Presbyterians live in community within a particular form of church government in which ordered groups or “councils” make decisions about mission and ministry. The central council is the Presbytery, which discerns the mission and ministry God calls it to accomplish in this geographic area. The 68 congregations within the Presbytery of East Iowa are then sent out as expressions of the Presbytery’s mission and ministry, formed to live out this shared calling in the neighborhoods in which they are located. Pastors are the minister members of the Presbytery that serve as the presence of the Presbytery, moderating the ordered councils of congregations, which are called “sessions.” Sessions hold collective responsibility for “governing the congregation and guiding its witness to the sovereign activity of God in the world, so that the congregation is and becomes a community of faith, hope, love, and witness.” (G – 3.0201)