Ministerial Search Committee Members (Separate page) Search Process Overview & Timeline In April 2016, our congregation started the process or hiring a new minister. Here s an overview of the process. Getting Started April through December 2016 The six members of the ministerial search committee (MSC) were appointed by the board in the spring and confirmed by the congregation in September. During this period we worked to become familiar with the UUA process which is used by all UU congregations seeking ministers. (You can read about it in full detail here: http://www.uua.org/careers/ministers/transitions/20679.shtml ) Congregational Input Meetings and Survey January to June 2017 One of the most important steps in the search process is to understand who the congregation is, who we want to be, and what kind of minister can best help us fulfill our aspirations. There are three main ways that we ll gather information about this: - Small group meetings: These are like focus groups: meetings of various sizes in which we learn about your wishes and hopes for our new minister. We plan to offer a variety of times and formats so that everyone can participate. - Congregational Survey: Later this year we will prepare a short survey to help gather additional information in a form that helps measure congregational opinions and preferences. This will be held after the small group discussions so that it can be crafted around trends that we learn in discussion. - Retreat: March 24 (evening) and March 25 th (all day) we will hold a church retreat in Ipswich to better understand our desires for the church. The search committee s goal is to find a minister who will guide the congregation in the direction we want to go. As search committee members, we will aim to put our own wishes for the new senior minister aside instead, our focus will be on understanding the congregation s wishes so that we can act effectively on the congregation s behalf. Preparing a Profile of Our Congregation Summer-Fall 2017 The matching of potential ministers to congregations happens in an area of the Unitarian Universalist Association s website that is kind of like an online dating site. Congregations looking for a new minister create summary profiles of themselves for ministers to review. Ministers interested in moving to a new congregation review the available congregations profiles. If they re interested in a particular congregation, they make their profiles available to the search committee of that congregation. (We cannot browse all available ministers; we only see the ones who have indicated interest in us, and only starting in January.) Once there is mutual interest, we exchange fuller sets of information called Packets.
Our congregational profile and packet will describe the history and life of FUCE; it will include factual information about the congregation such as membership, attendance, pledging, and budgets. More importantly, it will offer candidates a picture of who we are: Why is FUCE important to us? What is its role in our lives? What challenges confront us in the coming years? What problems have we faced and how have we come to terms with them? This is our opportunity to shine, to boast about our strengths, and yet be honest about our challenges. Our profile is made available to candidates by November 31, 2017. Reviewing Candidates January 2018 Starting in January 2018, we will learn which ministers have expressed an interest in our congregation. This is where confidentiality for the search committee s work becomes extremely important. We will review the profiles and packets of every minister who has expressed interest in being considered by the committee, and will interview some of them using Skype or a similar service. By the end of January we will have narrowed the initial list of interested ministers to a shortlist of three or four pre-candidates. Pre-Candidating Weekends February through March 2017 During February and March, the search committee will check references and biographical data of the precandidates, and we will invite each candidate to visit for a weekend that includes an extensive interview, a tour of our community and facilities, and a worship service conducted by the pre-candidate in a neutral pulpit. Neutral pulpits are congregations that may have similarities to our own but are not in our immediate area. Because confidentiality is a critical part of the ministerial selection process, the members of the search committee will be the only members of our congregation who will interact with the precandidates during these visits. Selecting a Candidate April through May 2017 After much discussion, evaluation, and analysis, the search committee will select a final ministerial candidate to propose to the congregation. In April or May the candidate will come to FUCE for a weeklong visit. The candidate will attend meetings with key committees and groups, participate in social gatherings and other events, and interact with members in a variety of ways. If the candidate has a partner or children, often his or her family will be present for candidating week as well. At the end of the week the candidate will preach at a service. After the service, our congregation will vote whether to call the new minister (and this vote requires 90% approval by members in attendance). If the congregation votes to approve the minister, and the minister accepts, we will have a new minister! The new minister would likely move to the area in August, and officially start in Fall 2018. Services September 2017 through June 2018 The process described above takes time to accomplish. We will hire an interim minister to serve for a year while we take the time necessary to be successful in our search for a full time minister. The ministers who serve in this role have received special training to help congregations in transition. They have deliberately sought this role as transition minister and are not seeking full time employment. Our application for the
interim minister is due the first week in April. There is a small pool of ministers so we may be assigned someone for this role without a choice. We are currently hoping that the interim ministry period will last for one year, but it is common for it to take two years. This can occur because the congregation decides to take extra time in deciding what they are looking for, or because the search committee doesn t find a candidate that they want to hire in the first search. Frequently Asked Questions about the Search Process Question: The search process restricts us to just one candidate. Why can t we bring in three or four candidates on successive weekends and have the congregation vote? Answer: This is called serial candidating, and decades ago it was not uncommon. However, it is no longer done in UU congregations because it can lead to conflict and division. That s because it s possible that some congregants would prefer Candidate A, others would prefer Candidate B, and so on. As a result, no one candidate would receive the overwhelming vote of confidence needed for a successful ministry, and the congregation would be divided not an optimal beginning for a new minister. So, at the end of a long process of interviewing, evaluation, reference-checking, and consensus-building, the search committee will present you with the one candidate who is, in our opinion, best for our congregation. After a full week of meetings and social engagements where you will have abundant opportunities to meet and size up the candidate for yourselves, plus hearing the candidate Sunday service, you will make the final decision about whether or not to hire. Question: What if we don t find a minister in the search? Answer: Not finding a minister is not necessarily a failure. It could just mean that we aren t settling for someone who doesn t seem to be the best fit. Much depends on the pool of applicants we can attract. We would seek to extend our interim minister for another year and continue the search process. If this search committee proposes a minister which the congregation votes against then it would be appropriate to change the membership of the committee for the second round of searching. Question: How does the vote work? Why is a 90% approval required? Answer: The vote will be taken after a service in which our candidate minister has preached. Members who attend that Sunday can vote. The UUA recommends 90% threshold for hiring. This high threshold is based on prior experiences. Churches that hired with 75% approval had a large portion of the congregation that was not content and this led to problems. Question: If the congregation votes against the minister can we make an offer to one of the others?
Answer: Maybe. The other applicants may have already found employment elsewhere. Other churches are shopping at the same time. Another consideration is that if the congregation doesn t like the search committee s first choice, they may not like the second choice. Question: How long does this process usually take? (Why is our timeline different?) Answer: The UUA recommends that churches hire an interim minister for 18-24 months. Locally, Beverly and Gloucester churches both had 2 year interims and were successful in finding settled (permanent) ministers. We are currently hoping that we can complete the process with a 1 year interim. We are beginning our discussions to define our needs now which is earlier than typical and we think creates an opportunity for this to work. The search committee will meet with an expert who is an advocate for the longer period to better understand the reasons for the extra time. Question: If we really like our interim minister. Can we hire them? Answer: No. Interim ministry is a specific, time-limited role with the goal of helping us transition to a congregational future with a new minister. Interim ministers are supposed to challenge us and make us uncomfortable in some ways ask the hard questions so that we reflect, change, and are a better home for our future minister. It is against denominational rules for a congregation to offer long-term employment to an interim minister, and for the interim minister to accept such an offer. Question: Why do we need both a congregational survey and small group meetings? Answer: Surveys can be useful tools, they are particularly good at asking narrow questions with limited responses which can then be measured. There are some important questions that can t really be asked on the survey. They are not as strong for asking open questions. That s why we have scheduled small group discussions. Questions without dialogue can leave us confused, prone to misunderstanding, or left to deal with conflicting visions. Talking through your visions will help you and us clarify what we truly care about in this community. Small group discussions can also help you hear directly what others are thinking and are concerned about. They help us think outside of our own desires and needs, to what those of our community are. Question: How do questions of faith and religious belief come into the search process? Answer: It is important for us to talk about these issues in our small group discussions and at our church retreats. Some UU churches have a strong preference in one direction or another. It is important to understand that preference and be open about it to find a good match with candidates. Question: Are the search committee meetings open meetings? Can I attend? Answer: No. The committee has a lot of work to do in this process and we need to focus our time together on that business. We will keep the church informed about our progress through updates on the website and other communication means. We are all happy to talk with people individually if you have ideas or questions. Question: Is this a nationwide search for candidates?
Answer: Yes. The UUA organizes the annual process so that all churches that are seeking a minister and all ministers who are seeking a church complete the search process on the same schedule. The pool we will draw from will be all ministers who are seeking employment in 2018 and are willing to work in a small church. All likely candidates will be in this pool and we are not likely to pursue other means of advertising. Question: What is the job market like for UU ministers? Answer: According to the UUA s Transitions Office, last year (2015-16), there were 66 congregations in search with around 110 ministers searching. 2016 stats by size of congregation 54 congregations, 12 around our size: UUA size category Large 2 Large 1 Mid 3 Mid 2 Mid 1 Small # Members 750+ 500-749 350-499 250-349 150-249 0-149 # of congregations in search 2 3 8 8 11 12 Question: What can we do to be attractive to good ministers? Answers: 1) Participate in discussions. It is important to honestly represent who we are and what we are seeking. 2) Continue to be a thriving congregation. Focus on continuing the good works that we sponsor. 3) Help update our website. This will be a first point of reference for many candidates. We have a good site, but it doesn t represent all that we do to outsiders. This year it s worth taking extra effort to make sure it represents us well. 4) Help keep us on good financial footing.