iMinister

Congregations and Beyond

2012-01-23T03:42:00.000-07:00

Peter Morales' paper, Congregations and Beyond (found here) raises some interesting issues for UU's and other religious people, especially those in small denominations and those which practice congregational polity. (polity is church governance. Congregational Polity is the form of government that makes congregations the basic unit of the denomination. So, for instance, technically, you are only a UU if you belong to a congregation which belongs to the UUA. You can't be an individual member of Unitarian Universalism.)

The basic problem is that the institutional category, "congregation", once virtually a pillar of American society, has become less and less interesting to younger generations. (Congregation is still a pillar of society in a few places, notably the South, or in Utah. You can tell this is the case when the first question asked of a newcomer to town is, "What church do you belong to?" Some newcomers to town take this as a rather agressive evangelizing effort but it probably isn't. It is probably just a social locator. "Oh...he's an Episcopalian. Got it.")

There's no doubt about the declining fortunes of "congregation". To recap, here's a paragraph from my part of last year's Minns Lectures. (find it here)

Just to give you asense of how the market share of all religion has changed over 50 years, let mego over some statistics.

Researchers have been asking 20 year olds about theirreligion for several generations, so we know that 3% of young people of theWWII generation said they had no religion, and about 6% of the next generation…myparent’s generation…persons now in their 70s and 80’s. About 12% of the Boomers in the 1960’s and 70’s claimed “no religion” 20% of gen X’ers who were 20 years old in the80’s and 90’s and a whopping 26% of the Millennial Generation now claim “noreligion”. From 3% to 26%...and rising.

Now, there is a difference between "no religion" and "no congregation." There are actually a fair number of people who do have a religion but don't belong to a congregation. But there will not be very many people with no religion who DO belong to a congregation. So, for those who are interested in congregations, these statistics are even more dire.

When you notice these overall statistics, you have to remark that the ability of Unitarian Universalism to hold its own over the past generation is a show of strength, not weakness. And, indeed, most denominations have done much worse than we have.

Peter is asking what we should do. It's something we should all be thinking about.

Counting the Audience

2012-01-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

*This is one of several responses to UUA president Peter Morales' white paper on congregations, which can be found here:

There's a theory of congregations that says that each congregation has three kinds of constituents. They are called by different names but the picture is the same. At the center of the life of the church are its most committed members, formal and informal leaders, contributors, workers...the people you see more than once a week and who give and get. This group could be called "leaders", or "core members" or "most committed", or any number of other phrases.

The middle group are the members, constituents, the people who come some, participate some, and give some, who identify with a congregation but don't put it at the center of their lives. There's another group that is further removed from the center of the congregation, sometimes called the community, (as in, the community we serve), but perhaps better called the audience.

The audience includes the people who come to services but don't join or contribute, sometimes just on Christmas Eve, or when they are between relationships, or when their mother comes to town. They are the people who use the church parking lot as a staging ground for group hikes, who rely on the food pantry, whose children go to the child care center which only pays it's direct expenses in rent, but not the cost of the capital investment in the physical plant. The audience includes the people who read the op-ed's which the minister produces, whose organizations meet for free in the meeting rooms, and those who are considering membership and getting involved.

The audience is hard to count and easy for the leaders to resent. After all, these are the people who use the infrastructure, physical and emotional, which the church leaders have worked to provide, but they don't usually want to be counted...in part because their experience with the entity "congregation" is that it will try to suck them in, make them feel guilty, and ask them for money. So they make themselves scarce when counting time comes.

On the other hand, they do a lot of wonderful things for a congregation. How good does it feel to have a full house on Christmas eve, after all? As the TV ad says, "priceless". We church folks do what we do to serve...and not just the folks who pledge. Watching our resentment level is a good spiritual discipline. It's a congregation and not a club, after all. The audience is a given. Plus, if we are good listeners, our audience keeps us fresh. They are our outside audit, if we let them be. And some of them will be enticed into the second or even the first circles because they come to notice that good things happen inside the circle.

Discovering a respectful name for folks that I had thought of as "hanger-oners" or, on my bad day, "free-loaders", was a wonderful day in my ministry.

Contemporary Worship

2012-01-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

Some of us at First U Albuquerque have set ourselves to really figuring out what contemporary worship is all about. Since the churches which feature this new religious art form tend to be big, evangelical churches whose mission is to meet people where they are and lead them to Jesus, they tend to have worship at times other than Sunday morning at 11. That makes it a lot more convenient for people who serve on church staffs to visit and learn. (and the first thing we might learn is that a LOT of people prefer to worship on Saturday afternoon.)

Last Fall, we visited the home base of a multi site congregation of about 8,000 people. We noted

1. That the order of worship was dead simple. Singing, Prayer, Sermon, prayer, singing, and greet your neighbors. No affirmation, no responsive reading. No announcements (although the pastor sprinkled some announcements in at the beginning of the sermon). No offering (there was an offering box at the end of some rows). No story for everyone...it was all pretty much for adults. There were plenty of kids in attendance and a full posse of teens, but there were kids classes at the same time. The kids present seem to have been giving a goodie bag, but in no way was the sermon or the music "for" them. They were a passive audience, helped to behave well, and those who didn't like it had another alternative.)

2. The congregation was predominately what I would call "established" young adults in their 30's and 40's. However there were plenty of baby boomers and more than a few elders, many of whom seemed to be a part of three generation families attending together.

3. The music was Christian Rock. Sound levels were kept out of the painful range. (in two churches we went to the poor drummer was seated in a clear plexiglass box to keep the sound level down). The most interesting thing to me about the music was that it was clearly conceived of, not as a message, but as a prayer. A lot of it was a Christian Rock equivalent of "Spirit of Life, Come Unto Me". Only....it was repeated enough that it became, not a reminder of what we believe, but an actual prayer.

4. The messages were skillfully presented but quite thin. Not to mention covering things we didn't believe, like, that 90% of the people of our good state are going to Hell.

5. Did I mention that there were LOTS of people there, at this second of 5 worship services offered at that site that weekend?

6. Some of those people are someday going to say to themselves, "I just don't buy this!"...and walk. If this has been their experience of worship, they are not going to find my church's eclectic but more formal music interesting, no matter how much freedom they are looking for. Nor will it sound like "home" to them.

7. Therefore...we are experimenting with contemporary worship. So that we can be hospitable to the next generation of seekers, most of whom attend churches with bands, not organs.

Facebook: A Time Sink?

2011-09-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

A ministerial friend was complaining lately about the time it can take to wade through the dross of Facebook posts to get to the good stuff. Most of this post is a re-post of my tips on this matter from 18 months ago, and since then I have gleaned another tip. Up in the top line, where you can click "most recent" or "top news", you see that the "most recent" has a drop down menu, whereby you can choose what KIND of news you want...status updates, pictures, games, or linked articles.

If you've decided to use Facebook in your ministry, then you will want to use it efficiently. The most important way to do this is to use the "hide" function.

If you hover your mouse to the right of any post, the word "hide" will appear. Notice the two "Egg" posts to the left. The word "hide" is not there until you point your mouse to that place. Click and you will see a menu. You can hide a person...someone who posts utter trivia 10 times a day, for instance, or you can hide an application. If you don't want to see the news about your friends' high scores in Bejeweled Blitz or their levels in Mafia wars, just hide that application. The person who has been hidden doesn't know they have been hidden.

(You can unbefriend people, too. No notice is ever sent to them, but they they might study their friend list and discover that you are gone. That might be considered a risky pastoral move. Unless you object to them seeing your posts, just hide them.)

Live Chat is also a time sink. If you don't want to chat, click the "off line" option in the Chat window. If you don't do that and somebody tries to chat with you when you don't want to chat, close the window and ignore them. For all they know, you are away from your computer.

Use "like". You can click "like" to any post, or you can comment. Like is faster.

Your Home Page on Facebook can be set to give you "top news" or "most recent". In "top news", Facebook will give you only the posts it thinks you will be most interested in. That's probably a must for folks with hundreds of active friends. For the rest of us, scanning "most recent" is most likely to give us all the news we really want. Unfortunately, you have to select this every time you log in.

Like all new technologies, Facebook has a learning curve. This one is a little less user-friendly to newbies than, say, Google products are. Be patient with yourself, and ask questions of your FacebookFriends. After you've learned, Facebook is much more manageable and much more fun than email. Enjoy!

Radical Growth Idea for UU's

2011-08-17T09:39:00.000-06:00

Begin Rant:

Let's quit privileging the practice of closing churches for the Summer.
This idea, which comes to us straight out of the pre-air conditioned centuries past, has it that it is necessary, ok, or even refreshing to close UU churches from Mid June to the week after Labor Day, that ministerial life-style must be centered around "summers off", and that it is funny to joke about how God trusts us to do this and assume that it does no harm.

I'm not saying end the practice...just quit catering to it. Churches are free to do what they wish. No doubt there are some old buildings which are insufferable in the Summer and just can't be updated. However, we should feel sorry for those folks and see if we can help them upgrade to 20th century technology rather than letting them set the mind-set of our association. No doubt some ministers' contracts are set in stone and can't be changed. But instead of letting those folks drive ministerial practice, let's ask ourselves what's good for the people and communities we serve.

Last Sunday, the second week of August, was our Back to School Sunday in Albuquerque...because..school started here today, as it did in school systems all over the west and south. We had a lively time of it, and...we had about a dozen visitors. Some were traveling UU's, (who expressed their pleased shock at finding that the UU church was holds two services all Summer, and three starting the third week of August), some were people (UU's and newbies) who had just moved here and were looking for a church, some were just visiting. Some will become members because, hey, we were actually open on a Sunday when they needed us.

Why has this church grown from 400 to 750 members in the past 20 years, a time when the rest of the denomination has barely held it's own? Maybe because we're open when people are looking for a church? Maybe because we give off the message, in this and lots of other ways, that we think that the religious quest is so important that we make it a year-round occupation to help people grow this way? Maybe because we know that people vacation year round and not, as they used to in New England, just go away in July and August? Maybe because we aim to serve a population that includes working women, singles of all ages, people with only two weeks...or NO vacation, and the sort of working folks who don't get the Summer off? Maybe it is just because, when they happened to brave their first visit to a UU church in August, there was a well-crafted worship service and a minister to meet.

Now, of course, UU churches can have any schedule they want to, so there will be no pressure to conform to this startling growth strategy. But let's quit pretending that it's a good norm and sort of freeze it out of existence.

Let's quit talking about "start up Sunday" as if we all do that the Sunday after Labor Day.

Let's re-think the extraordinary idea that ministers, unlike any other class of workers except some University professors, should have two months of vacation and a month of accrued sabbatical leave each year. (UUMA Guidelines)

Let's put out a hymnal which has as many resources for Summer as for Spring and Fall.

Let's get enough sermons and worship materials on video, and enough churches video-prepared that one-minster and lay-lead churches can realistically have a high impact worship service every Sunday of the year.

Let's quit acting as if those UU ministers who work during the Summer are foolish martyrs and instead help the ministry conceive of work patters which give them time for study, preparation, and vacation, all through the year.

Rant Over

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2011-08-11T14:10:00.003-06:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2011-08-04T15:45:00.001-06:00

Breaking Up With God

2011-06-28T15:12:00.000-06:00

· The Author of the book by this title, Sarah Sentilles, talks about a story which was left out of her book:

The founder of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit that uses the resources of design to solve social problems, visited my brother’s class in architecture school and described one of the first design contests he held. He asked people to come up with the best design possible for a mobile AIDS clinic for a town in a country in Africa. He posted the deadline, and he waited. He didn’t think anyone would submit anything, but on the day of the contest’s deadline, a delivery man from Federal Express rang the doorbell to his tiny studio apartment in New York City. He was carrying a huge bag stuffed with envelopes. “Wow,” the founder said. “Are all those mine?” “No,” the delivery person said. He pointed to three giant Fed Ex trucks lined up on the street behind him, their hazard lights blinking. “All those are yours.” I really love that story. I think it reveals how human beings are waiting to make the world a better place. We just need to enter the contest.

GA2012

2011-06-27T11:14:00.000-06:00

OK, so I'm not, fundamentally, a pep rally type person. Not for sports...I'd rather play. Not at GA, either; I'd rather be talking to people, helping out, learning new things. And only in a few cases, at rallies and demonstrations. There's a time to take the the streets. The "planned two years in advance" sort of demonstration that UU's do strike me as tickling our egos more than making change.

But that's just me. Clearly lots of UU's, especially GA going UU's, like to put on a show of strength and make the local newspaper. And I'm all for GA 2012 being a major display of yellow shirts. But it is probably not going to be my kind of GA.

I was warming up to the idea until I went to the pep rally for GA 2012 at this year's GA. I was actually on stage for most of it, because while I was on sabbatical, my colleague Angela Herrera started an immigration study and action campaign to lead up to GA 2012, and that was being showcased. It was her honor, but she wanted me along, so went up with her.

And the message I got was that we are going to go to Arizona next year and tell those Arizonans that their laws are bad, hateful, racist and inhumane. Apparently we will be working with local partners to do that. If we are not very careful...not all of the speakers at the pep rally were, the people of Arizona are going feel that we are calling them bad, racist, hateful, and inhumane. Which will annoy them and make them glad when we go home.

It was a pep rally, not a program meeting, but from those who spoke and the examples given, and the too-oft repeated words, "racist" and "hatred" make me guess that my views on immigration, which start with the duty of governments to regulate their populations and labor forces in favor of the needs of their people, and my guesses about the only practical solutions to the complex problems that 200 years of terrible immigration policy have left us with, and my desire to learn so that we can be a part of the solution instead of just carping on other people's solutions....that that's not going to be welcome, possibly not even tolerated.

The UUA website gives a much broader picture of plans for GA 2012, so it looks like there will be opportunities to learn, hear from experts, and think about the intersection of Social Justice and Faith. But what I gather from the website and what I heard at the rally were disturbingly different and I'm afraid I'm inclined to imagine that the ethos of the rally will prevail.

Which means that we won't be pondering complexities or solutions as much as we will be railing against people whose solutions we don't like, and that a lot more passion than thoughtfulness, a lot more name-calling than relationship-building will be on tap. It looks like we'll spend a lot more time feeling good about how good we are than we will be thinking about the sacrifices that we will make if anything like comprehensive immigration reform is ever on the list of political possibilities.

I'm keeping my calendar open and awaiting developments.

Theological Grounding

2011-04-28T06:50:00.001-06:00

Another question from the Staff. (second to the last!)
How can we ever satisfactorily respond to a call for more theological grounding
with all of our diversity?

I have spent the past semester on Sabbatical at our Meadville Lombard Seminary, and more than once I've listened to the theological talk around me and thought, with Dr. McCoy of Star Trek, who proclaimed in the midst of his tech-topped sickbay, "I'm just a country doctor, Jim!"

I'm just a simple parish pastor. I've got a hunch about "calls for more theological grounding". I think what it really means is, "I just want to be able to explain my faith to my friends and family and myself."

Doing that is not the task of theologians, it is the task of preachers.

The theology which is at the core of our freedom and our diversity (which is the big difference between ourselves and the other denominations around) is actually simple, fun to talk about, and has been around for a long, long time. I first heard it from Bill Schultz, but it resonated because it had been the underpinnings of my Sophia Lyon Fahs sunday school lessons, one year of which was called, if I remember correctly, "Miracles Abound!" (which was basically a natural history curriculum whose goal was to elicit wonder.)

We enjoy our theological differences and benefit from discussing them openly because we believe that the world is intricate, complex, beautiful, multi-faceted ....too much of all these things for one simple set of words to express The Whole Truth. Therefore, we enjoy multiple sets of words, practices, and structures and a dollop of irony as we talk about them as if our words could ever embrace them. Our story is the story of the blind men and the elephant and we rejoice in what we can do together. Our practice is that of respect for the worth and dignity of all beings, starting with the conversation partners we find challenging.

That's the "Torah standing on one foot" version. I think it is enough if it is preached consistently and creatively, and of other programming lives it out.

There will be some who want to parse that more deeply and theological study is the way to do that. Most of the rest of us just need different versions of the same basic theology.

UU's and the Bible

2011-04-27T08:50:00.000-06:00

To clarify the previous post (found here: Most of the conversation about the Bble is in the comments.

I say that "post-denominationalism" applies to the social trend in which Orthodox Christians don't pay much attention to denominational labels any more. (Lutheran, Methodist,etc). When it comes to what is taught in a Christian Church, they are interested in whether the church is "Bible Believing" or "Bible Interpreting". I say that UUism, even our Christian wing, lies outside of this social trend, because we are not an Orthodox, creedal church.

. Almost all UU's are Bible Interpreters. (There are a few UU's who insist on taking the Bible literally and rejecting it.) While we don't have a creed, we do have practices. In a few of our churches, the practice is to focus on the Bible. In some the practice is to include the Bible. In some, especially lay-led congregations, the practice is to ignore or reject the Bible. Ministers who serve the Biblically focused churches are mostly in the New England Parish system, which is, after all, pre-denominational. However it is still covenant rather than creed which determines church membership and if I were serving such a church, I would shout that to the rafters, because it is a point that is important to younger generations. I would also broaden the focus, beginning with the Biblical text but bringing in other faiths, philosophies and scriptures, because that is also attractive. Also, I'd preach and preach and preach the good news of Universalism!

Finally, I believe we should claim our UU'ism and celebrate its heritage but not make it the focus of our life together, especially with newcomers. The worship of chalices, principles, assemblies and famous people is unseemly.

The Post-Denominational World

2011-04-26T15:52:00.000-06:00

Another interesting question from the UUA staff:

Are we entering a “post-denominational” world? What does that mean for our
faith as it relates to our Association?

It seems to me that our current religious landscape (no "entering" about this. It's here) is a landscape where very few people (and almost all over age 60) care about the differences between Methodists and Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Disciples and Northern Baptists. Nor do they care much about the differences between Southern Baptists and other conservative denominations like the Church of God. The Protestant landscape, it seems to me, has been reduced to the "Bible Believers" and the "Bible Interpretors", with the Episcopalians and Catholics standing a bit outside. (I know that Bibles Belivers do interpret. But they don't think they do.)

There are only a few UU churches who fit into this mash-up, and I don't think it is in our best interest to pretend that we do. I totally get it why you don't find a denominational label on the Willow Creek Megachurch. Their constituents don't care. They are a bible believing Christian church; that's all that matters.

Most UU churches, it seems to me, benefit from being much more forthcoming about their denominational label. Ours does signify something unique. Now, I'm all for our new churches having more contemporary sounding names than "First Unitarian Universalist", which is way too long anyway. But it's my humble opinion that we are best served by keeping our denominational affiliation as a second line.

When it comes to ministry and post-denominationalism, I think it is all to the good that many of our ministers are educated in "Bible Interpreter" seminaries. I was myself, and it was a rich experience. As a "stay inner" UU, it gave me an important opportunity to understand the religious landscape so many UU's come from. I taught me a lot about what makes us unique and in what ways we are just the same as everybody else. I believe that new ministers who are less steeped in UU culture do better in our denominational seminaries. But these days, most people make these decisions based on geography and financial aid. That's a reality we are not going to change.

And why can't we convert people to UU?

2011-04-26T06:49:00.009-06:00

Two more questions from the UUA Staff's Strategic plan for Ministry

Why aren’t we able to convert more religiously defined “none of the aboves” to
Unitarian Universalism?
and
Why don’t the neighbors who live near our churches attend them?

The second question is easier. It remains the case that most people who want to be religious are perfectly well-served by orthodoxy and wouldn't be well-served by a UU church, no matter how well it was doing at outreach and welcome, program and social justice. We're a niche market in the religious world! Most neighbors of any church will never be members. We can only hope that they can at least say about us, "I don't believe what they believe but they are good neighbors and do interesting things." (that is a lot more than most of our churchs' neighbors can say about us.)

Now, about those "none of the aboves" (as in, not Christian, Jewish, Moslem or any other world religion). This group, 3% of the twenty year olds in the WWII generation, 6% of 20 year olds in the next generations, has increased since then and is a whopping 26% of current 20 somethings.

Here's what has changed in 50 years. Fifty years ago, people who were not comfortable in orthodoxy went looking for other congregations to belong to, because congregations held a privileged place in the social structure. When I was a kid nobody mowed their lawns on Sunday mornings in my suburb and there was no store open bigger than a 7-11. This has changed. Now people who don't want to be religious are free not to be in all parts of society (although in the southeast and Utah, church still has social privilege). Most people who define themselves as "none of the above" are perfectly happy with their non-religious lives. They don't go to church looking for freedom, they use their freedom to shop, play sports, do chores, work, and spend time with family on Sunday mornings.

There is a group of folks who say that they have no religious preference BUT are spiritual. They don't like "organized religion" because they don't agree with the creeds, because they think church fights about homosexuality are really lame, because they don't believe in Hell, and because they don't have much experience with churches anyway, and when they go they are usually faced with music they can't sing, rituals they don't understand, websites which are not kept up to date, and a lot of talk, talk, talk which, if they are under 40, is completely foreign to their experience of the visual world.

Now, if they knew about us, they might like us because we don't fight about homosexuality, don't believe in Hell, and encourage folks to find their own theology. But we also talk, talk, talk, sing from books in the foreign language of "musical notation" (not to mention German, Latin, French, and Cree), and in general don't do a very good job of living in the young adult world.

They might even brave all of this; learn our tunes, get PDF newsletters, and learn to love sermons full of quotations, except for this one little thing:

When people who are "spiritual but not religious" go looking for a religion, they go looking for spirituality; for heart, depth, warmth, spiritual practices, lessons in prayer, clues to a relationship to god.

These things are not easy to get in UU churches. If we focused on them more, trained our ministers to provide them, helped lay people to tolerate, if not enjoy them....THEN we might attract some of this group of folks to our churches. But not before.

More on Congregational Diversity

2011-04-25T06:49:00.003-06:00

Here's another question from the UUA Staff, appended to their strategic plan for ministry.

Given that we operate within a system of congregational polity, how might we
help the lay leadership of our congregations understand and embrace the
imperative of becoming radically hospitable to a diverse world? How might our
ministers find willing partners in this work rather than resistance to change?

Since this question appears on a strategic plan for ministerial development, I'm going to reframe. It seems to me that this is a more interesting question:

How might we create a corps of ministers who can lead congregations into the work of becoming radically open and hospitable to an ethnically diverse nation?

Now, we've been asking and trying to answer this question for at least a decade. The answers put in place have involved requiring ministerial education to focus on this question in virtually every area of study, and to include competencies on leading this sort of change.

As I watch new ministers and view theological education, it seems to me that we have excelled at the work of teaching the reality and skills of multi cultural work to new ministers. They come out of school assuming that this is the future and gung ho to be a part of this change, and feeling that they have a good deal of knowledge about what should be done and how to do it. And it is true that they meet resistance from congregations. (hence the first question above, which could be rephrased impolitely as, "how can we change congregations so that ministers can do the job we have trained them to do?)

Congregations are, by their very nature, conservative (as in, conserving the values of the past) institutions. Theologically liberal congregations tend to be even MORE institutionally conservative than theologically conservative ones. This counter-intuitive claim shocks UU's, but here's the reason. Theologically conservative congregations have a very carefully defined corps of belief, doctrine, and mission which serve a unifying function in times of institutional change. Theologically liberal congregations, NECESSARILY don't have this corps of unified belief and doctrine and it is therefore HARDER for us to change less centeral matters such as worship style and social assumptions, and HARDER for us to reach out to "the stranger". Our center is squishier. As an example, imagine the minister of an evangelical church, who says to his members, "Jesus told us to take the gospel to all nations, and that surely includes the "nation" of young people who only know rock music, so we SHOULD have a contemporary music service. Yes, it will be change of music but the gospel that we all believe in demands this." That minister might meet some resistance, but he will have the congregation's core beliefs on his side.

A UU minister trying to do the same thing doesn't have the same advantage. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do these things, but we should not beat ourselves up quite so much if we are not first to accomplish them in the religious world. And it means that our ministers have to amass MUCH more "ministerial capital" to be change agents in congregations.

So once again, I am wondering about the usefulness of making multicultural congregations our number one goal and heading directly towards it, full tilt. It might be that focusing our new ministers on the skills and motivations required for long and fruitful ministries (which have built that ministerial capital required to successfully urge major change on congregations) might be, in the end, a quicker path to the future we all desire than impressing on new ministers that multiculturalism has to be first on their list. That tends to create a corps of ministers who are eager to produce quick change, who think that they should be able to do that fairly easily, and who blame congregational resistance for their failures.

And that's not a step forward, it is three steps backwards.

Learning into a Multi-Cultural UU World

2011-04-20T06:48:00.002-06:00

Another question posed by the UUA staff in their strategic plan for ministry was this: What can we learn from our community ministers about living into the promise of our multicultural world?

Interesting question which I hope some folks with more experience in community ministry will chime in to answer. But I have (what a surprise!) a different bias on this question, which comes from my experience of modest effectiveness in diversifying congregations.

I believe that multi-cultural congregations are like happiness. You don't become happy by setting that as your goal and going towards it full-tilt. You get happy by making relationships, developing interests, lending a helping hand, dealing with your inner demons and so on. Happiness, in other words, is a by-product of life effectiveness.

I think that multi-cultural congregations are similarly a product of congregational effectiveness, rather than goal-setting or learning, especially effectiveness in reaching the Gen X and Millennial generations, where "multi-cultural" is the name of their game. Sometimes it seems to me that our fantasy is that if we learn enough about being a multi-cultural congregation, we will enjoy great waves of 50 and 60 year old persons of color who have been patiently waiting for us to get our act together. I doubt this. If we achieve our goal of multi-culturalism, it will be because we have attracted young people to our church and welcomed them...their music, their visual learning style, their multi-culturalism, and most of all, their desire to explicitly address their spiritual lives.

It seems to me that Community ministers might have something to teach us, but that our RE community has more to teach us and that they should be consulted, too.

Ministry and Internet

2011-04-19T06:46:00.001-06:00

Another question from the UUA Staff's Strategic Plan for Ministry

What are the implications of social networking for the future of our bricks and mortar ministries? As Philip Clayton put it in his article Theology and the Church after Google, “Do we really inhabit two different worlds: those who text, Twitter and blog, and get 80% of our information from the Internet, and those who are “not comfortable” with the new social media and technologies?

In the article mentioned, Clayton follows this question with another question: Could we today be facing a change in how human society is organized that is as revolutionary in its implications as was the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg over 500 years ago?

I answer the second question, "Yes!" although, we are not "facing" that change, we are "living" that change. How it will all play out in changed lives and societies is a big question. Clearly it has changed leisure among the wealthy and revolutions among the poor. No doubt there is more to come. Those of us who care about liberal values will have to be light on our feet and deeply thoughtful to work on the right causes in such a climate.

But because I answer the second question, "yes!", I am impatient with the tone of the first question. Those who are "not comfortable" with new technologies will get more and more out of the mainstream and it will be harder and harder to work with them. Frankly I think that one of the great favors that a church can do for it's elderly or otherwise challenged members is to entice them into the digital world.

I am not ready to think that the digital world will be the end of the bricks and mortar world, however. I could be wrong, but I believe that there will still be church buildings in 2061. I believe that people will still enjoy worshiping. learning, and eating together, that staffs will still work together in offices, and that much will be as it is now. What will have changed is how we attract people to church; that will be almost 100% digital (It is nearly that already.), and the fact that we will have the option to have on-line groups, trainings, and meetings, and that the resources we provide for spiritual development of our members (which will be the only reason people join churches in the future), will be available on our website as well as in sermons and classes. A church doing its web ministry well will reach many more people, dispersed all over the globe, than any one church ever could before. Helping those folks contribute to the upkeep of those resources will be a challenge, as we have all come to expect that the best things on the internet will be free.

As always I welcome your comments! And just as an example of how quickly things have changed, most of the comments from the blog post, will be left on my Facebook page, where this post shows up automatically. So if you want to see the discussion, friend me on Facebook!

Ministerial Credentialing: from the UUA Staff Strategic Plan

2011-04-18T06:46:00.001-06:00

The UUA Staff's strategic plan for Ministry (posted here) makes one recommendation about ministerial credentialing, which is a creature of the Fellowship Committee which, by bylaw, reports to the Board, not the staff. They recommend that the RSCC get out of the gatekeeping business and act in a support and advisory capacity. I have to agree with this recommendation; it's clear that, for all the good intentions this program started with, it has just become a second MFC. I hope that the MFC takes this up.

The staff appends a set of questions to their recommendations which they feel need more and wider discussion. One of which is:

Do the various credentialing programs mold the leaders we need for the future, or are they based on outdated models of ministerial excellence?

This is an interesting way of stating the problem, which, I believe is one of the most important problems we need to solve as we face the future. I've made no secret of my doubts about the effectiveness of our system; if you search this blog for the tags, "credentialing" and "Excellence in Ministry", you will see lots on the subject.

but back to the question, and about it, I have a question. Should it be the task of a credentialing program to MOLD leaders? That starts to smack of "teaching to the test", which appears to be the current bane of public education. Given the general lack of accountability in our current system with the MFC, which keeps no statistics about its effectiveness and does not publish its standards, and their overwhelming work load, perhaps we need two bodies, as a denomination; one to ask the question, "What do we Want in our Leaders?" and another to be the gatekeeper, using those standards.

But my overall reaction to this question is that the problems I see with the MFC don't have to do with outdated models of ministerial excellence, but rather with outdated models of professional formation...which assume that a person should not enter a profession until they are fully qualified. I would say that that model doesn't fit ministry...probably it doesn't fit most "wisdom" professions. I think that the best we can do is make judgments about safety, rather than qualifications. Is this a person who is mature enough and moral enough to avoid doing harm? Are they minimally qualified? If so, let them try, because frankly, we can't tell at this stage how effective they will be...and it is too expensive for everyone to wait until we are sure!

If I could wave my magic wand over the UU World, we would have a system whereby new ministers were screened (probably by the staff) for basic competence (by which I mean, they have passed their academic work and have raised no red flags in the minds of their internship and CPE supervisors, and have a clean background check). These new ministers would enter into a probationary period during which they were actively mentored by UUA staff as well as colleagues. (the current once a month phone call with a self-chosen and usually far-away "mentor" is completely inadequate to the task of ministerial formation). The congregations who hired them would be mentored and watched as well. (because it is not unknown for congregations to choose a "green" minister in order to keep the balance of power in the lay leadership and remain complacent) During this time their ordination would be local and temporary. When a new minister completed three years of full time ministerial work (or its equivalent in part time work), they would be eligible for Final Fellowship and a "tenured" ordination. Their task at that point would be to present the actual results of their ministry, rather than the results of their experience in seminary, which is really quite a different thing. Much of this would be a matter of portfolio review. Not everyone would be asked to interview with a committee; it's obvious after three years who is succeeding in ministry, and who has never gotten a job or who has failed. It's an expensive thing we do, interviewing virtually everyone who asks us.

Just a thought, and I welcome comments!

Another Question from the Strategic Plan for Ministry

2011-04-15T08:36:00.000-06:00

(Which you can find at the UUA.org website)

Is the Masters of Divinity still the best pathway to the ordained ministry? What alternatives might we explore?

This question could have a couple of meanings. The first involves the degree itself, which is actually not required for our ministers if you can show you have equivalent preparation. The M.Div is one of the few generalist masters degree programs left in the educational pantheon, and a UU minister certainly needs that broad preparation; academic, religious, spiritual, and practical. We want our ministers to have knowledge of religious history, theology, UU'ism, world religions, psychology, social theories, the multi-cultural world, scriptures, literature. We want them to be mature and have basic management and leadership skills, not to mention wisdom, writing and public speaking skills, and church smarts. Most of all, we need them to be theologically and spiritually grounded and able to assist others (of different theological and spiritual bents) to be grounded. The M.div attempts all of that. When added to clinical work and church internship, I think it covers all the bases.

But I have a feeling that the question really means, "is seminary education as we used to know it still the best pathway for ordained ministry?" That is to say, is the best preparation for ministry embedding oneself in a community of persons preparing for ministry, probably within an interfaith/academic context?

The answer to that question is that even if it is the best, it is probably unaffordable, and even then, only by mooching on the Methodists (and a few other old-line denominations) who endowed their seminaries with scholarship funds which they are generous in sharing with UU's. I myself took advantage of this generosity and got a fine education. After a semester of sabbatical, watching our Seminary at Meadville re-make itself for a more affordable and sustainable future, I believe that we will feel this loss, and will have to find ways to compensate for it. The graduates who will not come into ministry in debt to their eyeballs will, it is hoped, be able to continue their ministerial formation more easily in their early years of ministry.

Meadville has gone to a distance-learning model which embeds those preparing for ministry in local congregations and gathers students for intensive learning experiences during the year. I think that it is possible that these students will get something out of their seminary experience that traditional students don't get; a long-term view of ministry and congregations. Students are also involved in learning groups which meet by telephone and with their professors via email and teleconferences, and it is clear that they form deep bonds in these groups. They have some brief experiences of traditional seminary during the intensive course month of January, but the coursework they are involved in is, well, intense.

I hear that Starr King is also reaching out in distance-learning, although it still offers a more traditional resident community. And I believe that about 2/3 of students studying for the ministry are studying in seminaries of other denominations, either because they are near where they live or because they want that traditional seminary experience and have been offered scholarship help to afford it.

If the question means, "Would it be possible to do as the Evangelicals do, to self-educate ministers within congregations?" I think that the answer is "no." The Evangelical model of ministry is different from ours. It is deeper in some ways, and considerably narrower. The areas in which it is deeper, such as spirituality and biblical study, can be taught within a large church (quite a bit larger than any of our churches...) The breadth that we expect in our minister's training can only be gotten within academia, and probably within a program specifically designed to prepare for our kind of ministry. The distance-learning models that, in different ways, ours and other seminaries are exploring, will probably be the "new way" that people prepare for ministry. What we should be exploring is how churches and the support of ministry need to change to produce fine ministers, given the reality of this distance-learning preparation.

Should Unitarian Universalists Have Deacons?

2011-04-12T07:41:00.000-06:00

The UUA staff has released a strategic plan for professional ministry, which has some important, needed changes and plans in it (not all of which can be staff driven, and must get buy-in from others) in this document.

More interesting to me, the end of this document poses some very interesting questions that they feel the UU World (that is, all of us, not the magazine) needs to discuss and think about. So...I thought I'd do that and start conversations on this blog and other places. Here's the first question:

• Given that many congregations now and in the future will struggle to afford full time ministry, should we open up our ministerial credentialing system to some variation of a deaconate – a lay leadership program to serve in entrepreneurial and part-time ministry settings.

I believe that if we are serious about being a religious body; that is, a faith that helps people deepen their spiritual lives, we have no choice but to have a program which trains and authorizes lay people to be agents of deepening spirituality in their lay-led congregations. Otherwise, not only will the religious needs of people in lay-led congregations be largely un-met, but there will remain a substantial minority of UU's who will be resistant to this focus because they themselves can not benefit from it. (And it is my opinion that if we don't embrace this focus, we will not survive the next century. Hardly anybody, anywhere, is going to join our congregations in order to experience freedom from religion any more.)

However, it is also true that authorizing lay ministers make professional ministers very nervous, and should make us all a bit nervous.

There is the issue of possible competition. A Lay Ministry program would probably seem to some ministers as hampering their ability to get a job. It would no doubt happen that some congregations would opt for talented and energetic lay leadership over an ordained minister who might not, in their opinion serve them as well. (in my opinion, we ministers have to let this one go, for the good of the whole.)
There is the issue of congregations choosing Lay Ministry because they don't want to be challenged to be the best UU congregation they can be. (I think this objection can be met by a good training program)
There is the issue of creating a group of people who do not have the training or boundaries of professional ministers "acting like" ministers and doing harm. (I think that this objection can be met by only authorizing "local" ministers, ie, you're a lay minister when you are doing the work of ministry your congregation has asked you to do, nowhere else, and no longer than that work lasts.)
There is the issue of determined lay people forcing themselves on their overwhelmed, lay-led congregations, creating a situation where a close-knit group doesn't feel free to say, "no" to an aspiring lay leader. (I think that this objection can be met by carefully created criteria of authorizing lay ministers).

There are probably other issues and I look forward to hearing what some of them might be. Just to throw out a proposal, here's mine

Authorization for Lay Ministry would begin by a person's successfully completing several very substantial weekend moduals...as RE directors, for instance, have had in their Renaissance program.

It would continue with an inquiry from a local congregation about bringing this person on as a PAID (even if only at "honorarium" or "expense-only" lay leader in some capacity. (nothing like budget implications to give a group good boundaries!) That congregation would be helped to put good personnel practices into place and form a "Lay Minister" committee which would help this person continue their formation. (like an intern committee) Training opportunities would continue, the aspiring lay minister would be assigned to a peer group, and to a professional minister-mentor. If all went well after a trial time, the lay minister would acquire an official title; perhaps with an installation service. However, that title would only be valid in that place.

I would not start this program by allowing lay ministers to serve in entrepreneurial (self-gathered) situations. There is a substantial extra burden of risk of dysfunctionality which we should avoid, at least at first. However, I do not think we should preclude full-time work by lay ministers, especially in large congregations.

Ok, readers, go to it! I look forward to seeing your comments and programs you lay out on your blogs!

The last questions

2011-04-03T06:51:00.000-06:00

from the staff are...

Who are we? Who are we becoming? To whom do we belong?

You all have been such good readers, I'm going to let you answer these questions. Comment away!

Supporting Visitors with Google Maps

2011-04-02T07:53:00.000-06:00

Traveling on Sabbatical, I've been visiting UU Churches, and the way I find them is with Google Maps, which gives me addresses, map placement, street-side pictures, websites, and directions using car or transit. (the transit directions are particularly valuable; Google knows when the trains run and tells me how long it will take to walk from the train station to the church.)

Did you know that you can personalize and add information to your church's Google Map listing? The person in charge of every congregation's web presence (you do have someone in charge of your web presence, don't you?) should check on the accuracy of Google's guesses about you, upload a logo, and make it look like you've paid attention.

And then some folks who cares about that church, members and visitors alike, should write a review of the church on Google Maps. Nothing like 10 reviews to make a hesitant visitor think that this is a going concern!

It's the best sort of publicity, and it's all free!

Abq's who follow this blog: we've only got one review at the moment....

What Hospitality Really Means

2011-03-30T09:56:00.000-06:00

Is simple: welcoming the stranger by attending to their needs first.
I have been visiting churches during this sabbatical. (This is always the most fruitful activity of sabbatical).
And not been too impressed with the welcome, frankly. Tools seem to be in place, but the spirit is all wrong.

For instance, a friend and I showed up in a UU church where one came out of the cold into a foyer. Ushers stood in a line perpendicular to the doors, and handed us programs with a perfunctory smile....but didn't catch on to our "what now?" looks. It wasn't at all clear from them, from architecture or signage where the sanctuary actually was. We looked around, bewildered, and nobody rescued us. Finally I turned back to the usher and asked him which way to the sanctuary. "Oh, are you visiting?" he asked. "Here, here's the welcome table". He handed us over to a woman standing behind the table. Nothing was clearer than that her only sense of what she was supposed to do was get our information....and entire page of information. She handed us a notebook and a pen and then remembered to say good morning. She pointed out name tags.

I'm from out of town. I didn't need to be followed up on or to get a newsletter. I came to worship that day. That's all I did, and that's all I wanted to do. It happens that I'm a UU...I knew I'd be in tune with the message at this church. . If I'd been a seeker, I'd have been even less interested in giving my information to these people...until I was sure I'd want to come again. But short of being rude, it was impossible.

The moral of the story: Smile and guide visitors on their way in. Give them whatever information they ask for. Get contact information on their way out....when and if they want to give it to you. Better Yet, put a "Thanks for Visiting Us" link to your website in the order of service explaining that at this site, visitors can give feedback, leave contact information, and ask questions. (if you have lots of elderly visitors, you can also invite them to do this after the service at the visitor's table.)

For a humorous look at things from the visitor's perspective, check out this little video which comes to us from the Evangelical world...but parts of it are oh, so, pointedly true of us, too!
What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church?

P.S. Architecture and signs are really important in giving newcomers a clue as to what they are supposed to do. If you are not blessed in this way, your greeters and ushers can be on the look out for the bewildered or even standing in such a way that they make clear where a person is supposed to go. For most people, nothing gets them started off quite so badly as feeling like an idion...

UU's and God

2011-02-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

When someone tells me that they don't believe in God, I usually say, "That's interesting. Tell me about the kind of God you don't believe in." When they get over their surprise, they quickly warm to their task and tell me about the God to whom they were introduced as children...the guy in the sky; possibly angry, sometimes spying, always meddling. Sometimes they worked out for themselves at a very young age that sitting in the clouds was an impossible feet. Sometimes they came early to the conclusion that no God who could be called, "good" would cause them such pain and anguish. Sometimes they believed it all for a good long time, and then met science teachers or loving non-believers and then felt that they had been duped.

There are many good reasons for not believing in God. But there is no good reason for a grown up to insist that the guy in the sky is the only kind of God and that all believers in God believe in that kind. That's a patent falsehood about theology and about people, and UU's, dedicated as we are to truth, have no business espousing it.

For a quick and lively run-down of other kinds of God you might or might not believe in, check out this article, Got God? from the Winter UU World.

Screening Precious Human Bodies

2010-11-19T10:50:00.001-07:00

I have three thoughts about what looks to be the most interesting...and in some ways very important...news of the moment...That a fellow refused to go through the new scanners at the airport, told a screener, "If you touch my junk I'll have you arrested" (while filming the whole thing on his phone...hummmm....).

My first thought is that I'm sorry that men have taken to calling their sexual organs "junk". How self-demeaning that is? If it's just junk, why be so pissy about it being touched? Think, guys! Your bodies are sacred. That's the point of all this upset.

My second thought is this. Has anyone who objects to someone in a room far away scan the unclothed outline of their body for 20 seconds before discarding the picture come up with a better idea for how to manage safety in a world in which people put bombs in their underpants? If they have, I'm all ears. I think that the TSA has done a great job thinking out the necesseties of this kind of scanning and making it as unhurtful as possible. Albuquerque has had these scanners for a couple of years now...we were a test site. Believe me, folks, they are quite benign. And I'm willing to trust that they are safe, (as much radiation as 3 minutes at 30,000 feet they say...not even pilots can object to another three minutes.) until I hear something a little less hysterical than I've been hearing about safety.

So...actually, I don't have much sympathy for people who refuse to go through these scanners and then get upset about the indignities of the pat down.

But I believe that there are some people who, because they have knee replacements and such, have to go through the pat down every time. And that pat-down does sound pretty invasive to me. Not quite as invasive as what a doctor does, of course, but still...it would take the pleasure out of flying for me if I had to do it every time.

So here's my idea for a compromise.

Let's we Americans grow up, buck up, adjust to the new realities, and thank TSA for making this new kind of scanning safe, painless, and dignified. In return, let's demand that those who for reasons they can't help, like medical hardware, have an alternative to an invasive, uncomfortable procedure every time they fly.

Of course, we could decide that it's ok with us if underwear bombs go off in airplanes every once in a while, because safety procedures are just too onerous. It probably wouldn't happen very often, and the carnage would be less than the number of highway deaths in the nation for that month in any case. Whatcha say?

Integrating High Schools, then and now

2010-10-30T11:12:00.000-06:00

A generation of GLBT teens is in the process of integrating the nation's middle and high schools. That's the truth of the matter..most GLBT teens in previous generations didn't come out in High School, didn't ask to bring same sex partners to proms, didn't demand equality. This generation and their parents are, and apparently they are taking it on the chin. Some are taking it so hard they are committing suicide, and you know many more must be succumbing in more moderate...but still very dangerous to their long-term mental health... ways to the depression which causes suicide.

In the 1950's-70's a generation of African American teens integrated often very hostile schools, sometimes in situations where adults were a part of the hostility, and, as far as I remember, there was no rash of suicides. Depression and long term consequences of a difficult adolescence is harder to measure, of course, and non-experts like me wouldn't know about them.

But I wonder if anybody learned anything about racial integration in teen society that could be applied to GLBT integration of teen society.

Just as a for instance, I imagine that many Black teens believed that the abuse they were taking was in the service of something important for society. Do GLBT kids feel that way? If not....perhaps besides telling them that "it gets better", perhaps we should be telling them that they are courageous, strong, and the vanguard of a better world for us all.

A Doggy Diatribe

2010-10-25T21:00:00.000-06:00

I have loved a few dogs in my life, but lately, I've od'd on them. Not on the dogs themselves, actually, but on the role they seem to play in people's lives, which is attention getting/intimacy avoiding.

That really cute dog who jumps around, needs to be told to sit, given a biscuit, made to lie down, let outside, let in again...told to stop barking....what that pretty much prevents is a real conversation. We just chat about the dog.

Babies have a similar effect on the social life of parents of course, but babies grow up and the attention lavished on them is needed and worthy. But people get dogs and let them rule their relational life on purpose.

You can, of course, have a dog to cuddle with AND have good friends...just put the dog in its crate or yard or back room when friends come, or train it to curl up and sleep and not insist on being the center of attention.

A Thick Story

2010-10-24T19:11:00.001-06:00

I went to a workshop in New Orleans last weekend and, among other things, heard about "thin" stories and "thick" stories. Thin stories are stories about other people, and tend to be short on detail, on understanding what was really going on, on meaning. Thick stories are about ourselves, what we wanted, meant, hoped for...much more useful.

With that in my mind, when the New Orleans cab driver started in on stories of rape and murder in the convention center during Katrina, thin stories and not even mostly true ones, I interrupted to ask him about his own experience of the hurricane crisis...and he had an extraordinarily story to tell.

Although he lost his home and everything in it, he feels very lucky, because he had homeowners insurance and had an easy time getting both emergency money and re-building money for his destroyed home. Most of his neighbors were not so fortunate. Warming up to his own story, he told us that he had been a manager at WalMart at the time, and had evacuated to Baton Rouge. When he presented himself to the management at WalMart, they saw to it that he was paid his salary and then, headquarters sent him back to New Orleans as soon as it was possible to return, deputized to find as many former WalMart employees as he could and issue them checks for $2,000. He remembered with pleasure that he had been empowered to be helpful to others in that difficult time.

That was a story worth hearing, thick as molasses...and it's still sticking to me!

Blue Blogging

2010-10-15T10:26:00.000-06:00

Today is Blog Action Day 2010, and the invitation is to blog about water...quickly becoming a limiting factor in our global life.

Did you know that more people die because of lack of clean water in our world than because of all forms of violence combined?
Did you know that more people have access to a cell phone than a toilet? (and of course you realize that this is intimately related to #1)
Did you know that here in Albuquerque, a high desert climate, more than half of water use is for landscapes, playing surfaces like soccer fields and golf courses, and pools?
Did you know that one gallon of reverse osmosis bottled water takes 7 to create?
Water is not very portable, so no amount of saving water in Albuquerque will help the folks in Africa. But it may be that the US is maxing out its more abundant water resources pretty fast. (see this article, for instance: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/is-the-us-already-past-the-point-of-peak-water.php)

What to do? The most important thing we can do for our local water supplies is to take a hard look at what we are using outside. Appropriate landscapes, covering pools we use and filling pools we don't use, and sweeping with a broom rather than a hose are all things to consider. The most important thing we can do to help people in other nations is cut down on consumption of imported meat. Meat is the most water-intensive thing we eat and so often, the nations that produce it are allowing the rich to get richer by using all the water to produce meat to sell while the poor go without this necessity of life.

Ghost Bicycle

2010-08-07T15:37:00.002-06:00

Two Ghost Bicycles have appeared in my life, both on the same street, my major commuting street, about five miles apart. Ghost bicycles commemorate bicyclists killed or severely injured, usually by cars. They are stripped down bikes, painted white, labeled with the name of the bicyclist, and since this is New Mexico with our major Hispanic influence, decorated with flowers like the roadside crosses which commemorate motorist deaths in our state.

The project started in St. Louis, just 7 years ago, when a homeowner saw a car strike and kill a bicyclist in front of his house. Horrified, he painted an old bike white, added a sign, "A cyclist was killed here", and locked it to a signpost. He noted the effect this had on motorists and got together with a few others to post 15 more bikes where cyclists had died in the metro area. From this humble start, Ghost Bikes have appeared around the world. There have been some controversies, of course, about where the bikes can be, but most cities are eager to be bike friendly, and it's good for everyone to remember that the worst can happen in a moment of carelessness. This particular bike was moved so far off the road that I hadn't seen it from my car in months; I met it when I took the bike path.

Cyclists have to be reminded to ride safely and sanely, of course, but the vast majority of the bike fatalities in this nation are the fault of the driver of the cars.

So...be careful out there!

Get mad at Girlfriend, Kill a bunch of people.

2010-07-12T12:47:00.000-06:00

It's a common formula. It happened today, here in Albuquerque. It happens a lot. Here are some of the most infamous..which is to say, the ones where more than two people died. The dots on the map of fellows who "just" kill their girlfriend would leave very little white space. (and there'd be a tiny scatting of pink dots representing gals who killed their boyfriends. Usually because he abused her. Has there ever been a girlfriend murdered boyfriend just because he left her? I can't remember it.

When guns are allowed freely in society, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself from gun violence. Which is too bad. In a universe without the current interpretation of the second amendment, this kind of violence would be almost fully preventable.

And you can bet that a man who walked into a crowded office conference room intent on knifing his ex-girlfriend to death would not have been able to do it and would not be now wandering the streets of Albuquerque.

Instead...six dead, four wounded, gunman at large. What a tragedy.

The Secret of Kells

2010-05-31T23:46:00.000-06:00

Our son the animator took us out to see this lovely film tonight, an imaginative, loving, and visually rich little story about how one of humanity's greatest books might have come into being. Look for it with the Inde movies and catch it if you can!

Thirty Years in Ministry

2010-05-28T12:58:00.000-06:00

There was a kind of strange movie out a few years ago, called “Into Great Silence” It was a movie about a monestary so austere that the monks live in silence and solitude, eating most meals in their cells, doing chores and spending hours in silent prayer. They eat together…in silence…once a week, and speak to each other only for a few hours on Sunday afternoons. They clearly thrive in this life.

The movie was mostly silent, the charm of it in the beautiful work of the camera detailing the daily work of these men’s lives. The Monestary is located in the Alps, so the scenery is beautiful, and these monks live in well-kept buildings and rooms. It all looks so peaceful, so restful, so…orderly.

And then the camera comes to the Father Abbot’s office. Alone of all the spaces we have seen so far, this one is cluttered and strewn with papers. It takes only a little French to see that Father Abott has been writing a fund raising letter. It’s a kind of a shock…this surreal place needs money! Furthermore, on Father Abbott’s desk is a telephone. Alone of all the monks, their leader has been talking to the world.

The camera left this scene quickly, having made the point that this place of other-worldly beauty and silence is sustained by the world and its work, and that while the lowly junior novice may live in silence and in prayer, his religious leader has to talk, raise money, and endure enough stress that he never gets his desk cleared off. Apparently Father Abbott thinks it's worth it.

On Tuesday, I will pass the 30th anniversary of my ordination. I think it's worth it, too.

Let's Lose That Word, "Hate".

2010-05-22T17:39:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry to say that I know Hate. I know it from news of young men tied to fence posts and left to die in a snowstorm because other young men were afraid of their sexuality. I know it from pictures of houses torched because the owner was planning to sell it to someone of a different race or religion from the rest of the neighbors. I know it from the personal experience of escorting patients into the Planned Parenthood clinic...shouting, angry men waving bloody overblown pictures at women who mostly were there to get birth control so that they would never have to make the choice the men abhorred. That didn't matter to the wrought-up men. They spewed their fury at anybody who walked in the parking lot. I know it...just once...from the snarled words of a man who believed that God hated women ministers and needed me to know it. It was just once, but I remember it well. Words of hate, someone said, leave footprints in the mind.

Hate is dislike gone rogue, and there is no doubt it exists in our world and does terrible damage. It's a stage of conflict where you're not looking for a solution or even a separation, or even an effective end to your pain. All you want to do is hurt the one you hate.

It's a strong word, and when hateful behavior needs to be named and stopped, we need a strong word.

So...let's not waste the word "hate" on the current immigration debate; at least, not the part of the debate that is taking place in the most civil and democratic way, as it is in Arizona. Call Arizona bill 1070 misguided, unconstitutional, dumb, ineffective; point out all the ways it will hurt the innocent, like children separated from parents and legal residents who don't happen to have their "papers" on their person when they have run a red light, and all of us as our civil rights are eroded. Work endlessly for it's repeal, march and write letters and refrain from entering such a backwards state if that's how you feel.

But let's not throw around that word, "hate." No doubt there is some, but the majority of legislators who passed it don't hate anybody, and they know it. They are trying to solve a big problem that nobody else has been willing or able to solve and they may be misguided and the result unconstitutional and dangerous, but I see absolutely no evidence of hatefulness. It is possible to do great harm, be foolish, and hurt people, all without hate.

To call someone hateful is a very strong accusation. Do it too much and you lose a word which you need when someone has been lynched, when a wayward policemen has spit into anybody's face, when emotions are way out of control and doing terrible, memorable damage for the sheer hell of if. Throw that word "hate" around too much and those you accuse start writing you off as inarticulate and without a real case. Call other people and the causes they think are legitimate "hateful" and it gets harder and harder to convince people that you are standing on the side of love, harder and harder to join the fight, harder and harder to make the compromises which are the essence of politics.

The Buddhists call that "unskillful"; a word which, for it's sheer, understated glory, is unmatched.

Macaroon Season

2010-04-02T22:22:00.000-06:00

iMinister has a friend who has been writing a Passover Haggadah for about a decade (It's a very cool interfaith sort of Haggadah which has finally been published with layout by my husband...you can find it here)
Because of this project, iMinister has been invited to many seders and long ago developed a reputation for making amazing macaroons. Although all she did was follow a recipe from Cooks Magazine, her macaroons never failed to get rave reviews from her friend's mostly Jewish friends who claimed they had never imagined that macaroons could taste so good. It's a pretty easy recipe, once you've found the ingredients. Read carefully!

You will need:
1 cup cream of coconut (the stuff used to make pina coladas; you will find it with the alcoholic drink mixes.)
2T light corn syrup
4 large egg whites
2t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. salt
3 c. UNSWEETENED coconut, shredded (8 oz.) (try the health food store)
3 c. SWEETENED coconut, shredded (8 oz)

1. Preheat oven to 375 and line two cookie sheets with parchment and spray with cooking spray.
2. Combine the two kinds of coconut in a large bowl , break up lumps and toss with your fingers.
3. Combine the other ingredients well, and pour over the coconut and mix until evenly moistened
4. chill dough for 15 minutes
5. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough on the cookie sheets, 1 inch apart. Use your fingers to shape into little pyramids.
6. Bake until light golden brown, about 15 minutes, swapping trays if necessary for even baking.
7. Cool on cookies sheets 2 minutes before removing to cooling racks
8. Dip the bottoms of cooled cookies in melted chocolate chips if desired.

Facebook-Security

2010-03-31T13:27:00.000-06:00

The Rev. Cynthia Landrum has some good tips about Facebook's security settings...a good review for everyone, which you can find here

adddendum to Multi-site Bibliography

2010-03-30T11:11:00.001-06:00

Alban Institute's Susan Beaumont has written about the emerging area of multi-site in mainline congregations here: She has some interesting observations from her work, and the differences between the ways Mainline congregations do Multi-site and how Evangelicals do them. Since most of the multi-site literature assumes the Evangelical mindset, this is interesting stuff!

The Blogger's Hot Stove, week II

2010-03-28T20:44:00.000-06:00

This will be most of the news that's fit to print about the matchmaking between UU churches and ministers. Here is the list of candidates as far as I know them. I hear that five churches are still actively looking for candidates, and at least two have extended their search to another year. And it seems likely that lots of announcements were made in church this morning which have not been posted to websites yet.

Congratulations, all around!

Leslie Becknell Marx - Ashland,

Peter Boullata - 1st Parish Lexington

Eric Kaminetzky - Edmunds, Wa

Kathy Schmitz - Orlando, Fla

JD Benson and Mary Ganz - Brewster, MA

Tom Perchilik - Tacoma, Wa

Bill Sinkford - Portland, Or

Lois Van Leer - Woodenville, WA

Lilia Cuervo - Cambridge (associate)

Shana Lynngood and Melora Lynngood - Victoria, BC

Matt Tittle, Paramus, NJ

Meg Riley Church of the Larger Fellowship

Angela Herrera First Unitarian, Albuquerque (assistant) (a special Yeah! from iMinister on this one!)

Carmen Emerson, Meadville, PA (another special, yeah! to Abq's current intern)

Andrew Millard, Newport News, VA (ditto for a former intern!)

Robin Tanner, Piedmont (Charlotte, NC) (ditto for a current ABQ resident!)

Stephen Sinclair, Indianapolis

Erin Gingrich, Reston, VA

Scott Alexander, Viro Beach, FL

Debra Faulk, Calgery, AB

Jeffery Jones, Marietta, GA

Victoria Ingram, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Iowa City...Search extended another year

Charlottesville, VA....Search extended another year

Facebook for Ministers -Boundaries

2010-03-25T16:58:00.001-06:00

A colleague has asked about Facebook for Ministers, specifically, how to use Facebook without encouraging or (heaven forbid) engaging in boundary violations, and how to use Facebook without it being a time sink.

Boundaries

The most important thing to get clear on is that this world has "friends" and it has "facebookfriends", and they are not the same thing at all, even if the share a syllable. Ministers need to be careful about having "friends" in their congregations, that is to say, people the confide in, let their hair down with, giggle and share and travel with and so on. There are so many good reasons for ministers to be careful about having friends in the congregation that many ministers don't have friends in the congregation at all. These reasons include:

Most people who actively court their ministers as friends don't really want to befriend the person who giggles and shares and travels, they want to befriend the MINISTER and partake, somehow, in the ministerial glitter. (or worse, use the ministerial glitter or the minister's ear to advance their agendas in the church, or, worst of all, what to befriend the minister to assure themselves that scary people like ministers are really just regular joes.) Any sensible minister avoids this like the plague for personal and professional reasons.
Even when the minister develops relationships more naturally, with healthier persons who actually want to know the minister as a person, giggles and glitches and all, there will be some others, who, seeing this relationship, can become jealous and make the minister's professional life difficult.
And when things go south politically in a church, among the very painful things for the minister is to lose friendships just when one most needed them or to see one's friends become estranged from their congregation because of their friendship with the congregation's minister.

Some wise ministers have no friendships in their churches, and some wise ministers have a few, carefully developed friendships with very mature people which, while not secrets, are conducted out of the public eye. All wise ministers nurture friendships outside of their congregation, whether or not they have friendships with members of their congregations

"Facebookfriendship", however, is a completely different critter from friendship. Facebookfriendship is to real friendship what coffee hour is to an encounter group. Facebook is a way of keeping in touch, briefly and pleasantly, with aspects of people's lives in one sentence, one picture, one "read this that I've linked to" bites.

Does FacebookFriendship have boundary issues for ministers? It depends on what you post, not on who your Facebookfriends are. To my mind, the minister's Facebook life should be conducted the way the minister's semi-public life always is...carefully.

I think of it this way. If I was in a long airport security line and behind me was someone from my church...or even someone from my former church, I would not ignore them out of anxious concerns for boundaries or my privacy. We'd exchange news about the doings of our children, our gardens, our political opinions. We might mention things we were reading, how we are feeling, and talk politely about the people we know. That's the kind of stuff I put on my Facebook update.

So, my policy is I Facebookfriend anybody in my church who asks. Any UU who asks, actually. I set all of my security to "only friends can see this". I don't say anything I wouldn't say in the airport line or post any picture I wouldn't, under the right circumstances, show around at coffee hour. And I doubt that I will unbefirend people when I leave this church, any more than I would refuse to talk to them if I found myself in their company.

I only very occasionally leave comments on congregant's posts, although I do very often click "like" when they are reporting happy news. When I read things on congregant's posts which warrent a pastoral response, I send a private messange, an email, or pick up the phone. I've also used the live chat feature in what seemed to be dire circumstances. The point is that the minister doesn't play favorites or have "special" Facebookfriends, at least not on the public side of Facebook.

Therefore...nobody gets any "ministerglitter" from being my facebookfriend, any more than they get it from watching a video from the church website. It's there for everybody. Nobody gets jealous. There are no political implications. There is connection, but not real friendship. But those connections are interesting and valuable.

Why Facebook for Ministers?

2010-03-24T22:21:00.000-06:00

A colleague has asked me why she should be involved in Facebook, what the boundary issues are, and how to not let it be a time sink. Good questions. Here are my answers.

One reason to be on Facebook is to interface with the many ministerial colleagues who are on Facebook. In terms of keeping us in touch with each other, our families, transitions, and daily lives, Facebook rocks. The UUMA Chat (email list) is fine for asking people's opinions of things. Facebook is for whose kids have graduated from preschool, whose parents are dying, who is having a rotten week, who has what hobbies. It's for sharing links to articles and crowing over the perfect sermon title. It's quick to post, quick to read, quick to comment on. I feel MUCH more connected to my colleagues than I ever have before.

A second reason to be on Facebook is that the people of our churches are on Facebook, from the 9 year olds to the 70 year olds. They, too, are commenting about what they are reading, how they are feeling, what's going on with their parents and kids, what the stresses and joys of their lives are. The savvy pastor can, in minutes, respond to those things with a quick click on "like", or easily send a private message of support or congratulations. The preacher who is wondering what her people are thinking and worrying about will be very interested in the links they post, and enriched by reading the articles and comments.

A third reason to be on Facebook is that if you serve a mid-sized or larger church, only some of your congregation will have the opportunity to know you the way all would in a smaller congregation...that is, know about your children, your parents, your hobbies, your reading interests. They might ask you about such things if they caught you around church in an idle moment, and you'd probably respond, but...they mostly can't get to you. Through Facebook, they can see the public side of the minister's life. They like that.

A fourth reason to be on Facebook is that your church should have a page on Facebook, for the same reason it has a website; people will look for it and use it to get information and work up their courage to visit. If you want to see that page, you need a Facebook account. The fact that the minister has a Facebook page is an important signal to trend-setting Facebook users, that this church and its leaders are a part of the culture in the 21st century. You want to appeal to anybody under 50 and many over, you want to send that signal.

A final reason to be on Facebook is that the wise minister has fun, and lots of people find Facebook to be a fun way to keep up with friends, relatives, and culture, and they use it as a platform for computer games. Speaking for myself, I love knowing what my niece and nephew are up to and there's nothing as relaxing after difficult board meetings than working on my Farmville virtual crops. But...that's optional.

Guest Postings

2010-03-24T11:59:00.000-06:00

The Rev. Harlan Limpert, VP of the UUA, has asked to be an author on this blog to get input and feedback about ministerial matters from this distinguished group of readers. He will write more about his work and his questions in the next few days. I hope you will welcome and comment on his posts.

Blogger's Hot Stove

2010-03-22T18:45:00.000-06:00

The real "hot stove" list of invitations from churches to ministers to candidate is being kept on Facebook this year. Some people are still slogging away without Facebook, and for those readers, here is the list so far.

Leslie Becknell Marx - Ashland,

Peter Boullata - 1st Parish Lexington

Eric Kaminetzky - Edmunds, Wa

Kathy Schmitz - Orlando, Fla

JD Benson and Mary Ganz - Brewster, MA

Tom Perchilik - Tacoma, Wa

Bill Sinkford - Portland, Or

Lois Van Leer - Woodinville, WA

Lilia Cuervo - Cambridge (associate

Shana Lynngood and Melora Lynngood - Victoria, BC

There are many more matches in the making which have not yet been made public, but it should be a great week for matchmaking!

And by the way, for all of you readers who don't "do" Facebook....you really should! The times they have a chang-ed.

Hot Stove II: The Cooperative Enterprise

2010-03-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Posting all the candidates for new UU pulpits as they are announced in the next week is a big job and I'll need lots of help. For starters, the list of churches in search is always a work in progress. Search Committees which asked that their application period be closed are no longer on the list, for instance. So, the first task for all of us interested folks is to compile the list of churches expecting to settle ministers in this search season. Here is what I know. Readers? It's up to you! Are there other "pregnant" churches out there?

Church in Search

Calgary, Alberta

Birmingham, Alabama

Victoria, British Columbia

Fremont, CA

Danbury CT

Jacksonville FL

Orlando FL

Very Beach FL

Athens GA

Iowa City IA

Bloomington IL

Stockton, IL

Indianapolis IN

West Lafayette IN

Beverly MA

Billerica MA

Boston, CLF

Brewster MA

Cambridge, MA (Associate)

Lexington MA

Newton MA

Plymouth MA

Sharon MA

Martha's Vinyard

Portland ME

Bloomfield Hills MI

Brighton MI

Detroit MI

Troy MI

Kalispell MT

Omaha NE

Concord NH

Albuquerque NM (Assistant)

Bowling Green OH

Hamilton On

London ON

Portland OR (First)

Bethlehem PA

Meadville PA

Aiken SC

Sioux Falls SD

Houston TX (First)

Charlottesville VA

Newport News VA

Reston, VA

Edmonds WA

Eau Claire WI

the "Hot Stove"

2010-03-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

Because my church has an intern and staff member in search and is itself in search, and because I was listed as a reference for several colleagues in search, I've taken a greater-than-usual interest in the search process this year. In past years another blogger has taken on listing who is going where but that blog is off the books now. If no one else is planning to provide this public service to the UU world, I will volunteer for the blogsphere and Facebook. Monday is the first day churches are making official matches, but yesterday the UUA announced their pick for the next Transitions Director (coordinates UUA services to churches and ministers in search), so that seems to me to be the fitting opening of the endgame of the season. So, dear readers, please do let me know when you discover who is going where....

Keith Kron -Transitions Director

Twittering

2010-03-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

iMinister has made a discipline of studying the Tao Te Ching for many years. At the moment she has set herself to creating a twitter reminder of each chapter. (Twitter rules: only 140 characters to a "tweet". Just call this modern Haiku.) You can follow her on Twitter. www.twitter.com, under "revcrobinson".

Thought for the Day

2010-02-27T08:19:00.001-07:00

I have three treasures

Simplicity, Patience, Compassion -Tao Te Ching

Multi-Site Bibliography

2010-01-08T08:24:00.003-07:00

One church meeting at multiple locations is a very hot trend in American church life, for lots of reasons. I wish it were a hotter trend in the Unitarian Universalist world, but two churches are actively trying it, mine and First Unitarian in San Diego. There are lots of variations on the theme, and here's some of the media buzz on the subject. If your church is thinking about multi site, please leave a comment..I'm feeling very lonely!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-12-17-1Amultichurches17_CV_N.htm?csp=usat.me (New York City: one pastor preaching live in several locations)

http://www.outreachmagazine.com/index.php?news=3367 (Impact of multi-site on the Evangelical side of the religious world

http://www.thirdquarterconsulting.com/ Blog devoted to Multi-site (Evangelical perspective)

http://www.thirdquarterconsulting.com/ audio of a panel discussion with one dissenter about the benefits of multi site (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20091022/u-s-pentecostals-push-multi-site-church-strategy/ Multi Site from a Pentecostal perspective.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20091001/mergers-with-larger-churches-revive-dying-ones/ Multi-Site as an alternative to closing churches which have become too small.

Five books on the subject can be found at Amazon by clicking the link on the right of this blog and searching for "multi-site" (If you buy anything, the church gets 5% of your purchase...thanks!)

Continuing the dialogue on credentialing

2009-12-27T16:03:00.003-07:00

Earl Koteen replies here to Wayne Arneson's post which is, here.

Here are my thoughts on his thoughts:

On the subject of who should be involved in credentialing ministers...

I think that our current system of having ministers, lay persons, and representatives of the denominational institution all involved in ministerial credentialing is the single strongest aspect of our ministerial credentialing process. Many professions attempt to be self-regulating and disaster lies in that direction. All the stakeholders in the health of Unitarian Universalism should have a part in the creation of the standards and in the examining process.

I have my doubts about regional credentialing, since few ministers stay in one region for their career. I would prefer to think about dividing the massive MFC workload in another way. Currently one MFC deals with all levels of credentialing, from setting the standards in the first place, through overseeing the RSCC, through the Preminiary Fellowship Process. It also does all the work (increasing) of granting waivers to MFC rules (whether an intern can remain for a time in the employment of the internship church, for instance), deals with the renewals of Fellowship during the probationary period and granting of Final Fellowship, and finally, deals with complaints about ministers and the disciplining of ministers.

It seems to me that this could be broken down into as many as four areas; the standard-setting itself, the admission into preliminary fellowship (and waivers needed up until that time), the probationary period leading up to admission into Final Fellowship (and waivers), and the disciplinary process. Yes, once upon a time it made sense to give all this related work to one committee for the sake of consistency and buy-in. With a ministry twice the size and quadruple the complexity of a generation ago, it is time for a change. This would have the additional benefit of getting more people involved in this important process.

Earl writes:

3. The broader question is the following: Should there be a substantive review/examination before a candidate is accepted for preliminary fellowship, or should a candidate automatically be accepted for preliminary fellowship when the candidate has successfully completed all the requirements (M.Div., CPE, internship, etc.)? This question revolves around whether this examination is worth the resources expended. Without going into a long argument here, let's just note that some ministers have reported that getting a "3" (do "X" and come back for a 2nd interview) helped prepare them for ministry.

Two issues here...

First, there's no question in my mind that we need a substantive review before new ministers are allowed to serve churches. It is quite possible to get an M.Div but with such poor grades that one's fitness is in question, to complete a CPE or internship but with major red flags raised in evaluations. Someone, staff or volunteer, has to go through this material and make recommendations and decisions. The question in my mind is how this gets done. Interviewing might not be necessary, at least not in most cases. On the other hand reference checking, (by phone and email) something that is not now done, might be a much more useful and cost-efficient way to get a picture of the candidate.

As to the issue of folks who got a "3" finding the work they were required to do useful, hopefully, that is what mostly happens. If you've got to spend a year you didn't anticipate preparing for a career, with the shame, the financial costs, and the family issues it often raises, then the strongest candidates will find a way to make that year useful and will be smart enough to say so to the committee. (That doesn't mean that the extra year and work were necessary, only that they were useful.) But it also does happen that people who must return for a second interview are basically told, "it just wasn't a very good interview. We don't have any real recommendations, you seem to have a lot of strengths, we just want to see you again." This, as a matter of fact, is what happened to me, lo these 30 years ago. And I've heard of it happening since, more than once. It's actually inevitable with this system of a high-stakes interview. Sometimes the candidate will have a bad 45 minutes, sometimes the committee will have a bad 45 minutes. Sometimes the committee will have helpful suggestions, sometimes they just "don't see a minister", and leave the candidate with this baffling information and an invitation to, in a year, try again. Maybe it's the only way. Useful as it may be for some, it is dreadfully expensive for all.

I was struck with Earl's recommendation that during the probationary period of a young minister that a more independent evaluation be made than currently. At the moment the MFC relies on the minister's self-evaluation and two evaluations from within the congregation; usually the Board and the Committee on Ministry. Ministers in preliminary fellowship live in fear that some rogue person on one of those two committees will get enough licks in that their application for renewal will be denied. It seems to me that the fear of this is heightened in the past 30 years, but perhaps I was so isolated from most of my colleagues during my preliminary fellowship years that I missed this. At any rate, I would note that District Execs often have a more holistic view of a ministry/congregational relationship than either party and their wisdom should be a part of the mix of Preliminary Fellowship renewals. I also wish that the mentoring process for new ministers was much stronger; that mentors made site visits and the relationship was something more than 9 or 10 phone calls a year. But that's another subject.

More on Ministerial Credentialing

2009-12-25T13:31:00.001-07:00

Some interesting comments about the MFC and our credentialing process here

What Would I Do About Credentialing?

2009-12-12T11:16:00.002-07:00

David asks what I would do. The most important thing I would do is study, talk to people, and learn, not only in our denomination but from other faith communities, for the potential for unintended consequences in any changes to our credentialing processes is very large. I have loved this creative conversation...I think it's the "out there" ideas that will help us thread our way through the many aspects of our needs and hopes.

I do have a list of things that I think warrant further study and conversation.

The impact of credentialing on the time it takes to prepare for ministry, and the cost/benefits to Unitarian Universalism and individuals of that time.
I myself am biased against the idea that the best way to figure out who is qualified to be a UU minister is a brief, high stakes interview. Maybe this is the only way, but it disadvantages the people who don't perform well and those who fall outside "the norm", whatever that happens to be at the moment. And really...isn't it basically out of sync with ministry, which is a deep, relational, long-form career?
There have always been interesting congregational polity issues when the denomination "keeps the list of ministers" who are deemed qualified to serve congregations-who-are-free-to call-whom-they-wish. It seems to me that this issue comes down to two points. Firstly, there are some things that congregations just can't do very well, so denominations do them. Publishing RE material is an example. Doing the hard work of ministerial credentialing is another. But what exactly can denominations discern in ministerial candidates that search committees can't? I think we should give that a hard look. In his piece, Wayne talked a lot about what congregations want and need, but actually, I think we're both guessing on this score and doing some wishful thinking. I also think that there is a legitimate reason for denominations to care about the quality and preparation of "its" ministers, irrespective of what congregations want. Most congregations really don't care whether their ministers know how many districts there are in the UUA, or how the MFC is selected, but you could make the case that a denomination should care...at least that "its" ministers can generally answer and quickly find the specifics of these questions. However, I think that it would be best to be clearer and more transparent about who needs ministers to know what.
Speaking of factual knowledge, I think that if we decide a certain level of factual knowledge is important, that written, comprehensive exams are much fairer to candidates than hit or miss questioning in a high tension environment and I think that this should be looked into.
If ministry is one of many careers in which you can't really predict success until someone is actually doing it, (see this very interesting article) then our three part credentialing series is out of whack. Let's talk about that!
Finally, any system we create has to be doable by the ordinary volunteers and staff that we can afford. At the moment most UU's couldn't possibly serve on the MFC; the work load is massive. Overworked volunteers making pressured decisions....this is not a recipe for quality. And I would like to see processes in place by which the process could be evaluated. Records, statistics, and open reporting is the friend of the excellence we all strive for.

A Modest Proposal on Credentialing

2009-12-12T05:55:00.002-07:00

I am remembering back about 15 years, when John Weston re-worked the settlement process. When I first entered ministry, the process could only be described as paternalistic. The Settlement Director, using his knowledge of ministers in search and of congregations, created lists of applicants for each search committee. If the settlement director didn't think you were an appropriate candidate for a particular church, you could submit your name without recommendation, but that put you at a huge disadvantage and was rarely done. If the settlement director thought you should broaden your search horizon, your name might appear on lists you had not imagined. (That's how I got to Albuquerque, as a matter of fact. I had limited my search to the east, but my name was submitted in spite of that. I got over my anoyance, I was wooed, cupid struck, and 22 years later, here I am. I was also not permitted to apply for a church that I and others felt I was qualified to apply for and had to appeal that decision to the director of the Department of Ministry. By the time my name was actually sent, that search committee had made it's choice of pre-candidates. I tell these stories not because I'm mad but to illustrate the power that position once had and how it was used.)

There is no doubt in my mind that those who liked that system could have written many paragraphs about how it had developed very logically and sensibly and with the needs of search committees, applicants, and the denomination as a whole, and why it was the best possible system but for reasons I don't know, other than John Weston's passion for congregational autonomy, it was changed.

Now the process is much more open and search committees have much more responsibility to discern for themselves who will best serve them. All information about churches is posted, any minister who wants to apply can apply, and then the vetting begins. Among the consequences that I am aware of; some of our large churches are served by young and new ministers, ministers who would not have seemed to the "powers that be" to have earned the right to apply to a prestigious pulpit. Some of our fastest growing large churches are served by these ministers who otherwise would not have had the opportunity.

As we look again at the ministerial credentialing process, I think we should start, not with how we got to where we are, but with what congregations actually need and expect from beginning ministers, and how we can maximize the openness we espouse for congregations while carefully doing whatever examining and gatekeeping we feel we need as a denomination both for the good of the whole and for the good of individual congregations. As a for instance, I think that search committees are often not able to discern the presence of some kinds of personality problems which can wreak havoc in ministry. Things like psychological testing and in depth reference checking might be best done for search committees at the denominational level. As another for instance, we as a whole denomination have a stake in a ministry which is well-grounded in our history and polity; issues of relatively small import to search committees which have much more local concerns in mind. Therefore a credentialing process which looks at a candidate's knowledge in these two areas is important (though I believe that this should be done mostly through written comps, not through the hit and miss spot checking of factual knowledge in an interview process.)

As we take a hard look at our, lets face it, paternalistic credentialing process, I think we should take a good look at what happened when we did away with our paternalistic search process. We might find some cautionary notes, but mostly, I think, that hard look will give us the courage to imagine change.

Yet More Voices on Ministerial Credentialing

2009-12-10T14:27:00.002-07:00

Polity Wonk has an interesting, extensive reform proposal here.

Calling Ministers asks the crucial question, "What does a minister look (sound, feel) like" ( in a credentialing interview?), here

Blogging, Facebook, and Collegial Conversations on Credentialing

2009-12-09T15:50:00.004-07:00

This Blog appears automatically on my Facebook page, and I have noticed in the past few months that there are more comments on my blog on my Facebook page than on the blog itself. So, if you want to read more, join up with Facebook and ask to be my "Facebook friend."

The march of technology is marching on..

The next three blog posts are from Wayne Arnason and are meant to be read in reverse order, so skip ahead and read back for the greatest understanding of the points he is making about ministerial credentialing. Some good comments have been left here, too

How We Got to our current ministerial Credentialing System: Wayne Arnason

2009-12-09T10:17:00.001-07:00

The comments made thus far make me want to review my own understanding of the reason we have a centralized Ministerial Fellowship Committee system. As I understand it, it's because the representatives of congregations serving on the UUA Board (mostly lay people, with some ministers) decided that congregations needed some system of assurance that the diversity of ministers who might be candidates for their pulpits all meet some agreed-upon basic standards of competence, apart from and independent of the standards created by the seminaries or the ministers association, neither of which are subject to the control of the association of congregations. The pre-merger system that the Universalists had, which involved accreditation of ministers on a regional basis (more like what the much larger UCC uses) was rejected. My presumption is that this rejection happened in part because of a Unitarian penchant for more centralized control, but I also think that the representative of congregations rightly believed that the different geographic regions of the United States and Canada had different kinds and concentrations of congregations and therefore different capacities for doing this kind of in-care and credentialing in a consistent way. From the beginning, we had the premise that our search and settlement system would be an open continental process, without any geographic limitations associated with the region in which you currently live or were credentialed (as is the case with some other congregational polity settlement systems). The system we created at merger believed that a centralized system for ministerial settlement would work better over time for an association of congregations our size.

So imagine with me a conversation that goes through the logic of the system we currently have. Imagine a group of lay members of search committees being asked to design a UU system for ministerial accreditation from scratch. Let 's assume that they have figured out that a system with most of our current requirements has merit. (This is a big assumption, of course, and the MFC is currently planning to review how we read the Career Assessments and the CPE evaluations,) For purposes of this essay, let’s assume that we agree that a system that requires from candidates an M. Div. or equivalent, a required reading list, a CPE, an internship or its equivalent, and recommendations from suitable lay leaders, teachers, and ministers is one we have agreed on. So after that the conversation might go like this:

"Person A: So who reviews all this to make sure it's in order?

Person B: It would have to either be done by volunteers or a hired staff person. I guess it depends on whether you see the review’s purpose as just to check off these requirement on a list? Or would this staff person or a volunteer group have to go through all the documentation to assure that it was in order and had no red flags?

Person C: I wouldn't want it to just be a check list system. The evaluative materials can have a lot of variation in them. They would have to be read through. So can this be done by just one person? How many of these new ministers would we expect to have to handle in a year?
Person A: Well, over time, as our ministry grows, it wouldn't surprise me if we had several hundred ministers in preparation and as maybe sixty or seventy a year who would be ready to have their preparation evaluated.

Person B: It's more work than a staff person could do. We would need a few of them.

Person C: Is this really staff work? Isn't it likely that the staff people hired to oversee a credentialing system would be ministers? I think we'd need to have significant lay involvement in approving credentials if the purpose of this is to assure congregations that the minister that can apply to serve them have a basic standard of competency.

Person A: I guess ideally you would like a blended group of experienced ministers and lay people. So maybe you could have staff members assemble and even summarize the evaluative materials that needed to be read and send them to readers, maybe one lay and one minister? and if they agreed that the person's written material was good to go, they could enter in "fellowship" with the UUA and be recommended to congregations.

Person B: I guess that could work -- but would these two people never actually meet the candidate? I've been on a search committee before, and we read through several thoroughly prepared packets, but the choice we eventually made for who would be our minister was finally influenced by the interviews we held, and not just by the packet. Don't you think that the persons reading over the evaluative materials should also meet the person at least once and talk with them about their preparation? That's more like what really happens in a search.

Person C: That sounds like a good idea to me. But how would you feel about your minister being chosen by a group of only two people on a search committee? If we're going to create interviews I'm not sure the opinions of two people is enough when it comes to whether we “see a minister” in that person. It’s hard to get much diversity in a group of two! Maybe the interview should be done a full committee of people, at least six or seven.

Person A: A national committee of people? Sounds expensive! Why couldn't it be done by regional volunteer groups? Maybe you could avoid the interview if the people in a regional volunteer group already knew the candidate?

Person B: That could work in a region that has the occasional ministerial candidate coming out of the congregations in a district. But what about districts that contain one of the seminaries that many UU students attend? What about those with large congregations that might have three or four candidates for ministry emerge over a period of a few years? How do regional volunteer groups work when a candidate for ministry has left the area to attend a seminary or where there are many candidates in a small geographic area? Does each have their own in-care evaluative team? How many volunteers would this need? Who would gather them and to whom would they be accountable?

Person B: A centralized national evaluative group would likely be less expensive than the cost of supporting district based committees. If you go with the premise that an interview is valuable, then a regionally based system would still require face to face meetings and the expenses they incur. I guess the cost would depend on how big the regions were. I'd be more comfortable with a system where I knew that no matter where a person went to seminary, UU or non-UU, and no matter what size or style of home church they came out of, they all get reviewed by a group of people who have developed common standards and disciplines from this review.

Person C: When would this review and interview happen? Maybe we could have a local checklist system that allows a person who has completed all the requirements to be ordained and begin working? The congregation or agency would evaluate the person after three years and then the person would be interviewed by a national credentialing body that would grant them final fellowship.

Person A: I'm not sure whether I'd want my congregation to be served by someone whose preparation had only been affirmed by a seminary or regional body. That is, unless it was someone we already knew who had a history with our congregation? I'm starting to get the feeling that regional credentialing would somehow need to be matched with a regional settlement system, and I'm not sure that the UUA is large enough for that to work. The regional volunteer demands on lay leaders and ministers are already pretty heavy."

Here ends this imaginary conversation that suggests to me the way that the logic of the current system has evolved. The values that inform it seem to me to be consistency of standards and good stewardship of limited resources and volunteer time. As we continue this discussion about credentialing, what I’m hearing from the President and the Board is that the reason we’re doing this is to insure we can attract and form new ministers who can not only serve the congregations we have but also help transform and create the congregations we need for the future. While suggestions for reform of particular parts of the current process are and will be welcome, I would like to see them framed by consideration of the resources required to make the change and the payoff in terms of formation of the ministers we need.

Wayne Arnason

Ministerial Credentialing: Four Questions from Wayne Arneson

2009-12-08T18:00:00.001-07:00

My perception is that there have been four major questions about the architecture of the current accreditation system mentioned on this web discussion so far.

1) should the UUMA be responsible for accrediting ministers or should the UUA? Several people posting have suggested that it should be a UUMA responsibility although without much elaboration on the practical difficulties of that proposal. Clyde Grubbs has noted that the position of the UUA Board always has been that credentialing must be owned by the congregations, not the ministers, and their view is unlikely to change.

2) should there be a centralized credentialing process or should it be done by regional systems? Some colleagues posting believe that a regional system would be inherently more intimate and authentic than a national system and that there would be no issues with consistency among regionally based systems.

3) should there be an interview? So much anxiety seems to focus on the interview. Would our credentialing process be just as effective without it? Steve Eddington argues it would.

4) should there be preliminary fellowship? or should those who complete the documentable requirements be ordained, allowed into settlement, and then evaluated for fellowship one time, after three years of service.This is a possibility that Christine Robinson has explored.

Wayne Arnason for the MFC has thoughts to share

2009-12-08T10:12:00.003-07:00

This guest post from Wayne Arnason comes in multi parts. Keep checking in!

I've hesitated to join in on this very engaging thread about ministerial credentialing, because as Chair of the MFC I run the dual risks of being seen as a defender of the status quo, or being seen as the spokesman for the MFC or the UUA (as "owner" of the MFC). In posting these thoughts, I hope I am neither. I affirm Christine Robinson's appreciation for the quality and tone of most of this conversation. I do appreciate and believe in the many assurances from colleagues who are sharing their opinions while noting that critiques of the current process are not intended to reflect personally on the individuals charged with implementing and overseeing it. Thank you! The delay in posting this was brought about by this week’s meeting on the MFC which demanded all my attention.

Last spring the MFC requested an outside review of the UUA's credentialing process by the UUA Board because the demands of our routine tasks allow too little time to undertake a comprehensive self-evaluation. As this review gets under way, with the review team still to be named, I will suggest that Tamara Payne-Alex, the project manager appointed by the Board for excellence in ministry work, follow this discussion on the iminister blog. Tamara is a lay leader who does not have access to the uuma chat. The “Calling Ministers” blog written by Early Koteen also has reflections on ministerial examining and interviewing that would be of interest to all reading this thread.

Despite our time limitations, the MFC is routinely undertaking evaluative continuing education at each meeting that brings a particular aspect of our process or our required competencies under scrutiny. This year our work has been focused on the interview itself and the way we ask questions. We are also reviewing the possibilities for a competency for ministers in sexual health.

Ministerial Credentialing-What I Notice

2009-11-29T08:37:00.002-07:00

What I notice in this discussion, in the several venues that it is taking place, heartens me about our faith.

Firstly, it's been a serious, creative discussion, as if this issue of ministerial credentialing matters deeply to the health of our faith and is therefore worth wrestling with.

Secondly, that there appears to be a consensus that all individual persons within the system are doing the best they can with that system. There's been no blaming, there have been plenty of kudos, and there's a lot of curiosity and hope.

Finally, there has been no suggestion that there is no need for the MFC, for credentialing in general. No one is advocating that we do for credentialing what we did in settlement, which is to open the system to several kinds of free choice. The longing is for us to do a better job of discernment in credentialing, not that there be no credentialing.

Some of this is to protect vulnerable churches with their volunteer search committees and boards, but I think another part is deeper; for all that some hesitate to call us a "denomination", that some are anti-clerical, that some are radical individualists, we all seem to want to be proud of the people who have the right to call themselves Unitarian Universalist Ministers.

And I think that that is a good thing.

Ministerial Education; Ideas from Clyde Grubbs

2009-11-29T07:03:00.001-07:00

A guest Posting from my colleague Clyde Grubbs

The UUA has since the merger maintained a list of ministers in fellowship and the Board of Trustee's has appointed and exercised oversight over its Ministerial Fellowship Committee. The mandate of the MFC is maintain the list of ministers in fellowship. The UUA Board of Trustees jealously guards its fiduciary responsibility over ministerial fellowship. I recall when I was on the UUMA exec there were discussions with the MFC of the UUMA being involved in panels that would work with ministers seeking specialized ministries that would be recognized at Final Fellowship. The UUA BoT said no way, the UUA has sole responsibility for Fellowship. (No outsourcing.)

My observation of the UUA is that an attempt at fundamental change to the principle of a unitary MFC overseeing the whole process would meet massive institutional resistance. Such a proposal would need a broad and committed constituency to enact such a radical change. Since, I do not see that constituency, I think that it safe to assume the MFC will survive as long as the corporate UUA survives.

I think the discussion has indicated that present process is dysfunctional (works with pain) and not user friendly (seeks objectives unrelated to the perceived needs of the students.)

We could compare our credentialing system to other professions, and conclude that ours is just as terrible as others, but that does not help us seek some possible reforms that might make the credentialing process work a little better and with a little less pain.

1. First, our present system is trying to do too much with too little funds. So proposals must be redistributive, take money from somewhere and put it somewhere else. We can't add on to the present system, without cuts.

1. When the Regional SubCommittee(s) on Candidacy was proposed in the early 1990s it was supposed to function as a UU version of an in care system. The advocates talked of retreats and getting to know the students and finding ways to discern who should continue and who should not. By the time the RSCs were actually instituted in the late 1990s the vision had been watered down to a way to discourage unlikely aspirants to the ministry before they acquired to much debt. The RSCs have failed even this more modest goal.

3. We must conclude that the RSCs have devolved to just another hoop for students to jump over, granting candidate status based on an interview and paper work. They function simply to prescreen aspirants and while that function takes some burden from the MFC it does not change the quality of the ministerial formation process at all. Students are screened rather than nurtured and formed. Like child abuse victims many survivors enter our ministry resentful and regard the good people who serve on the RSCs and MFC as "strangers," "people with their own agendas" and other language indicating alienation rather feeling collegially embraced. For me, the Unitarian Universalist Ministry belongs the community of Unitarian Universalists and we together serve that community. Our process of credentialing must be part of a process of formation for full participation in that Unitarian Universalist Ministry.

4. Based on the above, I propose we seriously think of phasing out the RSCs and instead building an in - care system for formation, discernment and support closer to the students. I pray for a in care team made up of ministers in final fellowship and experienced lay folk who would work with a aspirant through the candidacy process and to the point of appointment with the MFC. The MFC would extend candidate status when the local in care team recommend that the aspirant has the potential to pursue fellowship. The student would make an appointment with the MFC when the local in care team recommends that they are ready to see the MFC. Since these local structures would not need funds for travel, hotel and what not they would free up funds for program costs. (Things we require students to do like CPE and Career Evaluation should be paid for.) The MFC could also meet more often or be expanded so it could meet with students on a timely basis. Long waits are cruel.

4. I am convinced that theologians need supervised clinical practice and reflection on that practice. But we do need to find ways to help pay for the cost of taking Clinical Pastoral Education.

5. I think theological education must evolve away from expensive residency programs toward on line and week long intensives. This would mean students would be less concentrated in Boston, San Francisco Bay, Chicago etc. and could continue deep relationship with congregations. It would mean in care and formation would be shared by a larger cadre of ministers in the vicinity.

6. The above wouldn't work for everyone. Lots of folks go off to theological school to discover themselves and end up in our ministry and would find the long time nurture and more intimate locality of an in care system an imposition. They would long for the day when becoming a UU minister was just a series of hoop jumping exercises. But one can't please everyone.

Cookies for My Readers

2009-11-28T16:13:00.006-07:00

Christmas in the Robinson-Baker household is not complete without these cookies. I made them early so my son could take them back to college with him. Ah, the sweet smells of Christmas...

I share this easy but very distinctive recipe for beautiful cookies about which people will say, when you take them year after year to holiday events, "Oh, those are so good...I remember them from last year!"

Sepculating on Ministerial Formation

2009-11-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

These are the thoughts of my colleague Steve Edington of Nashua, NH

Say we take a population of 100 individuals who have prepared for the UU ministry and have all met the following criteria at approximately the same time:

*Have an MDiv or equivalent degree

*Have completed the requisite CPE requirement for Fellowship

*Have done an internship and received a favorable evaluation from their supervisor

*Have taken the required psychological evaluations and been declared sane enough, and emotionally fit, for the UU ministry

*Have completed any of the other requirements for Fellowship that I've overlooked, short of the MFC interview

We divide this population into Groups A and B with 50 in each group. Those in Group A each go before the MFC and those who get good numbers go into the search process as per usual. Those in Group B bypass the MFC and go straight into the search process. Enough persons in each group (say, at least 30) get settlements in parish or community ministries and launch into their ministerial careers.

Now, (for you who are still with me) those conducting this experiment devise a set of criteria for measuring a successful ministry, which I will not spin out here. We track the ministers in each group for, let's say, ten years to see how they measure up to the "successful ministry" criteria; and at the end of those ten years we see how many successful ministers/ministries we have from Groups A and B.

And the question is (if you haven't guessed it already): Do you think there would be an appreciable difference in the successful ministers in Groups A and B?

My answer, based as I'll admit, on sheer personal speculation, is No. This does not mean I'm opposed to any kind of a credentialing process, only that I have some serious reservations about how well the one we now have in place is serving our ministry, and by extension, our liberal religious movement.

Final caveat: Nothing contained in this post is in any way meant disparage, diminish, or demean the fine, competent, and dedicated individuals who serve, or have served, on the MFC. I'm only asking if there's a better way. Got some thoughts on that too but this has gone on too long as it is.

The cost of credentialing "mistakes"

2009-11-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

My colleague Dan Hotchkiss writes this very interesting comment to an earlier post, which I thought I'd bring up to the front page:

Your suggestion of waiting till a candidate has three years of ministry service before evaluating fitness is an interesting one. My experience as UUA settlement (now transitions) director, 1990-97, was that the search committees not only gave more time and attention to candidates, but also were the only part of the system that consistently had the spine to say no. The seminaries had a financial incentive to say yes; the MFC caught flak whenever they said no, and so did I. My impression is that the MFC says no a little more often than it did then, but that the Department has relinquished the gatekeeper role. So more than ever, the search committees are the place where the buck stops. When they make a mistake, though, three years' bad experience is a high price for the congregation.

My first thought is that a congregation evaluates a minister's performance, up close, personal, and continually and is perfectly free to part company with that minister long before preliminary Fellowship is over. For the MFC, a pattern of short tenures would surely weigh very heavily against the granting of Final Fellowship, just as it does now.

However, since the main reason...I believe the only stated reason.. for the whole credentialing process is to try to prevent the high cost (to congregations, although ministers and their families bear a hight cost, too) of inept, unprepared, or unsuitable persons getting through the search process and doing harm to congregations, I think we should ask ourselves (and probably gather real data on) the kinds of ministerial issues which do real harm to congregations. Because, as any HR director will tell you, every time you hire somebody you take a risk, and even pros have a considerable failure rate. No credentialing process will make ministerial settlement easy or foolproof.

It is my impression (based on 30 years of cursory observation and in depth knowledge of two church histories and lots of anecdotal evidence...but I know of no real statistics on this matter) that there are two kinds of minsiterial settlement "mistakes," and that that have different costs. The first kind of settlement mistake happens when someone is called to a position that they don't, in retrospect, have the skill or interest to hold. Their preaching may be just not up to snuff in the long run, they may lack real understanding of church systems, they may not be able to muster the emotional energy or emotional intelligence to cope with the situation, they may discover that they can't cope with the social situation, hate the landscape, or have health or family issues that keep them from focusing on their work. The cost of this kind of problem, when it is bad enough to require the minister to leave, is considerable, there's no doubt about it; money and lost momenteum on the part of the congregation, and the need to move to a more appropriate job or line of work for the minister (and their family.)

But almost everybody adjusts and moves on from this kind of situation and lives happily ever after.

The settlement "mistakes" that I think of as terribly costly and damaging, the ones which come up over and over again in histories of congregations are not simple matters of lack of skill or focus, they are instead matters of poor ministerial mental health, personality disorder, leadership style, lack of emotional intelligence, and inability to maintain good boundaries. (All of these problems can become predominant in the lay leadership of a congregation, which also causes settlement failures but that's another subject.) It may be that others have a different take on this issue, but if I could wave my magic wand, I'd give us a foolproof tool for weeding out candidates with the above issues. Lacking the magic wand, I'd focus ministerial credentialing on doing a better job on this part of the score.

For the past 30 years, ministers have been screened for mental health and fitness in a psychological exam (the old days) or Career Center Screening (current practice). There is almost always a psychologist on the MFC. But it's clear to me that these tools are not adequate to the task and people with significant problems slip through. Fewer now than in the old days, and there's less damage done now that, as a society, a denomination, and a professional organization we've become clearer about the incredible damage that sexual misconduct can do and are quicker to report it and act on it. Still, I wonder if we are using state of the art tools. (Actually, I'm pretty sure that we are not). Because my observation is that this is where the rubber of preventing harm hits the credentialing road.

Eliz Curtis on credentialing

2009-11-26T21:32:00.003-07:00

This is a guest post from Eliz Curtis. She blogs at Politywonk

My political science undergraduate training emphasized what was called

"small group dynamics" and "group think" as a pitfall in decision-making.

Small self-contained groups tend to make decisions based not on discreet

sets of facts, but on the needs and dynamics of their ongoing

relationship. Each player comes in with larger goals and continuencies;

they need these other folks on board to serve those objectives. In

military parlance, this is the difference between "tactical" thinking --

short-term, here-and-now goals -- versus "strategic" -- how does this fit

into the larger objective. We who see the MFC do not want to be cannon

fodder for the larger visions of ministry each committee member brings,

but that can be what happens.

It does not mean any MFC member is to blame. It means they spend tons of

time fashioning their larger visions, rather than listening to specific

congregations.

Purists among our historians point out that during the heyday of

congregational authority, ordination applied only to the congregation

which bestowed it. There was no such thing as a pure ministerial gift: it

was all relational.

What I like about the pulpit rotation system and learned ministry is that

it formed an early attempt at bicaleralism.

For the record, I STILL support this kind of bicameralism. RSS's would be

more accountable not only spend time with the aspirant, but also to visit

their home congregation for story-telling. There would still be a central

MFC, with powers of arbitration, appeal and review when the local

processes get stuck on particular cases.

All records, being essentially employment records, would be public and

publicly available.

Elz Curtiss

Burlington, Vermont

Yet More Voices on the Cost of Seminary

2009-11-26T12:45:00.002-07:00

Can be found here (The Rev. Ron Robinson, no relation) and here. (The Rev. Scott Wells)

Other Voices on Ministerial Credentialing

2009-11-26T12:18:00.004-07:00

My colleague Margret O'Neall, interim minister of the UU church in Sarasota, Florida, lately wrote this to her colleagues, and gave me permission to reproduce it here.

I give a lot of thought to our MFC processes, having seen the committee within the past year, and comparing it both to other professional credentialing systems, and to the process one of my colleagues in the UCC is going through (their "in-care" system). I believe that a more relational and grounded process could, if thoughtfully cultivated, be more consistent with our theological and philosophical understandings and commitments, and contribute more fully to the process of formation.

In my own case, both the idea and the actual experience of being examined by a board of strangers, who knew me only from paper and a brief personal exposure under extremely stressful conditions, felt disrespectful of my ministry and inadequate as a pass-fail system of judgment on my preparation for professional engagement with a congregation or community. No matter how they tried to be both objective and relational, those who sat in judgment over me did not know me, some clearly had their own agendas, and had a lot of power over my future.
Much of my career prior to ministry has been invested in community and academic systems. I find that our current process of admitting ministers into fellowship picks up some of the worst faults in a range of systems, and would do well to be re-thought systematically and with a stronger grounding in congregational, seminary and ministerial mentoring relationships. Some good things are clearly happening -- strengthening RSCC's, mentored praxis in seminaries, the Mountain Desert District's "Living Into Covenant" initiative. Perhaps it will trickle up to the MFC, but trickles do not usually run in that direction unless there is a pump involved.

Margret O'Neall

THe problem with debt reduction

2009-11-25T07:18:00.002-07:00

Actually, I'm all for helping working ministers reduce the monumental debt of their educational expenses. However, this approach has several significant down sides.

1. First of all it is excessively hard on the people who discover in their seminary career, or who are told by the RSCC or MFC that they just don't meet the grade or who don't, for whatever reason get a job, to have amassed huge debt. It encourages...perhaps even requires...people to persevere who are not good candidates or who really don' t like the work. And I sometimes catch undercurrents of the possibility that seminaries and credentialing bodies feel inhibited from helping boarderline candidates out of the ministry track because they are aware of the financial burden they have taken on.

2. Secondly, it is excessively discouraging to prudent people who really look at the bottom line when they are considering ministry as a career. The Ministerial Bottom Line is already more than a little intimidating in our denomination; adding Seminary debt to that bottom line is a real financial deal-breaker. And while we might want to respond that ministry has to be a heart-felt and strong call, devoid of details like financial reality, do we really want our ministry to be completely made up of persons who are either independently wealthy, supported by a spouse, or are inclined to throw caution to the wind when it comes to financial matters? We don't.

3. Thirdly, debt reduction reduces the incentive for students to work during their formation years. I learned more about being a minister from managing a dorm during my seminary years than I did from my internship (at which I learned a lot...a bow to my internship supervisor, Randy Becker.) There is nothing like being the only occupant of the room where the buck stops to require learning! I learned a great deal from field work, especially at the First Parish of Belmont, MA (another bow, to them and to Marjory Montgomery, then their minister). I could do all of this in part because I was free of family obligations, but I was also encouraged by a Methodist seminary to do them, and I got credit for them. There were fewer course requirements for the MFC in those days. No one would have dreamed of asking how many districts the UUA had at an MFC interview. Believe it or not, there were no study groups for the MFC bound. We had to understand congregational polity and UU history in general, not in specifics.

The overall social issue of student debt is massive in our nation and it is no small part of our national ills. Massive Young Adult Debt reduces choices, creativity, and social responsibility. Massive New Minister Debt does the same thing. We need a better way.

The cost of Ministerial Formation III

2009-11-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

One more thought on this topic...

Another think I think we should seriously explore.

Given the fact that it is hard to know who is going to succeed in ministry until they succeed, I would suggest that the major "gatekeeping" function be, not at preliminary fellowship, but at Final Fellowship. At that point, the record of a new minister's ministry can speak for itself. Most will have clearly succeeded or failed and will not even need to be interviewed, which is no small expense for candidates or for the UUA. (The interviewing will have been done by one or more search committees who actually spend a lot more time with candidates than the MFC and whose judgment, in congregational polity, should be respected.) The requirements for Preliminary Fellowship might simply be the passing of RSCC, background check, and careful scrutiny of documents, not for "ministerial presence" (which only appropriately develops in ministry, after all) or preaching ability (congregations can be trusted to judge for themselves whether they want to hear this person) but for psychological health and a healthy attitude towards ministerial leadership.

Persons in preliminary Fellowship would be provisionally ordained and it would be suggested to congregations that they be hired for a three year term, with the possibility of a call extended after Final Fellowship is granted.

The advantage of this is that almost everyone would search for a church in their senior year of seminary and begin to work the next Fall, and when they were judged, they would be judged on their record, and that would, for most people be much less anxiety-producing. Lots of things to think through, of course, but I think this approach (more like what the Methodists do) is worth thinking about.

The cost of Ministerial Formation II

2009-11-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

Part two of a conversation about how we might reduce the cost of ministerial education.

Another part of the cost of ministry is the cost of moving somewhere for 9 months to do an internship. This model is nice for the unattached 20-something but it doesn't work well for older ministers or those with families. I have had several applications from interns who proposed to leave small children with their working spouse for nine months in order to come to New Mexico and do their internship. The family finances required that. This is not a good situation at all.

Let's re-think that one-size-fits-all ministerial formation model. How about the possibility of 3-5 year supervised residencies, or allowing interns to take a job in the church they have interned in, or even intern in their home church? While there are reasons all of those are disallowed or frowned on, our frowns may just be too darned expensive in the current climate.

The Cost of Ministerial Formation

2009-11-24T08:07:00.002-07:00

There is growing concern in our denomination about the cost of ministerial formation these days, which is up vastly from 30 years ago. (I ended my seminary career $300 in debt, having worked my way through as a dorm manager. This was unusually low even then, but today, it is not unusual for new ministers to have $50,000 debt. This is causing all kinds of obvious and subtle consequences and so...folks are talking. Here's my part of one such conversation.

Here is one thought I have about reducing the cost of ministerial education.

Make it possible for most candidates to complete their preparation for this career in three years, inclusive of CPE, internship, reading list, MFC interview, and job hunting process. That's the way it used to be. Most candidates are taking four, five, or more years these days. Even if they are only paying three years of tuition, they are taking several more to complete their requirements...a lot more time than it used to be, because the requirements have gone up and the anxiety and timing detail of RSCC and MFC interviews has skyrocketed. I have not noticed a corresponding increase in the quality of our ministry in the past generation. I am sure all the new requirements and processes were good ideas, but the total preparation required has gotten out of hand. You can be a physician in the time it takes to be a minister.

I grieve for the many people of modest means who will not be able to afford to prepare for our ministry, and I grieve for what we are missing from them. I also worry that our current situation fills our ministry with people who are so sure of their call from the very beginning, or so heedless of the financial risks that they are taking that they will do this...leading to a ministry devoid of the more humble, frugal, and cautious persons who would also serve us well.

The REAL doctrine behind Pro-Life

2009-11-17T08:03:00.003-07:00

The Catholic church has focused, wisely, on "pro-life" as the doctrine that it brings to bear in public when defending restrictions and bans on abortion. Not only does this ring well with us all...who, after all, is "for death?" but it hides a much more fundamental Catholic belief which argues against abortion rights but which, when brought to the light of day, is not widely shared by anyone, including rank and file catholics.

Let's first dispense with "pro-life". To its credit, the Catholic church has attempted in these past decades to enlarge this stance beyond abortion. They Catholic church stands against capitol punishment, for instance, and against assisted suicide as a part of its pro-life stand. Gotta give them credit for attempting consistancy.

However, official Catholic doctrine still has a just war theory, and just war theory says that, if someone is seriously endangering your nation or threatening the freedom of its inhabitants, war with all its killing is justified. The nation at war must have tried all other routes to solve the problem and must attempt to avoid killing non-combatants, but there is a place in Catholic doctrine where, when fundamental human freedom clashes with life, freedom wins.

Well, I have to say, that I know of no more fundamental clash between freedom and life than that which takes place within and around every unwillingly pregnant woman, who is giving up huge chunks of her freedom for the sake of the life of another...for nine months if she can bear to give away the baby for adoption, and for at least 18 years if she can't. The fact that this is never discussed points to the fact that there's something else going on in our minds and hearts,

And it is.

The REAL doctrine underlying abortion restriction is the (old but still powerful) doctrine that sex is for procreation. Since you should never have sex unless you want to have a baby, then if you do have sex and get pregnant, you should accept the consequences.

The newer version of this doctrine is that every act of sex should be open to the possibility of creating new life, which, in a culture in which we don't need any more babies and in which every baby is a significant burden as well as a joy, amounts in practice to the same thing. Shall we have sex tonight, honey? Well...maybe not.

These are the doctrines that lie behind the church's prohibition of artificial means of birth control, which most Catholics and others don't support. But they are unconsciously powerful.

Look, for instance at the fact that, besides an exception if her life is in danger, the most common exception in anti-abortion legislation is the exception in cases of rape and incest. Why those exceptions? Because in that case, the woman didn't choose to have sex and shouldn't be expected to take the consequences.

Now I myself believe that it sex is a part of human life for far more than creating babies. Evolution made sex such fun because it's necessary to keep families together over the long haul of the lives of children and grandchildren, who benefit immensely from intact families and care from multi-generations of relatives.

If sex has two legitimate purposes, it is likely that those purposes will sometimes conflict and that conflict has to be managed. Unwillingly pregnant women are not bad people who were doing something illicit and have to take the consequences. Unwillingly pregnant women are bearing the consequences of evolution's duel purposes for sexuality and need assistance.

Or, we could all agree that sex is for procreation and we should only be doing it a few times in our lives. That, too, would solve the abortion problem.

The Crux of Abortion

2009-11-16T04:06:00.004-07:00

This quarter's UU World contains this article about abortion by my colleague, Scotty McLennan. It's a well researched article about Christian (and Jewish) positions about when human life begins over the centuries. Abortion rights folks, so often battered by people with their Bibles, do love to see that the biblical and religious view is not as clear cut as conservatives think it is. But UU's don't tend to look to the Bible for advice about specific moral issues, so the article is at best, preaching to the converted and at worst, doing more harm than good to the pro-choice cause by belaboring the wrong point.

UU's look to science for clues to what is right and wrong, and science no longer looks for "breath" to determine the presence of life. It looks to brain waves, heart beats, and genetic science. This has been very problematic for abortion rights. There's no doubt about it...any layperson can see genetically human life squirming around in every fetal ultrasound. If we want to support abortion rights, it just won't do to travel old paths of biblical argument or parse out the ancient meanings of "person". If we want to support abortion rights in the modern world, we have to be able to clearly say why a woman who is unwillingly pregnant, or who is carrying a fetus whose life will be painful, short, or terribly compromised has the legal and usually the moral right to terminate her (early and middle) pregnancy.

Here it is in a nutshell. The western political and religious tradition values human life supremely, and we usually value human freedom even more. "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time" said Thomas Jefferson, and there's the even starker, "Give me liberty or give me death." These two values often conflict, as in, the freedom to make money and vs. need for regulation to protect public health. In these conflicts of values, "freedom" is often the winner, as in, "If you come from a country that is threatening the freedoms of my county, I will kill you."

Thus it is that Rev. McLennan, a man, will never be forced by law to give up so much of a drop of his own blood to save the life, even of his own newborn child, as that would infringe on such a basic freedom, the freedom of bodily self-determination. He'd be asked, perhaps expected, to make this easy donation from love or duty, but he will never be forced to do it. His freedom is naturally valued, by everyone and by the law, as more important than the life of another human being, even one he is responsible for having brought into the world. Of course we might condemn him morally for his selfishness, but the law will never compel him to give any part of his body to his child.

So iMinister, a woman, thinks it's pretty irksome to hear him opine that her decision to decline to provide her uterus, which is to say, a whole lot of her body and that huge medical drama called childbirth, to a developing fetus is only ok because he thinks that the fetus isn't a human being yet. He just so doesn't get it! It doesn't matter whether the fetus is a bit of tissue or a full person. It doesn't have a right to use my body unless I want it there or consent to be it's hero and provide my body for its use. If I decline to support it I undergo and abortion and the fetus dies. That's the end of a precious possibility, but if my humanity (and freedom) is valued as much as Rev. McLennan's is, it wouldn't be against the law.

Like McLennan, but for different reasons, I think that Roe v. Wade did a good job of parsing out how this fundamental conflict between life and freedom can be managed. A woman can choose her freedom over the life of the fetus during the first 6 months of pregnancy. After that, the life of the fetus (and the trauma to society of aborting it) is the more important value, unless it's life is hopelessly compromised or hers is in danger. I honor them for seeing, a generation ago, that women are human beings with the human right to freedom.

We've spent 40 years yammering on about when human life begins in fetuses. Let's ask ourselves instead when all the benefits of a human life (beginning with the right to freely choose when to donate one's body to another the cause of life) to half of the human race begin.

Then we'll be talking.

P.S. Rev. McLennan, "Abortions of convenience" undoubtedly happen, do they? Tell me about one....tell me a real story about a convenient pregnancy, abortion, or decision about motherhood. Just try it.

There are other posts on this subject in the backfiles. Search for "abortion" in the search box above.

Excellence in Ministry- How is "Fellowship" like a Ph d?

2009-10-29T08:02:00.003-06:00

The UUA's Board of Trustees is appointing a task force to study the issue of Ministerial (and RE and Musician) accrediting. This is a direct outcome of last December's Excellence in Ministry Summit, and I am glad to see the action.

Ours are not the only professions where we wonder if our preparation and credentialing is really working for us. Here in an article from Harvard Magazine on the requirements and credentialing of Humanities Ph. D students. The ministerial system is different. To our credit, we have evolved a system in which it is not only the practitioners who control credentialing, but those who are served by the professionals in question. But it raises questions we should be looking at.

Mr Roberts' Rules

2009-10-24T12:20:00.001-06:00

In writing a memorial eulogy for a woman in our church who was for some years, our parliamentarian, I was recalled to this statement, from Mr. Roberts himself, about his purpose in writing his rules.

1. That the majority prevail.

2. That the minority be heard.

3. That the absent be protected.

My father introduced me to this statement of purpose early in my career, when I was impatient with the arcane lore of Roberts rules, and how it could be used, inadvertently or not, to manipulate a group. It quieted me right down. I remain in favor of a simpler set of rules, but when anyone suggests a new meeting procedure, I mentally run it through Roberts' filter. Will the majority prevail? (there are a surprising number of ways to run meeting in which this is not the outcome). Weill the minority get their chance to be heard? Will the absent be protected from stealth agendas or attempts to manipulate the vote by wearing out the membership?

If I were writing, I'd add another rule, and that is, "Will the rule of law be honored?" That means everything from the law of the state to the bylaws of the group. Mr. Roberts probably took that for granted, but in these days, it needs to be said aloud.

Thanks, Meg Prince, parliamentarian to the Middle Rio Grande Valley, for caring about process. May you rest in peace.

The Rights of licensed and public officials not to do stuff they don't believe in.

2009-10-17T15:34:00.003-06:00

You think interracial marriages are wrong? It's your right to believe that.

But your right to act on that belief is constrained by laws and by employment policies. Believing interracial marriages are wrong doesn't give you the right to beat up the groom. And it doesn't give you the right to deny equal protection under the law to interracial couples.

Which means that, if you want to be a Justice of the Peace, you have to abide by the law that requires you to do your duty without prejudice. If that bugs you so much, you need to find another line of work or a way to be a Justice of the Peace who doesn't perform marriages. (if there is such a thing...)

Same thing goes for pharmacists who don't want to dispense some kinds of medicines, and teachers who don't agree with some part of the curriculum, not to mention engineers who hate certain kinds of bridges or ministers who don't like to work Sundays. Doing your job is...a condition of employment! Pharmacists who don't want to handle birth control pills are free to work in the pharmacy of home for the elderly. Teachers who don't believe in Evolution are welcome to teach English or First Grade or Special Ed to severely handcapped children or wherever else they can find that this issue won't come up. Nurses who don't want to perform abortions can find thousands of jobs where that duty will never be asked of them. Even ministers who don't want to work on Sundays can, with dilligence, creativity find paying employment.

Tashlich

2009-09-18T19:32:00.001-06:00

This has been running around the Jewish internet, and one of my lay leaders sent it to me as we're doing a simple version of this ritual on Sunday. I thought it was the funniest thing I'd seen in weeks.

On the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, there is a ceremony called Tashlich. Jews traditionally go to the ocean or a stream or river to pray and throw bread crumbs into the water. Symbolically, the fish devour their sins.

Occasionally, people ask what kind of bread crumbs should be thrown.

Here are suggestions for breads which may be most appropriate for specific sins and misbehaviors:

For ordinary sins - White Bread

For erotic sins - French Bread

For particularly dark sins - Pumpernickel

For complex sins - Multi-Grain

For twisted sins - Pretzels

For tasteless sins - Rice Cakes

For sins of indecision - Waffles

For sins committed in haste -Matzoh

For sins of chutzpah - Fresh Bread

For substance abuse - Stoned Wheat

For use of heavy drugs - Poppy Seed

For petty larceny- Stollen

For committing auto theft - Caraway

For timidity/cowardice - Milk Toast

For ill-temperedness - Sourdough

For silliness, eccentricity - Nut Bread

For not giving full value - Shortbread

For jingoism, chauvinism - Yankee Doodles

For excessive irony - Rye Bread

For unnecessary chances - Hero Bread

For telling bad jokes/puns - Corn Bread

For war-mongering - Kaiser Rolls

For dressing immodestly - Tarts

For causing injury to others - Tortes

For lechery and promiscuity - Hot Buns

For promiscuity with gentiles - Hot Cross Buns For racist attitudes - Crackers

For sophisticated racism -Ritz Crackers

For being holier than thou - Bagels

For abrasiveness - Grits

For dropping in without notice - Popovers

For over-eating - Stuffing

For impetuosity - Quick Bread

For indecent photography - Cheesecake

For raising your voice too often - Challah

For pride and egotism - Puff Pastry

For sycophancy, a**-kissing - Brownies

For being overly smothering - Angel Food Cake

For laziness - Any long loaf

For trashing the environment - Dumplings

For those who require a wide selection of crumbs, we suggest a Tashlich Mix available in three grades (Taslich Lite, Medium, and Industrial Strength) at your favorite Jewish bookstore.

Health Care for Immigrants

2009-09-10T21:20:00.003-06:00

There's no doubt about it, we have a problem with illegal immigration in this country. Fueled by our desire for cheap goods...food mostly....and our lack of will to get it together and hammer out a policy, we've got a lot of people who are here, working, raising their families and taking care of each other who are breaking the law and whose employers are breaking the law.

I get that there's a problem that needs to be solved, and I'm all for solving it. A nation that has lots of shadow people is not a good place for anybody. It invites abuse of law and abuse of persons. We need to fix this. And when we fix it, the issue of how to run a health care program for the people of the nation will be solved.

I don't get the fury about illegal aliens. They are, as a whole, model citizens, full of gumption, willing to work very hard at jobs others don't want and family-centered, upwardly mobile, responsible folks. It's not their fault that this nation doesn't have a useful immigration policy. They are being scapegoated in the healthcare battles and in other parts of the political landscape. It's not fair.

And I don't actually want to have to step over the dying ones in the street. I don't want them incubating contageous diseases because the doors of healthcare are closed to them. I don't want their babies damaged from unassisted births, and I don't want them bearing more babies than they can afford to raise. I bet you don't want those things either. I bet even Rep. Wilson doesn't want those things.

Let's get this healthcare thing done so we can get to work on a sensible, enforcable immigration policy. This is not Calcutta. This is Madam Liberty's golden shore.

South Carolina

2009-09-10T21:04:00.003-06:00

My old home state of South Carolina is certainly having its problems lately. First it's govenor disappears for a while to have an affaire, and now its Republican senator heckles the president in the most formal of settings. South Carolina is a beautiful state with a rich culture and a reputation for being backwards, and this certainly doesn't help matters. I enjoyed living there enough to be embarassed for them. Wilson appologized (at the request of his party, he made it clear.) President Obama accepted. Obama is a grownup. People who heckle a president in the senate chambers show themselves to be undisciplined hicks.

I'm mad at Van Jones

2009-09-06T19:54:00.002-06:00

Before this week, all I'd ever heard about Van Jones was glowing. He spoke at a UUA General Assembly a few years back and I heard numerous people tell me that it was the best speech they'd ever heard or that he was the smartest person they'd ever heard. I'd missed his speech, and I was sorry.

But today, I'm thinking that it was so dumb of him to take the job of Green Czar, that I'm angry at him. Did he think his past statements and petition signatures (that Bush "let" 9/11 happen so he could go to war, is the most damming) wouldn't catch up with him in this incredibly polarized climate? Had he not noticed how much damage President Obama took on just because he was in the presence of Jeremiah Wright? Hello, Mr. best-speaker-people-have-ever-heard! This is the real world speaking! It matters what petitions you signed and what impolite things you said in the heat of various news storms.

Obama (whose people should have done a better vetting job...that's also true) didn't need this. The nation didn't need this. Mr. Jones... your bad.

GA: Voting for Morales...here's why.

2009-06-25T08:45:00.002-06:00

After I get through the "lost credentials" routine. This is the first time in 30 years I've left my credentials at home...sheesh...

Let me start by saying that I think the world of Laurel Hallman and will not despair if she is elected president. But I'm casting my vote for Peter Morales. Here's why.

First of all, It is obvious to anyone who sees both candidates that Peter has more energy and enthusiasm for this very difficult job. Both candidates have great qualifications. But it is a REALLY hard job, and doing it well takes passion. Peter's got the passion.

Secondly, as the minister in a city which is 1/3 Hispanic and a church which has several dozen Hispanic members, living in a time when the demographic shift of our nation is towards a much, much larger percentage of Hispanic citizens, I value Peter's bi-lingual heritage and skills.

Thirdly, I value Peter's business experience. We who have been in church work all of our lives get lots of experiences, but we often miss the experiences that a career in business presents. I think our denominational president needs to be a minister for lots of reasons, but I value Peter's business experience and skills he brings from earlier in his life, just as I thought that this was an important part of Bill Sinkford's presidency.

Most of all, I love the way Peter talks about our future, about breaking up the same old same old ways we have doing things and not succeeding all my life. Our movement has everything going for it to meet the spiritual needs of our time and the near future, but our internal culture puts glass doors between us and the people we want to serve. I think it is more likely that under Peter's leadership, we can open those doors.

GA 2009 Minister's Meetings

2009-06-25T05:01:00.005-06:00

GA is preceded by two days of minister's meetings. I went to the business-oriented day. It's been a while since the continuing education day was useful to me, so I just come late. It is so good to see one's colleagues! That pleasure was deflated by a business meeting run with such poor process that it felt like an abuse of power...was an abuse of power at least in terms of parlimentary rule....and all for a cause I would have probably supported. I'm feeling very alienated and that's a hard place to be.

The Berry St. Essay was very interesting this year, and a nice blend of a scholarly lecture and a passionate response. The lecturer held up the embarrassing reality that while our denomination had been pursuing anti-racism and multi-culturalism with a passion for a decade, no records have been kept on our progress because nobody wants to ask for statistics about the number of persons of color in congregations. The few statistics we do have come from an outside source (National Pew Research data), or are somewhat suspect. We are amateurs in the statistics business! The speaker went on to point out that a theology underpinning our multiculatural efforts is very much a part of deepest history...a good reminder. The respondant gave a heart-felt personal testamony. An African American, Rosemary finds this the only faith for her but regrets that her children are so lonely as the only children of color wherever they go in UU land, beginning with their own Sunday School.

I was sad to hear this, not only because of the human drama of being a mom wondering if one's work and chosen life is the right one for her children, but because our denomination has put a lot of resources into nurturing ministers of color on the assumption that ministers of color would attract congregants of color. Apparently, that has not happened, even for this splendid, talented minister who lives in a very multi-cultural area. Gives one pause.

(There are plenty of UU Youth of color at GA, by the way, and it seems clear to this casual observer that they enjoy the experience of having a critical mass of peers. But most UU kids don't come to GA.)

Imagineering Faith Expanded

2009-06-17T08:09:00.002-06:00

Last week I based my sermon on the aspect of last year's Berry St. Essay which I found most interesting; the dynamics of shame and scorn in our religious communities. I share it with my blogging and Facebook friends here, where it is available in audio, video, and text.

The Real Late Term Abortion

2009-05-31T20:37:00.004-06:00

One of the three doctors in the nation publicly willing to do late term abortions was murdered today, probably by a "pro-life" fanatic...murdered as he ushered at his Lutheran Church.

If nobody is pro abortion, then absolutely nobody is pro, "late term" abortions, abortions during the third trimester, abortions which happen after the legal age of viability. Most of these abortions are abortions of wanted, loved, even named babies, and they are caused by tragic circumstances. Nobody talks about them, few people defend them, fewer find a calling to provide them. When they happen they are tragedies, and the only good thing one can say about them is that because of late-term abortions, even greater tragedies are averted.

I found one woman's story of a late-term abortion here, and another story where late-term abortion was contemplated, here. I was once involved in a similar situation. It was a long time ago, soon after my own baby was born, and on the one hand, I hesitate to tell her story, but on the other, the world needs to hear these stories so that they can understand the need for this kind of medical care. I hope "C" doesn't mind...and I hope I remember all the details.

I met "C" in the pregnancy exercise program I went to, post-partum. She was still pregnant, and she discovered late in her 6th month that her baby had genetic abnormalities "incompatable with life outside the womb." The testing took a while, her shock and her husband's made decisions difficult. During those weeks every time she went out of her house people smiled at her pregnant body and sometimes even made small talk about her baby. It was...way too hard. They realized that they couldn't do this for three more months and decided to terminate the pregnancy. The baby was going to die probably during birth, certainly within a few hours. Why keep it on life support for three months...especially since 100% of the life support was being provided by my friend's swollen body.

The hospital ethics board had to be involved in this decision, since it was now in the third trimester, and that delayed things a few more days. In the end, they induced an early labor, and that worked. Technically, it wasn't an abortion, but surely they would have had to resort to that if labor had failed.

The baby did die during birth. The family had as planned, a bedside naming ceremony for her. She was held and loved by parents and grandparents until it was time to let her go.

And about 18 months later, I met their second child in the delivery room, and that was a special joy.

I have read that the doctor who was murdered today was an exceptionally gentle man who not only performed a difficult medical procedure, but who did so with compassion for parents in extremely difficult circumstances. May he rest in peace.

Justice is Never Completely Blind

2009-05-31T08:02:00.002-06:00

There's a false idea left over from the Enlightenment which dogs our society in several ways; this week, it's in law. That's the notion that pure rationality is possible and that, for instance, a good judge brings no bias into the courtroom and is capable of pure justice.

So when someone digs up a statement by a Supreme Court nominee which suggests that a person with a certain kind of experiences (Hispanic, female), would be a better judge than a person with other kinds of experiences (Anglo, male) there's been a cry of racism from the right and "she didn't really mean that" from her supporters.

What really needs to be said is that of course she's right to point out that her conscious and unconscious biases and understandings that come from the life she's had will make her a better judge in some cases....AND that the understandings and biases of Anglo's, males, African Americans, younger and older judges and so on, will ALSO make them better judges in other cases, and the moral of the story is not that those observations are racist, but that they make the case for the importance of diversity on the Supreme Court. Nobody is purely rational.

Pleased for you to know....

2009-04-24T19:05:00.005-06:00

That Skinner House Press has released the book I've been working on for several years with Alicia Hawkins. It's a book of resources and session plans for small groups that want deep conversations about important issues.

We wrote it for UU congregations' Small Group Ministry programs, hoping especially that very small congregations would find this approach easy to manage. But we also imagined that families, women's groups, and book groups might benefit from these conversations.

The book's Website has more information, and you can order the book from the UUA bookstore. Every person in a group should have a book of their own, and there is a quantity discount.

The lack of Answers about Guns

2009-04-06T16:41:00.003-06:00

David comments below that he feels much safer in places where people carry guns and is therefore against any kind of gun control. Also, he comments that since guns are so ubiquitous there would be no way to get all the guns out the hands of the "bad guys."

My thoughts, in no particular order:

It is certainly true that there are a lot of guns around, and that getting them out of circulation would be a massive, probably multi-generational problem. However, all that means is that if we want to end gun violence, we ought to get crackin'

I think it is worth noting that a pistol-packing public is of small use against these mass shooters; they are almost all suicidal and take out their victims too quickly for anybody to respond before damage is done. Many victims are children; surely we were not expecting them to have guns?

Also, although this has not yet happened, even in pistol-packing parts of the country, it's easy to imagine that would-be heroes firing at a mass-shooter could kill bystanders in the fray (there's a reason police practice through their whole careers) and further the carnage.

While it will no doubt be true for a long time, even if we do get crackin', that bad guys will be able to obtain guns, it is also true that (1) at least some of these mass shooters, like the last one, seem to have "cracked" and done their violence without the kind of planning that it takes to get contraband, and (2) the fewer guns there are, and the more illegal they are, the more likely that the authorities will be alearted to a here-t0-fore law-abiding citizen bumbling around in the underworld trying to get a gun.

It seems that these mass shooters have a sense, not only of rage but of entitlement; they seem to think that using guns is a natural and reasonible thing for an angry person to do. That sense of entitlement would also be reduced. If only criminals had guns, people who considered themselves ordinary, law abiding citizens would be less likely to resort to them.

Finally, I certainly agree with Robin, that this epidemic of angry, violent men must be tackled with understanding and social interventions besides gun control if we are to al live well together in this increasingly small world.

More Carnage

2009-04-05T20:40:00.003-06:00

Today a man whose wife had told him she was leaving him up and shot his five kids, then himself. That'll teach her..and her sisters with uppity ideas.

The map of deaths caused by men who control "their" women by killing them would be, I imagine, without any green space, such is the rampant nature of this drearily familiar story. It happened in my very neighborhood, and, no doubt it has happened in yours. And it seems possible that at at least many of those deaths could have happened without guns, given the fact that few women can beat off an enraged man. But the idea of a man killing five of his children by, say, stabbing or strangling and then somehow doing away with himself without resort to guns...that staggers the imagination.

My map has a sub text. How many more will have to die because we can't find a way to control handguns in our nation? So I've added Mass Domestic Violence to my map. It's the red markers.

A Map of the Carnage

2009-04-04T18:16:00.005-06:00

Three more "mass" gun deaths today...yet another man taking his disappointments out on the world. Yesterday it was 15 dead.

I've been thinking about making a memorial list of these kinds of deaths and I did it this afternoon on Google Maps. It's here . Because I'm especially interested in churches, I added the incidents from churches, even though "only" one or two persons died. Yellow Flags are incidents that happened in schools, red flags, religious institutions (there was one synagogue murder a few years back...it took place on Rosh Hashana)

It doesn't add up to many people; more died in traffic accidents every day than have died in these kinds of multiple, innocent death gun incidents. Many more died in war. And many, many, many more people have died in the routine, one-at-a time shootings which are the background noise of our lives. A jealous man, a robbery, an anger, an accident, and somebody is dead.

There is so much sadness and violence in our world. Widely available guns make it worse. How many markers on the map will it take, I wonder, before we decide to do something about it?

Multi Cultural UU: Removing Dissatisfaction

2009-03-31T05:06:00.000-06:00

What might we do to make our UU Congregations more multi-cultural?

1. It is crucial to remove dissatisfaction factors as much as possible. I believe we have two major areas of dissatisfaction in the multi-cultural area. The first is the irritation to persons of color of clueless white privilege. That's an ongoing issue. The good news about it is that the school, corporate and governmental world has huge resources that are deployed here, and many of our folks get much better multi-cultural training at work and school than we will ever be able to provide.

2. Because of this, all attempts to be a multi-cultural congregation should be matched by attempts to be a younger congregation. With all due respect to the over 60 generation who got us started with integration in this nation, the future in this matter, as in so many, is with the young who have lived their lives in a multi-cultural world. My own experience in churches is that a concerted focus on bringing in young people will go a long way, all by itself, to bringing in persons of diverse ethnicity and race.

3. If there are incidents and issues, they need to be addressed, of course. People being people, there will always be issues and incidents. Discussion is necessary. Does the congregation want to put on "South Pacific?" Are there parts of that lovely show which are racist? Is there a difficult person whose conversation about social subjects like population or imigration boarders on racisit? How will we address that? Etc.

4. The second issue of baseline social comfort for those persons whose presence would signify multi-culturalism is that they need to see others like them. This is the critical mass problem, and it's a real catch 22. The only way for a church to be attractive to diverse persons is to already be a diverse congregation. But how to start? You start with signals. The UUA has done this part of multi-cultural development much better, in my opinion, than it has done the anti-racism training, but, oddly, it's never talked about. Still, go to the website of this denomination which sports a population of persons of color in the range of 5%, and you'll see a vastly disproportinate set of photos of persons of color. That's one way to help new persons of color feel legitimized and welcomed. The respectful, inclusive use of multi-cultural music and authors sends that same welcome message. Leadership of color is even more powerful. We have to give ourselves considerable credit here.

All of these strategies can be overdone, can even be a form of false advertising. But subtle use helps us to substitute for our critical mass of multi-culturalism, until we have it.

All that work, remember, only creates a baseline of lack of dissatisfaction. Now, on to Satisfaction. There enlies the transformative work.

Demographic Diversity in UU Churches II

2009-03-30T05:02:00.000-06:00

Kim's comment (here) sparks a couple of thoughts about this issue. Firstly, I think that Kim is correct, that, like almost all of the rest of American society, especially in persons under age 60, who grew up and have worked their whole lives with this consciousness, we have mostly gotten beyond the easy-to-spot, easy-to-agree-upon racism and xenophobia of, say, 50 years ago. No small achievement, either. Yeah, us!

There is a fair amount of lingering subtle white privilege, however, and it's important to stay aware of it. White privilege is that assumption that "our way is the only way and others are different, odd, and ought to change." There is no necessary problem in the kind of human diversity of which Kim speaks...how close we stand, whether we interrupt, who looks whom in the eye, how much space is left between speakers, what time is "on time", and so on, the problems happen when some people (white people) don't realize that they need recognize those differences as legitimate and work around them when they are in mixed company.

Which brings us to church and what would motivate persons of color or other difference, to come to church and have to continue, even there, their dreary daily battle with the irritating obliviousness of white privilege, when they have every reason to prefer to go to church and relax with a community of people with whom they don't have to struggle. That is, what is the answer to the question, "Why don't UU churches, whose people think of themselves as open and welcoming, have more persons of color, and what would help us be more multi-cultural?

We have attacked this problem as a denomination from one direction; the direction of trying to educate white people to be less oblivious and irritating to persons of color. A lot of that education, unfortunately, has been ham handed, but we've done it. Has it helped? No doubt it has helped some, but not enough. And why? Because that kind of openness does not create satisfaction, it only relieves dissatisfaction.

This is a huge and important distinction in the "customer satisfaction" business, and it applies to many areas in church life, so let me digress.

There are factors in church life which create satisfaction; great sermons, exciting RE programs, warm community, opportunities for spiritual deepening. The more you have of these satisfaction factors, the greater satisfaction people will have, and they sky is the limit with how happy and enthusiastic they can be. But only if they are not dissatisfied.

Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction are two very different things, caused by completely different factors. A happy church-goer is both satisfied and not dissatisfied.

Dissatisfaction factors are basic things like enough parking, clean restrooms, safe children's programs and basic social comfort. (the sort a person of color might find in a diverse congregation not flaunting it's white privelege)

You gotta have enough parking, dirty restrooms a huge turn-off, and if parents think their kids are not safe, they're outta here. If a person of color encounters the assumptions of white privelege every time they turn around, they'll be dissatisfied. It is crucial to improve dissatisfaction factors, but...here's the key....an improvement of dissatisfaction factors doesn't make people satisfied, it only makes it possible for people to be satisfied. One too few parking spaces? That's a problem. Twice as many as you need? Ho Hum. Dirty bathrooms? disgusting. Palatial, sparkling bathrooms? I'm happy for you...but it's no more likely that I'll return to your church. Social comfort? It's vital, but if that's all you've got here, I could stay home.

May I repeat? "Social comfort? It's vital, but if that's all you've got here, I could stay home."

Given the fact that people come to church for more than baseline satisfaction, all our anti-racism/white privelege trainings, even if they were excellent, would only bring us up to baseline. And about that, it can only be said, "I don't get no satisfaction."

What should we do to become multi-cultural UU congregations? More Tomorrow.

Demographic Diversity in UU Churches I

2009-03-29T08:00:00.003-06:00

Kim left this perceptive comment buried in a past post that I thought I'd bring forward here. Thanks, Kim!

I am working on an idea I have about "diversity". My idea is that, having gotten beyond the most obvious outer layers of racism and other prejudices, we are working on the more subtle parts. And, of course,the subtle parts are difficult to pin down because of their subtlety. My impression is that where we are stuck is that the real things that keep people of different back grounds from being comfortable with each other are the unconscious cultural differences in how we speak to each other and our world view. Those unthinking things like how far apart we stand when we talk to each other, how long we pause when we want to communicate that the other person can speak now, Whether we communicate directly or indirectly, whether we negotiate from specific to general or vice versa, how often we touch the other person while speaking. All these things are unconscious, "self-evident", and really annoying when someone does them differently because we interpret difference in custom as intended rudeness, or just strangeness. We get along with people who are more like us, we have communication problems with people who are less like us.
I think this level is where a lot of UU problems with diversity resides now. when I talk to people about this, many of them say things like, "I thought we were all the same." Or they don't say that and just imply it, if they are more indirect. It seems it's a hard concept to "get". That would seem to validate it being a problem.
I think we could work on this level of "diversity" to our advantage. Maybe it would help us achieve some more diversity in our congregations.

Sophie and Susie, age 1 month

2009-03-09T10:58:00.001-06:00

They're starting to get feathers and are about double their 1 week size....takes two hands to catch them, now!

Giving Thanks for Max Coots

2009-03-09T10:04:00.002-06:00

Twenty or so years ago, the Rev. Max Coots, whose passion was gardening wrote this beloved and much used meditation. Max died last week at the age of 81. We remember and give thanks!

LET US GIVE THANKS

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgve us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks:
For generous friends with hearts as big as hubbards
and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers,
keep reminding us that we've had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants
and as elegant as a row of corn, and the
others, as plain as potatoes and so good for you;
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts
and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends,
as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash,
as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;
For old friends nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;
And, finally, for those friends now gone, who like gardens past that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.

Let Us Give Thanks
from View from a Tree
--Max Coots

Rest in Peace, Max. You fed us well...

The Death of a Minister

2009-03-07T20:00:00.002-07:00

Web Kitchell's memorial service was this afternoon, at the Santa Fe church which he served as settled minister for 17 years and as Emeritus minister for another 10. The church did itself proud. Stephen Furrer, the current minister, told us that Web had left a list of the music and hymns, didn't want any god-talk, and did want "droll stories" shared. So, that's what we heard. In lieu of god talk, I read these quotations from Camus.

I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment, it takes place every day.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

My colleague Jim Zacharias got to read from one of Web's coyote books, and there were, indeed, several droll stories. The best of them? The church administrator said that before Web arrived, the church had signed up for call waiting, but Web hated hearing the little beep of an incoming call while he was on the phone. He called it "telephonicus interruptus". They got rid of it.

The second best story? The Santa Fe church was a Fellowship when Web arrived, and they didn't like it when Web, still the New Englander, wore his robe. So it was suggested to his wife that she suggest to him that he might preach in a suit. (That's how things were done in those days) Web obliged, but in his own quirky way. Turns out that old New Englander didn't know how to put an outfit together. So there was the Sunday...judging by the laughter, some people remembered it...when he wore a green suit with a blue checkered shirt. The members suggested to his wife that she take him shopping. This she declined to do. "I married him as he is," she said. Web went back to wearing a robe and the congregation accepted it.

It was a lovely service. Rest in Peace, Web...good colleague, good minister, good man.

P.S. Was Coyote there? Well, I didn't exactly see him. But after the service, on the table of photographs Web's family had arranged, some thoughtless person had left a bag from Dunkin Donuts...

The Aftermath of Imagineering

2009-03-06T20:43:00.002-07:00

It surely is great fun to have a big article in the UU World! (Imagineering Soul, in this month's issue) I've had emails and letters from members of my internship church, my first church, people at whose weddings I officiated, former members of this church, seminary buddies and even someone who thought he remembered me from Methodist Youth Group. (mistakenly...iMinister grew up UU and was way too shy for youth groups of any kind.)

Also a bunch of emails and even a phone call from people who liked the article and felt we were kindred spirits. Also, it goes without saying, a couple of people who hated it and needed me to know. One even went so far as to express the opinion that the real reason that the denomination is declining is that there are too many women ministers and women ministers just don't think or preach powerfully. It's been a long time since I heard that sort of thing. A professor from and Episcopalian seminary wrote to ask permission to reprint it for her students, someone wrote to remind me of another author's ideas about faith and shame, and her own, and someone sent me excepts from his book which he felt were relevant.

Great Fun!

Excellence in Ministry: Final Links and Comments

2009-02-28T08:52:00.004-07:00

You can find the notes which others took at this event, here. (If you're new to this discussion, scroll back to late November to begin the conversation. iMinister was the official blogger for this conference.) They also promise more news and presumably the report which will be made to the June UUA Board Meeting, so check back.

With this, iMinister respectfully resigns from her first and most educational experience as a journalist. It's an almost pole-opposite experience from her usual role as a preacher; comprehensive rather than focused and attempting to be fair rather than subjective. She has renewed appreciation for the journalists in her life. She thanks the Pannel who asked her and who have been kind in their feedback and is appreciative of all the work and thought that has gone into this project and will continue, she hopes, in spite of economic constraints.

She's discovered that her general and career-long interest in ministerial well-being has developed into something of a passion about the process of credentialing ministers, and she intends to continue to follow that discussion as a private citizen, so to speak. To that end she wants to hold up again, a fascinating article from last Fall's New Yorker, which deals with the credentialing of teachers. It can be found here.

Imagineers of Soul

2009-02-27T19:04:00.002-07:00

This month's UU World features my article, Imagineers of Soul, which is a version of last year's Berry St. Essay. I was so pleased that they published it; after spending a year's worth of creative energy on that Essay, it's awfully nice that it's getting a second life!

Eulogy for Web Kitchell

2009-02-19T20:39:00.002-07:00

On my trip to Santa Fe, I thought about dropping by the Dunkin Donuts, purchasing a couple of dozen heart busters, and seeing if Web's Kitchell's friend Coyote would show up to converse with me. That's how Web did it, and he got three books of sermons out of the conversations he had. He called his books God's Dog, forever changing my view of these smart, adaptable animals. Web died last week after having a fairly miserable time with Parkinson's disease.

Well, no fairly about it.

Coyote would insist on the truth.

So, this is the truth. Damn, but that was a hard end for a good man and a good minister, and I've been missing him and his furry friend for a while now. No amount of donuts will get either of them back, and I'm sad. He was very supportive to the young minister with the unexpectedly hard job to the south of him, and oh, did my congregation love to hear him come and talk about his conversations with Coyote!

Happy Trails to you both!

Praying for the House

2009-02-17T10:28:00.002-07:00

I offered a prayer to our State House of Representatives this morning.
I have strong feelings about public prayer. I was asked to lead the Representatives in prayer, and that's what I did; reminding them of their gratitude for our beautiful state, our democracy, our connections, giving them a moment to call to mind those they wished to pray for and asking a blessing on their work. No big deal.

But expressions of gratitude and appreciation I got suggested to me what my Santa Fe colleague confirmed, which is that too many persons of the cloth preach rather than pray, or pray only with and for persons of their own faith tradition.

I was glad to have offered something of value to hard working legislators!
And glad to see that the Domestic Partnership bill has had a sudden resurrection for this year's session.

Another conversation about excellence

2009-02-13T12:26:00.003-07:00

....went on last year, when a list of core competencies for large church ministry was put together in anticipation of the "Thinking Big" program which is giving a small group of ministers advance training in Large Church ministry. Their work was published in the Alban Institute's "Congregations" last month and can be found here.

This list of competencies was formed with Large Churches in mind, but there's not much in it that doesn't apply to good ministry in every size of church.

Ministerial Authority

2009-02-08T14:57:00.002-07:00

One of the interesting turns my career has taken in the past few years is exposure to seminarians, interns, new ministers, and lay persons who are taking on ministry roles. It's given me a new lens to look at my own ministry and has been a very enriching experience.

Among the things that it has made me wonder is whether it is a good idea to expect persons to have developed a sense of ministerial authority before they are ordained.

This is one of the things the Ministerial Fellowship Committee looks for, and when they don't find it their diagnosis often utterly baffles candidates who don't know what to do with this feedback. It's such a "I know it when I see it but can't explain it" item...which is to say, it is extremely subjective, that I've been uneasy with its increasing cachet among students who are, naturally enough, anxious to develop this mysterious ministerial quality.

I've reached a few conclusions about this.

One conclusion is that this quality does exist. It is related to feeling secure in the knowledge that you, in your ministerial role, have something of value to deliver and you know the conditions of delivering it. So you march right up to the boss nurse in the ICU and request the room number for the patient who, she says, won't even know you are there. You know that you and the patient and the patient's family need you to be there and you stand in front of her until she lets you be there. Since you know that your listening ear and someone else's ability to speak freely really has a healing effect, you help someone you know needs to talk to move with you to a private corner. Since you know that this fractious group needs to take a break and a deep breath, or that this scattered group about to eat together needs to be recalled to their gratitude before they eat, you take the risk of suggesting a break for a moment recollection of our deep values or grace and a recollection of our deep thanksgiving. That's ministerial authority.

A second conclusion I've reached is that while ministerial authority is a good and important thing, no ministerial authority is better...far better... than fake ministerial authority. Fake ministerial authority comes from a person acting the way they think they are supposed to act, rather than out of a deep knowledge of the value of their action. At worst, it comes from a person who is so in love with their role that they're over-eager to exercise it. They come across as self-important and give ministry a bad name. In its more common form, fake ministerial authority is an honest attempt to do what one understands one is supposed to do, but since it lacks the inner authority that makes the risk-taking work, it...doesn't work.

A third conclusion I've reached is that I started my career deficient in ministerial authority and I've developed it over many, many years. I started way young in this business, and I'm downright bashful by nature, and in the UU circles I grew up in, "ministerial authority" was not a valued quality...quite the opposite. I was fortunate to have the guidence of a lay leader who came from a long line of Baptist preachers in my early years in ministry, and who several times found ways to instruct me. ("Christine, Lisa (whose husband had died while they were vacationing) is coming home in a private airplane with Joe's coffin. You'll be meeting the plane, won't you? (significant pause) It will be in at 11pm. And then I've invited you both to drop by the house and visit a bit while my husband goes to her home and gets the lights and the furnace on. " Well...no, actually, it hadn't occurred to me that I should meet that plane. I'd been planning to call the next day, after the widow had had a good night's sleep. Clueless, clueless me! But when Frances spoke, I paid attention, learned, and through those experiences came naturally to believe that there are powers of healing and renewal that sometimes focus themselves in the relationship between a person and their minister, and that it's the minister's job to take the risk of reaching out to them and creating the conditions in which they can appear. I hasten to say that in spite of that developmental need of mine, the congregation thrived even with their very young, very green minister.

Therefore....

I'm coming to the conclusion that you don't learn much about this until you are a settled minister in a community. Internship and CPE might give some ministers a taste of ministerial authority, but then again, they might not.

Also.....

I think that one might have a general clue about ministerial authority...enough, at least, to navigate around a congregation, and not be able to come close to dredging this up in what is, for most candidates, the single most nerve-wracking hour of their career, their interview with the MFC. My guess is that very best that most candidates can do is fake it. That requires knowledge of a sort, but I don't think we want people to learn to fake it, or feel that they must fake it.

All of the above and other reflections are leading me to think that we have our whole certification process backward. It's the entry into Final Fellowship that ought to be the nerve-wraking one, where one demonstrates that one has figured out what ministerial authority is all about, can produce references and stories that demonstrate one's ministry as one has actually done it, where one has successes and failures to discuss and reflect on. The entry into preliminary Fellowship should be a much broader gate, perhaps a matter of UUA staff checking off the Candidate's To-Do list. Internship with generally positive feedback, CPE with generally positive Feedback, Degree, UU Experience (we should pay more attention to this than we do.) Reading List. Comprehensive Exam (we really need this!), Background check. References checked at least as well as a new employer would check them (including checking with persons not on the candidate's list.) If major questions came out of this check list process, perhaps an interview, but for most people, the interview would be at the time of entry into Final Fellowship, when one's success in ministry and development of ministerial authority could be more realistically judged.

UUA Presidency

2009-02-04T21:48:00.003-07:00

iMinister came out in support of Peter Morales for president of the UUA months and months ago. She agrees with him that the UUA needs to see, not just a little change, but transformational change if we are to be healthy in this new era. She's sure that our dialogue about diversity has been woefully lacking in Hispanic voices, which Peter would bring, and she loves the energy and commitment to our shared enterprize which he brings to the campaign.

Here's what I mean.

In a candidate's forum, this question was asked.

Imagine five years have passed and imagine that your vision for UUism is fully alive and thriving. What three to five goals have been realized?

Here are their written responses.

Peter Morales ...
The goals that will have been accomplished in five years are intimately interrelated. The guiding vision behind them all is a revitalized Unitarian Universalist movement that transforms lives and that helps to heal the world. In five years we will have a new sense of urgency and excitement across our movement. The following accomplishments are manifestations of living out our mission:

1. We are growing at a rate of three percent per year. Growth is not the goal, it is the measure by which we determine whether we are meeting the fundamental human need for religious community. We are growing because we are doing a better job of welcoming the seeker, retaining our youth, and engaging our existing members. As we grow we are becoming more diverse in terms of race, class and culture. Our growth rate has tripled and is accelerating.

2. We are more engaged in the great moral issues of our time. As a natural outgrowth of a deeper sense of compassion and connection, we are a more powerful force for justice, understanding and environmental stewardship. At the local level, it means that more members of our congregations are involved in social action and public witness. At the Association level, it means that we are building on our tradition of public witness and that we have forged a new partnership with the UUSC on social action.

3. We have developed a strategic vision for ministry and are beginning its implementation. Our strategy for ministry has been developed through consultation with stakeholders. Our strategy is a comprehensive approach that includes recruitment, training, placement, mentoring and development of professional ministry.

4. The UUA staff has a culture of transparency, accountability and effectiveness. As a matter of course we evaluate our programs and our people. We learn from our mistakes. Our staff is more involved in being the means for sharing best practices and innovative ideas across congregations.

5. We are forming strong relationships with groups that share our values. This includes international Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist movements, public policy advocacy groups, the UUSC, and others.

Laurel Hallman's written response:

1. Our children and youth will participate in UU congregations as adults.

2. Our UUA endowment will grow to a sustainable level, and our dependence on its income for operating expenses will diminish.

3. We will wed our religious and theological future to our historical past, and will experience the power of that synergy.

4. The Free Spirit will become a source of inspiration, activism, humility and strength in our association.

5. Our alliances will enlarge our effectiveness in the world.

iMinister

Congregations and Beyond

Counting the Audience

Contemporary Worship

Facebook: A Time Sink?

Radical Growth Idea for UU's

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Breaking Up With God

GA2012

Theological Grounding

UU's and the Bible

The Post-Denominational World

And why can't we convert people to UU?

More on Congregational Diversity

More Questions on Multiculturalism in UU Churches

Learning into a Multi-Cultural UU World

Ministry and Internet

Ministerial Credentialing: from the UUA Staff Strategic Plan

Another Question from the Strategic Plan for Ministry

Should Unitarian Universalists Have Deacons?

The last questions

Supporting Visitors with Google Maps

What Hospitality Really Means

UU's and God

Screening Precious Human Bodies

Integrating High Schools, then and now

A Doggy Diatribe

A Thick Story

Blue Blogging

Ghost Bicycle

Get mad at Girlfriend, Kill a bunch of people.

The Secret of Kells

Thirty Years in Ministry

Let's Lose That Word, "Hate".

Macaroon Season

Facebook-Security

adddendum to Multi-site Bibliography

The Blogger's Hot Stove, week II

Leslie Becknell Marx - Ashland,

Peter Boullata - 1st Parish Lexington

Eric Kaminetzky - Edmunds, Wa

Kathy Schmitz - Orlando, Fla

JD Benson and Mary Ganz - Brewster, MA

Tom Perchilik - Tacoma, Wa

Bill Sinkford - Portland, Or

Lois Van Leer - Woodenville, WA

Lilia Cuervo - Cambridge (associate)

Shana Lynngood and Melora Lynngood - Victoria, BC

Facebook for Ministers -Boundaries

Why Facebook for Ministers?

Guest Postings

Blogger's Hot Stove

Leslie Becknell Marx - Ashland,

Peter Boullata - 1st Parish Lexington

Eric Kaminetzky - Edmunds, Wa

Kathy Schmitz - Orlando, Fla

JD Benson and Mary Ganz - Brewster, MA

Tom Perchilik - Tacoma, Wa

Bill Sinkford - Portland, Or

Lois Van Leer - Woodinville, WA

Lilia Cuervo - Cambridge (associate

Shana Lynngood and Melora Lynngood - Victoria, BC

Hot Stove II: The Cooperative Enterprise

the "Hot Stove"

Twittering

Thought for the Day

Multi-Site Bibliography

Continuing the dialogue on credentialing

Earl Koteen replies here to Wayne Arneson's post which is, here.

More on Ministerial Credentialing

What Would I Do About Credentialing?

A Modest Proposal on Credentialing

Yet More Voices on Ministerial Credentialing

Blogging, Facebook, and Collegial Conversations on Credentialing

How We Got to our current ministerial Credentialing System: Wayne Arnason

Ministerial Credentialing: Four Questions from Wayne Arneson

Wayne Arnason for the MFC has thoughts to share

Ministerial Credentialing-What I Notice

Ministerial Education; Ideas from Clyde Grubbs