Our History

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Nebraska has been gathering, worshipping, and serving since the earliest days of Nebraska statehood. As settlers moved across the prairie, Disciples congregations took root in communities large and small — from the Missouri River to the Sandhills, from the Platte Valley to the Panhandle. The movement that had begun with Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone’s vision of a united, non-creedal church found fertile ground in Nebraska soil.

In 1889 — the same year Nebraska Disciples founded Cotner College in Bethany — the regional body was organized as the Nebraska Christian Missionary Society. Over the following century, the organization evolved through several names: Nebraska Christian Fellowship, Nebraska Fellowship of Christian Churches, and finally the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Nebraska, the name formally adopted in 1978. Through every name change, the calling remained the same: to support and nurture local congregations, to form clergy and lay leaders, and to connect Nebraska Disciples to the wider mission of the whole church.

Cotner College operated for 44 years, educating pastors, teachers, doctors, and missionaries — many of whom served across Nebraska and around the world. When the college closed in 1933, its legacy continued through the Cotner College Education Fund, which to this day provides scholarships and continuing education support for clergy and lay leaders across the state. The partnership with the United Church of Christ, which took shape through Cotner’s ministry, remains a living expression of the ecumenical spirit that has always been part of Nebraska Disciples identity. Today the Christian Church in Nebraska connects congregations and ministers across the state through four Centers of ministry — Church Development, Church Leadership, Church in Mission, and the Regional Church — and through growing partnerships with our Disciples siblings in Kansas and Greater Kansas City. We are a small region with a long memory and a forward-looking faith.