The Council of Ministries consists of the elected officers, the pastor(s), the previous moderator (for one year following his or her term), the designated future moderator, and representatives of the Core Ministries. Representatives of other groups or individual members may attend council meetings and may bring items to the moderator for council discussion. 

The Council of Ministries will:

a) review the work of the church continually and make recommendations to the congregation for furthering the work of the church;

b) act as a nominating committee for the annual election of officers;

c) appoint replacements for officers if a vacancy occurs between annual meetings;

d) represent the church in those matters for which a full congregational meeting is not required

e) make short and long range plans for accomplishing the objectives of the church;

f) Insure that appropriate delegates are appointed to represent the congregation at association and conference meetings;

g) make sure the vision of the church is reviewed and updated periodically;

h) operate according to the values of the church community: where consensus is preferred and voting only used as a last resort; where all members are welcome to attend, not just the leaders of the ministries.

Core Ministries:  Christian Education, Community Life, Missions and Social Action, Membership, Stewardship, Trustees, Worship

In our February 2004 Council of Ministries meeting, the council members entered into a covenant with each other.  You can view it here.  To read the moderator's letter regarding the covenant click here.

Celebrating our Christian Community & Honoring the Differences Among Us - Diane Herr, Moderator 2004-2006

Greetings!

I'd like to share some decisions the Council of Ministries has made and add my perspective about those decisions.

One of the first things we did as the new Council of Ministries was to enter into a covenant with each other. How did this come about? Here's the background:

The spirit is alive in our church family! Just a few signs of the spirit:

Of course there are challenges we face such as: difficulty in making decisions with the diversity of opinions, some lack of trust among some members, slowness in addressing some issues, required financial resources exceed pledges and some volunteer burnout. Just like a lot of churches!

As God made a new covenant or commitment with us through Jesus Christ, the Council of Ministries Covenant is a commitment with each other to a set of behaviors. The covenant is mutual and voluntary. It includes promises to God, our church family and to each other. You can read the entire covenant on the website or in the council minutes for February, 2004. The covenant involves praying to God for our church family, the Council of Ministries and each other. The idea is to live as a Christian Community. It's a reminder. We will still have differences of opinion, but we have committed to work issues together. The section on commitments to the Church Community include:

This covenant is like renewing our membership vows that we gave when we joined the church. Some of the ministries will be looking at a covenant for their ministries and we discussed the possibility of having a covenant for the church as a whole. While people are committed to our church family, the power of a covenant, especially when read out loud to each other, is the affirmation

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