The Future of OCC is bright!

The Ohio Council of Churches has spent 2026 in a year of intentional review and dialogue about our next steps and strategy moving forward. In our assessment, our greatest asset is RELATIONSHIP. Too often, organizations seek to prove themselves valuable with tangible programmatic successes. How many people showed up? How many meetings were held? How many blog posts went up? How many clicks do you have on social media?

Instead, what if we measure our success based on relationships and supporting work? Metrics might not be a clear, but a lot of value can be made.

There are many things that threaten our democracy and our church right now such as The rise of White Christian Nationalism, continued community violence, sky-rocketing mental health crisis moments among youth. While the Governing Board reviews our future, we will not abandon these issues. Instead we are looking at how do we lean into what we do well and support the relational and connectivity of the work.

Moving forward, the Council will focus our day-to-day work to build a Christ-centered movement for Peace, Justice and Unity by:

FOSTERING Relationships through worship, study, retreat, prayer and dialogue

CONNECTING judicatory leaders for shared mission work in the world.

PROCLAIMING God’s justice in a broken world.

We hope that this strategic framework will allow the Council to engage more partners and provide the support for shared ministry, mutual support and a stronger ecumenical and prophetic voice in Ohio.