After 13 years of observing search, I’ve learned a lot. Often, I’m reminded of the writer and humorist Dorothy Parker who once wrote, “Life isn’t one thing after another. It’s one damned thing over and over.”

Search can be like that from the vantage point of the Transitions Office. We want search to go well for everyone. Sometimes it does go well. Sometimes it does not. When it doesn’t go well, we often look to blame ourselves, others, or both. It’s important to know (as my doctor says to me about various health concerns) sometimes you’re just unlucky.

That said, it seems like a good time to talk about what we’ve seen “over and over” and learned from the vantage point of the Transitions Office. One interesting about search is pretty much anything you say about congregations also applies to ministers. And vice versa. Human beings tend act a lot alike.

Looking for a Unicorn, Settle for Anything Else

Often in search, we see congregations and ministers looking for very specific things often with significant expectation. Often, it’s so contrived that it’s impossible to find. (That’s actually the better scenario since it may mean the congregation or minister actually isn’t quite ready for a new ministry). In other cases, when the reality exists that perfect unicorn congregation or minister don’t exist, panic sets in and has often been replaced by “anyone will do”—though that’s usually unsaid allowed but lives in the unspoken anxiety and pressure of feeling successful in search and not letting others down.

Looking for a Clone or Anti-Clone of What Was

Every ministry is judged by those that have come before it—again, both by ministers and congregations. If humans were satisfied, they often look for what they perceive they had. If humans weren’t satisfied, they often look for they perceive is the opposite of what they had.
The reality is the same or opposite does not exist. A congregation may get another great pastoral presence, but the “delivery” of that presence is difference. A minister may want a congregation that has more staff but the staff, in fact, the minister discovers the staff have minds of their own about how things are done and what the priorities are.
Rats.

Most congregations and ministers are more nuanced, complex, and multi-dimensional to be a clone or anti-clone of what was done before.

If there is a clone or anti-clone that exists in any way in search, it may be about a theme (good worship) or a value (social justice work) but rarely is inclusive of the varied multiple stories, skills, and challenges a congregation or minister has. In some cases, the ideal is a holdover from not the most recent ministry, but a historic ministry or home congregation that may only be remembered through the retreating lens of rose-colored glasses and nostalgia. No remembered ministry was ultimately perfect or completely awful. Yet all too often that’s what searching congregations and ministers are using as their bellwether measuring stick.

Looking for What You Need without Remembering What You Had

“Our last minister was really great but horrible at administration.” So, the search committee looks and finds a minister good at administration and then is stunned they don’t do pastoral care well or the preaching is not up to their previous standards.

“My last congregation had inadequate staffing and I was doing everything.” The minister finds a congregation with great staff but has no interest in social justice that matches their previous congregation, or the staff is doing pieces of the ministry that the minister wanted to do themselves.

When a congregation wants what they perceive they didn’t have before and is in search, they often get that missing piece. However, they have to “” pay for it” in some way—either by giving up something else they probably valued but assume would come naturally with every minister, or simply by paying 20,000 dollars more.

When a minister looks for a congregation that has something they didn’t have and sees it, they can forget this piece has its own history, rules, and norms. Too, the congregation may not be doing something a minister thought would be true across the board.

Going for Too Much or Too Little Information

All too often from interim ministers I hear that they’ve not heard from any of the applicants about their experience serving the congregation. This is also true for previous ministers not hearing from ministerial colleagues. Congregational Life and CUC (Canada) staff have also mentioned a lack of outreach to them. (Note to search committees: feel free to ask applicants who they’ve talked to about in their research about their congregation. See who’s done their homework.)

Yet, the flip side can be true. Searching ministers have reported that search committees have contacted people without permission, including current congregational members or, more frequently, someone who a search committee members knows who knows the minister. We’ve heard that sometimes ministers have reached out to current staff about the congregation.

All are no-noes.

Any reference for a minister should be given by the minister. You can ask a minister for a developed reference when they are a pre-candidate (Like a member of their current congregation, a UUA staff person who knows them, or someone who can speak to a particular piece of ministry—see the full guidelines in the Settlement Handbook) but the search committee cannot call up anyone.

Ministers are limited to reaching out to other ministers who know the congregation and Congregational Life and CUC staff.

Additional thought: The plus of getting multiple approved references is the listener can listen for congruency. Do multiple references say the same thing (or close to it)? If someone does 4 reference checks and 3 are similar and one is an outlier, trusting the congruency of the three is more likely accurate (though don’t completely mistrust the one, unless it’s obvious they are grinding an axe). If you have only reference check, you may only meet and hear the sharp edge of that axe.

Getting Your Heart Set on One Possibility

We’ve seen both search committees and ministers decide on the “one”. Only to not get asked or accept a first interview. This has happened every year. Multiple times.

The guiding question throughout the initial phases of the search process should be as simple as:

“Could this person be our congregation’s minister?” or

“Could I see myself doing ministry here?”

A congregation may be looking at a number of people and be making a 51/49 choice on who to go forward with. The same is true for ministers. And remember there is never a single story that goes into a decision.

The stories congregations and ministers often tell about why something didn’t happen is incomplete. It’s rarely a single story.

Also, broken hearts generally are less good at making decisions.

The UUA Wants

The UUA wants this minister to go…. this congregation to be served by….

Nope. We want you to be well served. We also want you to have the responsibility to make the decision and not us. After all, we’re Unitarian Universalist with congregational polity and a free-market search and not Methodists or Catholics who appoint ministers to congregations.
We root for everyone equally. Including you.