Interim Search Team Guide

Part of A Guide to Transitional Ministry

Welcome to Interim Search!

Along with your UUA Transitions Team and Regional Congregational Life staff, this guide will help your search team to find an interim minister who will prepare you for your next settled ministry.

The interim search moves quickly, so the interim search team should be prepared to prioritize this search over the several weeks it normally takes to conduct it.

Preparing for an Interim Search

The UUA offers a robust guide for Interim Ministry, which we strongly recommend as a common read for the Interim search team (ideally before the search begins), the transitions team, the governing board, and for any other highly-involved congregational leaders.

In the InterimStrategies for Interim Ministers and Congregations, Second Edition

By Keith Kron, Barbara Child

From Skinner House Books

Now in its second edition, this practical and insightful volume provides a road map for a transformative and fulfilling interim period.

Buy This Paperback

Get Set Up in the MinistrySearch System

You’ll find detailed instructions here:

Stained glass chalice flame

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.

Congregations Search

  • 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, to show you are ready for interim ministry. Skilled interim ministers are most interested in a congregation which honestly expresses its challenges, successes, and needs. They want an opportunity to do real work with a congregation looking to get ready for its next settled ministry.
  • If your congregation had a difficult interim experience in the past, please speak with your regional staff or UUA Transitions Team. This should not deter you from searching for an interim minister, but it can shape how you search for your next, different
    interim minister.
  • 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.

Final Steps after the Ministerial Agreement is Signed

  • Once the agreement is signed, send an email to transitions@uua.org that the search is complete.
  • Fill out the “Notice of Ministerial Call or Hire” form. The person filling out the form will need to upload a PDF copy of the signed agreement, and be prepared to fill out the form using information in the agreement, plus:
    • Four Digit UUA Congregational ID
    • Official start date (this information will be added to the UUA’s online directory)
    • For called ministers, the number of those voting yea, nay, and those abstaining.
Fill Out Notice of Hire/Call Form

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 interim 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.

If No Interim Match if Found

If a congregation does not have a match on offer day, the search team notifies their board that there is no match in the current search cycle.

The UUA Transitions Team is available to offer care, guidance, and perspective at this moment and to debrief with the search team and board.

The UUA will convert the interim ministry search to a contract ministry search unless the congregation wishes to withdraw from search. A contract ministry search in the open search (starting 01 April) has no matching process, offer day, or deadlines; search teams interview applicants until they find the minister they would like to hire.

Interim work may still be done with a contract minister, though the congregation may want to cover part or all of the cost of the interim training offered by the UUA.