Transition and Discernment Issues at General Convention

20 Monday Aug 2012

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Confession:  With all due respect to the great state of Indiana, I’d go to Indianapolis in July only if I wanted a foretaste of my possible eternal reward for being too snarky about the church’s most holy transition ministry system.  The following comments are based solely on my reading of published documents.  I was not there and have no inside information.

I only see three GC resolutions that have a direct bearing on the transition ministry system.  All three, A143, A144, and DO31, call for greater affirmative actions efforts on behalf of women and other minorities.  Clearly, the church perceives an ongoing problem.  The question is, will these particular resolutions help address our affirmative action challenges, and if not, what other policies might we try to implement?

I’ve worked on affirmative actions solutions for more than twenty years in Massachusetts.  In the early 1990s, I authored a diocesan convention resolution calling for the appointment of women and minorities as interims and priests-in-charge.  Once the resolution passed, I pressured the then reluctant bishop to enforce the resolution.  The policy is still in place and fairly effective.  About ten years ago, I served on a task force to update our diocesan deployment policy manual.  A convention resolution had called for the task force to beef up the affirmative action component.  We ended up writing sixty page bureaucratic search committee manual, which I am sure most search committee glance at briefly.  I doubt we had much impact on affirmative action.

A143 calls for the national church through the Office of Transition Ministries, the Office of Pastoral Development, and the Committee on the Status of Women to develop a “Search Tool Kit” with two purposes.  The first would be to give helpful information about the search process to women applicants.  The second would be to give information to search committees about the nature and impact of discriminatory hiring practices.

IMHO, Discernment Doctor comes close to fulfilling the first purpose of the proposed search tool kit.  Useful information about resume writing, OTM writing, interview preparation, etc., can all be found on this blog.  I would be happy to post an article or two that addresses discernment specifically from women’s and or minority points of view.  Send me your contributions and comments.

From my experience in Massachusetts, giving search committees reading material on affirmative action has little impact on their behavior.  Rather than relying on written material, DioMass policy is to monitor the search process and intervene if the list of candidates is not sufficiently diverse: The Diocesan Office will engage in conversation with the Search Committee throughout the process and reserves the right to add names if the slate does not reflect the Diocesan commitment to diversity.

A144 focuses on Episcopal offices and calls on the Office of Pastoral Development to monitor the ratio of female and minority candidates to white, male candidates in Episcopal nominations and elections, make recommendations on how to improve the ratio, and advise bishop search committees about affirmative action practices.  The explanation notes that while the number of female finalists has been steadily rising, the number actually elected to the episcopate still falls far short of where we could be.

Research is helpful, but I would expand the scope of this survey far beyond the activities in episcopal elections.  What systems do we have in place to mentor younger female and minority clergy so they grow into good candidates for the episcopate?

DO31 calls on bishops to require search committees and vestries to attend an affirmative action workshop as part of the discernment process.

Could we build those workshops around case studies of parishes/dioceses that have experienced female or minority leadership as a blessing?  I have been to far too many church workshops that focus on what is bad about racism, sexism, gender bias, etc. but fail to give my leadership team positive images about the blessings of operating in a non-sexist, non racist fashion.  My gut sense is search committees, vestries, and electing conventions make traditional decisions because we are “playing it safe” in these challenging times.  Telling us that is wrong is not as likely to change our behavior as giving us successful case studies of women or minority clergy in leadership positions.

The next General Convention could see more resolutions impacting transition ministry as the church restructures herself for the 21st century (one can always hope.)  My hope is that transition ministry will be treated as piece of a larger human resource management system that is focused on recruiting and sustaining the best team of clergy to serve the church.  Such a system would include ordination, seminary (or other) education, mentoring, transition/discernment, clergy health, insurance, pensions, etc.   To my knowledge, the last time General Convention took a comprehensive look at transition ministry was back in the early 1970s, when the Clergy Deployment Office was first established.  Lets get a conversation going.

 

OTM 2.0

06 Monday Aug 2012

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In late June, clergy should have received the following correspondence from the Office for Transition Ministry:

Version 2.0 of the OTM Portfolio will roll out the first week of July with many upgrades including requests from users, a newly enhanced search functionality, and three new Narrative questions.  Logging in to your account at www.otmportfolio.org will lead you to find:

  • The ability to add a new degree in education or position in work history with ease
  • The opportunity to review many of your recent Ministry Portfolio revisions and revert to any one of them yourself
  • An option to view a list of positions identified as ‘Currently Receiving Names’ on the home page of the website before even logging in
  • The ability to identify a worshipping community and search the database for ‘More Like This’
  • The ability to now create and organize lists of your search results
  • The opportunity to refine your gifts & skills according to the help text provided

Upon deployment of Version 2.0 you may want to log-in and answer the three new Narrative questions:

  • What is your personal practice of stewardship and how do you utilize it to influence your ministry in your worshipping community?
  • What is your experience of conflict involving the church? And what is your experience in addressing it?
  • What is your experience leading/addressing change in the church? When has it gone well? When has it gone poorly? And what did you learn?

The Board and Office for Transition Ministry want to make the experience of engaging with the Ministry Portfolio both smooth and satisfying. We are also striving to use this tool to elicit and communicate to the wider Episcopal Church the profound gifts and talents, and calls to ministry of our worshipping communities, clergy and lay leaders. Please know that you are invited to communicate directly with us about your experience with the Ministry Portfolio or ideas for future enhancements at: support@otmportfolio.org.

How do these changes impact clergy using the OTM Portfolio?  Here is a review of each of the changes outlined above.  The most significant change is the addition of three new narrative questions.  Clergy should fill those out asap.  Other changes don’t work as promised or may have unintended consequences.

The ability to add a new degree in education or position in work history with ease

There are new orange buttons on the Education/Continuing Education and Work History pages that make adding new information much easier.

The opportunity to review many of your recent Ministry Portfolio revisions and revert to any one of them yourself

There is a third tab at the top of the Update My Portfolio page entitled “Revisions” that brings up the history of all changes made to your OTM Portfolio.

The “Revisions” tab also appears on top of parish Community Portfolio pages, enabling clergy to view the editing process of parish profiles.  I am not sure that this is intentional, and I hope that search committees or DTMs cannot view the editing history of clergy profiles.

An option to view a list of positions identified as ‘Currently Receiving Names’ on the home page of the website before even logging in

This list is in “pdf” form and is not updated daily, so it is not very useful.  Clergy should continue to log in and go to the “Search Community Ministry Portfolios” section for up to date information.

The ability to identify a worshipping community and search the database for ‘More Like This’

This feature does not work.  On the Search Results page under each parish listing is an orange line “Show More Results Like This”.   A sample I clicked on for a rural Southern parish offering a salary of $65,000 with an asa of 100 yielded a list including parishes offering salaries from $15,000 to $140,000 from small rural to major urban settings.  Many of the parishes in the list were not currently searching for rectors.

The ability to now create and organize lists of your search results

When perusing the Search Results page, you can create a list of Community Portfolios for further investigation by clicking on “Add to list”.  You also have the option of creating multiple lists of you own definition.

The opportunity to refine your gifts & skills according to the help text provided

This refers to the boxes entitled “Primary Gifts/Skills Engaged:” found on the Work History & Skills page.  This feature does not work.  The text below the box instructs clergy to “Enter no more than four descriptions made up of one or two-words each.”  When I began typing a skill into the box, a list of supposedly similar skills used on parish portfolios popped up.  The words were not that similar, the phrases were longer than two words, and did not fit into the pop-up box.  Clergy should ignore the pop-up box for now and just enter four one or two word skills.

The “Primary Gifts/Skills Engaged:” box is designed to be compared to a similar list of desired skills on parish portfolios.  Given the problems with this feature, clergy and parish search committees cannot rely on the OTM system to generate meaningful matches.

Upon deployment of Version 2.0 you may want to log-in and answer the three new Narrative questions:

The Narrative section of the OTM Portfolio is probably the most popular and successful feature on the system. Search committees expect clergy to answer all the questions.  The three new questions were added to cover areas not covered in the original set of questions: stewardship, conflict management, and change.

One of the basic principles of Appreciative Inquiry is that questions shape our social construction of reality.  Are we asking the right questions to shape a better future for the church?  For example, by looking for conflict resolution skills, are we anticipating that conflict management will continue to be a central occupation of the church?  If that is the case, how are we ever going to reverse current declines?  Perhaps I’ll blog further on this topic and welcome your thoughts.

In sum, I hope that the TMO staff can quickly correct the problems noted above and wonder why OTM 2.0 was released without anyone detecting these issues.

Interim Ministry in Transition

02 Monday Jul 2012

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The Alban Institute’s Dan Hotchkiss just published an article on the evolution of interim ministry theory and practice.  Given that the Alban Institute wrote the book on interim ministry, it is interesting to hear a senior staff member reflect on increasing criticism of the practice.

http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9964

Hotchkiss writes:  Over the last decade, the consensus in support of interim ministry has softened somewhat. 

 Carolyn Weese and Russell Crabtree, in The Elephant in the Boardroom (Jossey-Bass 2004), complain that the “prevailing stream of thinking about leadership transitions tends to be illness- based. A pastoral transition is treated like a terminal diagnosis….” (p. 19) Ouch!  

Hotchkiss cites a recent article by Norman Bendroth, a long time interim ministry practitioner who surveyed current thinking about the interim system:

http://macucc.s3.amazonaws.com/71BBE2C7B9B049B0883D51809D9A1E82_Rethinking%20Transitional%20Ministry.pdf

Bendroth writes: Anthony B. Robinson, a seasoned United Church of Christ pastor, author and consultant has recommended that “Tall Steeple” churches, in particular, might consider a “succession” model where the newly called pastor overlaps the outgoing pastor so the church does not lose momentum.

How effective is transitional ministry? There is a crying need for longitudinal studies to be done across denominational lines that will provide quantitative results. To date that has not been done,

Here in the Diocese of Massachusetts, a recent transition in our transition ministry office led to a lively discussion among our bishop and area deans about the future of transition ministry.  Bishop Shaw cited statistics that show that interims often slow down a congregation’s momentum, that attendance and pledges often drop during the interim period.  He noted that, given the unpredictability of many transitions, it is difficult to find good interim ministers in a timely fashion.  He expressed openness to trying the planned succession model mentioned by Weese and Crabtree and Anthony Robinson.  Our largest inner city church used the succession model several years ago and is flourishing.  The deans noted that another model – appointment of a priest in charge as a prelude to calling that priest as rector, was increasingly popular.

Here at Old North, we are developing a long-range plan focused on our three hundredth birthday in eleven years.  The wardens approached me about including succession planning as I will probably retire within that timeframe.  They are intrigued with the idea of bringing an associate on who would be eligible to become rector.

The practice of interim ministry will continue to evolve as the church restructures herself for effective ministry in the 21st century.  The articles cited above are useful introductory reflections.  I agree with Norman Bendroth that we need some serious independent studies on what has or has not worked well in the church as well as studies of best practices in other business and non-profit organizations.

 

 

 

 

Demographics, Discernment, and a Summer Reading Recommendation

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

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In my role as the Discernment Doctor, I try to focus like a hawk on issues affecting clergy career development.  But as our careers are developing (or coming to a conclusion) in an institution that is struggling now, I occasionally feel the need to look at the big picture.  Discerning our own futures is interwoven with discerning the future of the church we love and serve.

I have just started reading Jill Lepore’s new book, The Mansion of Happiness, A History of Life and Death.  If you like non-fiction, I strongly recommend that you add this to your summer reading list.  It will get my vote for a future reading for my church book club.

The book title and introduction explore American perceptions of the meaning of life as expressed in Milton Bradley’s phenomenally successful board game, Life.  The first version of the game was developed by the original Milton Bradley on the eve of the Civil War.  That game, played on a checkerboard, was a mixture of morality and materialism.  When Milton Bradley, the company, reissued Life in 1960, the game was all materialism.  He who retires with the most money wins.

Lepore made a sociological observation about how changing demographics impacts our view of history and of questions about the meaning of life.  Around 1800, the average American family had seven children and the average American lifespan was around forty years.  In 2010 the average American family has less than two children and the average lifespan approached eighty years.

In response to this dramatic demographic change, Lepore notes that our understanding of life has straightened out.  Where we once observed life as circular, life is now experienced as linear.  Lepore writes:

“In 1800, the fertility rate in the United States was over seven births per woman, the average age of the population was sixteen, and the life expectancy was under forty.  By 2010, the fertility rate had fallen to barely two, the average age of the population had risen to thirty-seven, and the average American could expect to live to nearly eighty….

When life lengthened, all those circles became lines…Meanwhile, the contemplation of life and death moved from the humanities to the sciences,…

When thinking about life and death moved from the library to the laboratory, the light of history dimmed.  The future trumped the past.  Youth vanquished age, and death grew unthinkable”.

Could Lepore’s observation about the dimming of the light of history be made about a dimming of the light of Christ?  I wonder how much the “straightening out of life” accounts for the shrinking popularity of the church and of the Christian message in America.  Churches across the theological spectrum are shrinking.  Yes a few megachurches are growing, but on average, religious affiliation is declining, while polls show “no religion” is increasing.  Even here at Old North, our Sunday attendance dipped a bit last year after several years of steady, if small growth.

Certainly, decreasing family size accounts for some of the decline as the church’s  primary form of evangelism is to baptize children of current members.  The church flourished during the 1950s as post World War Two families gave birth to a baby boom (including me) and launched new suburbs with new churches.  Once the baby boom subsided, so did church growth.

I wonder whether long term demographic changes have had a subtler and deeper impact on how our faith is received. As life lengthens, do individuals confront the same core theological questions our ancestors did?  Birth and death are experienced less frequently in our modern lives than they were two hundred years ago.  Moreover, birth and death tend to be isolated from society.  They occur in hospitals and nursing homes, not at home.  Are we then less likely to ask questions about what happens after death?  Do we postpone asking those questions until our own deaths feel relatively close?

Does the church proclaim the Christian faith in a way that is more attuned to larger families and shorter life spans?   Is John 3:16 (to the end that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.) still the most important summary of the Gospel?  Is the primary role of clergy to be pastors to help families through life transitions of birth, illness, and death?  Do we view sin primarily as an obstacle to eternal life, or as an affront to our fellow human beings?  Is the eucharist a sacrifice to bring us closer to eternal life, or a shared meal to bring us closer to each other?  I am not suggesting that we stop believing in eternal life, stop pastoring each other through life challenges, stop repenting our sins, or stop celebrating the eucharist.  Perhaps we need to rethink what each of these theologies and activities mean in the context of lengthened lives.

Different Christian themes have been emphasized in different Christian eras.  These themes are all found in our large and ancient tradition, but they vary in importance from era to era depending on the existential, economic, and political issues faced by the living communities of faith at the time.  What themes are we currently de-emphasizing, and more importantly, what ancient Christian themes can help us address the spiritual challenges of the twenty-first century?

Might we understand recent church battles over sexual identity and family structure as attempts to adjust the church’s theology and practice to changing demographics and to lives less focused on birth and death?  The difference in responses to these issues by the Western church versus the church in the developing world may be a reflection of differing demographic realities between developed and developing worlds.

What are the spiritual questions that seem most pressing in your longer and healthier life?  What stories from our ancient tradition will help you understand the purpose of life as we now live it?  As The Mansion of Happiness, A History of Life and Death points out, our core values are changing in response to changing demographic, technological, economic, and social change.  Where do we find God in that change?  How can our history help us understand the future to which God is calling us and calling our church?

Tips for Skype Interviews

18 Monday Jun 2012

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Many, if not most search committees now employ Skype interviews in their screening process.  Skype interviews have replaced phone interviews and often replace site visits to the candidates current congregation.  Skype technology offers a good approximation of a face to face interview without the cost of travel for a candidate or a search committee delegation.

Skype interviews have become ubiquitous in the secular world and a number of major publications and websites have published useful tips.  Several of the best are listed below my summary of the most useful suggestions.

I have very limited personal experience to draw on, having participated in only one Skype interview.  In that interview I discovered that it is very difficult for a candidate to read the body language of search committee members.  When you spread a full search committee in a semicircle around one video camera, each member appears quite small on the candidate’s computer screen, making it very difficult for a candidate to read and respond to the body language of search committee members.  The candidate, on the other hand, will appear as a head and shoulders shot on the search committee’s computer screen, where his/her facial expressions and hand gesture can be more easily read.  This phenomena makes non-verbal communication rather one sided.  I’d prefer to have a one to one conversation with a single search committee member that other search committee members could view.

According to the Skype tips links below, technical preparation is key.

  • Make sure you computer connection is glitch free – hardwire is better than Wifi.
  • Choose a good background for the camera shot – somewhere between too cluttered and a blank white wall.
  • Check the lighting beforehand – you may want to add some lamps off camera to light your face, without shadows.
  • Dress well in monochrome colors – black clergy shirts are fine, patterns are bad.
  • Buy or borrow a higher quality video camera than the little one on the top of your laptop.
  • Place the camera in front of the screen so you are looking into the camera while you are looking at the screen.  Looking into the camera is the most important single tip.
  • Place the camera and computer at eye level.
  • Choose a location with no distractions – no other people, barking dogs, or background noise.
  • I’m not sure about the makeup recommendations – that seems overkill to me.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahsweeney/2011/08/15/4-tips-for-skype-interview-success/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-47541444/ace-your-skype-job-interview-14-smart-tips/

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2667-Interviewing-8-important-tips-for-Skype-interviews/

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobinterviewtypes/a/skypevideo.htm

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/04/26/how-to-ace-a-skype-interview-tips-for-making-a-good-impression-on-job-interviews-video/

Godspeed to all who will Skype interview.  Let me know what other tips we might share with each other.

Discernment and Health Insurance

11 Monday Jun 2012

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Elizabeth Kaeton recently blogged on the Diocese of Newark’s special convention under the title “Shift” Did Not Happen.  A lively discussion ensued on her Facebook page, which includes a Wall Street Journal article on the topic. The special convention debated whether to require clergy to pay a share of their health insurance costs.  The pertinent resolution failed by one vote in the clergy order.

Given the discussion began on a Sunday morning (aren’t we supposed to be in church?), I chimed in with a quick bemused comment about a parallel debate in Massachusetts.  Here is a more considered response.

I am all for solving this problem the way every other major industrialized country does, with a national health care system.  However, that seems highly unlikely in the current political environment.

I am unconvinced by arguments that requiring clergy to pay a share of their health care is a “justice” issue.  I fear that “justice” is being used pejoratively in this debate, implying that those opposed to cost sharing are somehow unjust.

Nor am I convinced that GC A177, which requires clergy and lay employees to receive the same benefits created this problem.  That is certainly not the case in Massachusetts, where our version of health care reform already required employers to provide access to health insurance to lay employees with over 1,000 hours of work a year.

No matter how you frame the issue, from a clergy person’s perspective, cost sharing means a reduction in our compensation and benefits package.  Must we, like many other members of the middle class, accept stagnant or declining compensation?  Maybe, but please don’t expect us to be happy about it.

For me, the real driver behind clergy health care cost sharing is financial, stemming from the church’s need to cut costs as our income shrinks.  If it is primarily driven by the church’s weakening financial condition, shouldn’t we put all options on the table for stabilizing the church’s finances?  What other expenses can reasonably be cut?  More importantly, how can we invest our limited resources, both financial and people, to increase our income?  In other words, do we have a mission strategy to encourage more people to join and support the church?

One of the church’s cost cutting strategies has been to reduce maintenance on our church buildings.  We have justified this strategy by claiming the church should primarily focus on people, not buildings.  The predictable result is that we have a bunch of decaying buildings.

Are we now proposing to reduce the cost of maintaining clergy?  After health care cost sharing fails to stabilize church finances, do we reduce pension benefits?  Continuing education funding has already been cut on the parish level.  Many clergy are also working longer hours, with less staff and volunteer support.  At what point do clergy start to break down or leave the profession?

The cost of health care is one piece of a much larger mission challenge facing the church.  If I am asked to give a little on health care, I want to know what the larger coherent plan to stabilize the church and enhance Christ’s mission through us looks like.

In the meanwhile, from the Discernment Doctor’s perspective, we need to recognize that uneven health care costs may impact the calling process.  In Massachusetts, if I were a candidate for a call needing a family plan, the insurance cost to a parish would run around $25,000.  If were single, I’d only cost around $7,500.  If my spouse obtained insurance through her employer, the cost could be $0.  These disparities are bound to color search committee or vestry decisions.

A Lutheran Perspective on Social Media in the Discernment/Call Process

08 Friday Jun 2012

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Lutheran Pastor Keith Anderson recently posted this blog advocating that all clergy maintain a personal blog or website.  He says:

Tip: if you don’t already have personal blog or website, start one. Share some sermons, video, your ideas, reflections, and pictures. Give people a way to get to know you and your work. Just as we expect churches to have website, we increasingly expect leaders themselves to have some kind of online platform. Tumblr.com or WordPress.com are both good options.

The Episcopal OTM Portfolio, particularly the Connections page, gives Episcopal clergy a platform for posting all the material Anderson advocates we publish, without the hassle of developing our own website or blog.  That said, a personal blog gives clergy more freedom to structure their digitized information in a more compelling and attractive way.  Moreover, maintaining a personal blog shows search committees that you have a skill that parishes increasingly seek in the clergy, the ability to use social media.  If you are not that internet savvy, taking a social media course should be high on your list of continuing education projects.

If you do chose to set up a personal blog or website, do more than create an elaborate online resume.  Design a platform that expresses your core values and purpose.  Anderson’s recommendation, “Tip: It’s best avoid controversial posts,” makes me uneasy.  If you value controversy, and if shaking things up is part of your core purpose, don’t hide that in order to find a job.  You may be called to a parish that abhors controversy and find yourself suppressing what is near and dear to your ministry.

Tweaking the OTM – Version 1.5 and Beyond

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Episcopal clergy should have received an e-mail in April of 2012 noting that the OTM Portfolio database was shutting down for a couple of days to upgrade to version 1.5.  This was at least the second upgrade to the new OTM system, as the OTM staff tries to address perceived flaws in the software.

The April 2012 e-mail highlighted two changes, one to the way languages are listed and one limiting how primary gifts and skills are entered into the Work History section.   Both changes are efforts to make the search function of the software that matches clergy to community portfolios work better.

Foreign language capacity is now identified by checking specifically defined boxes.  In earlier iterations, a simple typo could throw off the computer search.  For example, if someone entered Spanesh, instead of Spanish, the computer could not make the match.  Pre-defined check off boxes solves that problem.

The old CDO system provided clergy and search committees a common list of pre-defined skills to use on their profiles which could be matched by the computer software.  The new OTM system has moved away from pre-defined skills.  Clergy and search committees are invited to use their own words.   Early reports indicate the skill matching component of the OTM portfolio is not yet working well. There are just too many ways to define the same skill and the computer program is not sophisticated enough to read the slight variations.  Not only do typos throw it off, but the computer can read “pastoring” and “pastoral” as distinct skills.

I suspect more changes will be necessary beyond OTM 1.5 before the matching program works reliably.  Until then, the best matching program can be found not on the computer, but in the networks of Diocesan Transition Officers (DTM), who regularly communicate with each other trying to find appropriate candidates for open positions.  Human to human contact still outperforms the computer.

Another upgrade, OTM 2.0, is in the works.  That upgrade may expand on the part of the OTM system that has been well received, the”Narrative” section.   A DTM recently reported to me that search committees like having answers to set questions ready to review early in the search.  The “Narrative” saves the time spent on sending questionnaires to clergy and awaiting their response.  From the clergy perspective, having a standard set of questions saves the time spent answering slightly different questions for every search.  OTM 2.0 may add a few new questions, to cover areas like stewardship, that are not covered in the current “ Narrative” section.

Clergy should take the time to carefully respond to all the questions in the “Narrative” section.  Several DTM’s have emphasized the importance of filling out the section completely, as search committees like to compare candidates’ responses on all the questions.  The OTM guidelines suggest clergy answer at least five questions.  I recommend you answer them all.

As the OTM continues to evolve, I hope to see a much more detailed “Tips and Guidelines” section.  Computer systems need educated users to function well. (Hence this blog.) The first law of computing is GIGO – garbage in, garbage out.  The OTM Portfolio is fairly complex.  Seemingly innocuous typos can throw it off.  The more precise guidance we are given in using it, the better the OTM may operate.

ARE TRADITIONAL SEARCHES SPEEDING UP?

31 Thursday May 2012

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Conversations with a several clergy over the past few weeks make me wonder whether technological changes are shortening the time required for traditional searches.  My evidence is anecdotal, so I welcome hearing your perceptions.

Four changes have been mentioned as helping speed up the search process:

  1. The shift from snail mail to e-mail has sped up communication among all participants in a search process, candidates, search committee members, Diocesan Transition Ministers (DTMs), and bishops.
  2. The addition of the “Narrative” section in the new OTM Portfolio is being used by search committees as a substitute for the lengthier process of sending questionnaires to candidates and waiting for their replies.  The “Connections” section of the OTM can also provide search committees with ready access to additional background material and online sermons.
  3. Clergy can easily send audios or videos of recent sermons.  Many sermons are posted on clergy’s current parish websites.
  4. Skype interviews approximate the feel of a face to face interview and are sometimes used as a substitute for a visit by a subset of the search committee to the candidates ‘current parish.

One clergy person recently told me that they had submitted their name, resume and OTM to a parish and within a week been invited to participate in a Skype interview.  An invitation to visit the parish as a final candidate was expected within a month of the first contact.  This may be an abnormally fast process, but the period between first contact and final interview used to routinely take six to nine months.

Clergy seeking a new call, or even thinking about exploring a call within the foreseeable future, should take a few steps to be prepared for shorter search processes.

  1. Make sure your OTM Portfolio is filled out and up to date.  Answer all the “Narrative” questions, and liberally use the “Connections” section to steer search committees to sermons and other useful information.
  2. Maintain a “ready to go” electronic portfolio on their own computers with additional information to send to search committees.
  3. Watch the OTM “Search Community Portfolios” list of open positions and be ready to respond quickly to positions of interest.  Be careful to respond to the right party – some dioceses allow applications directly to the search committee, others require applications be sent to the DTM.
  4. Be prepared for a Skype interview.

Reflections on the eve of a clergy career development seminar

21 Monday May 2012

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I am preparing to lead a clergy career development seminar this week with Rob Voyle and have been reviewing my notes, which form the basis of the Theologies for the Vocational Journey and Five Steps in the Search Process series in the archives of this blog.  I have been leading longer or shorter versions of this seminar over the past ten years and am always interested to see where my thinking is changing as the deployment/transition ministry system evolves.  Might you be interested as well? Some of these thoughts have been expressed in more recent blogs.  Here is a summary of them as I prepare for a three-day seminar.

On call and discernment theologies:  Traditional longer searches are far more comfortable with a discernment theology that encourages clergy to self nominate, in part because the mechanisms to support a call theology, particularly the OTM Portfolio matching program, do not yield many good results.  On the other hand, the growth of short searches for PiC’s or rectors in smaller parishes leans toward a call theology, as candidates are nominated by TMO’s or bishops.

On personal discernment portfolios (where you put answers to the questions: Who am I? and What do I want to do with my gifts?) I am adding a third question:  How can my gifts help the church in the future?  God knows the church needs help now, so we need to be clear on how we can use our skills to strengthen the gospel, if not the church.

The OTM portfolio is no longer a significant factor in getting you name before a search committee, because the program for matching clergy gifts and skills to parish desired gifts and skills is widely perceived to be ineffective.  However, the narrative section of the OTM portfolio is valued as a brief writing sample that covers a number of topics relevant to most church searches.

Search committees are experimenting with emerging internet technologies.  I’ve been solicited for a job via a LinkedIn search and recently saw an ad for a rector’s job on my Facebook page.  Skype interviews are replacing phone interviews, though I am not sure how much additional information participants get from trying to read the body language of images that are three inches high on a computer screen.

Interviewing skills are best learned through practice.  You can read all sorts of tips for interviewing, but every bit of that advice will flee your brain when you are seated before a panel of fifteen to thirty interviewers.

Next post I’ll share with you what I learned from participants in the seminar.

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