Fair Street Reformed Church

The local congregation with its consistory is at the heart of our church government. People from three of the four offices of the church--minister of Word and sacrament, elder, and deacon--serve on the consistory.

The local consistory has a number of responsibilities: to provide a minister or ministers for the church; to provide services of worship for the spiritual benefit and growth of Christ's people; to provide for the private administration of the sacraments; to care for the church's property and financial resources; to supervise the election of new elders and deacons; and, finally, to keep a record of all baptisms, weddings, deaths, and membership statistics and to share these annually with the classis.

To be a member of a consistory is to exercise an important role in the life of the church. There are other responsibilities, however, that are also significant. Members of consistory are called not only to manage the present but to dream about the future. The consistory sets a tone of gracious hospitality and faithful witness. It looks beyond the walls of the church and actually leads a congregation to embrace a world God loves. A consistory leads most effectively when it follows most faithfully in the way of Christ.

Consistories are like the community of disciples who followed Jesus. They are ordinary people who learned extraordinary lessons at the feet of a master who taught them again and again that those who lose themselves in God's love and service are the ones who will truly find themselves in God's peace