For Ministers & Search Teams in Contract Searches
These can be exciting and, sometimes, anxious times for all involved. Search teams, be wary of the ways bias and prejudice can creep in and impact your choices. Focus on what your congregation desires from ministry and welcome all who have the skills, talents and interests that match!
Please take good care of yourselves, and take good care of those you are interacting with. You all are opening chapters of congregational and ministerial lives that can hold much promise and potential. And we are here to support you.
The following are notes for you, we hope they are helpful. If these notes raise questions for you please send us a note and we will try to help you get some answers.
We wish you well throughout your search!
In-Person Visits
In-person visits with finalist applicants are not part of the UUA contract search process, though they are not prohibited. Historically, all transitional ministers have been hired without these visits: interim, developmental, and contract.
This search cycle, we are witnessing an acceleration in the sea-change in how congregations search for ministry partners. There are significantly fewer settled ministry searches this cycle and a higher number of contract ministry opportunities, many with multi-year initial employment agreements. Some contract ministry search teams and a few applicants have decided to plan for in-person visits, approximating a feature of the settled search process.
Some things to remember:
- Confidentiality requirements remain in place for contract ministry applicant visits. Applicants should not meet congregational members who are not on the search team or appear in the searching congregation’s pulpit as a guest speaker. To do otherwise could raise false hopes and cause division.
- No one should expect a search team or applicant to have the time or funds for a visit.
- No one should expect a visit to indicate intention to move into a contract negotiation.
- Applicants who visit a search team should remember that bias toward familiarity may influence their discernment. Fully and fairly consider all of your opportunities, including those that did not fly you out for a visit.
- Search teams that would like to bring a top applicant in for a visit should also remember this bias toward familiarity. Treat your top applicants equitably as you fully and fairly consider them all.
Waiting is the Hardest Part
Search teams, as many of you begin to identify your top applicants, please remember that ministers may be in different types of search with different timelines. You may ask individual applicants when they would like to receive an offer, make an offer at will and be prepared to wait for a response. Alternatively, you may plan to make your offers by mid-March so ministers will know everything that is open to them as they rank their opportunities across types of ministry search and make decisions in late March/early April.
While many congregations and ministers enjoy the free-form nature of the contract search, having deadlines and waypoints in the other types of search can be reassuring: “At least I’ll know something by [date].” Applicants may want to wait to see how the matching process works out with settled or developmental ministries or they may have a deadline or anticipated change in their family for making a decision. If your top applicant states that they are not prepared to receive an offer when your search team is prepared to make one, you may stay in touch with them until they are ready to receive an offer. You may continue to evaluate other applicants, as well. Even if a minister is participating in the settled or developmental ministry search, they may complete those processes and choose your congregation. A minister may choose to accept an offer from a contract ministry search team or rank the congregations, including those seeking contract ministers, and go to the congregation which either has presented them with an offer (contract) or with which they are matched (settled and developmental). There is no preference given to settled or developmental ministries in the UUA matching process.
UUA Matching Process
Imagine that Rev. Terry applied for two contract, one developmental, and three settled positions. They were invited to pre-candidate for one settled position, interviewed for the developmental position, and received an offer from one of the contract positions. Once they have completed their consideration process with the settled and developmental ministry search teams, they could decide to accept the contract offer and let the UUA Transitions Team know that they would not accept offers from the other two congregations when they submit their rankings. If the contract position would be their second choice, they may enter into the matching process by submitting their ranking to the UUA Transitions Team.
In that scenario, their rankings might look like this:
- Congregation A (developmental)
- Congregation B (contract)
- Congregation C (settled)
If they have a mutual #1 ranking with Congregation A, they will enter into contract negotiations with Congregation A. If they do not match with Congregation A, the UUA Transitions Team will let them know that they have not matched with their first choice and that they should enter into congregation negotiations with Congregation B. Of course, many other scenarios could play out, but we hope this gives you some understanding of how ministers who are engaging multiple types of search move toward negotiating a contract.
It is natural to be anxious and impatient at this phase of the search process. Graciousness, care, and understanding go a long way in times of high anxiety. This isn’t just a hiring process—there is so much more to a ministry search! Search teams are not just trying to hire someone; they are looking for a spiritual leader and faithful companion for the next chapter of their congregation’s story at a time when our ministries matter so much to our hurting world. We hope everyone will have the time they need to fully and fairly consider all their options and choose the best alignment.
