Show your garden the love! Cultivation is about strengthening administrative skills and practices within your congregation. We outline two critical areas of administration: Staff Care/Human Resources and Congregational Finances. We name additional areas that can be the work of future waves cohorts.

When it comes to taking care of your staff, there's much to learn and do. This is an especially important part of congregational administration as it impacts employee well-being and quality of livelihood. It is also likely the largest area of your budget. Use your resources well!

We've collected quotes and stories from administrators who have served in more than one UU faith community simultaneously, as well as from leaders and supervisors who have experience sharing an administrative role with another congregation.

Interdependence! Pollination is about sharing administrative expertise across congregations. We shouldn’t expect every individual congregation to figure everything out and to have all of the tools and talent in-house. How can operations be streamlined and strengthened by sharing people and systems?

Administration isn't flashy. It's foundational! Handled well, capacity is liberated for your congregation's mission and ministries. May these pages be helpful to all who attend to administrative tasks themselves or who depend on that work – supervisors, staff, volunteers, and the entire membership.

Congregational leaders, are you intrigued by the possibility of sharing an administrative employee, whether a generalist or a specialist (e.g., bookkeeper, communications manager)? Administrators, might serving two or more UU faith communities be a good choice for you? We'll help you get started.

Most congregations are unaccustomed to sharing staff and it can take a little getting used to. Here we address a few areas that you may find tricky. These should not be seen as barriers, but as opportunities for the kind of intention that we hope you show in all of your employment relationships.

There's more than one way to share administrative talent across congregational lines. An administrator can even "mix and match" these approaches. What might make sense for your congregation?

Well-equipped staff provide consistent, skilled, accountable leadership, which in turn builds capacity and ownership among the laity. We provide guidance on hiring, paying, supporting, and structuring your staff team while helping you ensure that your congregation is legally compliant, as well.

Along with completing your search profile in MinistrySearch, there are other considerations and tasks for search teams filling contract positions.

This evolving collection of articles and resources can help you determine a staffing configuration that works for your congregation.

When a familiar minister is interested in applying to an open parish minister position, the congregation must follow a particular process.

Is developmental ministry your calling? The search process for developmental ministers has a specific process and timing.

The search process leading up to calling or hiring a minister (or other program religious professional) sets the tone for the covenantal relationships vital to the congregation's ministry.

The task force summarizes the information from all of the small group and interview reports into the summary report.

Small group meetings are an essential element of the decision process to discuss the ministerial role and choice of the minister.

The congregation’s governing board appoints a special call process task force to coordinate the discernment and decision-making process.

The contract to call process gives both the congregation and the minister to reflect on their mission and what their vision of ministry is for the future.

When a congregation calls a minister and the minister accepts the call of this particular congregation, they enter into a covenantal relationship for an indefinite period of time.

When the short-term ministry search team receives applicants, they need to review and sort though information, check references, and do research.