Welcome

NEW!!!!!!

Our church now has a YouTube channel.  

Our Sunday services are livestreamed at 10:30 or you can view at a later day or time.

Click "subscribe."  It's free. Once on the home page, you may see 

Home Live Playlists Channels About

Choose "Live" and you will see all the current and past recordings


https://www.youtube.com/@congochurch906

Welcome to the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Geneva, Nebraska!

In our congregation, we try our best to embrace the message of our UCC denomination that says, "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here."  There is strength in our diversity, and even greater strength that we can leave those differences at our door and join together in the love of God and each other in this family that we call home.


Pastoral Search/Call Committee Report

Search & Call team asks, Did you know?!
 Below are UCC structure reminders as we continue to seek full time pastoral candidate

Association

Geneva, Exeter, and our local neighboring congregations are in the “Prairie Association”
 Prairie Association: 23 Nebraska UCC Churches like Geneva, Exeter, Hastings, Clay Center all the way to Ogallala                                                            Heartland Association: 19 churches include Crete, Lincoln Seward
 Living Waters Association: 25 churches including Omaha, Columbus and Norfolk

All of these Nebraska “Associations” roll up in to “Conference”

Conference

The tri-state grouping of South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. When you think of “Conference '' I hope you know our pastoral search for Geneva/Exeter sits at this broad level. Familiar names like Sarah Jones and most recently Rachael Pryor support us from the Conference and understand our continued needs, frequently meeting with us.

More information: https://ucctcm.org/nebraska/ Ordained (traditional)

Traditional 7 year ordination path (4 year bachelors + 3 year graduate studies) Not only are there little to no seminary graduates specifically for UCC across the nation, there’s low graduates across many Christian higher learning institutions. Many students are choosing to flow to outreach or continuing education with zero interest in pulpit supply, or rural communities.

Alternative Paths to Ministry (licensed UCC pastor)

You may recall years past some of our local congregants being “Educated Lay Ministers” and this continues to evolve. Association & Conference continue to reduce barriers to entry and encourage “Multiple Paths” (think of a business professional, lay person becoming licensed or temporarily licensed through a Zoom/virtual environment so they can serve their local church)

Points to ponder: Not only are Nebraska's three Associations (Prairie, Heartland, Living Water) continually linking to each other sharing pastoral care-- many of us have yoked vacancies with long awaiting open positions. Not only is the Conference (Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa) seeing low ordination traffic, but many efforts to volumize lay person education are viable options for our fu- ture permanent rotations. The post-pandemic era has affected these partnerships, significantly and many are seeking to rebuild fel- lowship and support

Formula of Agreement

In 1962 (and the most recent 1988 revision) there was a "Formula of Agreement". A Formula of Agreement is an ecclesiastical agreement between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, establishing full communion with each other.

The Formula of Agreement allows for “an orderly exchange of ministers of word and sacrament” between the PCUSA, ELCA, UCC or RCA. A minister wishing to transfer to another denomination must be educated in their own tradition before transferring to a church in another tradition and it must be done at the invitation of the receiving church and with the consent of the sending church. Each denomination has established procedures for allowing ministers from other denominations to serve in their denomination, and the agreement guarantees that each denomination’s polity will be respected.

This means, an ELCA licensed pastor can provide communion for a Presbyterian church- just as a UCC pastor can provide a Reformed or Disciple of Christ church- or any combination of these. We might not have been aware of this because we have been blessed to not need to exercise its potential in the past.

Welcome to our Interim Pastor

Pastor Davis is coming to us from Eagle, Nebraska. He is married to Vicki. They have 4 children and 3 grandchildren.

He graduated in 1995 from Westminster Seminary in California with a Master in Divinity. After serving as a pastor from 1996 to 2001, he chose to work outside the church to help send his children to Christian school after being homeschooled by Vicki.

Working as an electronic tech for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad since 2002, he hopes continue serving as providing pulpit supply and hopes to return to full time ministry in a few years after retirement.

“If you would like preaching which believes the Bible is the Word of God , then you will like me preaching, “ Pastor Davis says. He shares the law and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in every sermon, has a passion for preaching God’s Word and has a heart for the lost.

Pastor Davis has served in many positions in church life such as elder, Sunday School teacher, Bible teacher and pulpit supply.

He is thankful to be serving at First Congregational UCC and looks forward to sharing with the congregation this month.

Pastoral Care is provided by Kim Dunker.  She can be reached at 402-759-8081

Message from our Administrative Assistant

I was asked to write a short biography about myself for those of you whom I haven’t met and haven’t met me. My name is Cris Elznic and my husband Al and I moved to Geneva last December 20th which was the coldest day of the month. Our move to Geneva came about because my husband grew up here and told me he thought it was time to move home. So here we are.

We are the parents of three grown children and have seven grandchildren ranging in age from 8 to 26. Everyone is so busy and so involved that we don’t get to see them like we would like to. Our 15 year old grandson Sebastian did get to spend about a month with us this summer which was a lot of fun.

We have had a great year here in Geneva. It has been great to get reacquainted with Al’s classmates and getting to know others he didn’t know before. We have made many good friends, and look forward to getting to know more of the people in town. We are involved with the Senior Center, which we have found is a great place to meet and visit with people from here and other communities close by.

I haven’t had much time to enjoy some of my hobbies this past year due to the fact that we moved more stuff than our new place can hold, so have been busy sorting and getting rid of the stuff that we really don’t need anymore. What a job! When I am not going through boxes, I enjoy reading (especially History and Stories about Nebraska), puzzles, watching and attending rodeos, going to the car races, going out for supper with friends, and craft and antique shows. The small space that we have keeps me from buying too many things at the last two.

We are both so glad we chose to attend the First Congregational Church here in Geneva. Actually I attended the Congregational Church as a child, until we moved and there wasn’t one in the new town. We then joined the Methodist Church. I have enjoyed being back in the Congregational Church. Everyone here is so nice and welcoming.

I look forward to the job of the Administrative Assistant for the Church and getting to know everyone. If you would like something put in the bulletin or the newsletter please let me know and I will do my best to make sure that it gets there. Beginning Monday, November 6th, my office hours will be Tuesday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The longer noon hour allows me to deliver meals to the shut ins for the Senior Center.

Cris