support. We went through a branding initiative that improved our messaging. This resulted in a new logo, tagline, and branding guidelines. Then, we thoroughly redesigned our website, developed the email newsletter, and eventually hired a communications staff member. We began to address various parts of the building–decluttering, cleaning, updating, and redecorating. This included a multi-year effort of installing new HVAC units. I tried to shift us into a proactive mindset about the building, rather than just responding to the latest thing that broke or leaked. And we radically increased the use and rental of the building by outside groups. The one I’m most proud of from these early years is that the Omaha Tribe began their language school in our building, before it moved to Metro Community College. We also rethought how we did stewardship and fundraising, resulting in surpluses most of these years. In my first six months we experienced a $60,000 improvement over what had been projected. I remember the pride I felt when a few years into my tenure Gary McConnell came into the office to express his appreciation that the church had entered an era of financial stability. In 2013 we expanded Jim Harmon’s hours and added interacting with new visitors to his portfolio, while he continued his great work in pastoral care. A few years into my tenure, we evaluated how we were doing Christian education, which led to changes in confirmation, youth group, and launching our weekly Wednesday night program. Accompanying the completion of the sanctuary remodel in 2014, we also did the work to become Accessible for All and celebrated that on the same day we consecrated the new and accessible chancel. Empowered by the new structure, ministries evaluated what we were doing, made changes, and launched new opportunities. The Befrienders recruited lay people to assist the care of our homebound, the Sanctuary Decorating Team reconceived our use of visuals in worship, the Health Team began a series of new programs and even hired a Parish Nurse, and the Arts Team enriched our congregational life in so many ways. These are just some of the examples. And we were also increasing members, growing to around 425 at the high point. Many of the families we gained in these early years were longtime committed church goers who left their previous congregations because of that church’s stance on LGBT rights. Many of these new members became excellent and strong leaders at First Central. The effort I’m most proud of during this period was my involvement and leadership in Equal Omaha as we successfully lobbied for the passage of the city’s equality ordinance in 2012 and our subsequently defending it from challenges. In those early years I worked diligently to cultivate a public presence in the city and foster relationships with key stakeholders and organizations. I also lead the Ready-to Marry marriage equality initiative here in Nebraska in 2015. In 2015 we became the very first congregation in the denomination to respond to the General Synod adopting the resolution creating the WISE for Mental Health commitment. And we subsequently hosted the first WISE Conference. The Worship Ministry over a few years made changes to how we worshiped. We adopted all gluten free wafers at communion and determined to always use intinction. They also updated the pew Bibles to the New Revised Standard Version. Then, during Joyce Wilson’s chairing of the group, they commissioned a new baptistry and communion pottery. Both of this initiatives were open to the congregation who showed up for the glass blowing and the throwing of the pottery. And we had the potter come join us in worship. In the spring of 2016 members of the congregation participated in a Worship Design Studio six-week workshop that resulted in some changes to how we planned worship. And I spent a chunk of my sabbatical reading about worship and drawing up those new ideas. During Adam Steffen’s moderatorship, my former boss Mike Piazza came and led a workshop for us on being a “vintage church.” He commended us for all our achievements to date and then encouraged us to consider what came next? Could we do more, and what would that more be? Which began the conversations that led to the decision to fund a full-time Associate Pastor. Our job posting for that position included graphs to demonstrate our steady growth in membership and our financial strength. The search led to hiring Katie Miller, whom Jim & I had met a few years before and had immediately said to each other that we hoped some day we’d get to work with her. In November 2015 when candidates for President rhetorically attached Muslim refugees, Pat Lamberty organized our Refugee Team and in winter 2016 we welcomed our first refugee family to sponsor, in what became an all-hands-on deck ministry, and one of the moments I’m most proud of in these 15 years. In May 2016 we celebrated the 160th Anniversary of the church with a fun gala dinner and special worship at which former pastor David Ruhe came back to preach. Katie’s arrival in 2016 as I took my first sabbatical capped a two-year period of professional and personal accomplishment that had also included my being hired to adjunct in the philosophy department at Creighton University, finishing writing my book, the birth of Sebastian, and the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. The hard work had paid off. Next week I’ll discuss that middle period, from my first sabbatical to the pandemic.
