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News and Updates
April 23, 2014
The candidate is coming!
From the Ministerial Search Committee:
We've made our selection and announced the news that the search committee unanimously agreed to present Rev. Jenn Gray as our Candidate for the congregation to call her as our minister. All that is left for us to do is share information about Jenn and organize Candidating Week--April 27 through May 4.
What is a Candidate?
The search committee has selected Jenn Gray as our choice to present to you for the position of minister. She is a Candidate for minister because our choice is not final until a background check is completed, the negotiating team (Dan Schnake, Mary Huber, and Jim Ferrell) finalizes a contract with her and the board approves it, and the congregation votes to "call" Jenn as our minister.
What does it mean to "call the minister"?
You have placed your trust in us to choose the right person, and we have worked long and hard to select our Candidate. But you, the congregation, have the final say. At the congregational meeting at 11:30 on Sunday, May 4, the congregation will vote to affirm the Search Committee's choice. With an overwhelming "yes" vote, Jenn will know that the congregation has truly "called" her to be our minister.
What is Candidating Week?
It is when you'll get to know Jenn up close and personal, and she'll get to know all of the people that make UUCC such a wonderful place. We've told her a great deal about our congregation, but this is a time for mutual discovery, a time to get to know each other. She will serve in worship on both Sundays, April 27 and May 4, attend meetings, informal receptions, and gatherings, where you'll have time to get to know her and she'll have time to hear your ideas and concerns. Please plan to attend one or more of these events--we are so excited for you all to meet her and for her to meet you!
Candidate Week Events
Sunday, April 27, 10:00 a.m.
Sunday Service and Pitch-in following
Sunday, April 27, 6 p.m.
Sunday Night Supper Club (see below)
Tuesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m.
Q&A with Rev. Jenn in the Sanctuary
Childcare will be provided
Wednesday, April 30, 8 p.m.
Beltane Circle (see below)
Thursday, May 1, 6-8 p.m.
Standing on the Side of Love Rally on the Courthouse Square (see below)
Friday, May 2, 6:30 p.m.
Women's Night Out (see below)
Saturday, May 3, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Ice Cream Social/Game Night--Come for fellowship with other patrons and another chance to speak with Rev. Jennifer Gray. There will be an Ice Cream Social hosted by the Events committee and Games hosted by the Wicks. This is a family friendly event. A wonderful opportunity to share ourselves as individuals and as a congregation to Rev. Gray.
Sunday, May 4, 10:00 a.m.
Sunday Service and Congregational Vote on Ministerial Candidate
April 9, 2014
We Found Our Candidate!!
Jennifer Gray
Ministerial Candidate
The Ministerial Search Committee is thrilled to announce that Jennifer Gray has accepted our offer to Candidate with UUCC! There are so many reasons that we have selected Jenn and we hope to share those with you as we prepare for you to see for yourself the week of April 26th when she will be here for a week to meet with as many of you as possible and deliver the sermon for two Sundays.
As a part of our process, each committee member wrote a statement as to why they believe Jennifer is the best candidate for our congregation. We thought that Lynn Jettpace's statement spoke so eloquently to the reasons we selected Jennifer, we have shared it below.
Because even before she met us, she said this:
I hope to find a congregation that is dynamic and aware of its mission, or willing to find one. I hope for a congregation that wants a minister who will join them on their journey. I am interested in social justice. I hope to find a congregation that is either: very actively interested in social justice or, interested in growing in this area of congregational life.
which is exactly what we are.
And before we ever met her, we said this:
Our ideal minister will write and present meaningful, creative, eclectic, and intelligent sermons with a sense of humor, and will lead our congregation in its social justice work in our community. He or she will be positive, thoughtful, and passionate about bringing liberal religion to our conservative area and growing our religious community. Our minister will push us to grow spiritually and in our work together by facilitating groups and teaching adult RE classes. He or she will be an experienced, approachable counselor and will be comfortable providing pastoral care.
which is exactly what she is.
- Jenn's sermons are moving and thoughtful, with touches of humor and glimpses of her- self, drawing from sources in both high and low culture, current events and spiritual musings.
- Her theological groundings are as diverse as those of our congregation, encompassing Humanism, Earth centered religions, Christianity, Buddhism, and many more perspectives.
- Her passion for social justice will help us be the beacon of liberal religion in Hendricks County and Indiana that we aspire to be.
- Her warm personality will welcome visitors and nurture members.
- She feels like one of us already.
For these and other reasons, we Strongly believe we should call Jennifer Gray to UUCC to be our next settled minister
Jenn is a new UU minister currently completing her final internships in both Napa, California and now Ottawa, Canada. She will be ordained in her home church in Topeka, Kansas in May of this year. She is a single female who grew up in and around Topeka. Jenn completed her undergraduate work at Emporia State University, graduating with a degree in Rehabilitation services, working with adults with developmental disabilities.
Jenn discovered the UU faith when moved by a high profile racism event that happened in Topeka. She entered the church to hear a sermon about the event and found her faith "home." She quickly became involved in the congregation, especially in social justice work.
In 2008, she attended her first UU General Assembly and realized she was feeling called to be a UU minister. In 2012 she graduated from Andover Newton Theological School with a Master of Divinity, followed by completion of internships in a variety of UU churches. We are very excited to welcome her to UUCC as our ministerial candidate as we move forward towards our bright future!
March 12, 2014
We're getting closer! We really hope our chosen candidate chooses us, too! The ministers in our final selection of candidates offer great gifts and unique strengths, along with human realities. We as a committee must reflect together on those qualities and evaluate them against the congregation's needs and desires. We take our task very seriously. You have placed great trust in us, and we respect that. Soon we hope to present our candidate, and you will have the opportunity to discern for yourselves whether we have made the right choice for our congregation.
We want to remind you that we will present only one choice at the end. Why only one? For a successful ministry, any candidate will want an overwhelming affirmation in the final congregational vote. If we presented multiple choices, no candidate would receive the almost unanimous "Yes" vote that signifies the affirmation, and the congregation might find itself split into camps. We value the trust and confidence you have placed in us to make this momentous decision.
By the time we present you with our choice, we will have reviewed a number of applications, checked references, interviewed candidates for hours, and discussed the candidates in depth. At every stage, we hold in mind the hopes, dreams, and concerns of our congregation. When it comes to the final decision, we will offer our selection for an up-or-down, yes-or-no vote. We're confident that you'll be as enthusiastic as we are about the choice.
February 26, 2014
After extensive review of a pool of qualified ministers who are interested in us, we have selected the "pre-candidates" for the position of minister for UUCC. As we get to know these ministers in-depth, through interviews, informal talks, reference calls, and sermons, it seemed a good time to review the ministerial attributes you, the congregation, defined last fall through the survey and meetings.
Here's the profile of the minister we are seeking:
Our ideal minister will write and present meaningful, creative, eclectic, and intelligent sermons with a sense of humor, and will lead our congregation in its social justice work in our community. He or she will be positive, thoughtful, and passionate about bringing liberal religion to our conservative area and growing our religious community. Our minister will push us to grow spiritually and in our work together by facilitating groups and teaching adult RE classes. He or she will be an experienced, approachable counselor and will be comfortable providing pastoral care.
We are happy to report that the ministers on our short list seem to fit the bill! The congregation's participation in this process has helped us stay on target, and we're looking forward to the day in early April when we can announce our final choice.
February 12, 2014
As we announced in church, the Ministerial Search Committee is ready to unveil the fruits of our labors during the fall, our packet.
You played an active part in the creation of the packet as well. Here you will find a summary of the survey results, our congregation record that ministers use to decide if they are interested in us, and many of the pictures you sent. The packet is a record of who we think we are and how we are portraying ourselves to ministers in search.
A hard copy is available for perusal in the overflow room, but you can also access the information online. Here's how:
Go to http://uucchcministersearch.wordpress.com/
Sign in with email/username minister-search@uucchc.org and password Hendrick$County
We have sent out in a recent email a copy of the survey results and congregational record since those are the most important documents in the packet.
Thank you all for your help and support thus far. We will continue to keep you posted as the process continues.
January 15, 2014
We are in one of the most exciting times of our year in search. We have names! We've received names from the UUA of some interested candidates, and are busy reviewing their packets and websites.
This is the super-confidential time, as these ministers may not yet have told their current congregations that they are in search. So we can't share any information about them with you yet, but we are preparing to interview them, based on the information you told us was important in the surveys and meetings. Please don't ask us for specifics, because we can't give you any yet, but know that we are excited to get to know more about these potential matches for us!
We are sorry the polar vortex didn't cooperate for us to have the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop last week, but we are going to get it rescheduled for February or March, so stay tuned.
Also stay tuned to your inbox for a copy of the survey results, Congregational Record, and our Packet. You'll be able to review these and learn a great deal about who we are as a Congregation. Many of you gave assistance with gathering this information and photographs,including the Interim Search Committee--we used their Packet as a base for the one we're sharing with ministers now.
November 20, 2013
We are just about done with one of the busiest and most important times during this year we are in "Search." (Some weeks we've been meeting twice because we have so much to do!) We have gathered and focused the data you all provided during the survey, Loaded Questions, strategic interviews, and focus groups, and have prepared the two documents that prospective ministers will use to determine whether they are interested in us.
The first document is called the "Congregational Record" or "CR." It consists of several pages of detailed questions that are answered and uploaded to the UUA Settlement System, and will give prospective ministers a first look at who we are. Some of the questions in the survey and in Loaded Questions came directly from the CR.
The second document is called the "Packet," and it is what we provide to ministers who are interested in our congregation. The Interim Search Committee prepared a Wordpress site, which we have modified and updated for the Packet for our search for a settled minister. We have included many pictures to showcase our vibrant community, and details that can't be shown by the CR.
We will make copies of the CR and the Packet available for any member of the congregation to review once they've been finalized and the CR is uploaded to the UUA Settlement System. Our first deadline was to send both documents to Rev. Barbara Child, Ministerial Search Consultant, by November 15. They must be final by November 30, 2013.
We'll get a little breather for the holidays, but in January, we'll find out which ministers who are in Search might be interested in us, and begin dialog with them!
October 16, 2013
We are busily crunching numbers from the survey and compiling your responses from Loaded Questions and the focus groups we've met with. We sent out 93 surveys and received and evaluated 61 surveys. Thank you all so much for your input!
We will have an official summary of the survey results to share once we've prepared the Congregational Record and our Packet, but here is a sneak peek of some of the interesting facts the survey has told us:
- Almost exactly half of those of us who responded have never been associated with another UU church.
- 62% of us claim to attend UUCC at least 3 Sundays a month.
- 11% of us consider ourselves to be living with a disability.
- 89% of us believe that the community and friendships that grow here are one of the most important, special things about UUCC.
- 97% of us believe that our community support projects are the things that UUCC does that are most compatible with our beliefs.
What is the heart of UUCC?
We've concluded that the heart of UUCC is the character and community of its people and our shared commitment to each other, to the free exploration of ideas, and to working toward social justice
October 2, 2013
This Saturday: Loaded Questions!
On Saturday, October 5, at 6:00 p.m., please join the Ministerial Search Committee for "Loaded Questions." The MSC will be providing pizza, but please bring a side dish or dessert to share. Childcare will be provided.
Loaded Questions will be your opportunity to tell us what you want in a minister, and play UU trivia at the same time. We will be discussing these questions in small groups -- so think about how you will answer them:
- Describe your ideal minister.
- What is the heart of UUCC?
- What issues do you see to be most pressing within the next couple of years, and within the next ten years?
- How would you describe our congregation to our prospective minister? To prospective members? To close, non-member friends?
- What is a spiritual or meaningful sermon?
- Looking back, after our minister has been here a year, what will be a measure of success -- what will make you glad that our minister is among us?
Dan Schnake will be Master of Ceremonies, and is compiling the trivia questions. You'll be competing in the Loaded Questions trivia game in groups, so don't worry if you think you don't know UU trivia -- come and tell us what you think, and have a good time at the same time. RSVP to minister-search@uucchc.org or sign up on the sign-up sheet that will be in the overflow room.
Other Focus Groups
If you're not a member, but attend UUCC regularly, please join Jeff Haverly for a "Regular Attendee Focus Group" after the service in the Sanctuary on October 13, 2013 to discuss the ministerial search and provide input.
We will also be meeting with other focus groups such as parents, past presidents, musicians, and certain committees -- please try to attend these events as well, and ask a search committee member if you have questions.
September 4, 2013
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why do I have to fill out a survey?
- The survey is your chance to have input in the Ministerial Search process. We are striving for 100% participation so that everyone is heard. We have carefully crafted the survey to gather the information we need for the UUA Congregational Record and so that we know what kind of minister will be the best fit for us.
- Can I vote for whom we choose as a minister?
- Yes, at the very end of the process, the Congregation will vote to call the minister that the Search Committee has chosen as a Candidate. We will present one choice to the Congregation, after we have conducted hours of research, interviews, and discussion. We will present to you the one minister who we believe is the best fit for our Congregation.
- Why is the process so involved?
- We are following the UUA's ministerial search process, which is designed for congregations to discern their wants and needs, and to protect ministers' confidentiality during the search process. By choosing one minister the entire congregation will vote to call, the process avoids forming splits and factions among members who may prefer one minister over another. In this way, the involved process helps to protect the health of our congregation.
- What is the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop?
- The UUA recommends that all congregations searching for a new minister go through the Beyond Categorical Thinking workshop. In the past, women ministers and ministers of color had a more difficult time being called by a congregation, so the UUA developed the Beyond Categorical Thinking program to assist congregations in expanding their thinking about who might be a good fit for their congregation. The program has been expanded to include ministers who identify as GLBTQ and who are living with a disability.
August 29
Ministerial Search Committee Announces Beyond Categorical Thinking Workshop for January 5
The Ministerial Search Committee will be holding a workshop called Beyond Categorical Thinking on January 5, directly after service. Hopefully, as many people attend as possible. Below is some information from the UUA about this workshop:
The Beyond Categorical Thinking (BCT) program works with Unitarian Universalist congregations to promote inclusive thinking and help prevent unfair discrimination in the ministerial search process. During the Beyond Categorical Thinking visit, the congregation will learn more about its institutional culture, examine ways it can be more inclusive in its consideration of ministerial candidates, and surface subtle and often unintentional, unconscious biases members hold that may result in a decision to not select the minister who would be the best fit for their ministerial needs.
Unitarian Universalist ministers who identify as people of color; as Latina/Latino/Hispanic; as bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender; or as a person with a disability often have a more difficult time in the ministerial search process because of unconscious congregational biases. Even in congregations that have called a minister, interim minister, or intern from one of the aforementioned identity groups, new biases have arisen because the congregation mistakenly assumed that the presence of these ministers means that they have adequately addressed diversity issues and need no further work.
The Beyond Categorical Thinking program creates opportunities for conversations and reflection for the congregation to identify issues related to identity. In the process, congregations explore some of these biases, learn more about the search process, and begin to think about next steps, such as further consultation, education, or training beyond the BCT program.
August 21:
What is the Ministerial Search Process?
The Search Committee was formed in June by congregational vote and board selection and then participated in a retreat with Barbara Child to understand the UUA process and get to know how to work together.
Right now we're in a super-planning phase. The first thing you, the congregation, will see is the Survey (.docx). This is your chance to tell us what you want in a minister. It will then be our job to tabulate the results and compile them into a digest form, called the Congregational Record. This will be reviewed by ministers who are interested in searching for a new congregation. We will also prepare a Packet, which is the way we will market our active congregation with photos and brief descriptions of who we are and what we do. The Congregational Record and the Packet will be completed in November.
In January, we will receive names of potentially interested ministers and will begin to exchange information with them. This part is confidential, because the ministers have not likely yet informed their current congregation that they are interested in moving on. So only the Search Committee will be interviewing and then meeting ministers we call "Pre-Candidates." We won't be able to share with you yet who they are. We promise to evaluate them based on congregational input we obtain during the survey process.
In April, we can make a formal offer to one of our Pre-Candidates who we will then call our "Candidate." We can then tell you all about who we've chosen, based on our assessment of who we think will be the best fit. In late April or May, we will then schedule "Candidating Week," which is when you'll get a chance to meet our Candidate, and hear him or her preach on two Sundays. On the second Sunday, we will take a Congregational Vote to call our Candidate as our minister.
August 7:
Your Ministerial Search Committee has been diligently working around vacations and continuing to meet weekly, because we have a lot to do, starting with surveying the entire congregation.
We're planning to solicit your input in several ways: We will have a paper survey you can complete, or an equivalent electronic version if you prefer to save some paper. We need 100% participation because the Congregational Record (what we complete for the UUA system) is comprehensive and we want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to provide input. We'll also be meeting in focus groups with subgroups of the congregation such as parents, the Board, founding members, and others. Finally, we'll give you the opportunity to meet with us in small groups and one-on-one to tell us what you want.
Please be thinking about the qualities you want to see in our next minister--what is most important to you? What makes a good sermon? What makes a bad one? How would you describe us at UUCC? These are just a sample of some of the questions we will be asking you.
Also, please look through your cameras, phones, and hard drives for photographs we can use. We'll be compiling a packet to show ourselves off to the possible candidates. We do so many things here at UUCC, and we want to showcase the breadth of our fellowship and community involvement. Send photos to minister-search@uucchc.org.
June 26:
We have been officially meeting for a week now! The Rev. Barbara Child facilitated our Retreat on June 14-15, where we spent some time learning things we may not have known about each other and setting ground rules for how we will work together.
We each have a role to serve:
- Chair: Karen Cravotta
- Packet Editor: Lynn Jettpace
- Arranger: Marcia Denton
- Reference Checker: Deanna Carman
- Secretary: April Lashbrook
- Survey Coordinator: Jeff Haverly
- Treasurer: Dan Schnake
We're now familiar with the UUA process for a ministerial search and have begun to dig into our duties! We're working on a Charter to present to the Board, and we plan to make this column in the newsletter a regular feature so you know where we are in the search process. Please contact any member to answer questions you may have about the process.
In order to protect prospective ministers' relationships with their current congregations, we will not be able to share with you the details of everything we do, but we promise to share as much as we are able to and to listen to you when you tell us what you want in a minister. One of the first things we will do is to survey the congregation, so please participate! More on that will come soon.
We will be meeting weekly in a conference room at Hendricks Regional Health Hospital, thanks to coordination by Dave Cravotta. Also thanks to the Board for taking care of breakfast and lunch for us during the Retreat!
Your Committee
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| Karen Cravotta | Lynn Jettpace | Marcia Denton | Deanna Carman |
| Chair | Packet Editor | Arranger | Reference Checker |
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| April Lashbrook | Jeff Haverly | Dan Schnake | |
| Secretary | Survey Coordinator | Treasurer |
Documents
The completed Congregational Record and Survey Results will be coming soon!
Contact Us
We welcome your feedback! To contact the Ministerial Search Committee, feel free to talk to us at church or email minister-search@uucchc.org.