The search process for our next UCG Associate Minister has begun. As per our UCG policies and procedures, the nominations for Search Committee members were contributed by the congregation, vetted for every possible representation, diversity, and availability by Council Exec, and by vote of the Church Council, a slate of nine persons were selected to serve. Those persons are Akilah Brown, Domenic Durante, Paul George, Bill Hoppe, Karen Johnson, Melvin Lopez, Cindy Martin, Sally Simonis (chair), and Kristen Stone.  Andy Bachmann and I will also serve as consultants and participants in the search process. The search committee met for the first time on Wednesday, August 31 to kick off the search with an orientation meeting with our Florida Conference Eastern Regional Minister, the Rev. Leslie Etheridge.  The search process will progress through four phases, with each phase taking approximately three months.

The first phase (September-November) involves building a foundation for the search committee’s work, preparation, and launching the search.  During this phase, the search committee gathers information from the congregation through feedback meetings and a questionnaire and will continue to utilize the traditional best practices for choosing members for a ministerial team at UCG.

In addition, during phase one, the search committee will be completing a good amount of paperwork necessary to launch the search including:  (1) updating our church profile (an extensive description of our church that must be filed at the conference office before the search can be advertised and that tells the story of our congregation’s self-study and mission), (2) reviewing the job descriptions drafts that are crafted by the ministerial team and CMRB, (3) examining developing a set of preferred candidate characteristics that capture the qualities we’d like to see in our next Associate Minister at UCG, and (4) preparing for the search documents to go live.

While there is much work ahead, the search committee is eager and excited to begin their important work. Please feel free to ask questions of the committee at any time.  They will be happy to share where they are in the process each step of the way, and will also keep everyone informed through newsletter articles, website updates, Congregational Meetings announcements,  and during announcements at worship.  As always, we ask for your continued support and prayers as we enter this first stage of our search.