Role
“The church council shall provide for planning and implementing a program of nurture, outreach, witness, and resources in the local church. It shall also provide for the administration of its organization and temporal life. It shall envision, plan, implement, and annually evaluate the mission and ministry of the church. The church council shall be amenable to and function as the
administrative agency of the charge conference” (Par. 252 of the Book of Discipline).
Relationships
– Amenable to and functions as the administrative agency of the Charge Conference
– Oversees and approves the work of worship community leadership teams, Trustees, SPRC, Finance Committee, Lay Leadership, and First UMC Endowment Foundation, Inc.
Responsibilities
1) Work with the pastors to build a shared, broad vision for discipleship and plan ministries of nurture, outreach, and witness that help the congregation live its God-given vision. We are asking our Council to endorse a shared, broad vision for discipleship that says we believe discipleship happens best locally, and we believe we will make more disciples “across the street,” when we are across more streets. Rather than developing a comprehensive discipleship plan for all locations, we are asking the Council to (1) affirm each worship community’s leadership team as the primary team for planning of nurture, outreach, and witness, and (2) affirm the vision of creating new worshiping communities for new people as 1st UMC’s shared vision for making new disciples.
2) Allocate human and material resources for implementing the ministry plan and provide an administrative infrastructure. We are asking the Council to affirm the plan below for allocation of human and material resources to administration and ministries.
3) Evaluate the effectiveness of the ministry plan. The Council will continue evaluating the effectiveness of this structure for ministry and administration.
4) Act as the administrative agency of the charge conference. The Council will continue as the administrative body for the Charge Conference. The Council will review the membership of the church, fill interim vacancies occurring among lay officers between sessions of the annual charge conference, establish the budget on recommendation of the committee on finance, and recommend to the charge conference the salaries and other remuneration of the pastors after receiving recommendations from the Staff-Parish Relations Committee.
