The Church Council is the agency responsible for planning the total program of the local church for all persons by developing specific goals, emphases, and plans for the church, and then administrating and implementing those plans for the Church.  

As the programming heart of the local church, the Church Council sets goals and determines settings for ministry in which the gospel may speak to experiences of persons of various ages with similar persistent life concerns and with varying individual needs.

Salem has undergone a change in structure to be in compliance with the new Book of Discipline.  The Council on ministries and the Administrative Board have been combined to form the Church Council.  Paragraph 252.1 of The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2004 states: “The Church council shall provide for planning and implementing a program of nurture, outreach, witness, and resources in the local church.  It shall also provide for the administration of its organizational and temporal life.”  In short the Church Council is the decision making body for the local congregation; all other committees function under the Council’s guidance and oversight.

In all of its planning, the Council will keep in mind the objective of the church.
     ...that all persons be aware of and grow in their understanding of God, especially of his redeeming love as revealed in Jesus Christ, and that they respond in faith and love-to the end that they may know who they are and what their human situation means, increasingly identify themselves as sons of God and members in the Christian community, live in the spirit of God in every relationship, fulfill their common discipleship in the world, and abide in the Christian hope.

2007	2008	2009
Robert Clarke	Christy Hudson	Geraldine Mills
Blair Lusby	Pam Pittman	Peggy Pilchard
James Mister	Beth Timmons	Will Stevenson
Ray Stanley	Charles Webster	Jean Taylor
	Caitlin Morrison	Tom Vilov