From our President – The End is in Sight!

The moment we have all been waiting for is almost here. After months of cottage conversations, surveys, BCT workshops. After a winter of certain Sundays when a certain seven people were all not in church. The end is in sight.

Should the Search Committee decide they have found the appropriate person, they will make an offer to a ministerial candidate on April 7 at noon EST. This is not a joke – all offers are to be made on that day at that time.

Should the Search Committee select a candidate and should the candidate be amenable to the selection, we will have a match. This result will be announced in church on Sunday, April 10, and then again via e-blast on Sunday afternoon. (Note from Search Committee Chair Jon Montan: There is a protocol with this process and the committee will let you know the identity of this person and provide additional information as soon as the required background check has been completed, the agreement has been signed and the person has notified the church they currently serve. If one or more of these steps is not completed by April 10^th, the announcement will have to wait!)

Then the fun begins! We will be scheduling candidating week sometime between the end of April and the middle of May. What is “candidating” week you ask? This is typically an eight-day period (including two Sundays) for us to get to know our ministerial candidate and for them to get to know us. In addition to preaching on both Sundays, the candidate will participate in a wide variety of events especially planned to help facilitate this getting-to-know-you process.

It is our goal to have as many congregants meet the candidate as is possible. We plan to schedule a variety of events at different times of the day and at various venues to make it easy for people to attend. Please consider attending several events throughout the week. This is your chance to speak directly to the candidate, ask questions, and offer your thoughts about our congregation.

Some events will be potlucks or receptions; some will be meetings with specific committees or church council. Most will be open to all congregants. Your job will be to attend as many candidating week events as possible so you can acquaint yourself with our candidate.

On the final Sunday, there will be a congregational meeting to vote on ratifying the Search Committee’s choice and extending the call to ministry to this candidate. As in any congregational meeting, there will need to be a quorum of members attending in order to hold the vote. This vote is a critical step in the search process as it demonstrates the congregation’s commitment to the candidate, and why it is so crucial to spend time during candidating week getting to know the candidate.

There will also be a need for volunteers to coordinate and staff these events, which is another important way to participate in candidating week. Once an announcement has been made there will be a burst of activity to get this organized. There will be some intense planning going on, and it will require a committed effort by all of us to orchestrate so many events in a single week.

I must acknowledge how deeply appreciative I am of the work the members of the Search Committee have put into this process. The time, thoughtfulness, creativity, and sheer effort they have put forth are a true gift to our church. It is now time for all of us to finish the job. This will be a frenetic but thrilling time as we take these final steps on our journey to a settled minister.

Barbara Beekman, Church Council President