Part of A Guide to Transitional Ministry
Welcome to Contract Ministry Search!
Along with your UUA Transitions Team and Regional Congregational Life staff, this guide will help your search team to find a contract minister.
Primetime searches begin in December with a late March offer date, and are timed with the settled search calendar.
Get Set Up in the MinistrySearch System
You’ll find detailed instructions here:
Process for Congregations in SearchCreating Your Congregational Record in MinistrySearch
From LeaderLab
Creating a congregational record is a key part of any ministerial search process, whether transitional or settled.
- Complete your congregational record in partnership with the entire governing board.
- Some information will be pre-populated from certification data submitted to the UUA from the congregation.
- Some answers (e.g. demographics) may require an educated guess or estimate.
- Provide an authentic, honest assessment of your congregation’s strengths and challenges, and articulate your goals to show you are ready for contract ministry. Skilled ministers are most interested in a congregation which honestly expresses its challenges, successes, and needs.
- Give examples in your answers that paint a picture of your congregation and its values.
- The record can be edited as needed until the deadline in late April.
Trust and Confidentiality
Trust is key in the search process.
- The governing board must trust the search team to make hiring decisions (including ranking applicants and making a verbal offer once matched).
- Ministers need to be able trust that their identities will be held in confidence by the search team throughout this process. Only search team members listed in the MinistrySearch system should know who your applicants are.
- The search team can solicit hopes/questions for the developmental ministry/minister from staff members and people on the board who are not on the search team and create a shared document for all involved to see. The search team could share anonymized information about—and responses from—applicants in this way.