Category Archives: Search

What We Can (And Can’t) Tell You About Our Ministerial PreCandidates

The Ministerial Search Committee has been hard at work the last few weeks, getting to know our “short list” of precandidates and beginning to compare their ministerial skills with what you the congregation have said UUCB needs in its next minister.

This is deep and challenging work, mostly because our precandidates are an amazingly talented group of ministers! We are excited to tell you as much as we can about them. But there are some things we just can’t share including the precandidates’ identities.

In this phase of the Search process, confidentiality is paramount.

The Unitarian Universalist Association is clear in its guidance for Search Committees:

“Confidentiality is not secrecy. The committee must publicize the process it is following and how far along it is at every point. At the same time, the committee must keep confidential both the names and the locations of the ministers under consideration.”

Why? Because confidentiality protects ministers.

Many ministers have not yet told their congregations about their desire to leave. Across the country, 86 ministers are currently competing for 36 fulltime positions; many of them will be disappointed. Ministers who don’t find a new position often choose to continue with their present congregation for another year, and having it known that they are actively seeking other opportunities could undermine their ministry. UUCB needs to respect ministers’ right to keep that information private until they are ready to have that conversation with their congregants, and let them do so on their own terms.

Confidentiality at this early stage also will make it easier for our congregation to wholeheartedly embrace a final candidate later on. We do not want anyone to get attached to a precandidate based on first impressions, which could create false hopes and lead to division among the congregation if that person is not chosen as our final candidate.

Please know that violations of confidentiality including attempts by congregants to discover the identity of any precandidate will reflect negatively upon our congregation. Ministers have actually withdrawn from considering a congregation over that kind of incident. We trust that you won’t intentionally put UUCB in that position; in return we ask you to trust us, as your elected representatives, to evaluate our precandidates in confidence and with UUCB’s best interests in mind.

Here is what we CAN tell you about our precandidates.

Our precandidates are an awesome bunch of ministers! The group hails from all over the country and includes both men and women. Our precandidates have a wonderful variety of experience in both life and ministry some are lifelong UUs and born ministers, while others came to UU ministry from other faiths and careers. All have experience serving congregations large and small.

To varying but always impressive extent, each of our precandidates excels at skills and qualities the congregation has said are important for our search:

● Collaborative leadership and commitment to shared ministry;
● Crafting and delivering powerful sermons and developing the “worship arts”;
● Giving and supporting pastoral care;
● Inspiring a spiritual commitment to social change;
● Fostering familyfriendly intergenerational community;
● Fundraising and stewardship of church resources;
● And the many other aspects of ministry we seek.

The process of discernment is just beginning.

The Search Committee has only started getting to know our precandidates, and already we are wowed by the caliber of the ministers our search has attracted. In the coming months we will engage deeply with each of them to discuss the needs and goals of this congregation, the gifts and challenges they bring to ministry, and how we might grow together if they were called to serve UUCB.

Then the members of the Search Committee will engage deeply amongst ourselves in a process of discernment. Our goal will be to discover which of our precandidates is the best match for ministry at UUCB no easy task, since all of our options are so good!

When the committee has decided on one (and only one) minister to be our final Ministerial Candidate, the need for confidentiality will finally end. We will announce our Ministerial Candidate in early April, and you will have ample opportunities to learn about and meet that person before the congregation votes in early May on whether to call the candidate as our settled minister.

Why will you meet one (and only one) final Ministerial Candidate? More on that next month…

Thank you again for the trust you have placed in us to do this sacred work, and for your continued patience during the coming months of our discernment.

Yours in faith,

The UUCB 20142015 Ministerial Search Committee

Jim Rowe (chair), Sharon Belew, Ted Burnham, Jason English, Jenny FittPeaster, Diana Maiden, Barb Richards

http://uuchurchofboulder.org/msearch/

Search Committee Update

2020 Vision

Jim Rowe

Ministerial Search Committee Chair

It is August, 2020. Eliot, my eldest son, is heading off to start his first year of college. I have a few more gray hairs, but none because Eliot is ill-equipped to handle the challenges of moving from an adolescent to an adult. Coming to age in a nurturing, inclusive, intergenerational congregation with a rich variety of social, spiritual, and educational programs have helped to shape him into a young man of whom we are proud.

Our past Developmental Minister, Howell Lind, has just emailed from his 2nd(3rd?) home since continuing his calling to developmental ministry. He wishes us well, but it sounds like he is fishing for another construction project with which to come back and assist! That shouldn’t be hard given our recent building expansion and numerous remaining projects.

We have just returned from the 2020 All Church Retreat in the mountains–it is hard to imagine that the center can barely accommodate our 200+ attendees at this now annual event. Once again, there were an abundance of excellent sessions covering social justice, spirituality, and faith development, in addition to a host of fun outdoor programs for all ages. In fact, for the first time, we spanned 100 years of age, with attendees from 6 mos to 102, representing every decade of age in between!

….

This summer of 2014, the UUCB has started along the process of searching for and selecting a settled Minister. I am honored to serve as the Chair of the Search Committee and, as a team, we are deeply committed to this process of discerning the best ministerial partner for UUCB.

The 2014 All Church retreat was our first formal opportunity to share more about the search process and join you in a discussion about our next Minister. We held two sessions, with 24 participants in total. The thoughtful and sincere engagement by all brought forth many great ideas for us to incorporate in the process. In particular, the meetings highlighted to me, what a healthy and diverse congregation we are, with strong desire to continue to deepen our faith, live well, and enact justice.

During the next 6 weeks, we will be facilitating a variety of gatherings to engage with all members of the congregation. Please take a moment to review the schedule and plan to attend one of these “Search Light Gatherings”, or affectionately also known as “SLUGs”. Members of the search committee will also be attending upcoming meetings and events of many groups within the church: Such as, Men’s Group, Young Adults, Family Matters, Wise Elders, Wine and Spirits, and other others yet-to-be-scheduled.

So, as the next weeks unfold, I ask you to do a little time travelling and think about our future: When you think about UUCB in the next few years with a new Minister leading the congregation, what do you see? How do you measure success? What skills, passions, experiences has he or she brought to bear in leading us to successfully meet our goals? What is your “2020 Vision”?

Date	Location
September 11, 2 p.m.	Frazier Meadows
September 14, 12-1:30 p.m.	UUCB Emerson Room
September 21, 9-10:15 a.m.	UUCB Playground and Emerson Room
September 21, 7 p.m.	Longmont (Will Kropp and Caitlin Moore)
September 23, 7-8:30 p.m.	Louisville (George Brandon and Mary Clough)
October 11, 10 a.m	North Boulder (Jerry and Diane Gollnick)

Update: UUCB Ministerial Search Committee’s First Meeting

On Saturday, July 12^th, your ministerial search committee, elected by the congregation this past spring, met for the first time. We were pleased to have the Rev. Gretchen Haley as our facilitator for the day as we began to understand more deeply the multiple roles and duties of the committee.

One of our first acts was to elect Jim Rowe to be our chairperson. The other members of the group–Jenny Fitt-Peaster, Sharon Belew, Jason English, Ted Burnham, Barbara Richards and myself– have taken on other lead duties for the committee. One of our main goals will be to regularly update the congregation on the work of the committee. You can expect regular articles in the Clear Light Messenger and we will look for multiple avenues to inform the congregation of our progress.

We are excited and honored to take on this important work on behalf of the congregation. After our day’s work with Gretchen we understand even more deeply the sacred duty to fully represent the needs and goals of our church as we plan for our future. Please light a virtual candle for all of us as we move forward.

In Covenant with you,

Diana Maiden

How the LDC Searched for the Search Committee

Under church bylaws, the Leadership Development Committee (“LDC”) is the elected body responsible for presenting a slate of seven candidates for a search committee, which the congregation votes on. The candidates for the search committee are listed in this month’s Clear Light Messenger, but the LDC wanted everyone to be aware of the process for how we came up with that list.

LDC published a notice in the March CLM requesting that those interested in participating on the Search Committee–or those who know someone who would be great for the Search Committee–should contact a member of the LDC. The LDC also held two after church forums in March (which were announced from the pulpit) for those who were interested. Members of the LDC then met with met with members of the Board of Trustees, church staff, and the membership committee to gather more names of those who were interested. In addition, LDC members called numerous individual church members for additional input.

After creating a list of names derived from all of these processes, the LDC contacted the people on the list to see if they were interesting in interviewing for the Search Committee. The LDC then conducted fifteen, 20-minute interviews with potential search committee members. After the interviews, the LDC met and arrived at a final list to submit to the congregation.

The LDC is grateful for the number of dedicated members who were willing to contribute their time and energy to this important process.