• Introduction (html)

   Table of Contents (all chapters are in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format.  Click here for more information)

1. Descriptions of Committee on Ministry ( 17.3 kb)
2. Committee on Ministry Schedule (25.2 kb)
   Source: UU Fellowship of Raleigh, NC
3. Models for Evaluation of Ministers/Congregations (118 kb)
   Source: First Parish UU Church
   • Ministerial/Congregation Evaluation
     Source: UU Church, Pittsfield, MA
   • An Annual Review Procedure for a Congregation’s Ministry
   • Reviewing You Congregation’s Ministry
   • Evaluating Ministry
4. Criticism in Ministry (7.01 kb)
   Source: Daniel D. Hotchkiss
5. PR on COM (8.54 kb)
6. Policy (13.4 kb)
   • Policy on Ministerial Records
   • Policy on Assessment and Settlement in Parish Settings
     Source: UUA, Department on Ministry
7. Case Study – UU Church of Greater Lansing (73.7 kb)
8. Draft Outline for Committee on Ministry Training (6.72 kb)
9. Grievance and Organizational Structures and Resources for Reducing Conflict (70.8 kb)

• Entire document  370 kb 

• Help with Acrobat (PDF) format
• District Executive's pages
• UUA links: Cong. Handbook,  Dept. of Ministry

Introduction

This Resource Reader evolved out of my need to better understand the role and responsibility of the Committee on Ministry (COM) and the difference between Ministerial Relations Committees (MRC.) In the process of gathering information, I discovered there were few available materials, mostly scattered and not easily accessible. I also discovered there seemed to be more than a passing interest in "training or orientation" for COM’s because none appeared to exist in the District.

This Resource Reader is not intended to be a definitive guide, but simply a beginning. Section I contains a description of COM’s from the UUA Department of Ministry. Beverly Smrha, Co-District Executive for the Pacific Central District, lifts up suggestions for the mission, committee structure, membership and meeting format. In addition, she delineates several important responsibilities of COM's. Section II contains a typical COM schedule, which encourages focused agenda’s with the COM members and ministers. Section III includes several congregational evaluations. A number of current publications, such as the Congregational Handbook and Church Works, reflect some of the excellent evaluations available. Both of these publications are available through UUA’s bookstore. In Section IV, Reverend Daniel D. Hotchkiss, a UU minister, talks about the process of criticism in Ministry and the need to under react rather than overreact. Section V comes to us via the Department of Ministry and addresses the "Policy on Ministers’ Records" and "Assessment and Settlement in Parish Settings." Section IV is a section in progress as congregations send us their written materials about COM’s. Two congregations, the UU Church of Greater Lansing and Eno River UU Fellowship, describe their charge to the COM and how it functions. Section VII is one of the most important sections because it is the key to effective COM’s. This section contains a proposed training outline for COM’s. It is through training that COM’s can provide satisfactory leadership to its minister and congregation.

This Resource Reader is a work in progress. I would like to thank the TJD ministers that formed an Ad Hoc Planning Committee to develop a panel which was titled Dialogue on Committee on Ministry. The panel was presented at the TJD Annual Meeting in April 2000 and at General Assembly in June 2000.

I am indebted to the COM at Eno River UU Fellowship for their invaluable comments, as well as those who have freely shared their resource materials.

Feel free to send materials or questions in care of:
 

Thomas Jefferson District / UUA

9704 Mallard Creek Rd.

Charlotte, NC 28262-9738

Qiyamah A. Rahman, Thomas Jefferson District Executive
June, 2000