Leadership and Ministry

The United Church of Christ recognizes that God calls certain of its members to various forms of ministry in and on behalf of the church, for which ecclesiastical authorization is required. (UCC Constitution, Article VI Paragraph 21) According to the Constitution and Bylaws of the United Church of Christ, authorization includes Ordination, Commissioning, and Licensure.

The Leadership and Ministry webpages centrally locate the resources needed for the excellent formation and support of authorized ministers in the United Church of Christ. Herein are tools for authorized ministers, for individuals discerning God’s call into ministry, for Committees on Ministry that bear out the denomination’s covenantal relationship with ministers, and for Associations, Conferences, churches and organizations that partner with authorized ministers in building up the body of Christ.

In the national setting, the active engagement of United Church of Christ polity regarding authorized ministry is tasked to the Ministerial Excellence, Support and Authorization Team (MESA). If authorized ministry is a table, MESA attends to the table’s settings and resources those who gather at the table: Committees on Ministry, Association and Conference staff, congregations and organizations searching for ministerial leadership, Members in Discernment, and authorized ministers themselves serving in varied ministry settings.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

Ephesians 4:11-13