MSR Guide - Unitarian Universalist Association

17
good match of church and minister
First Step: I want you all to know the basics of what is to happen and so I will outline the whole
procedure for you. Ours is a democratic faith (without bishops and superintendents) and the
entire congregation will be much involved in selecting a new minister.
Second Step: The congregation holds one or more meetings to approve the financing of the
search process, to approve compensation for the new minister, and to select a Search Committee
1. Search process: Those of you who have been involved in searches in your profession or
business know that they are not cheap. This one will probably cost you at least $8,000-
$10,000—postage, telephone, costly materials, lots of travel by both the search committee
and potential candidates
• The expenses of moving your new minister or ministry team here from wherever she
or he or they may now be are on top of that
• You can probably spread it over two budget years
2. Compensation: The Board bears the responsibility for recommending compensation for your
next minister. The District Compensation Consultant can assist the Board in thinking
through its compensation plan for your entire church staff.
3. Search Committee: this is one of those times when the results of a committee’s work are a
direct outcome of the quality of the people you put on it
• This is not the time to make a disaffected member feel better by putting him or her
on the committee. They should not be chosen to advocate for RE or music or social
action or adult programs or monetary concerns—not people with an axe to grind.
Use all your wisdom to elect five to seven people who love and care for the
congregation as a whole
• Serving on a search committee is a rewarding task, but it requires a lot of time and
effort. Anyone you elect should resign from everything else except the choir and
frequent Sunday morning attendance
• Fairness plus Loyalty plus the Time to give—these will serve you well
• We recommend that the Nominating Committee or the Board request nominations
and self-nominations, and that it interview these people and present a slate to the
congregation in open meeting. Here as in so many other areas the Settlement
Handbook gives valuable advice
Third Step: The Search Committee works hard to get to know each other and to get to know
you—your preferences and hopes and dreams for the future of the congregation and your next
minister
• They will go on retreat. Think about it: the responsibility they take on a
responsibility nothing less than awesome. If they are going to perform their task—the
recommendation and presentation to you of the best minister for the congregation's
future—successfully, they must strive to become a seven-person reproduction-inminiature
of the entire congregation. To begin this process, a one- or two-day retreat
away from home and church is not merely desirable: it is necessary. They must
become deeply acquainted, and they must be able to talk candidly with each other
about attitudes, values, and biases. If they are going to be able, as they must, to