The first signs of the much rumored minister shortage may be appearing.
Look at Opportunities in Ministry. This is late May! How many of those congregations will have an interim by GA? Not enough applications for interim positions to fill them.
Many small and potentially great congregations outside of commuting distance to Boston had only a few applications for their settled positions. Some are going into a second year of search hoping a good prospect will apply.
Most aspiring newly fellowshipped ministers have a hard time finding their perfect settlement, but that has always been the case. James Freeman Clark went West not because he was a pioneer. He needed the experience to compete for all the little First Parishes back home.
The New Generations: May 2006 Archives
Theological Students who go to Starr King and Meadville probably already know this, but I find that candidates for the Unitarian Universalist parish ministry who are preparing outside the denomination schools sometimes miss this advice: have a packet ready to send as soon as the Ministerial Fellowship Committee grants preliminary fellowship.
I sent my first packet out to a search committee in November seven weeks after I saw the MFC, I received my M.Div in May of the next year. I learn from engaging in the process, so actually being in the search and doing pre-candidate visits educated me. Being in the search is a formative experience in becoming a minister.
But packets are best when they are developed over time. The last minute throwing together of sermons, and rites of passage does not make for the best introduction to a minister. For me the packet has evolved by trial and error, the photo essays and presentation have been modified over the years to reflect different ministries.
Web sites can supplement, but do not supplant the traditional printed media packet. The old advice to stay away from audio and video material no longer applies, with computer software we can edit a audio file or a video file, so it doesn't sound or look as bad as what home movie cameras were producing fifteen years ago. I used VCR effectively twelve years ago, with a Digital camera and iMovie and DVD duplication the packets will be different in the future, but the written word will continue to be to be the medium of first impressions.
Some sermons work better in a packet than others. It might take a candidate two years to preach sermons that tell a search committee about you, rather than just your opinion about a topic. So preach some sermons with yourself as the text.
Write your biography again and again and again. Telling your story in a packet comes through practice, the search committee is trying to get to know you. The packet is medium that helps them accomplish that task.
