Opportunities to Explore 2025 Search Cycle
from UUA Congregational Transitions Director Christine Purcell
A couple of months ago, the UUMA hosted a discussion about the increasing number of contract ministry searches with staff members from the UUA Transitions Team and Office of Church Staff Finances. Searching ministers will see more contract ministry and fewer settled ministry searches this search cycle, and also, in all likelihood, in years to come. This is due, in part, to congregations’ anxiety about committing to several years of fairly-compensated, full-time ministry and to lower levels of volunteer energy. A settled search requires significant financial and volunteer commitment.
Because contract searches are becoming more common, the UUA Transitions Team is asking more of congregations in contract search. For those of you who missed the conversation in September, here are some of the changes for contract ministry searches:
- We are advising congregations in a contract ministry search to time their searches with the deadlines of other types of search so that ministers who apply for different types of ministry positions will have clarity about what is open to them when ranking
- We are asking more and better questions in contract search profiles (congregational records), which will help ministers assess the potential for a good match earlier.
- We are asking contract search teams to share their board-approved draft employment agreement, including any changes from the recommended UUMA/UUA template, as part of their search profile, as we used to do only with settled searches.
- We advise congregations which hope to call a contract minister after a couple of years or do developmental-style work with a contract minister to offer a multi-year initial employment agreement and relocation expense reimbursement. We also encourage such congregations to engage the UUA’s anti-bias training for congregations in search: Break Barriers, Build Beliefs.
- We are offering greater staff support to congregations in contract ministry searches, including programming about good processes in search.
The UUA Transitions Team hopes ministers planning for any type of ministry search in the 2025 search cycle will participate in a webinar about the search process on 13 December, hosted by and offered in partnership with the UUMA. Participants will learn from ministers who searched last cycle about their experiences, and from UUA Transitions Team members about the wider context of search and changes planned for the 2025 search cycle.