The New UCC Profile Process Part 2: A Web Link Strategy

Me, according to Vizify. Vizify is an easy to use website that enables you to consolidate your web links, but it might not be your best option...

The New UCC Profile process will go live in just three short weeks, on January 31, 2014. I am blogging about my experience using the new process. (Check out my first post for an overview and review of the process.) Because I am not currently able to actually work with the online form, in the meantime I'm blogging about gathering and preparing materials for putting my profile together. I'm going to start with what is probably the most difficult step--creating web content for the weblinks section of the Profile. This section is optional, but strongly encouraged. As time goes on, I suspect that the weblinks section will become more and more important to search committees. At this time it is probably just something that will give you a little extra "edge" in the search process--if you provide your links in a well-thought-out way.

My current plan is to provide one link on my Profile that will lead to all other links. You may choose to use multiple links, but I think it is best to use as few links as absolutely necessary to provide access to all the web content that you want to provide to search committees.  There are various options for doing this. In this post I am only going to deal with options for consolidating your web links. In a future post I will provide suggestions about actual web content you might want to add (such as YouTube videos of sermons, Podcasts, etc.). I am only going to present options that I have actually tried. I have no doubt that there are many other options.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular networking website. Stylistically it is fairly similar to the new UCC profile--minus the networking aspect. I maintain an online resume and some visual portfolios at LinkedIn. It is fairly easy to put together a LinkedIn Profile. The visual profiles are easy to use, but it is so similar to the new Profile that I think most UCC Pastors will not want to add this link to theirs.

Vizify: Vizify is an easy-to-use do-it-yourself website maker. The free version allows you to create a page with an address based on your name (www.vizify.com/Jane-Pastor). You can add photos to personalize it and the way it consolidates all of your web links on a single visually-interesting page makes it a great option for Pastors who have not worked much with creating websites. If you haven't done so already I'd encourage you to check it out--it's easy to use and free. 

WordPress: WordPress is a popular tool for creating websites and blogs. It requires some specialized computer skills (or the aid of someone who has such skills), but it gives you access to an incredible array of themes for websites, many of which are free. You will need to choose (and pay for) a web host for your site, but once it is set up it is fairly easy to add and change content. 

Blogger: My current site is a blog at Blogger, which is a free, easy-to-use blog website that provides a variety of styles of templates. It is also possible to download your own background images. The style I use is called "Magazine."  Because I have a fairly uncommon last name I found it easy to secure a good name for my site, but The Reverend John Smith might have a problem, since many blog names on blogger are already taken.

Facebook:  Facebook gives you all the options you really need for a professional website to compliment your Profile. Although Facebook discourages it, many individuals maintain separate personal and professional Facebook pages. 

Regardless of whether you provide one web link or multiple links on your Profile, the really important thing is to provide relevant content through your links. In my next post I will talk about some things to consider in providing web content through your Profile.

This is part 2 of a series of posts about the new UCC Profile process. Read part 1, which provides an review and overview of the process 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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The spectacular now

When you are seeking a ministry calling it can feel like a not-so-spectacular time in your life. That is why this blog is called "The Wilderness Time."  Even if you are fully employed, you no longer feel called to remain in your current situation. That does not mean, however, that God does not have work for you to do.

A few weeks ago I preached to a congregation that is between pastoral leaders. My sermon, based on a passage in which God speaks through Jeremiah about the Babylonian exile,  was called "Bloom where you are planted." (You can check out my blog entry for that Sunday, which includes an inspirational video, here.)

God tells the Israelites to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile." Did you catch that? God says the Israelites have been put into exile by God. Even if you feel strongly called to change your current job situation, it is also important to remain mindful that God has important work for you to do right now--even if you are unemployed, underemployed or in a position that you feel you have outgrown.

I was reminded of this as I looked over my job references today. Many of them spoke of how they had initially come into the church where I served during a time of personal crisis and I had ministered to them and helped shepherd the through their crisis and into a better life. Yeah, it makes a Pastor feel good to read testimonials of this nature, but there is a larger message. God has work for you to do in whatever situation you find yourself. In fact, you may be having trouble moving on precisely because you have not completed the work that God has for you in your current situation. On some level you may be having trouble letting go and moving on, and as a result you may send subtle signals that sabotage your job hunting efforts. That idea may be hard to accept. It may even make you angry to hear me say that, but it happens to the best of us. It has happened to me. Asking God searching questions such as, "Why am I in this situation?" or even praying the prayer of Samuel: "Here I am, Lord. Send me," can help you gain clarity and refocus your efforts in a more productive way.

Someday you may look back on the time you are in right now and recall it with great pride and a sense of accomplishment. You may see that the seeds of your greatest achievement were planted during a time you spent that felt like the years the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness, searching for the promised land and and begging God to tell you why everything that is happening to you is happening, and how long it will last.  Someday you will know why the time lasted as long as it lasted.

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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The Clergy Job Interview

This is yet another aspect of searching for a clergy job that differs a great deal from most other job searches. Clergy job interviews sometimes unfold over a period of days, during which time the prospective Pastor socializes with church members, preaches a sermon to an unfamiliar crowd, and (generally) participates in an interview by a committee. If the clergy person has a family, they may participate in the social aspects of the interview process.  It is vital for the clergy person  to "be him/her self" throughout the entire process, but even if things don't feel quite right, she/he needs to make it through the whole marathon and keep his/her ego intact if the church turns them down for the position. Meanwhile, the stakes are high, and these sorts of stakes tend to throw someone off his/her game.

In the past I have aced clergy job interviews, and I have sometimes also not aced them. As with other interview processes, it is good to go over the materials you have about the position for which you are interviewing, and check out the web site if they have one. My denomination provides references that the job seeker can call to learn about the church from a perspective other than that of the search committee. The sorts of interview questions you are likely to field can be found here. (Please note that this is a PDF document and you will need to scroll waaaaaay down to resource 11B.)

One thing I have noticed about most clergy jobs is that the interview committees tend to "dress down" even in a formal job interview session, so while it's always a great idea to dress for success, try to also dress in a way that you seem comfortable in your clothes. Dress the way you might on a regular Sunday morning.

As with other job interviews, it is most important to answer questions clearly but try to keep things brief. It is probably not a great idea to launch into mini-sermons or tell long stories.

The thing that helps me the most is to be well rested, well fed and to exercise the morning before the interview. A recent TED talk offered a proverbial "one weird trick" to help prep for a nerve-wracking situation, such as a job interview.

And I would be remiss not to mention bringing spiritual practice into the entire interview process, before, during, and after the interview. You can check out the resources page on this blog for online and phone-app spiritual resources.

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.