From the Minister

Here's the latest column Jay has written for our newsletter, Voices. An archive of these columns is maintained and is accessible on the left:

February 13, 2011

We have asked for a great deal of input over the past couple of years from UUCC members. What follows is a brief update on two critical areas shaped by all you have offered.

Assistant Minister Search
Quite a while back now, we invited you to participate in a discussion that would help shape the job description of our assistant minister. Many of you offered your ideas and insights about what we need most in order to be the congregation we aspire to be.

While we've given feedback on several occasions, it seems potentially helpful to remind you again that, based on your thoughts, we've created a job description that is focused largely on adult programming. We'll have new professional ministerial leadership in Adult Religious Education/Spiritual Development, Community Building, Congregational Care, and Social Justice. In addition, our new minister will share pastoral responsibilities and service leadership with me.

We have opted to follow the Unitarian Universalist Association's process for finding our new minister. This has meant months of work, effort that now culminates in upcoming face-to-face interviews. While many of us have expressed ideas about the specific kind of person we need, the Selection Team is committed to finding the very best fit for our needs, the person we think has the best possible chance of helping us thrive.

As Chief-of-Staff I will hire the minister our Selection Team chooses. We'll contract for a three-year ministry, with a review at the end of the second year. Should the review indicate that we see long-term possibilities, the congregation will then vote on whether it wishes to call this person as a settled minister here.

The decision of the Selection Team will be made in mid-March. We'll arrange a time for our new minister to return to Charlotte to meet the congregation and to begin the process of making this place home. Then, our Assistant Minister will officially begin work here in August.

Envisioning 2015
In the past few months, we have invited all members to contribute to the development of a plan that will guide our work through the middle of 2015. Through an input box, a designated email address, open sessions and especially through guided sessions with each of our volunteer Teams, we have gathered an enormous amount of input.

All of what we heard has been carefully considered, listening for those ideals that will enable us to realize the "strategic objectives" laid out by the visionary work of our Board. The Coordinating Team has presented the Board with a very lengthy document that lays out in great detail the work to which we propose being committed in the coming months and years.

Pending our Board's imminent approval, we'll create an easily digestible version of the plan that will make its impact on our congregation quite obvious. I think you will see that we are clearer than we have ever been about who we aspire to be and about what we need to do to realize our lofty ambitions. I remain very excited about the ways our Envisioning 2015 plan will help us change lives and change our larger community.

Along with a communication plan, we'll also be inviting all of our Teams to begin prioritizing the work they will undertake. We'll initiate certain aspects of this work right away, other parts will require significant preparation before we can start them.

As a very important aspect of Envisioning 2015, our "See Change" approach to stewardship this year invites you to offer an assessment of the place of the UUCC in your life and in the life of our community. Your choice to participate in this congregation-wide assessment will help shape our work in the coming months and years. Please complete your assessments and get return them with your generous pledges as soon as possible.

The Coming Days Together
Much of the preparation we have been doing in the past few years will begin paying off soon. You are going to experience an even more engaging, impactful congregation because of the arrival of our new assistant minister and the implementation of Envisioning 2015.

I am deeply grateful for all that, over more than six decades, has gotten us to this place. We are at a long-awaited, critical juncture in our history as a congregation. I am enthused about what lies ahead for us this year and excited about our long-term future together.

Peace, Jay