3134 Search Committee Breakfast

The Rev. John Weston, Settlement Director, UUA Department of Ministry and Professional Leadership

Bright and early Saturday morning, about seventy or eighty members of search committees met with the Rev. John Weston, UUA Settlement Director, to learn more of the secrets of how to search for a new settled minister. Ranging in size from 25 to close to 1,000 members, the search committee members were from across the U.S. and Canada, and were searching for senior ministers, assistant ministers, team ministers and ministers of religious education.

Weston has studied the trends in ministerial transition. Over the past thirteen years, the mean and medium age of ministers going into new settlements is between 40 and 50. Over the past five years, the average length of service of ministers leaving congregations is eight years. Those ministers in larger congregations seem to have longer tenures before a move, whereas ministers in smaller congregations do move sooner. Fewer men are going into new positions, and more women occupy pulpits every year. Despite this, the total cost of ministry (TCM), which includes salary, housing, pension, insurance and expenses, offered to men is generally higher in every year. Even when held constant for such factors as length of time in ministry and geographic areas, women still receive less money than men.

When the TCM is indexed to the cost of inflation, ministers’ compensation has remained virtually flat since 1982-84. All the work that has been done by the UUA and through the compensation consultants has only served to keep things even, rather than to move ahead. Information on how UU ministers stack up against other traditions is available from the Office of Church Staff Finances.

Weston reported that in the immediate past year, 71-73 ministers have been settled in new positions. However, in this year coming up, there will be somewhere between 60 and 65 congregations in the search process, maybe as many as 20 fewer congregations than this year. Last year a high percentage of those congregations in the search were those offering lower compensation packets, in the A and B range, whereas this year there are a number of higher-paying congregations searching for ministerial leadership.

Weston reminded the search committee members that assisting congregations in finding ministers has always been an essential service of the UUA. There is no separate cost to the congregations, beyond their Annual Program Fund contributions, for the services, but there is a caveat—in order to receive help from the Settlement Office, congregations must be offering a minimum of $40,000 for the total cost of ministry. Congregations offering less than this can use the Web services for their search, but not the services of the Ministerial Settlement Representatives (MSR), the office’s representatives in each district.

Weston then highlighted the differences in the search process over the past four years. The process is now Web-driven, with congregations posting a new form, the Congregational Record, that supplies new and accurate information to ministers in search. The Ministerial Record has also been revamped, and the new questions give congregations a better sense of ministers early on. Interim ministers can now help search committees in specific ways, rather than having to stay totally away from the process. For example, the interim minister can witness for the need to have as large a TCM as is possible in order to be as competitive as possible. Search committees are also able to do recruiting, contacting ministers they think might be possibly good matches and encouraging them to follow the search process guidelines.

Weston also explained the “interpretative file summary.” Realizing that the UUA had a fiduciary responsibility to both ministers and congregations, Weston now does a summary of the contents of a pre-candidating minister’s file, sharing the results with the minister and the congregation. This allows him to reveal information that the congregation needs to know in ways that is fair and representative to the minister.

Weston also repeated the recommendation found in the Settlement Handbook that search committees perform criminal background checks on the final candidate. This is another way of performing due diligence in the process. This should not be done without the express permission of the minister, though. Weston and UUA’s Lay Leadership Director, Harlan Limpert, are in the process of making recommendations on the kind of background and criminal checks that should be performed on all congregational staff.

In response to a question, Weston said that search committees can ask questions of candidates that cannot be asked by other prospective employers. This is due to the separation of church and state. Search committees should check ministers’ references, but they should not consult people other than those the minister has provided. It is appropriate for them to ask for more names, and check with the minister to see if they can be approached for comments and feedback.

Weston told the committee members that ministers do their own checking too, and it is common for them to speak with the district staff, the interim minister, and any previous ministers. In fact, search committees will learn how serious a candidate is if they ask whom that minister has checked with—those who don’t do their homework give an indication of how important this congregation is to them.may not be seriously interested in the congregation.

Weston stressed the importance of connecting with a congregation’s Ministerial Settlement Director (MSR) early in the process, and certainly before selecting a search committee. The MSR can guide the congregation in their overall understanding of the process, including the type of people necessary for the search committee. These are people who understand that they are working to represent the congregation as a whole, not just their own personal desires. As well, the MSRs continue to work with the search committees throughout the search process.

The issue of confidentiality was addressed. Often ministers in the search do not let their congregations know they are searching until after they have been called to a new congregation, so search committees and congregations must be careful about how they distribute news and information in order not to harm the ministers who are considering a move.

Reported for the Web by Lisa Presley; Edited by Margy Levine Young; Web Design by Julie Albanese