Has anyone here ever been on a pastoral search connitteee for a UU congregation?
If so, what was the experience like? Did you find it rewarding or frustrating? or both? How time-consuming was it? What did you have to do? I am imagining that you would have to somehow figure out what the congregation wanted in a minister, then cast a more or less wide net for a candidate, then evaluate the candidates? Right?
I‘m trying to figure out if I should volunteer/try to get myself nominated for a search committee that my congregation is putting together,
Another issue: We had been a lay-led congregation for our entire history until we stuck our toes in the water a few years ago with a part-time interim minister who is now leaving. I am not sure if this is an anomaly or not, but we never had a vote about whether or not we wanted a minister in general before hiring our first minister, partly because sentiment was split on the issue and partly because those who really wanted to hire a minister, saw a perfect opportunity (someone local that they liked and would be willing to take a part-time position) and wanted to take action before that opportunity went away, So, instead of having a vote on whether or not we wanted a minister in general, we just had a vote on whether or not we would hire that one person in particular for a short period of time as sort of a trial run.
Well, now that this contract minister is leaving, instead of having a vote about the “experiement” and whether or not we want to continue to have a minister, they just decided to go ahead with another search.
I have pointed this out and was told that we will indeed have a vote soon (at our next quarterly meeting), but it is clear that they are still going ahead with forming the search commiteee in the meantime.
So, I am feeling a bit befuddled by and apprehensive of the process so far.
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