Behold, I am doing a new thing: The New UCC Profile Process Part 1

A few months ago Malcolm Himschoot, the Minister for Ministerial Transitions at the United Church of Christ's national office, provided a guest post to this blog about the new UCC Profile process which will debut on January 31, 2014. In December of 2013 the UCC posted some more information, including samples of completed Profiles and how-to videos. Unless I get a job through the current Profile system in the meantime, I plan to blog my entire journey of creating, activating and using the Profile. This first blog entry will involve a quick overview of the differences between this Profile and the one that has been in use for at least the last decade or so.

What remains (more or less) the same:

• Basic contact information
• Statement of Consent by the individual to circulate the Profile
• Authorizations/Approvals by local and denominational officials
• Criminal background check and disclosure about accusations of misconduct, etc.

What has changed: 
Pretty much everything else.

• The profile will be a live online document and certain parts can be changed by the Minister or Member in Discernment at any time.
• Each profile contains a "snapshot" that can only be viewed by Conference Staff. This section highlights gifts, skills and availability for ministry and can be updated in real time. 
• The Statement on Ministry has changed to a series of essay questions about the "Marks of Faithful and Effective Ministers" (a list of character traits developed as part of the recent by-law changes regarding authorized ministry in the UCC.)
• Checklists for self-evaluation and evaluation by references have been replaced by essay questions of the type that will be familiar to white-collar workers.
• Three references are required and each individual Profile user will be able to hide some references in real time when seeking particular calls at his/her own discretion.
• There is no limit on the number of positions that can be included under "Vocational Experiences." (The previous profile only allowed for four positions.) If the clergy person so chooses they can omit some positions from this part and list them only briefly in a smaller section at the end of the Vocational Experiences. This section provides room for summarizing three key accomplishments. Gone is the requirement to provide data about church size and budget for each position.
• There is room to include supplemental information and attachments, as well as a section for live links to sermon videos, websites, blogs, etc. This is not required but is strongly encouraged.
• The Profile concludes with space for "Closing Thoughts," such as a" prayer or dream for the community which you imagine serving ... a poem, a Scripture passage, or a piece of music that is meaningful to you."

My initial reaction as a job seeker is very positive. I have longed for a Profile that enabled me to tell my story in my own way, and that would make it easy for search committees to access live links to websites directly from the Profile.  I also think that reading narrative profiles (as opposed to profiles filled with checklists and numbers) is going to be much easier for search committee members. On the other hand, some Ministers used to the "old way" of doing things may have a hard time completing a new Profile that serves them as well as the old Profile did. Also, it is going to make it much harder for committees that receive a tremendous amount of Profiles. Although it is greatly discouraged, I am certain that some search committees rely on the checklist of attributes or data about the size of churches the applicant has served recently to narrow the field. Search committees who will be doing their work during the transition period (the old format will be phased out over a period of eighteen months) will deal with the further headache of receiving profiles in both formats--they will essentially be comparing apples and oranges. National and Conference Staff members are also going to have their hands full with people struggling to tell the story of their ministry in a new way.  Some clergy are not very familiar with the terminology of Marks of Faithful and Effective Ministers, even if they are shining examples of these Marks.  As a bi-vocational clergy person I am an old-hand at writing resumes and designing web content to support my job search, and I still feel I make a lot of mistakes and have a lot to learn. Those who have never done this will likely experience confusion and frustration.
My current plan is to start right now to prepare the materials that will be placed on the new Profile. I will let my references know that new and different reference requests will be coming their way very soon. I will work on the wording of my essay questions and accomplishments. I will revise my resume blog to compliment this new Profile format. Then, when the new process is activated, I will jump right in and try to get my new Profile up and running as soon as possible. I'm sure this will involve some bumps, which I plan to blog about (don't worry, National and Conference staff. I will use grace, kindness and humility when I write about the bugs that we are going to uncover together through this process.) 
This is part 1 of a series of posts about the new UCC Profile process. 
Part 2, in which I talk about developing a web link strategy, can be found here.
Part 3, in which I discuss pitfalls to avoid in providing links to web content, can be found here.

I blog, therefore I am. If you liked this post and want some food for thought about church ministry, check out http://creativityinchurch.blogspot.com/. If you or anyone you know is looking to hire a new Pastor, check out my professional profile blog at http://dclapsaddle.blogspot.com/.
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“What God Has For You, Is For You”

(This piece is contributed by invitation. Rev. Malcolm Himschoot, MESA Minister for Ministerial Transitions, works in the United Church of Christ denominational office. He works closely with administrator Darrell Ludwig, who on a daily basis handles all Ministerial Profiles for the UCC. MESA can be found at www.ucc.org/ministers/. )

“What God Has For You, Is For You”

Malcolm Himschoot - October 8, 2013

A man walked past my office, headed for the Profiles desk. He had come from far away for a UCC meeting at the denominational offices. While here, he decided to see what had happened to his profile. In the current system, it’s like an inter-galactic black hole. You never know.

He found Darrell. Darrell found the problem. A piece wasn’t in yet. Darrell didn’t know it because the administrator only is alerted by the system when all pieces are in. The minister didn’t know it because he wasn’t alerted that a piece was missing. The profile was far from circulating, but neither one knew it. Meanwhile opportunities were passing by, and the man who was a qualified and dedicated minister waited, and waited, in search.

Of course this situation is unacceptable; the grief, understandable. MESA is tasked to finally improve the tools of the search and call system this year – to design something that resembles a modern, efficient task process, to fit together procedure and purpose, to align a functional product with the stated goals of numerous focus groups.

The denomination promises to have a better system soon. MESA can deliver on that promise with the help of professionals and suitable centralized technology. (It’s coming! See http://www.ucc.org/ministers/search-and-call/.)

Still, the UCC search and call process will always be more than a little mystifying. Far beyond the professional office, out there even beyond cyberspace, is where profiles are actually picked up and handled, touched and used.

The task before a Conference staff person is to find a batch of possible ethical leadership candidates for a church. The task before a congregation is to find a minister the church will respond to as they grow in God. There are as many ways of accomplishing this outcome, as there are people! Algorithms and heuristics, strategies and shortcuts. There are modern and ancient ways of doing this, there are European and African ways, cheaper and richer ways, speedy and slow ways, considerate and commercial ways, committee and consultant ways, happenstance and certified ways.

There is also, and despite it all, prayer.

The Holy Spirit has worked through stranger things than paperwork. The Holy Spirit has almost certainly moved in spite of paperwork! But the Holy Spirit does move, regardless.

It just so happens that a search process which makes no sense, which shows no rhyme nor reason, which takes too long or comes too sudden, may yet be a very faithful process. One in which God shows up, and has a leading role.

Which is why, for years and years, the starting instruction for the minister preparing their profile has not been, “Turn on your typewriter, computer or iPad.” And the starting instruction for the search committee engaging ministerial profiles has never been, “Locate the mimeograph, risograph, copy machine or PDF.”

The starting advice is always, “Begin with prayer.”

And so, next year when the profiles process is clean and transparent, when a strategic database exists, when authorized ministers in search know entirely what to expect, when colleagues across conferences are working together better than ever before, when each church in search is miraculously behaving as a rational engine no longer a called community of human beings, when the numbers of supply and demand equalize marvelously in the perfectly demographically-matched employment marketplace… unless that year is also the year in which Jesus comes, there will still be a moment when everything apparently breaks. Down.

Somewhere, a person of faith will be trying to discern their path while stressed out to the max, needing a secure place to be, enduring a time of flux and change, with many needs pressing upon them. Somehow this person, an authorized minister, will be doubting or at least wondering about grace and providence, vocation and justice. They’ll be praying that their spirit too may be called for a purpose, that their contribution will have a place in a heaven’s unfolding drama on earth, and that their employment needs will be met. Although anger, despair and fear will come naturally, this person must learn to rehearse, as the visitor rehearsed today in my office, “What God has for me, is for me.”

Try that line on. No matter how long or winding the journey. If it’s true, it’s true.

What God has for you, is for you.

Through such courage and conviction, a Way will be created to further Jesus’ gospel of mercy and hope, the sacrament of peace in the breaking of the daily bread. I pray such courage and conviction for each and every minister of Word and Sacrament in this time.

Amen.
(This piece is contributed by invitation. Rev. Malcolm Himschoot, MESA Minister for Ministerial Transitions, works in the United Church of Christ denominational office. He works closely with administrator Darrell Ludwig, who on a daily basis handles all Ministerial Profiles for the UCC. MESA can be found at www.ucc.org/ministers/. )

I blog, therefore I am. If you liked this post and want some food for thought about church ministry, check out http://creativityinchurch.blogspot.com/. If you or anyone you know is looking to hire a new Pastor, check out my professional profile blog at http://dclapsaddle.blogspot.com/.

Like The Wilderness Time on Facebook.