Calling Ministers

Climate Change Books

2010-08-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Just the other day I got another request to post a bibliography of some of my climate change readings and recommendations. Below is the list of books along with some comments.

If you're going to read just one or two books on the subject, please start with Hamilton and Hansen.

Please note that I have not read all the books from cover to cover. They keep coming in faster than I have been able to absorb them, and this is one field in which new info arrives every day.

I will do future posts on websites, blogs, films, and videos

The place to start: Requiem for a Species, Clive Hamilton (2010)

Time to awaken:

Climate Wars, Gwynne Dyer (2008, 2010)
Six Degrees, Mark Lynas (2008), also an excellent video

Good general guides:

The Rough Guide to Climate Change, 2nd ed., Robert Henson (2008)
Our Choice, Al Gore (2009)

From the pens of scientists:

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors, Burton Richter (2010)
The Flooded Earth, Peter D. Ward (2010)
Storms of My Grandchildren, James Hansen (2009)

Politics and Psychology of Misunderstanding and Manipulation:

Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway (2010)
Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely (2008)
The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner

The movement and societal consequences:

Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken 2007
Climate Hope, Ted Nace (2010)
Eaarth, Bill McKibben (2010)
Hope for a Heated Planet, Robert K. Musil (2009)
The Necessary Revolution, Peter Senge et. al. (2008, 2010)
Overshoot, William R. Catton, Jr. (1980)
A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit (2009)

Theology:

Archetype of the Apocalypse, Edward F. Edinger (1999), technically psychology; however, with significant theological implications
The Comforting Whirlwind, Bill McKibben (2005)
Longing for Running Water, Ivone Gebara (1999)
A New Climate for Theology, Sallie McFague (2008)

I Should Have Thunk It: Creationists & Deniers

2010-03-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those moments when you either literally or metaphorically hit your forehead with the palm of your hand thinking "Of course!" When I saw this blog post (link) by Stephen Stromberg of the Washington Post, I thought, "Of course, climate change deniers kissing cousins of creationists. The inbreeding is obvious."

Creationists imagine an impossible past and demand from scientists certainty that is contrary to the scientific method;

Deniers imagine a nearly impossible future and demand from scientists certainty that is contrary to the scientific method.

Please notice the insertion of the word "nearly" when referring to the future. Anyone who believes that s/he has the future on lockdown should be sentenced to watching endless reruns of the movie Minority Report, where "precogs" are used to arrest people for "precrimes" that haven't happened yet. Naturally, in the movie someone messes with the system to get the results he wants. The fact that I can't predict how many people will die from climate change next year--much less in 20, 50, or 100 years--is not an argument against acting now.

Reading the comments below Mr. Stromberg's post, I feel like I'm in a rerun of Inherit the Wind, a thinly veiled retelling of the Scopes Monkey Trial. In this case, the wind we will inherit will be fatal, especially to the poorest and most vulnerable. Are the deniers making these foolish and offensive comments real people, or are they the paid minions of Big Coal?

Hopeful News - Climate Change

2010-03-16T07:09:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, I saw this Candorville comic (link) and felt hopeful. If even the comics are recognizing the difference between weather and climate, the word is getting out. Then I looked up Darrin Bell, the author of Candorville, on the web, and found out that he's a fellow Berkeley resident. Goddess, is the word escaping the Berkeley bubble?

Well, this U.S. News and World Report article tells us:

Eight Nobel-prize winning economists and scientists have joined more than 2,000 others in signing a letter today that urges the Senate to take swift action on climate change.

Now, how do we help the Senate find the political will and courage to take that action?

Evil & Climate Change

2010-03-09T04:01:00.000-08:00

"Evil" is not a word I normally use, especially in reference to people. Instead words such as ignorant, misinformed, deluded, and ill, more easily trip off the tongue.

Yet now I'm increasingly drawn to the word evil when I read articles such as "Attack on the Clean Air Act." We've come a long way from Profiles in Courage.

None of these politicians would strangle their own children. Yet by their actions they are threatening to strangle their children and grandchildren and ours as well.

This debate has brought to mind the Robert Lewis Stevenson's story The Bottle Imp. Like the sailor at the end of the story, have these people decided that they're already condemned to hell and have nothing to lose, or are they merely self-deluding?

This wonderful video of Dan Gilbert may explain what's going on with the climate deniers and help us step back from condemnation and return to the search for collaboration. We and they must not "remain sleeping on our burning bed."

The MFC & the Olympics

2010-03-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not about to suggest that interviewing become an Olympic event, even though some schools have interviewing competitions and prizes.

Rather I was caught by the parallels between the MFC interview and an Olympic event when a speed skater said that she had had an emotional breakdown on the day of her event. Her statement was part of an NPR segment on the psychological preparation and coaching. It was good to hear of the preparation and that the skater recovered from her breakdown and earned a silver metal.

Both Olympic athletes and ministerial candidates spend years preparing for "tests" that are over in minutes. The emotional and psychological tension can be quite intense.

An MFC member once said, "We're not so scary." Another posited that successful candidates will face much greater challenges once they become ministers. Yet there is something special about the years of preparation and the few brief moments of the "test" that is different than other challenges. The parallels should led us to question how we prepare ministerial candidates and what we might learn from Olympic coaching.

Babies, shoes, climate change

2010-02-24T06:59:00.000-08:00

I'm a long-time lover of philosophy. Yesterday, I was watching the philosopher Peter Singer in the film Examined Life (2008), which I am pleased to say is available instantly on Netflix and was distributed by my cousin's company Zeitgeist.

Singer was standing in front of a Manhattan shoe store, selling, I believe, Manolo Blahniks--Carrie Bradshaw's favorite shoes in Sex and the City. Singer said that the setting reminded him of a hypothetical that he developed early in his career.

Suppose you were walking along and saw an infant in a very shallow body of water. You quickly determine that the infant will drown unless you instantly rescue her, but you will destroy your shoes as you run into the water.

Singer reports that nearly everyone says that they will save the child and damn the shoes. Yet for the price of a pair of expensive shoes, several starving children might be saved.

I see some limitations to Singer's argument, but it did get me thinking: What would people do if they realized that our current activities will be condemning billions of children to horrible and unnecessary deaths by starvation and dehydration?

The answer isn't obvious. At the website "Global Issues," Anup Shah reports that around the world 25,000 children die everyday:

The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.

The question that floats through my head is how do we present the risk of global catastrophe in a way that compels action. Normally reasonable people who would never have a second thought about ruining their shoes to save a baby will argue that we need to build more coal-burning power plants.

An optimistic friend of mine believes that we will develop the technology to mitigate the effects of carbon and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. I sure hope he's right.

In the meantime, thank the Goddess for Annie Leonard, the creator of The Story of Stuff and this new video on cap and trade, who turns these complex issues into messages that are easy to understand and share.

Leaving Legacies

2010-02-21T04:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I attended a program on "Faithful Generosity" sponsored by the Pacific Central District of the UUA and led by Laurel Amabile, Director of the UUA Annual Program Fund. It got me thinking once again about legacies, a subject that has been much on my mind of late.

Although UUism as measured by the average age of members isn't aging as quickly as I am, the last figure I saw on the former was that it was at 50-something and rising. My experience with the Berkeley Fellowship of UUs, where the average age was and remains much higher (it's coming down), made me more aware of the need for action if my generation -- the front spear of the Baby Boomers -- and the generation that preceded it are to leave a legacy of UUism to the generations that follow.

I've also been thinking about "legacy" in negative terms as well. I fear the environmental legacy we are leaving future generations.

I'm happy to report that I see a positive nexus between the two concerns. We can leave a legacy of UUism and a more positive environmental legacy by increasing UU focus on environmental issues. In our ranks, we have the scientists and engineers; the organizational specialists, community organizers, and therapists; and the ministers to create change. We also have the capacity to engage young adults and youth around these issues. Now is the time to face these challenges. Now is the time to rejuvenate UUism.

Ambivalence & Ambiguity

2010-02-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

"I hate to write."

"But you're blogging."

So went part of my quasi job interview earlier this week.

I absolutely hated writing as a child. I write left-handed, and started writing back in the days of fountain pens. I spend excruciating hours writing a simple thank you note because I didn't know what to say (beyond "thank you"), I couldn't spell, my hand would smudge the ink, and my father insisted that the product be perfect. I was, however, productive in filling the trashcan with failed efforts.

For years I struggled with pens, pencils, erasers, correction fluid, and typewriters. Thirty years ago, I bought an IBM Selectric with a memory for my then wife the writer (tho it was way outside our budget). It was one of those presents that was more like a loan because I was looking forward to using it myself.

When a word processor was installed in the office, I would sit next to the typist as she entered my work. Soon I was using the machine myself, despite the ridicule of my peers, e.g., "Finally found a job commensurate with your skills." Of course, in time, the shoe was on the other foot as my peers turned to me for guidance on using our first computers.

I tried and failed with speech recognition software. Then when David Pogue, the NYTs tech columnist, announced that Dragon was greatly improved, I tried it again and fell in love. (How appropriate to retell this tale on Valentine's Day.) I have been a Dragon evangelist ever since.

Yet with all these improvements in the process of writing that have removed so much of the frustration and drudgery, I still found myself not writing as much as I thought I should. It then occurred to me that some of the reluctance had more to do with potential outcomes than with process.

When I speak to you to person, I get to watch your reactions and to clarify and correct and even apologize when necessary. When I speak to you over the phone, there is a wealth of information in the timing and the tone of your replies. Writing is much more iffy. It lacks immediate feedback.

The man who was my main mentor in strategic planning was fond of saying that high tolerance for ambiguity is a key competency of creative and effective leaders. (There's a good intro to the topic at this Wikipedia article.) It's also critical for creative planning.

The science on climate change is clear: it's happening and human actions are contributing to it. What will happen 20 years from now, much less 50 or 100, is more ambiguous.

Woody Allen once noted that life is full of opportunities and obstacles. He wrote that the purpose of life was to seize the opportunities, avoid the obstacles, and still catch the 5:30 train to Long Island. May we seize the opportunities to go green, avoid the obstacles of ambivalence and ambiguity, and catch the movement to reverse the damage we've done.

Climate Change

2010-02-13T07:16:00.000-08:00

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that I've added "Climate Change" to the subtitle of this blog. It is not from a lost of interest in ministerial interviewing and examining, but from being drawn to a ministry of climate change. I am becoming increasingly convinced that we are headed toward an avoidable disaster if we do not address the amount of carbon we are pumping into the atmosphere.

The topics of ministerial examining and climate change are related. If we do not form and develop ministers ready to address this issue, we do a disservice to humanity and to all life on this planet.

Over at the blog 10 Minutes or Less, Mike Durall recently posted the following quote from Robert Wuthnow, Christianity in the 21st Century: Reflections on the Challenges Ahead:

Liberalism should be a counterculture to secularism, not a reaction to fundamentalism. It needs to present itself as a third way.

Though I'm not a Christian, I am a liberal. Dictionary.com gives 13 definitions of the adjective form of "liberal." Some that are relevant here are the following:

1. favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
4. favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
5. favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.
6. of or pertaining to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies.
7. free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward foreigners.
8. open-minded or tolerant, esp. free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.
11. not strict or rigorous; free; not literal: a liberal interpretation of a rule.

With some hyperbole, Tom Brokaw referred to my parent's generation as The Greatest Generation. I do not want our children or our grandchildren to refer to us as "The Infamous Generation" or "The Inept Generation," the generation that failed to act even though we knew we were undermining the conditions that sustain life on this planet.

Working in strategic planning for many years, I learned that my (and your) crystal ball is cloudy. In The Art of the Long View, Peter Schwartz persuasively argues that we can't predict the future and provides useful "scenaric" approaches for developing strategic vision.

We cannot "know" the outcomes of current environmental damage the way we can know the history of environmental damage and our contributions to current and historical damage. Caution in making predictions is warranted. However, such caution does not argue against prudence and action. It's time for change.

The Enemies List

2010-02-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

During the Nixon Administration, some of his staffers complied a list of enemies (political opponents) with the intent to harass them. More info about it is here. Though it was complied nearly 40 years ago, last year I heard Daniel Schorr, then of CBS, now of NPR, speak w/ quiet pride of having been on the list.

Before I matriculated at Starr King School for the Ministry, I thought of Walmart as a great place to get reasonable quality at excellent prices. I loved the greeters and the courtesy of the staff. On one of my early visits, I had trouble locating cleaning supplies. A staffer walked me half way across the store and pointed to the right shelf. Reading The Discipline of Market Leaders, helped me understand its business model and sources of its success.

At Starr King, I learned that Walmart was the enemy. It didn't treat its workers fairly. It had had a devastating impact on small local businesses.

Now Walmart is making headlines for its sustainability efforts. According to their website, their sustainability goals are "to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy, to create zero waste, and to sell products that sustain people and the environment. " This Fast Company article concludes that there will be some challenges along the way.

The future of UU ministry will be about conflict and collaboration. It's easy to identify mistakes and problems. It's harder to identify strengths and opportunities to collaborate. UU ministers should be prepared to do both.

New Century Summit & the Future of UUism

2010-01-31T13:32:00.000-08:00

Well, the New Century Summit of the UUA Pacific Central District is over, and and follow-up actions are planned. The topics identified for cross-congregational teams were youth, global/public engagement, community, generosity, outreach/evangelism, spiritual deepening, diversity, and transformation.

Many of the participants share my passion for addressing climate change. One of them, who works for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, told us that the Aquarium is preparing an exhibit on the impact of climate change on the world's oceans.

There's a beautiful view of the SF Bay from the UUC Berkeley, which hosted the Summit. Overlooking the Bay, I found it almost inconceivable that humanity has the capacity to wreck the atmosphere that is needed to sustain life. It reminds me that Henry Nelson Wieman, a UU theologian, once defined "God" as that upon which life depends. It's a special kind of hubris to deny the consequences of our actions, yet the experience gave me a new understanding of deniers.

On a lighter note, I just commented on this post at "Ten Minutes or Less," Mike Durall's blog of helpful hints for busy clergy and lay leaders. Mike and UU moderator Gini Courter were the keynoters at the Summit. His post reminds us that competencies for UU ministry are a moving target because the expectations of UU (and other) congregants are changing.

Sausage Making, Blind Men, & the Elephant in the Room

2010-01-27T09:51:00.000-08:00

In response to my 1/25 post about the "Pluperfect Storm," AKA the 4 reviews of UU ministry, Politywonk wrote the following:

Sausage-making comes to Boston... If they are serious about democracy, they will take the time to coordinate all of this into a simple proposal that Denominational Affairs Committees can pick apart point by point.

If she means that by putting together lots of ingredients we'll end up with a yummy product, then I'm in agreement.

I'm reminded of the Indian story of the blind men (or men in the dark) and the elephant found at this Wikipedia link. In my mind, the point of the story is that we each are limited in our perspectives and rather than trumpet their finality, we should be in dialogue to generate a more complete picture. In that light, I hope that multiple scenarios are developed that inspire rich reflections by denominational affairs committees.

Go Tell It on the Mountain

2010-01-26T04:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend the Pacific Central District of the UUA is holding a New Century Summit with Gini Courter, the UUA Moderator, and Michael Durall, congregational consultant and author of The Almost Church Revitalized: Envisioning the Future of Unitarian Universalism. Along with the other issues that may arise there, hopefully intercongregational issue groups will be formed to address climate change and the future of lay and professional UU ministry in the District. I will report my impressions after the Summit.

The Pluperfect Storm -- Commission on Appraisal

2010-01-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

There's a pluperfect storm of ministerial review on the horizon. Dictionary.com tells us that one definition of "pluperfect" is "more than perfect."

Wikipedia says a "perfect storm" is:

The confluence of three different weather-related phenomena that combined to create what Case referred to as the "perfect situation" to generate such a storm:

* warm air from a low-pressure system coming from one direction,
* a flow of cool and dry air generated by a high-pressure from another direction, and
* tropical moisture provided by Hurricane Grace.

We now have a pluperfect storm for ministerial review:

In October, the UUA President announced a comprehensive review of UU ministry;
In December, the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee created a process review subgroup;
This month, the UUA Board appointed a workgroup on credentialing that will report to the Panel on Theological Education; and
This weekend the Commission on Appraisal decided to review UU ministry.

As Bob Dylan said, "you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing." May the winds of change bless the imperiled climate of this planet.

Tactics, Emergency Preparedness, and Ministry

2010-01-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Elizabeth Curtiss, AKA PolityWonk, wrote the following on Facebook in response to Friday's "Health, Trust, and Testing" post:

Today's post at PolityWonk says that with all the money flying into Congress from greedy corporations -- and all the elected officials who love that life -- we need to change tactics completely.

Elizabeth's post was prompted by the Supreme Court decision by this week's Supreme Court decision on corporate campaign financing described in this New Yorker article. She suggests ways of taking political and social justice actions to take back government from corporations.

I too want to take back government to help us veer off our environmentally destructive path. There's something in the air: both literally as in too much carbon and figuratively in terms of sensing it's time for a change. Recently, there was a outpouring of interest in trauma ministry among local UU community ministers. You could attribute this interest to our being in the earthquake-threatened SF Bay Area and the horror in Haiti, and you might be right. However, there are also predictions that water accumulating under the Greenland and Antarctica glaciers may result in their sliding into the oceans and raising sea levels 200 feet within 12-24 hours. This would put much of the SF Bay Area, including the humble abode of this author, underwater.

It's hard to write about this topic without appearing to be the friar from the old New Yorker cartoons who carried a sign "The end of the world is nigh." It's also hard to not to think about Gore's metaphor of the boiled frog (frogs won't jump into hot water but you can boil them by gradually increasing the temperature of the water that they're in because they can't sense the gradual increase).

During the years I worked in strategic planning, I had lots of opportunities to say that my crystal ball is cloudy. However, cloudy isn't the same empty. Look around you, what do you see? What does it say about ministry and our denomination?

Health, Trust, and Testing

2010-01-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Christine Robinson, AKA iMinister, for the following comment in reply to my last post:

I think that it is dicey for the denomination to decide what the issue of the future is going to be and require it as a ministerial competency. We tried that with Anti-Racism/Multiculturalism and the result has been minimal. It is healthy churches, healthy leaders, and spiritual and emotional centeredness that we need to look for, and look hard for. Then we need to trust the bending arc that that spiritually, emotionally centered person will lead their congregations into whatever the future brings.

I always appreciate Christine's thoughtful comments and believe that this one warrants a new post.

I have a confession to make. The title of the last post, "The Critical Competency," was intended to be provocative and slightly disingenuous. You could have inferred from it that I was proposing that we add another competency to the 16 we already have. Please, please note that that's not what I had in mind. Three competencies -- UU Identity, Ethics & Justice, and the Practice of Ministry (Ministerial Praxis) -- should be sufficient.

Also, I agree with Christine that's it's dicey to try to decide the issue of the future and require it as a ministerial competency. However, healthy organizations and healthy leaders do imagine futures, plan for them, and adjust those plans and preparations as new information becomes available. Being/becoming spiritually and emotionally centered presents us with the opportunity to see the future as it is emerging and to develop the skills and abilities needed to prepare for it.

The Critical Competency

2010-01-20T05:38:00.000-08:00

Climate change, quite simply, is the issue of the 21st century. It is not one issue among many, but, like the canary in the mine, it is warning us that the way we are living on our planet is causing us to head for disaster. We must change. All of the other issues we care about--social justice, peace, prosperity, freedom--cannot occur unless our planet is healthy. It is the unifying issue of our time; it is our "World War II," as it were: the concern that must develop into a worldwide movement for change of mind and change of action.
--Sallie McFague A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming

McFague goes on to argue that our individualist theology, philosophy, and anthropology are exhausted and must be replaced by a communitarian (from "communitarianism" not "communism") perspective. How are we preparing UU ministers to lead this change?

Since we're talking communitarianism and a whole new view of humanity and divinity, how are we preparing UU laity to lead this change?

Demolition Advocates v. Tinkerers

2010-01-19T08:23:00.000-08:00

In my discussions with individuals who have felt wounded by the current ministerial examining process, there are always those who'd like to blow up the whole thing. Why do we need ministerial examining in the first place? If we need it, why does it pivot on the interview? Shouldn't we have a process, like "in-care" in the United Church of Christ (UCC), that is more supportive and affirming of those striving to enter professional ministry and calls for greater involvement of the local congregation as a key partner in the process?

On the other hand, some of us are tinkerers. Why can't we, like the American Baptists, limit the interview to questions of character and find other ways to examine for content knowledge? Are there other ways to demystify the process?

I'm more in the tinkerer than the demolition camp, arguing for some form of centralized or regionalized examining and that some (and probably most) members of the examining committee should not personally know the examinee. Despite all post-modern claims to the contrary, there are arguments for objectivity, or, at least, what Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia calls neutrality in his TED video.

I'm also a believer in innovation and continuous process improvement. Mostly this involves tinkering, but occasionally it requires demolition.

What do you think?

Reflecting Theologically on Ministerial Credentialing

2010-01-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

I'm daunted by the challenge of the title of this post which was inspired by Scott Gerald Prinster's comment to my post on "Ministerial Examining & Climate Change" and thoughts about the differences between ministry and organizational development consultancy. Scott points out that ministry is distinguished from activism and politics by reflection upon the deeper issues that form the basis for the latter two activities. His comment caused me to wonder about the project of this blog: Where would theological reflection about ministerial examining/credentialing lead?

The other thread was a comment made to me that while I may serve as an organizational development consultant as a minister, my clients would also expect me to minister to them. This distinction is more subtle than it may first appear. Consultants often do minister to their clients. While consultancy, therefore, can be a ministry, there is a different intention or at least a greater intentionally in fellowshipped ministry than in consultancy and different expectations from those served by ministers than those served by consultants.

Reflecting theologically on ministerial examining starts with "respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person," UUism's first principle and the first principle of this blog. Ministerial formation is a transitional time of great vulnerability, and like other transitions, calls for a greater measure of care. Think of all the people who enter our congregations at times of person crisis and transition and our call for radical hospitality.

Jungians refer to periods of transition as liminal space. This term derives from the Latin word "limen," which means threshold. Aspirants for ministry hope to cross the threshold into candidacy, candidates into preliminary fellowship, and preliminary fellows into final fellowship. These thoughts about thresholds lead to thoughts of hospitality supported by the UU source of "Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves." The Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee literally welcomes successful candidates into UU ministry.

What is sometimes difficult to remember in the midst of preparation for exams is that some covenantal expectations of hospitality/ministry also fall upon the guest. Candidates and aspirants must learn to welcome the concerns of Committee and Subcommittee members as they will be expected in their ministries to welcome the concerns of congregants and community members.

Finally, this blog has reminded me of the 7th UU principle, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." Ministerial examining is connected to ministerial competencies, formation, and development. These are connected to the role of professional ministry which is connected to the role of lay ministry. These roles are performed in the context of the covenant and principles of UUism. Just as candidates for ministry are expected to minister to their examiners as their examiners minister to them, our living covenant is embodied in and informed by how we welcome and examine candidates for ministry.

New Century Summit

2010-01-10T02:55:00.000-08:00

Out here in the wild, wild West, AKA the Pacific Central District of the UUA, we're gearing up for a New Century Summit later this month. Gini Courter, the UUA Moderator, and Michael Durall, author of several books, including The Almost Church Revitalized: Envisioning the Future of Unitarian Universalism, will be the keynote speakers. The purpose of the Summit is the look at the meaning/future of UUism in the PCD in the 21st century.

A perfect storm of climate change and the future of UUism in the 21st century is on the horizon. We would be deluding ourselves if we tried to contemplate the latter without considering the former. This Grist article refers to a booklet available online from the Columbia University Center for Research on Environmental Decisions on "The Psychology of Climate Change," which tells us a lot about why we might be in denial.

Hey, I'm sympathetic with the denial and the deniers. I can think of a whole bunch of reasons to stick my fingers in my ears and shout la-la-la-la when it comes to climate change. Yet it is one of the challenges of ministry to be prophetic, to tell a truth that your audience is not yet ready to hear.

Prophecy has at least two meanings. Often people think of Nostradamus making "prophecies" about events 100s of years into the future or of prophets who hear God's voice and tell the people what they've learned. But prophecy in the context of UU ministry and climate change has much more to do with telling truth to power and truth to the populace. Though prophets have been ascribed mysterious powers, usually what prophecy requires is seeing clearly what's happening, making reasonable inferences about what's next, and telling your truth.

We are in a time that calls for prophecy. May the Summit be an opportunity to respond to that call. And may we help UU ministry prepare for their roles as prophets.

FBI Geologists; VA Anthropologist

2010-01-08T03:41:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to Irons in the Fire, a collection of essays by John McPhee. Among other topics, he writes about investigations of FBI geologists.

Despite having watched and read lots of crime stories, books, movies, and TV shows, it never occurred to me that the FBI would employ geologists. Yet, there's a whole field of forensic geology in which geological evidence is used in criminal and civil investigation and litigation. For example, in one of McPhee's essays, a murder investigation is supported by analysis of the soil on the undercarriage of an abandoned getaway car. Geologists can now pinpoint with amazing accuracy the source (location) of soil samples.

FBI geologists put me in mind of a VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) anthropologist with whom I worked. She told me that for the first 20 years of her career, she always got the fish eye from other VA employees. Why did the VA have an anthropologist? During that time, most of her work was supported medical research and wasn't seen as being directly relevant to health care delivery.

However, when I met her during the 1990s, she said that during the previous five years of her career, she'd had more work than she could handle and that other VA employees were enthusiastic rather than suspicious of her presence.

What was the difference?

VA employees, especially VA leadership, had glommed onto the fact that VA itself had a culture and that the functioning of that culture significantly impacted VA effectiveness and efficiency. Of course, soon after they'd had that insight, they'd started asking themselves: Who knows about culture?

Well, organizational development types like myself and social psychologists and sociologists all have knowledge of and information about culture. Yet, anthropology is the study of culture, and anthropologists can offer insights that elude the rest of us. That's how my friend the anthropologist went from pariah to rock star.

I bring these thoughts to this blog because U.S. and world culture is changing at an accelerating rate and UU culture is due for an overhaul. What will be the role of UU ministers in this transformation and how can we help prepare them to fulfill that role?

Ministerial Examining & Climate Change

2010-01-06T08:06:00.001-08:00

When I came up w/ the above topic, I thought of the folowing:

the old Reese's commercials about accidentally getting chocolate in peanut butter and vice versa;
a poetry workshop in which we were given the task of creating poems using randomly selected words to start each line (a great exercise that produces amazing results);
a desire to let you know that I do not spend all my time thinking about ministerial examining; and
my interest in discovering links between ministerial examining and climate change, two of my current passions.

I went from a mild interest in climate change straight to despair (do not pass GO; do not collect $200) after attending Dan Miller's "A Really Inconvenient Truth" presentation (summary here) at the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland. Miller claimed that we must reduce dramatically the release of of carbon into the atmosphere within the next 2 or 3 years if we are to avoid environmental disaster within the next 20 years. With my knowledge of the glacial speed of cultural change, I interpreted him as saying that we would face the inevitable if we didn't do the impossible. (And, considering how quickly the glaciers are melting, I may need to come up w/ another metaphor, like "bowling in the sand," to describe the slowness of cultural change.)

I'm grateful to report that my trip to despair was quite brief. (Not a nice place; don't recommend it.) It occurred to me that UU communities, littered as they are with scientists and engineers, might be a good place to start tackling climate change. Naturally, at least for all of you who have been paying more attention than I have, I found that many UUs and others such as Bill McKibbon of www.350.org (YouTube video here) had preceded me in this thought.

So what does all this have to do with ministerial examining? Before I answer that question, one more aside.

I just finished listening to the book Change or Die, which I highly recommend. In it, the author tells the story of Madison Avenue advertising account reps who made quite a good living placing ads on broadcast television. As the audience for that medium shrank, the cost of the ads increased. This could not go on forever, and in time, many account reps saw their commission income drop significantly as more and more advertising dollars moved to the Internet.

There are many types of "climate change." The "climate" in which UU ministry is practiced is changing, as the new UUA President frequently reminds us. Like the advertising account representatives, UU ministers may need new knowledge and competencies to thrive in the midst of change. If that's the case, then ministerial formation, examining, and development will be enhanced by changing too.

See a UU Minister?

2010-01-03T07:38:00.001-08:00

In reply to my 12/10/09 post "See a Minister?", Scott Gerard Prinster wrote the following comment:

My first thought about this elusive "ministerial presence" is that a strong candidate demonstrates the ability to reflect critically on questions in light of our UU traditions and values. Our congregations expect us to be able to provide leadership in responding thoughtfully from a UU perspective to difficult questions and situations.

His comment closely tracks my thinking about the 16 competencies (Sexual Health, Sexual Boundaries, Sexual Justice was added at the 12/09 MFC meeting) for UU ministry. When the MFC evaluates candidates, it's not just trying to answer the "See a Minister?" question. Rather it's looking at the more specific "See a UU Minister?" question. It wants to know whether the candidate is grounded in "UU traditions and values" and understands theology, church history, Hebrew & Christian scriptures, etc., from a UU perspective.

This lens for looking at the other competencies can be helpful in studying for the MFC interview. For example, candidates are less expected to memorize scripture than they are expected to see it as a UU and to "respond thoughtfully from a UU perspective."

One can advocate this study method without slipping into the dangers of orthodoxy. It's not necessary nor wise to parrot a UU "party line." Instead reflect on how your theology, ethics, and understanding are aligned with UUism. For example, my theology had its roots in Asian Indian philosophy. Learning that Mary Moody Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and others had trod this path before me and the impact of Asian philosophies on modern UUism put me on solid UU ground.

Blind Spots

2010-01-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Maybe you've had this experience. You get a notice from an airline frequent flyer program that you'll lose your miles unless you either fly or extend their life by using some for a magazine subscription. Since you're not a real frequent flyer, but someone who's accumulated a few miles from the occasional trip, you go for the magazine subscription. Thus I became a Wired subscriber.

I'm loving it. Tho I don't have the quals to be a card-carrying geek, I have the nerd's love of things of the mind and have found many wonderful articles in Wired, including this one about the neuroscience of illusion, staring Teller of "Penn & Teller" fame.

An aside: It's a great article, and I still have a fondness for reading paper rather than a computer screen, but there are clear advantages of the net as is illustrated by the embedding in the online version of the article of YouTube videos showing Teller performing the illusions/magic which are only described/pictured in the paper version.

Teller is now a co-author of an article in a neuroscience journal on the new field of "magicology, the mining of stage illusions (magic) for insights into brain function." Not only is the hand quicker than the eye; the brain is so enamored of its perceptual heuristics that it still can't perceive/understand what's happening when the secrets of some illusions are revealed. As Jonah Learner, the author of the article and the books How We Decide, and Proust Was a Neuroscientist, writes:

What's surprising is just how limited the repertoire of magical illusions actually is. The Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper lists nine fundamental "conjuring effects" of modern magic, from the vanish and the restoration to telekinesis and ESP. While these basic tricks have been varied endlessly—you can "restore" a cut rope, a sawed-in-half assistant, a shredded piece of paper—each of the effects relies on a specific perceptual phenomenon. This may be why exposing the "secret" of a magic trick is so often deflating. Most of the time, the secret is that we're gullible and our brains are riddled with blind spots.

OK, you who have been reading this blog for a while know what's coming. I read the above and immediately thought about the implications for interviewing and examining. Good design is critical for examinations precisely because "our brains are riddled with blind spots" and cognitive frames that are usually functional but sometimes misleading. We interview in groups partially in hope of reducing our blind spots and confirmation biases (ignoring evidence contrary to our beliefs), but then we risk group polarization, the tendency of people with shared beliefs to become more certain of those beliefs when they congregate.

Knowing these limitations to human perception and understanding encourages the spiritual practice of humility. In this new year, may we wear our beliefs like comfortable old garments, soft to the touch and with room for growth.

Marine Corps Officers & UU Ministers

2009-12-30T05:45:00.000-08:00

As is probably revealed elsewhere in the blog, I'm a Washintarian (a Unitarian, now UU, from Washington, DC), the son of a WW II vet who spent most of his civilian career in the Pentagon, and a retired Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee. Most of my life has played out surrounded current and former members of the armed services and their families. This is not the typical UU story, especially here in Berkeley.

I returned to DC to work in the VA headquarters slightly before the Carter Inauguration. Ed, a Marine Corps Reserve officer, trained me in my duties. Though our job was to support the staffing of senior positions throughout the Department, I also had the opportunity to learn a little about some of his duties in the Marine Corps Reserve.

One thing Ed told me over 30 years ago has become permanently implanted in my brain. He said that all Marine Corps officers were outstanding, but some were more outstanding than others.

Ed also told me that Marine Corps had a 20-year "up or out" system for its officers. This meant that once officers had 20 or more years of service, they were retired if too much time had passed since their last promotion. I couldn't wrap my mind around the following question: If everyone was outstanding, then how did the Marine Corps decide who was promoted and who was retired?

Ed explained that while everybody was outstanding, some officers were more outstanding than others. Promotion panel learned how to read between the lines in fitness reports to assess whether the officer was being recommended for promotion or for retirement.

The Marines Corps officer corps is a very tight-knit, caring bunch. They literally are willing to lay down their lives for one another. They certainly do not wish to badmouth one another in fitness reports. Giving nearly everyone outstanding ratings is one way of recognizing the contributions of these hard working, talented, and dedicated individuals. When officers not yet eligible for retirement do need to work on their growing edges, the outstanding ratings demonstrate the respect in which they are held and the confidence that they have the capacity to make the needed changes.

Although I am new to UU ministry, I have already seen parallels to the Marine Corps ethos among UU ministers and candidates for ministry and among clergy and clerical candidates from other religions. I support this ethos of evaluation. My concerns are that aspirants and candidates not used to such systems may be believe their own press, and as search committee members and other laity who are as naive as I once was may also be misled.

A major caveat to the above concerns: my experience with ministerial evaluation is limited. Maybe like one of the blind men touching the elephant, I have mistakenly inferred that what I've perceived is true for the whole enterprise. Your comments and insights will be appreciated.

Regionalization, Baffling Information, & Independent Review

2009-12-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Christine Robinson at iMinister for this continuing dialogue on ministerial credentialing. Her latest post on the subject, to which this one is in reply, is here.

Regionalization - The fact that ministers often move among regions is not a significant objection to the establishment of 4 regional MFCs to match the 4 regional RSCCs. It does speak to the need to assure consistency and equity among regional RSCCs, as there needs to be consistency and equity between MFC panels now.

My experience with process innovation suggests that vertical integration--reviewing the record from application for aspirant status to final fellowship--is likely to be more important than horizontal integration--a single body reviewing all ministers in a step on the path, e.g., preliminary fellowship. One of the most valuable things that the MFC now does is look at multiple evaluations across time. When this is done, items that may have seemed minor in a single evaluation become magnified when they are repeated and unaddressed.

I do wholeheartedly agree that non-MFC individuals and groups can help the RSCCs and the MFC. For example, the drafting of standards and evaluation methods and studies of MFC processes and results can be performed outside of the MFC. In fact, the UUA Board recently charged a non-MFC work group to look at all UU credentialing.

Baffling Information - Christine rightfully points to the "baffling information" (or the baffling lack of information!) that sometimes accompanies a "3" from the MFC or a "yellow light" or "red light" from a RSCC. Christine tells us what happened to her 30 years ago. Today, David Pettee and others are ready to help "decode" these baffling comments. While it would be ideal for the MFC and RSCCs to provide more information in writing, this may not happen until they are given further resources.

Maybe another question might be helpful: "When is it appropriate to require additional preparation by a candidate before the candidate is allowed into preliminary fellowship?" As we strengthen the common and public understanding of the answer to that question, greater clarity and detail in the information provided to aspirants and candidates is likely to result.

Independent Review - Ah, it is terrible to waste a good miscommunication. I was not recommending a preliminary fellowship review outside the MFC; I was lauding the merits of having the annual MFC review because it is in addition to those provided by individuals and committees who work directly with the minister. The danger of direct observation is that the observers sometimes become so close to the minister that they become unwisely biased in their evaluations. However, I'm glad for the happy accident of the fuzziness of my recommendation because there is wisdom in Christine's recommendations that others be involved in the review process and that the mentoring process be strengthened.

Ministerial Credentialing: Four Questions from Wayne Arneson

2009-12-27T00:46:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful time to catch up on backlogs.

This post is in reply to the 4 questions from Wayne Arneson, Chair of the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC), posted here at iMinister on 12/8/09.

1. The UUMA already plays a major role in accrediting ministers. There are UUMA reps to the MFC. Other Committee members, including the chair and the senior UUA staff advisers, are UUMA members. Having the UUMA take over the process entirely is very unlikely and risks isolating the process from the various constituencies served by UU ministers.

2. There may be merit in regional credentialing. The MFC has a massive workload that could be divided by regionalization. There would be the challenge of consistency across the regions; however, that challenge isn't likely to be insurmountable and is already faced by the Regional Subcommittees on Candidacy (RSCCs). The great challenge would be to locate the resources, both human and financial, to create such regional MFCs and to develop and provide the training and evaluation needed for valid and consistent examining in all of them.

3. The broader question is the following: Should there be a substantive review/examination before a candidate is accepted for preliminary fellowship, or should a candidate automatically be accepted for preliminary fellowship when the candidate has successfully completed all the requirements (M.Div., CPE, internship, etc.)? This question revolves around whether this examination is worth the resources expended. Without going into a long argument here, let's just note that some ministers have reported that getting a "3" (do "X" and come back for a 2nd interview) helped prepare them for ministry.

To return to the narrower question, if you accept that a final substantive review/examination is needed, then it's legit to ask whether an interview should be a part of it. The interview does produce information that can assist the MFC. It's also true that the interview and the process of preparing for it could be further demystified so as to reduce the attendant anxiety and improve its validity and reliability.

4. Even Christine Robinson's proposal seems to be another form of a probationary period, a time of trial during which a determination is made whether a person receives "tenure." As long as you retain a 3-year probationary period, it makes sense to have annual reviews and a continuing mentoring process.

Finally, it's of benefit to have someone or group other than the mentor who is outside the immediate setting evaluate progress during preliminary fellowship. This does not answer the questions of whether there is too much paperwork involved in the current process and whether we can streamline and improve the reviews.

Christmas & Credentialing

2009-12-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

I just got caught up on my e-mails yesterday. When that happens in Gmail, a little message appears asking whether you'd like to look at Google reader. I did so and found this most interesting post about ministerial credentialing at iMinister. Here are some responses to the points made there:

1. A cost-benefit analysis of UU credentialing is an excellent idea. I believe it is within the charge to the workgroup now being formed by the UUA Board in response to a recommendation from the Excellence in Ministry Summit.

2. A brief, high-stakes interview is a terrible way of determining who is qualified to be a UU minister. However, it's important not to confuse the culminating event in a process with the entire process. Now having served as a liaison to candidates, I am more aware of the importance of the packet review in the decision-making process of the Committee. From the outside, the interview appeared to have more weight in MFC decisions than it actually has.

This is not to say that the ministerial examining process could not be improved. A subgroup of the MFC Process Working Group is being created to further examine the interviewing process.

3. I couldn't agree more that "it would be best to be clearer and more transparent about who needs ministers to know what." It's even more important to be clearer and more transparent about who needs ministers to do what.

Furthermore, there's a disconnect between how the MFC sees itself, and how it is perceived by others. More transparency in the examining process, including how the MFC determines what questions to ask, can help to close this gap.

Yet an important part of the gap is not informational. It is, to use a phrase made famous during the Johnson Administration, a credibility gap. This credibility gap isn't generated by misdeeds and deceit. Rather it is a consequence of the fears generated by the high stakes involved in the MFC's decisions, the need to protect the privacy of candidates, the weight of tradition, and the paucity of resources. We can reduce it.

In this paragraph of the post, there is a misconception that the MFC interview is primarily fact-based, like a game of Jeopardy. Candidates can't afford to miss all the fact-based questions, but they are not the primary focus/point of the interview.

Finally, while we have congregational polity, we have an increasing number of community ministers. The needs of the communities they serve--hospitals, shelters, prisons, birth control clinics--should also be taken into account in designing and implementing ministerial examining processes.

4. Yes, written comprehensive exams--and alternatives to accommodate candidates with learning disabilities--would be fairer that a short oral interview covering 16 competencies if it is decided that the candidates' ability to recall such factual information is critical. In today's wired world, this is an anachronism. UU ministers should be able to locate facts, not be walking encyclopedias. Our exams should speak to whether they are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually ready for UU ministry.

5. The point of the Gladwell article is that in many occupations, the examining (and possibly the educational) process is flawed and does a terrible job of predicting success in the occupation. We can't conclude from it or from our current experience that all examining processes would not be predictive of ministerial success.

It is possible to put more weight on internships and residencies. It may even be possible to hold internship and residency supervisors accountable for their recommendations. Then the MFC examination would be likely to be more predictive of success because it would be based on more reliable and valid evaluations of candidates doing ministry.

6. The MFC's workload is massive. And it ties into orge's remark about competencies propagating like tribbles (for non-Star Trek fans, think "rabbits"). I am making recommendations to the subgroup of the Process Working Group on both of these topics.

As mentioned above, in addition to the MFC subgroup, a UUA Board inititated workgroup is being formed to look at all UU credentialing processes.

I am so pleased that this topic is generating such interest. It's a wonderful Christmas present.

More Difficult Than I Thought

2009-12-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

One of the drivers of the quest for improved examining and interviewing was equal employment opportunity. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, and the Office of Personnel Management ( the Federal government's central human resources office, then called the Civil Service Commission) issued The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures in 1978 to address the need for "a uniform set of principles on the question of the use of tests and other selection procedures." The two major issues in examining are validity (does the exam measure what it's supposed to measure) and reliability (is it consistent in its results).

Though I can't find the citation now, I remember a discussion about examining for the professions that was the material issued by the agencies to assist in implementation of the Guidelines. It made mention of peer examining because of the difficulty of quantifying competence in the professions.

At the time, I wondered whether this latitude given to the professions might have been due to pressure (or expected pressure) from the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, etc. Now my experience as a Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) liaison to candidates has given me a new appreciation of the difficulties of examining in the professions while affirming my conviction of the importance of doing so.

I will be making suggestions for changes in MFC processes in the days to come. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you'd suggest.

See a Minister?

2009-12-10T00:50:00.000-08:00

One of the critical questions, if not the critical question, Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) members ask themselves in the examining process is whether they "see a minister" in a candidate for ministry. Serving as a liaison to candidates has changed my understanding of this inquiry. I'll blog about in the future.

In the meantime, I'm curious what this phrase means to you.

Do the Right Thing

2009-12-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

For the December meeting of the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC), I was one of the two liaisons to candidates. After all this time thinking and writing about the MFC and ministerial examining, it's been fascinating to observe the process from the inside. I'm going to do some posting based on what I've learned and inferred.

This first post is on observations and recommendations made by a Centers for Ministry (CFMs), Regional Subcommittees on Candidacy (RSCCs), Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) supervisors, and intern supervisors and committees. I have been critical of some of these recommendations and of actions based upon them for the following reasons:

"Requirements" are sometimes masked as "recommendations," especially by CFMs;
Some recommendations are vaguely written and difficult to interpret; and
The risks that aspirants and candidates will be penalized because of differing interpretations of these recommendations.

While I will say more about this issue in the future, I want to remind aspirants and candidates:

Do not ignore recommendations--no matter how tentative or vague--that appear in the material that you'll be submitting to the RSCC and/or MFC;
Either follow the recommendation, implement a solid substitute, or provide strong evidence that it's groundless; and
Unless the recommendation is clear and it's clear how to address it, seek guidance from several trusted mentors on interpretation and implementation.

I'm reminded of a colleague who received a 3 (come back and see us again) from the MFC and was unsure how to interpret and implement the recommendations. She sought help from a senior minister and developed and implemented a plan. When she returned to the MFC for her 2nd interview, she received a 1.

Resistance is Futile! Join/Create Study Groups & Support Systems

2009-11-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

Knowing that some of you may wish to read only the guidance for ministerial examining preparation in this post and skip the philosophy underlying it, the guidance comes first and the thinking behind it is afterward.

The recommendation is to join or create a study group for your RSCC and MFC interviews. I participated in one at Starr King School for the Ministry. We jointly read material from the reading list, prepared short reflection papers, read the papers in the group, and discussed the readings and our papers. It was a very useful way of obtaining and digesting multiple perspectives on the readings and to be supportive of one another.

Join/create a study group and take what we did a step further: share and discuss critical feedback from your Center for Ministry, CPE, internship, and other evaluations. Talk about the accuracy of the evaluations and what steps you've taken to address the concerns raised in them.

Study groups should augment having advisers, mentors, and friends reviewing your RSCC and MFC packages, especially the essays, and having a mock interview.

OK, now for a little philosophy:

Those of you who are Star Trek fans know that "Resistance is futile." is the motto of the Borg, who according to their Wikipedia article, are:

The Borg manifest as cybernetically enhanced humanoid drones of multiple species, organized as an interconnected collective, the decisions of which are made by a hive mind, linked to subspace domain. The Borg . . . operate solely toward the fulfilling of one purpose: to "add the biological and technological distinctiveness of other species to their own" in pursuit of perfection. This is achieved through forced assimilation, a process which transforms individuals and technology into Borg, enhancing, and simultaneously controlling, individuals by implanting or appending synthetic components.

The Borg represent nightmares of totalitarianism, automation, and assimilation. They carry on in the traditions of Orwell's 1984 (totalitarianism) and the computer HAL 9000 in Clarke's and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Contrast these visions of the threats of automation and collective thinking with the words of Eamonn Healy, a chemistry professor, from the film Waking Life. (The 3.5 minute clip from the film and transcript are available here.) Healy offers up the vision of a new evolution based upon two types of information: digital (technology) and analog (biology) life. He states that under the old evolutionary paradigm, digital intelligence would replace biological intelligence. Under his new paradigm, the two intelligences augment one another, accelerating evolution.

It's quite possible that the digital will be the savior of the biological. Just as the scary computers of the 1950s and 60s turned into the useful tools of today, the internet has many "hive mind" aspects. Healy imagines that the blending of the biological and the artificial will lead to greater individuality. It already has lead to great interconnection. The two visions are compatible.

Questions about sharing and privacy are important. Yet, we grow and become more resilient when we share ourselves with those who are trustworthy. I am incredibly grateful to the mentors and friends who guided me through the fellowshipping process. Don't wait to build your own support systems.

Facing Failure

2009-10-25T03:35:00.000-07:00

"Failure" is not a pretty word. We like to use euphemisms such as "crash and burn" and "learning experience." However, not getting selected for a job, promotion, or assignment can feel like failure. Divorce feels like failure. Being told by the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) that they do see in you a minister (a #4 rating) feels like failure.

And failures have consequences. Sometimes we never try again. Other times we dust ourselves off and get back into the fray.

Rev. Robert Fulghum, UU minister and Starr King School for the Ministry graduate, wrote that he walked into a kindergarten class and asked the children who could draw, sing, and dance. All the kids raised their hands. Then he walked into an 5th grade class and asked the same questions. This time only a few of the students responded to each question. They'd already learned to define themselves by their failures.

I was very lucky that one of my greatest failures--not getting selected for a promotion--seemed so unjust to me that I was more mystified than angry. Of course, anger, denial, bargaining, fear, depression, and sorrow all appeared before acceptance arrived.

My father taught me that experts and libraries were the sources of solutions to problems and questions. Luckily, I'd also learned that speaking to nearly everyone you know is sometimes a better solution, or at least a good supplement.

I spoke to my boss, my boss's boss, my boss's boss's boss, my boss's boss's boss's boss, other leaders, peers, friends, family; in short, pretty much the waterfront. I learned more about what people thought of me. I asked the leaders whether they thought I had potential for advancement and whether there was anything I should be doing differently.

After much reassurance, I came to acceptance. Within two years I was promoted to an equivalent position that was better suited to my talents.

Hiding in shame--though very, very tempting--no longer seems to be good strategy. We see wounded animals do so because they are afraid that predators will take advantage of their injuries to kill them. Do you believe that those around you are that predatory? If not, seek their help.

On the road to ministry, you'll have to make your own assessments. Many decide that ministry is not for them. However, if you fall and then decide to dust yourself off and get back on the road, do consider consulting with as many people as possible. It's a grand strategy for facing failure, building relationships, and achieving success.

Tyson, the Film and the Interviews

2009-09-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched Tyson, a movie about Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion, by James Toback. I haven't followed boxing since Muhammad Ali retired (and not very much before then), but between allegations of spousal abuse, a conviction for sexual assault, and biting a boxing opponent on both ears, it was hard not to know of Mr. Tyson.

Based on what I "knew," I assumed that he was no more than a brute without impulse control. I came away from the film with a much more complex and nuanced portrait of the man.

Based on the little bit of research I've done on the film (including watching the DVD extras), it appears that in addition to Tyson's complexity and Toback's skills as an interviewer and filmmaker, their long-time relationship helped Mr. Tyson open up in this revealing portrait. This relationship and other aspects of the film and Mr. Toback's history and oeuvre lead one to question his objectivity. However, there is less reason to question his results, in which we can find important lessons about obtaining a deeper understanding of another through interviewing.

A. O. Scott, The New York Times reviewer of the movie (see the link above), points out what a scary figure Mr. Tyson remains even as we come to see his humanity. In this blog, I have usually been focusing on how frightening interviews such as those by the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) and Regional Subcommittees on Candidacy (RSCCs) can be for the interviewees. This movie has led me to speculate more deeply on the emotions of the interviewers.

Total Recall; Practice, Practice, Practice; and the Power of Misinterpretation

2009-09-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Reading "Total Recall" by Gary Marcus, a cognitive psychologist, in Wired magazine reminded me of the power of practice and how easily examining can go astray. The subject of the article is Jill Price, a woman with a supposedly "perfect" memory. If you'll click on the link to the Wired article, you'll also see Diane Sawyer's interview of Ms. Price.

After interviewing (please note all fans of the blog: interviewing!) Ms. Price over 5 years, James McGaugh, a neuroscientist, and his team at UC Irvine concluded that she had a near perfect memory in this article first published in the journal Neurocase. An editor at the Free Press went even further, entitling her story The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living With the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science.

Ms. Price does indeed have an amazing memory, but Dr. Marcus, upon examining her further, discovered that her memory isn't all-inclusive. Rather her forte is autobiographical memory. Dr. Marcus writes that the source of this autobiographic memory is rumination that appears obsessive. She didn't seek out this memory and she didn't know its source; it was an unsought consequence of her journaling and other daily habits.

OK, OK, so what does this have to do with ministerial examining?

Examinees can mislead examiners even when they are not trying to do so.
Interviewing is a limited tool at best even when in the hands of scientists who should know better. (Being a professional doesn't assure that you are a skilled interviewer, and even skilled interviewers can be misled or can deceive themselves.)
Examining and assessment should be based on a multiplicity of instruments, and there should be appeal/review mechanisms because of the possibility of error.
Interviewers are likely to be tempted, and may even consciously or unconsciously fall to the temptation, to seek information that affirms the conclusions they've already reached.
"Ordinary" people can achieve extraordinary results with practice, practice, practice. (The thesis of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which is discussed elsewhere in this blog.)

So let's acknowledge the inherent worth and dignity of each individual involved in developing and implementing the current UU ministerial examining process. I am confident that they are doing their best with the best of intentions. I'm grateful for their professional and their volunteer efforts. Yet, I will continue to advocate for evolution in UU ministerial examining.

On the Job Assessment

2009-08-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

In the print version of this SF Chronicle article, "More Companies Try Out Workers Before Making Full-Time Offers," the paper highlighted the following quote from a local CEO:

I've had people who are horrible at interviewing but are awesome employees, and people who are great at interviews and horrible employees.

My personal experience of the above was one of my motives for researching examining procedures when I worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The CEO and I are not alone. In interviews of senior VA officials who were being considered for advancement, nearly all reported that the decision they most regretted in their careers was an employee selection.

I mentioned in an earlier post that work samples tend to be superior to interviews as predictors of job success. Naturally, a 90-day work sample tends to be superior to a 2-hour work sample.

Please note that the firms described in the article aren't starting with "permanent" employment and using traditional probationary periods. The difficulty with such periods is that you have to fire a poorly performing employee, and most employers are reluctant to do so unless performance or behavior is egregious. The "test periods" described in the article allow employers to let individuals go without firing them.

Internships and residencies should serve as such "test periods" for ministry. They do to some extent, but not as effectively as they might, because supervisors are reluctant to make negative evaluations, and they don't have to live with the consequences of their positive evaluations. It is rare for a minister to be employed by his/her internship site (a special dispensation from the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) is required).

This reluctance to be candid reminds me of what a U.S. Marine officer one told me about the officer evaluation process. He said that all Marine officers are outstanding, but some are just more outstanding than others. To make comparisons among officers, you had to read between the lines.

The MFC has a tough job. Like senior Marine officers, it too has to read between the lines when reviewing the material in a candidate's package. For example, a seemingly minor comment by an internship committee may become major if it's duplicated in other evaluations. Sometimes the various evaluators have not seen one another's evaluations. The MFC must put the whole picture together.

The above reminds me of Spiderman's code: "With great power comes great responsibility." (Variations of this thought can be found in Socrates, Rousseau, FDR, and Churchill.) I add that with great power comes the need for great humility. The purpose of this blog is to start a dialogue about how the fellowshipping process be the best possible exercise of that responsibility.

Interviews vs. Work Samples

2009-08-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

OK, I thought I was pretty radical, but Dan & Chip Heath, authors of the "Made to Stick" column in Fast Company magazine and the book of the same name have exceeded me in dissing interviews in their article: "Hold the Interview: Why it may be wiser to hire people without meeting them."

Their citation of a study at the University of Texas Medical School is compelling, and parallels the findings at the University of Michigan Law School sited by Malcolm Gladwell in his video (see link with discussion here). I love the following quote:

With so little proof that interviews work, why do we rely on them so much? Because we all think we're good at it. We are Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace, taking the measure of the person. Psychologist Richard Nisbett calls this the "interview illusion"--our certainty that we're learning more in an interview than we really are.

The brothers Heath then go on to laud the merits of work samples, which are more valid predictors of job success.

We can do a better job of interviewing through the use of performance-based interviewing techniques. But the Heath article strikes an appropriate cautionary note: We would be wise to place less weight in the examining process on even the best of interviews.

Likeability

2009-07-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

I've added Facebook to my list of addictions. Recently it suggested I become a fan of Pongo Resume. That's how I found the blog post, Like It or Not, Likability is the Key to Getting Hired.

OK, as a congregant and now as a colleague, there is much to be said for likable ministers. It's hard for me to imagine wanting to have a minister or be a minister who was not likable.

My concern is the risk of giving too much weight to likability in an interview and therefore in the entire examining/fellowshipping process. Even people who behave despicably can give the appearance of being likable for the length of an interview. And quite likable and well-qualified individuals can "freeze up," hiding their merit under the fire and ice of panic. Finally, ministry sometimes calls for not being likable, e.g., when telling truth to power.

Upside Down

2009-07-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

Working/interpreting dreams has taught me to look at things both right side up and upside down. The scary monster in a dream may have my best interests at heart, may be a good friend trying to warn me of impending disaster. A death may be the announcement of a healing transformation.

Though I more often hear stories of shock, pain, fear, and anger from individuals who receive a "yellow light" from a Regional Subcommittee on Candidacy (RSCC) or a "2" or "3" from the MFC, I also hear stories from people who tell me that they have come to agree with the decision they received and have benefited from the additional study or the additional activities prescribed. Though this blog contains suggestions for improving the current examining process, it recommends that the UUA continue to examine for ministry and acknowledges that some candidates are not ready for "green lighting" when they first present themselves to the examining body.

My theology is principally drawn from Indian philosophy. When the WRSCC (Western RSCC) told me that I didn't have a fully developed UU theology, it forced me to research the Indian roots of transcendentalism. I found that I was treading a path that held the footprints of Mary Moody Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. The research and reflection helped me integrate my UUism and my nondualism.

Do you have a tale of how RC and/or MFC prescriptions--no matter how disappointing at the time--eventually worked to your benefit?

The Quest for Certainty

2009-07-23T11:04:00.001-07:00

Currently, I'm reading The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. On page 157 of the former, she writes that in the 1960s:

The appeal of the Christian fundamentalists was similar to that of strict Hasidic sects in the Jewish community: They offered rules and certainty to some young men and women who had found only unhappiness where others had found personal freedom.

Back in the day, I was one of the youth who was revelling in the freedom of the time. Brought up UU in a diverse Washington, DC, congregation, when I went to the University of Wisconsin (Madison), during the turmoil of the late 1960s, I felt like the rest of the world was joining our free, liberal faith. In contrast to my felt sense at the time, Jacoby points out that the turmoil of the 1960s was the seedbed for neoconservatism, fundamentalism, and the Reagan Revolution.

In Outliers: The Story of Success and this wonderful video from the 2008 New Yorker Conference, Malcolm Gladwell points to a "mismeasurement" problem in many fields that is due to a misplaced quest for certainty in examining. While it's true that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior (the mantra of performance-based interviewing), the value of past behavior as a predictor varies with its relevance to the expected future behavior. Dividing a job into its component parts and testing each of these may not provide good results. Please see the Gladwell video for specific examples.

I wonder whether the complexity and the nature of the current UU ministerial examining process is not in part a consequence of the difficulties of some ministers and ministries. How has our UU history served as a seedbed for our conservatism in examining?

School of Diplomacy, Inner Peace, & Ministerial Presence

2009-07-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

I worked for the Federal government from my early 20s through my early 50s. For much of that time, I was supervised and/or mentored by a woman who was concerned about my lapses in diplomacy. These lapses were most frequent in my 20s, gradually tappering off. As the years passed, I would tease her about being a graduate of her school of diplomacy, and she would tease me about not having a diploma to prove it.

I am currently serving as an organizational development consultant to a UU fellowship. The other day a member of its board complimented me on my people skills.

I briefly felt like a postgraduate of my former boss' school of diplomacy. However, drilled in reflection in seminary, I started to wonder what had changed.

As a young man, I thought that my and my family's current and future well-being were dependent upon success in my career. A workplace situation I found threatening felt very threatening indeed.

At first, I was thinking that my newly found (or slowly evolved) skills were merely a matter of not having the same emotional and economic investment in the consulting work that I did in my former career. Yet something quickly told me that this wasn't the right answer. I care very much what happens to the Fellowship.

What has changed is that I have become more aware of limitations -- my own, others, and collective -- and less attached to outcomes. Some of these changes are situational, and some are the gifts of guidance from mentors and friends.

When this thought appeared, I was reminded of a minister's comments about her preparation for her MFC interview. She said she'd spent months anxiously reading and memorizing. Somehow, just before the interview she found a place of peace. Her inner voice told her that the MFC would take her as she was or they would not. I've heard others referred to this moment as the recognition -- without shame or pride -- of being a minister regardless of the MFC 's decision.

There is some strong connection or even an identity between an inner peace and ministerial presence. Diplomacy and compassion often arise from this place.

Please note that I am not speaking of the mythic or unattainable. This sense of equilibrium is not unassailable. Moments of doubt and uncertainty and even of despair still appear. Yet something has shifted.

Where is your sense of equilibrium? What brings you back to center when you feel unbalanced? How do you find that peace in the midst of stress and anxiety? How do you let go of outcomes? The answers to these questions are likely to be more important to your preparation for your MFC interview than those to any fact-based questions you or the MFC can devise.

Temporary Autism

2009-07-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

Autism is defined in Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary as:

A variable developmental disorder that appears by age three and is characterized by impairment of the ability to form normal social relationships, by impairment of the ability to communicate with others, and by stereotyped behavior patterns.

In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell lauds the merits of "rapid cognition," something we sometimes know as "intuition." However, he also points out that it can often go astray. One example he gives is what he calls "temporary autism."

Gladwell is focusing on our ability to assess the emotions of others by "reading" their faces, an ability that people suffering from autism appear to lack. Gladwell says that when those of us who are not suffering from autism becomes sufficiently stressed, we become temporarily autistic, losing our capacity to read in the emotions of others.

I went to the MFC presentation at the General Assembly in 2007 in Portland. A then member of the MFC said that he knew that ministerial candidates were stressed by the MFC interview, but he didn't think that the MFC members were all that scary a bunch and that the candidates would face much greater stresses when they became ministers.

I would have to agree that the MFC members are not all that scary a bunch. In fact I find them to be hard working, talented, dedicated, and well-intentioned. But the former MFC member's assessment did not take into account the situation in which the candidates find themselves when they are facing the MFC.

When working as a chaplain in medical center emergency rooms and critical care, medical, surgical, and psychiatric units, there are people and situations that are more frightening than the MFC and its members. Yet no single interaction has the foreseen capacity to postpone or even derail one's call to ministry.

In the parallel situation of a job interview, you know that if you don't get this job, you are likely to get another. You may also know that there are discrimination complaint and other review procedures if you believe you have been treated unfairly.

None of these options really apply to the MFC interview. If you're UU down to your bones and you're not fellowshipped as a UU, it's not likely that you're to become a candidate for fellowshipping in another religion. Furthermore, there's no review process outside of the MFC for its preliminary fellowshipping decisions.

The pressure therefore is enormous. When I listen to the stories of aspirants and candidates who "froze" in their interviews, it sounds an awful lot like temporary autism.

What do I recommend?

Put less emphasis on the interview in the fellowshipping process;
Create a review process outside the MFC; and
Increase interview training for aspirants and candidates.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the UU Principles Vote

2009-07-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

As a delegate to the 2009 UU General Assembly, I became engaged in the discussion and vote to amend the UU Principles. The proposed amendments spoke to UU identity and to competencies for UU ministry.

Before GA, I was aware of, but not deeply engaged in, the Commission on Appraisal review of the Principles. The editing of the Principles was minor. The changes to the Sources provoked some concern, but my attention was elsewhere.

The funny thing that happened on the way to the vote were my multiple visits to the HUUmanists booth in the exhibition hall. They had a petition to reject the changes, and I fell into discussion regarding their objections.

I'm not a religious humanist (or at least not exclusively a religious humanist); I'm a mystical nondualist. The HUUmanists objected to the changes in the Sources because they no longer sufficiently acknowledged "Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit." I objected to the deletion of "Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life" as our first source.

I also objected to the new opening to the Sources:

Unitarian Universalism is rooted in two religious heritages. Both are grounded on thousands of years of Jewish and Christian teachings, traditions, and experiences.

The "rooted" imagery gives the impression that UUism still draws its primary nourishment from Judaism and Christianity.

For many of us, the history of Unitarianism is a newly 200-year movement away from Christianity. We draw our spiritual nourishment from other sources. However, the current list of Competencies for UU Ministry, with their privileging of Christian Church history and Jewish and Christian scriptures, does not seem to adequately recognize that change nor the diversity within UUism.

Someone once told me that hymnals often lag behind changes in theology that are appear elsewhere in worship. Is our list of ministerial competencies also lagging behind? Or are we turning back to Christianity, disappointed with humanism and mysticism?

Malcolmtarian Gladwellversalist

2009-07-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating. I have no intention of starting a new religion based on Malcolm Gladwell, nor do I think his books, such as Outliers and Blink, are holy writ. However, I'm beginning to suspect that if he didn't exist I would have had to invent him.

I've referred to Outliers in these 2 posts. Two main themes of this book are the "mismatch" problem of using faulty measures for examining and the importance of practice in the development of expertise.

Though Blink was written before Outliers, I'm just now getting around to reading it. In it, Gladwell points to the many benefits of "thin slicing" and gives examples of "intuition" being superior to analysis. However, he also points to risks and errors of intuition in the story of Warren G. Harding, a man who most looked like but was least capable of being an effective president.

Gladwell's writing provides an excellent explanation of the phenomena I named in the post "15 Seconds." Intuitions can be a critical source of knowledge not immediately available to conscious thought. They can also mislead and support discrimination.

Though Gladwell is a journalist, not a scientist, but he's done a great job of writing about the science and the experiences that support his theses. After you read his books, I doubt that you'll ever again think about examining and thinking the same way again.

Promote Racial Diversity Fairly

2009-07-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

Cynthia Tucker, editor and columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote the above titled column that you may find at this link. Interestingly, by the time it appeared in the SF Chronicle, it had been retitled "Achieving Racial Diversity Requires Top-Down Competence."

Since this blog is about examining, I was particularly interested in the following paragraph:

To begin with, New Haven shouldn’t have staked firefighters’ promotions largely on the outcome of a classroom test; there are far better ways to determine leadership skills in a fire department. Many departments test prospective leaders by running simulations of real-life scenarios. After all, giving correct answers on a pencil-and-paper test hardly proves the capacity to lead the rescue of workers trapped in a burning building.

It could well be argued that the mini-sermon in the MFC interview is a simulation of a real-life scenario. What would such simulations be for chaplains? spiritual directors? pastoral counselors?

The Past is Prologue

2009-07-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Many folks enter seminary after retiring from another career. Seminarians at the Starr King School have ranged in age from 21 to 60 something.

At Ministry Days before GA, I got into a conversation with a minister whom I had just met. He spoke about the growth of his congregation. I asked him the key to his success. He attributed it in part to his prior career in banking.

If he hadn't been so sincere, I might have thought he was being ironic. Current disasters in the banking industry don't speak well of it as a guide for ministry or any other career/calling. However, I presume he was talking about banking before the excesses (or in banks that weren't guilty of the excesses).

Though the relationship between a minister and a congregation is very different than that between a CEO (chief executive officer) and a corporation/NGO/nonprofit/government office, there are some meaningful similarities. You can acquire significant leadership and managerial skills in lay work within congregations and many settings outside of UUism.

How should these skills and knowledges be evaluated in examining and interviewing for UU ministry? Should these lay and non-UU experiences be subject to the same kind of rigorous examination that is given to CPE internships and residencies and UU internships?

Disappointment, Reflection, Forgiveness, Acceptance

2009-07-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing you learn in seminary (or at least at Starr King School for the Ministry), it's how to write reflection papers. And this is a good thing. Ministers and candidates for ministry benefit from reflection.

There have been many disappointments on the road to ministry. I naively thought that the journey would be about deepening my relationships with the sacred, people, and things. Instead, when I entered seminary in 2003, it felt like being in the center of a mined battlefield. You could see the verbal bullets whiz by. Sometimes you and others were hit by them. You had to be careful where you stepped--the ground could explosively open beneath you.

Many were wounded. Some left the field.

Starr King has settled down a lot since those tumultuous school years of 03-04 and 04-05. However, UUA Board member Linda Laskowski's recent post "OK at the Deer Valley Corral" reminds me what a contentious and suspicious community we UUs can be.

I opened up this post with praise for the value of reflection. My dreams for seminary were not fulfilled; however, I did learn that my disappointments called for reflection, acceptance, and forgiveness--both for myself and others. Had I been more skillful and compassionate, I could have helped channel the passions that armed the adversaries and planted the mines. Had I been more compassionate and skillful, I could have contributed more to healing the wounds--wounds I am closer and closer to accepting as inevitable.

I write this post with some trepidation. As a minister, it is my job to be a bringer of hope and inspiration. Yet I also believe that acknowledgment, acceptance, and forgiveness provide a firmer foundation for hope and inspiration than the pretense that "all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

What does all this have to do with examining for ministry? The answer lies in the question of how our seminary experiences prepare us for ministerial examinations. As the UUA considers excellence in ministry, it would benefit from studying the cultures of its seminaries, congregations, and association and the impact of those cultures on ministerial formation and development.

Good Officers for Aspirants and Candidates?

2009-06-27T04:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, an aspirant told me that she had overheard a proposal here at General Assembly that there be "Good Officers" for aspirants and candidates.

"Good Officers" are ministers who have been designated to investigate and mediate disputes between ministers and congregations. The aspirant stated that an aspirant or candidate unhappy with the decision of an RSCC or the MFC may not feel comfortable discussing that decision with a representative of the body that made it. Talking to a knowledgeable third-party could be of benefit.

The aspirant is a student at the Starr King School for the Ministry and can turn to the experienced and knowledgeable faculty there for guidance. But what about the many UU aspirants and students who do not attend UU seminaries?

I believe that this suggestion has sufficient merit to warrant further exploration by the UUMA. What do you think?

Editors: Don't Let Your Papers Leave Home Without Them

2009-06-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

Sinces lots of very personal information ends up in your Center for Ministry report, CPE and other evaluations, etc., you'll have a natural inclination to protect your privacy and not share this information any more widely than necessary. Overcome this inclination!

I'm not suggesting that you put this material on your Facebook page, but I am suggesting that you find several confidants to look at your material so they can:

serve as editors; and
predict the interview questions you're likely to receive.

You may believe that your academic advisor can review your material and satisfactorily advise you. You might be right. However, don't wait until after the RSCC interview to be disabused of this notion. Ask ministers, seminiarians, and loved ones to give you their best guidance.

Another critical bit of info. Unless they have changed their procedures, the RSCC administrators do not give your paperwork to your RSCC liaison until about 2 weeks before your interview. If you want to have an informed discussion with your liaison months before your interview (always a good idea), be sure to send your liaison enough information for her/him to be able to give you good advice.

Fire in the Belly; Pain in the Heart

2009-06-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not trying to come up w/ a list of symptoms for some undiagnosed illness. Rather I've been looking at my own motives for writing this blog.

The pain in my heart is for all those who have been unnecessarily wounded by our current processes for examining for ministry. Let me stress the word "unnecessarily." We need an examining process. There are those who may not be ready for ordained ministry. For those who are ready, a good examining process endorses their efforts and demonstrates support from our Association.

The question I'm raising is whether our current processes for examining for ministry represent best practices in examining and, if not, what are the best ways to modify them.

The MFC has asked the Board of Trustees to charter a comprehensive review of ministerial examining. It's great that we're on the same page regarding this need.

Yet, the fire in my belly and the pain in my heart are fueled by concerns about the damage that may be done while this review is undertaken. On Sunday, I heard another tale of woe about the actions of a Regional Subcommittee on Candidates (RSCC). My interlocutor wanted to know why the RSCC would substitute its judgment for those of individuals such as CPE supervisors and internship supervisors who had much more experience with his performance.

OK, let's presume that this candidate had "stage fright." Several other candidates have reported having same. After all, it feels like one's entire future is being compressed into a one-hour interview. Let's also allow that susceptibility to stage fright isn't a good trait in ministry. The question remains whether we want to use this as an opt-out in our examining process or merely advise candidates how to prepare to overcome it.

WARNING: I may be radically oversimplifying. There may be many reasons over and above stage fright that are causing these candidates to stumble. It just saddens me that so many are receiving what appear to be unnecessary wounds.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Let's not wait several years to convene a blue-ribbon panel. Let's start modifying the process now. The MFC and RSCCs can provide additional guidance about their current expectations. This guidance will inform candidates and provide useful information for the panel.
Seminaries, academic advisers, internship supervisors, CPE supervisors, and others should be designing and implementing more opportunities for candidates to become test wise. For example, Fred Helio Fred Garcia teaches an outstanding course at Starr King in Media Skills in Public Ministry, which can help candidates prepare for challenging interviews. (As an aside, the film Frost/Nixon is a guide to some of the the perils and challenges of interviewing.)
Candidates and aspirants can do more to educate themselves about the process and prepare themselves for the interviews. I am pleased with the buzz for this blog. We may start a new motto: "Mock Interview: Don't leave for your MFC/RSCC interview without one."

Best Predictors

2009-06-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

The mantra for performance based interviewing was the following: The best predictor of future performance is past performance. Therefore, we designed interview questions that allowed candidates to describe how they had performed when facing tasks and challenges similar to those of the positions for which they were applying.

However, there is an even better predictor of future performance on a job than past performance in other jobs and life situations: Past performance on the same job. Christine Robinson, aka iMinister, well makes that point in her comment below on my last post. Her thinking is affirmed by Malcolm Gladwell in his latest book, Outliers: The Story of Success, in which he criticizes many evaluation techniques as being poor predictors of future performance. He calls this "the mismatch problem," and encourages the use of on-the-job evaluation.

This is a justice issue. One of Gladwell's examples was preference for minorities at the University of Michigan law school. Twenty years after the preferences were granted, minority attorneys who had been granted preferences were performing as well as non-minority candidates who had "higher" qualifications.

In "Minorities Will Strive to Cross a Higher Bar," David L. Kirp, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, cites a recent study that shows that undergraduate minority students at elite private universities who receive preferential treatment perform better. People do respond to rising expectations. Kirp shows the fallacies in claims that this preferencial treatment creates another kind of mismatch problem.

How does all this translate into recommendations for examining for ministers?

Use the best measures available and recognize their limitations.
Take iMinister's advice and put more emphasis on on-the-job performance rather than academics.
Provide preferential treatment when warranted and publicize your processes and rationales. This whole-person approach can consider class and other distinctions and expections that have impacted past performance.

Parker's Legacy for Ministerial Formation & Development

2009-05-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

The Eclectic Cleric has a wonderful post "Theodore Parker's destructive legacy . . ." It provides an explanation for his comment on my post "Glory Days."

To read about this exchange in detail, please follow the links above. The short version was my concern that our love of our past--both our shared historical past and the pasts and cultures of our individual congregations--might discourage us from making the changes necessary for a vital future. The Eclectic Cleric wrote the following: "The influence of people like Theodore Parker (in particular) on subsequent generations of Unitarian clergy has in many ways been more harmful than good."

With the best of intentions, I meant to ask him to clarify his remark, but didn't get around to it. Now in his "Theodore Parker's destructive legacy . . .", he's provided that clarity. While I encourage you to read The Eclectic Cleric's complete post, a critical observation he's made is that Parker suicided through overwork, setting a bad example for subsequent UU clergy.

While I'm new to UU ministry, I'm not new to UUism or to overwork. I believe that we set UU ministers on the path of self-destruction by expecting that they will be competent in 15 different areas. We put an "S" on their chests, give them a robe (not a cape), and tell them to make a leap of faith over tall, if not impossible, demands.

Success is often attributable to being specialized and focused. Those who try to be all things to all people may end up disappointing everyone.

It may come as a surprise after the above, but I have some ambivalence around this issue. Ministerial formation caused me to stretch in painful yet growthful ways. The line between a healthy stretch and an injury isn't always clear. The line between appropriately addressing multiple responsibilities and wasting one's energies by spreading them too thin is similarly cloudy.

The mind wants to simplify and is particularly fond of bifurcation. Focus on the congregation or on the community? Hallman or Morales? But the issues we're raising are too complex to neatly fit into dichotomies. Let's continue to bring attention to these questions and encourage others to do so as well.

Bringers of Hope; Companions in Despair

2009-05-26T03:50:00.000-07:00

One of my CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) supervisors, Rev. Dr. Peter Yuichi Clark, taught me that a critical role of chaplains is to be bringers of hope. It was a challenge to figure out what this meant to a non-theist like me.

The Rev. Patty Franz, then a hospice chaplain, was a guide. I asked her what one said to a dying person when you yourself had no clarity about what happens after death. She told me to ask patients what they imagined would happen. In time, I saw myself not bringing hope but drawing out the hope that was already within others.

Candidates preparing for their MFC (Ministerial Fellowship Committee) interviews are frequently told that the MFC is looking for "ministerial presence." Is the candidate able to minister to the MFC? Is the candidate someone that the MFC members would like to have as their minister?

When I was preparing for my MFC interview, I certainly had my bouts of fear and despair. Before and during the interview, I had moments of high anxiety. How does one bring hope and be a companion to despair when one is feeling hopeless and afraid?

Before reading my answers, I recommend you reflect on your own answers. What's below worked for me, but each of us has within ourselves the answers to these questions.

I found myself asking for help and guidance. There's a long list of UU and non-UU ministers and lay persons who supported me.

For some reason, I am reminded of my work on a unit for persons with serious psychiatric illnesses. I was frightened. Yet, I came to learn that I was not alone, that others "had my back."

When you go in for your MFC interview, there will be a whole bunch of folk who will have your back. The members of the Committee are not nearly as frightening as they may appear in your imagination. They have your and UUism's best interest at heart. Bring the hope that is within you and draw out the hope that is within them.

Washitarians & Other Strange Creatures

2009-05-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

A wise friend from Charlottesville, VA, home of the University of Virginia (founded by that quasi-Unitarian Thomas Jefferson), once told me that all university towns exist in invisible bubbles that separate them from the rest of the planet. Now that I've lived in the Berkeley bubble for several years, I better appreciate what he said and the opportunity to get out of town every once in a while to breathe the air outside the bubble.

I am a Washitarian, i.e., a Unitarian (now UU) from Washington, DC. There are over 20 UU congregations in the Baltimore-Washington metro area. To be a UU at the Fairfax, VA, congregation, for example, may be different than being a UU at Arlington, All Souls, or Bull Run.

Before I moved to Berkeley, I knew what it was like being this UU in DC; Northern Virginia; Madison, WI; and Tampa, FL. However, being UU at the Starr King School for the Ministry was honest to God culture shock. I found this link on the subject and started checking out my symptoms.

What is the relevance of all this for examining for UU ministry? For me, it speaks to the question of "fit." A minister might "fit" wonderfully well at the Berkeley Fellowship and bomb at the Tampa Church. A minister might fit the needs of a church in 1995 and bomb at that same church (of course, it wouldn't be the same church) in 2009.

How do we examine for ministry in a way that recognizes the wide range of cultures, needs, and environments in which our successful candidates will find themselves? What are the lessons learned from successful ministers who've had to grow into positions in cultures unlike their own?

How to Use This Blog

2009-05-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

In my fantasy world, all readers of this blog would be tech sophisticates reading every word of my deathless prose with bated breath. Meanwhile, back in this universe, I know that many of my readers are seminarians and other candidates for UU ministry who are checking it out for pointers for preparing for RSCC and MFC interviews. And, like the rest of us poor mortals, there are seminarians who have not yet achieved tech enlightenment.

Therefore, there are lots of labels, such as "Preparing for the MFC Interview," on the lower right side of this page. Click on one of them, and only those posts related to your interest will appear.

Knowing how stressful it can be preparing for these interviews, I hope this guidance and these shortcuts are helpful to you.

Envy & Evangelicals

2009-05-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

Of all the books I read in seminary (and there were many!), one that made a particularly deep impression was The Very Large Church by Lyle E. Schaller.

A lifelong UU who'd never been inside a metachurch, I'd lumped together "evangelicals" and "fundamentalists." I learned that not all evangelicals are politically and social conservative and that the message of many of them is more about hospitality and salvation than about dogma.

The programs and services offered by the megachurches are amazing. I became jealous, imagining what UU congregations and ministers could do with the resources of churches of this size. While nationally we UUs were holding our own in absolute numbers, we were becoming increasing insignificant as a percentage of U.S. population.

In "The Coming Evangelical Collapse," Michael Spencer, predicts a major decline of evangelical Christianity. His reasons include evangelicals having become identified with culture and political conservativism and their failure to pass onto their youth a faith that can survive the impact of secularism. He write [italics his]: We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

In "The Future of Religion," Jon Cleland-Host raises interesting questions about the future of religion.

What does all this have to do with examining for UU ministry? Well, when you don't like an outcome, e.g., the flatlining of UU membership since the Us joined the Us in 1961, you may be tempted to round up all the usual suspects, including the formation and development of ministers. In this case, ministerial formation and development played a role in UUism's failure to grow, but the above articles give us context and perspective for evaluting that outcome and that role.

Have UUs also confused causes with a faith and have we failed to provide our youth--or even ourselves--with a faith that can survive secularism? How do we form and develop UU ministers who bring hope for our religion and for our planet?

Love-Making Elephants and Moments of Clarity

2009-05-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

The last sentence of my previous post was too long, complicated, and obscure. Clarity hopefully follows.

When I worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we used to say that all the major projects were like elephants making love: the underbrush was trampled, small creatures and flora could be damaged or even destroyed if they were in the way, there was a lot of trumpeting and other unpleasant noises, and there was no visible result for at least three years. (The actual gestation period for elephants is around 22 months, but for VA projects, 3 years could be just the kickoff.)

Over at the UUA View from Berkeley, UUA Trustee Linda Laskowski reports that the UUA Board has created a working group on excellence in ministry that will be convened by Rev. Doug Gallager. Starting on page 3 of its April 16, 2009, Report to the Board, the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) recommended a "comprehensive review of the MFC's role in fostering excellence in ministry" which is anticipated to take 2 to 3 years.

I applaud this recommendation of the MFC and wonder what might be done while the review is being undertaken. My previous post on prototyping was an argument for making adjustments while data collection and analysis occur.

Francis Bacon, C. Otto Scharmer, & the Evolution of Competencies

2009-05-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

Since there may be a UU who hasn't yet discovered The Teaching Company, let's start with a shout-out. The Teaching Company is a purveyor of audio and video recordings of college courses: a great way to fill the gaps in one's knowledge or to challenge one's "knowledge" with new perspectives.

I've been listening to Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd Edition. Lecture 30 is "Bacon's New Organon and the New Science." The professor, Alan Charles Kors, tells us that when Francis Bacon (1561-1626) entered Cambridge University all university education was essentially clerical (religious) education. In The New Organon, Bacon argued for a separation of religion and science (then known as "natural philosophy") and for learning by direct observation and inductive reasoning (from the specific to the general) rather than the study of words (Scriptures) and deductive reasoning (from the general to the specific).

In "Addressing the Blind Spot of Our Time: An executive summary of the new book by Otto Scharmer Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges," C. Otto Scharmer, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims that "we" weren't properly educated for innovation. (His "we" is engineers, scientists, managers, and economists, but I suspect his claim also applies to ministers and lay leaders.) He writes about his experiences learning about prototyping from Hans (Nick) Roericht, a design professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts. Scharmer was impressed with Roericht's design teams producing prototypes in four hours that most managers would not have undertaken without years of analysis. Scharmer learned:

The prototype is part of the sensing and discovery process in which we explore the future by doing rather than by thinking and reflecting. This is such a simple point--but I have found that the innovation processes of many organizations are stalled right there, in the old analytical method of "analysis paralysis."

The division between science and religion isn't as neat as we might assume reading about Bacon's innovation in thinking and education. Throughout this blog, I have been arguing for applying scientific methods to examining for the ministry.

Scharmer provides an interesting correlative to this purpose. Rather than limiting ourselves to exhaustive analysis to support inductive reasoning about examining for ministry, it may be more beneficial and expeditious to prototype examining and formational processes first and then start testing the prototypes. I will provide future posts describing what this might look like.

Glory Days

2009-05-11T05:22:00.000-07:00

Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days
--Bruce Springsteen

Growing up in Virginia in the 1950s and 60s, there were lots of opportunities to reflect on "glory days." With Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe all Virginians, it was easy to reflect back to the glory days of Virginia, the Mother of Presidents.

With the pride and the offended honor that only the defeated possess, there were also the glory days of the Civil War, immortalized on Monument Avenue in Richmond. If Virginia has a saint, it's Robert E. Lee; a martyr, Stonewall Jackson.

I compounded the problem by falling in love with Greek mythology. We were an agnostic household, but every boy must have his gods. With wonder, I contrasted these glory days of ancient Greece to Greece's standing in the modern world.

OK, OK, I bet you're wondering what the above is doing on a blog on examining for UU ministry. Like Virginia and Greece, UUism has a proud and significant history. In a culture where so many have never heard of us or confuse us with Unity or Unification, UUs wear "famous UUs" tee shirts just to claim our identity and differentiate ourselves from followers of other religions.

In this reverence for our history, we risk falling into a glory days syndrome. Let's return to the Boss for a reminder:

And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

If you'll excuse the cliche, we must find a way to honor the past while preparing for the future. In a religion where the average age is creeping upwards past 55 and we've remained at about 200,000 members (adults and children) since consolidation in 1961, we want to make sure that we're not left with nothing "but boring stories of glory days." Our stagnancy in numerical growth has resulted in a dramatic decline as our percentage of rapidly growing U.S. population.

Currently, I'm serving as an organizational consultant to a Fellowship where the average age is much, much higher than the nationwide UU average. The minister and the Board are supporting the development of a young adult program and an oral history project so that this congregation's wonderful legacy of social justice work may be passed on to another generation. The Fellowship is participating in a "quadrilogue" with two other congregations and the Starr King School for the Ministry to see how all four UU institutions may support one another.

We are cheered and inspired by the stories of growing, vibrant UU "breakthrough" congregations. While it's clear that many factors--including lay leadership, governance, location, and facilities-- contribute to such breakthroughs, the role of the minister is significant. As we contemplate revising the examining process for UU ministry, we should focus on the lessons learned from these successes to identify ministerial performance and competencies that will lead to a whole new set of glory days.

Of Guilds, Gatekeepers, and Paraprofessionals

2009-05-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) plays the very important role of gatekeeper of fellowshipping as a UU minister. We want it to exclude those not ready for ministry and include those who are.

No gatekeeping function is perfect. However, the greater the validity (measuring what you intend to measure) and reliability (consistency in measurement) of your examination the less likely you are to exclude those who are ready and include those who are not.

Examining can be a delicate balancing act. You want to assure the competency of practitioners for the safety and well-being of those whom they will serve. Yet there is a temptation to restrain trade/oppress/exclude as may be seen in this Wikipedia article on guilds.

Examining for the professions should include both professionals and nonprofessionals as a way of fostering professionalism and of assuring that the profession remains responsive to those whom it serves. The mixture of clergy and laity on the MFC reflects this wisdom.

Over at the UUA View from Berkeley, UUA Trustee Linda Laskowski expresses concern about the anticipated turnover in UU ministry of 50% during the next 10 years. She writes the following:

Add to that the calling many lay leaders feel for ministry, especially in their later years. Is devoting yourself to several years of seminary the only option to satisfy this deep longing?

The answer is clearly "no." Some UU congregations have wonderful worship associate programs. At least one, the UU Congregation of Fairfax, VA, has an outstanding lay pastoral care program developed by a psychiatrist and a hospice nurse. You don't need to be an ordained minister to have a ministry any more than you need to be a physician to perform the duties of a nurse practitioner. Let's go for a both/and solution that recognizes the need for professional clergy and lay ministry.

Resistance is Futile (and Unwise): Excellence & Oppression

2009-05-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

Often people are wisely concerned about the relationship between examining and oppression. A powerful historical example of oppressive examining is the "literacy tests" that were used to deny the vote to African Americans in the South from the 1890s through the 1960s.

The other side of the examining coin is presented in this history of the relationship between barbers and surgeons. Suffice it to say that we all may be thankful that the examining of surgeons is much more rigorous than it once was.

A third interesting example comes from the film Jazz. Listening to Wynton Marsalis wax poetic about Louis Armstrong, we are reminded of the roles that genius can play.

Incompetence in the professions is dangerous. People do not die on the operating table because of an incompetent chaplain, but incompetent and unethical ministers have done much damage.

Ministers have also inspired. While not every minister may have the genius of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we may all--ministers and laity--be inspired by his example.

Resistance to examining is futile and unwise. It's important to make judgments about competency, excellence, and genius. However, it's also important that such judgments and the processes by which they are reached are congruent with the first (the inherent worth and dignity of every person) and second (justice, equity, and compassion in human relations) principles of UUism.

Competencies & Performance

2009-05-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

"The best predictor of future performance is past performance."

The above was our mantra for the Performance-Based Interviewing project at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Jobs at VA were described in terms of duties and responsibilities, the competencies required to perform the duties and exercise the responsibilities were identified, and interview questions were developed to assess whether candidates possessed the required competencies.

In Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams, Lou Adler suggests a more direct approach: figure out what you want done and ask the candidates to describe or demonstrate the capacity to do it.

In one way, this is a very old idea. When I entered the workforce as a typist, I took a typing test. (AKA keyboarding for the post-typewriter generations. :-) )

The idea of performance testing gets much more complicated when dealing with duties and responsibilities that are more difficult to demonstrate in an interview. Adler gives the example of an interview for a position involving the development of marketing plans. The interviewer and interviewee outlined a plan during the interview. The interviewee was hired and used that outline to complete and implement the plan.

If we try to apply this concept to the MFC (Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee) interview, we can see that the first challenge is deciding what we want ministers to do. The tasks of healthcare chaplaincy, community organizing, and parish ministry overlap, but are far from identical.

The second challenge is evaluation. During an interview, you can demonstrate skill outlining a marketing plan or delivering a 10-minute sermon. Neither assures is that you will be successful at implementing a marketing plan or regularly leading worship that inspires a congregation/community.

That these challenges are daunting should not be discouraging. The reflection and dialogue required to address them will be strengthen and deepen our religion.

Of Ministers and Movements

2009-04-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

My Unitarianism started at age 5 in the 1950s when my father took me to Sunday school at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC. The minister there, A. Powell Davies, was responsible for extraordinary growth in Unitarianism in the area. Davies believed that Unitarianism needed to end its identification with Christianity and become a world religion.

Now, nearly 60 years down the pike, most UUs would agree that we are no longer a Christian religion even though there are many Christians among us. Despite our bumper sticker claims to being the "Uncommon Denomination" (which implies that we're still Protestants), I frequently hear references to UUism as a "movement."

It's hard to describe what I think of the use of the word "movement" without giving into the temptation to be scatological. UUism isn't a movement; it's a religion.

All the UUs who say that they are spiritual but not religious are doing themselves and UUism a disservice. What they may be trying to say is that they are not theists. Yet they should learn from UU religious humanists that you can defined "religion" in a manner to include atheists and agnostics. You don't have to be a believer to be a UU, but once you join a UU congregation, you are religious whether you know it or not.

My hard-won understanding acquired through the sturm und drang of seminary is that the critical difference between spirituality and religion is that only the former can be a solitary pursuit. Religion is a messier business; it involves other people.

It is in the nature of the free faith that is UUism that it's often difficult to define what is inside and outside of our tent, what it means to be a UU, and the role of ministry. These are worthy challenges that we must undertake if we are to continue to build our legacy.

On the Other Side of the Interview Table

2009-04-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

In this blog, I have mainly been focused on helping candidates prepare for the UU ministerial fellowshipping process and making recommendations for modifying that process. However, I have also started thinking about another use of examining that is often critical to success in ministry.

A little history first. I first became involved in an in-depth study of interviewing because a senior official at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) told me that he believed that improving selection processes, especially interviewing, was the more important action that human resources could do to most improve employment at VA.

This official based this recommendation on his experience in interviewing people for executive positions. He said that the executive interviewees consistency stated that the decisions they most often regretted were selection decisions.

Recently, several UU ministers have told me that one of the critical areas in which they feel least prepared is human resources. Selecting staff, identifying volunteers, and providing guidance to committees and boards are important roles in parish ministry. I even found that knowledge of human resources principles and practices enhanced my capacity to provide spiritual and emotional care to staff and patients as a hospital chaplain.

I'm not going to try to turn this blog into a human resources manual for ministers. However, I encourage my readers to look at the posts here from both sides of the interview table.

Comments about human resources challenges in ministry will be appreciated.

Structured Interviews: What They Are; Why You Should Use Them

2009-04-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) interviews should be structured to increase the likelihood of accuracy and fairness. However, when I've made this recommendation, I've received some rather strong reactions that appear to be based on differing understandings of what is meant by "structured" interviews.

Interviews may be structured in many ways. Here's a way to do so for professional positions that increases the likelihood of fairness and accuracy while giving interviewers latitude to improvise and to inquire in depth.

The consistent questions (i.e., those asked of all candidates who are expected to possess a competency) in a structured interview tend to be broad and serve as jumping off points for more detailed, individualized questions. For example, a broad question might be the following: "What has been a significant challenge in your anti-oppression work and how did you overcome it?"

We can imagine that answers to this question will vary greatly depending upon the social location and life experience of the interviewee. Follow-up questions, tailored to the interviewee's response, might be one or more of the following:

Were there other consequences to your actions?
After your this initial success (failure), were other actions undertaken at a later date?
What role did collaboration play in your success?
What, if any, networking and research did you do before acting?

Contrasting this strategy for structuring interviews with other types of examining may help put it more in focus. Interviews structured in this way are not:

Standardized tests.
Foolishly consistent.

Structured Interviews vs. Standardized Tests
Someone expressed the concern that structured interviews were standardized tests and would be subject to cultural bias. As noted below, while some authorities equate "structured interviews" with "standardized interviews," that's not how I'm using the terms here. Furthermore, when most of us thing of standardized tests, we think of multiple choice tests.

Standardized testing risks cultural bias in both questions and the answers. The risk is often greater in the answers than the questions because in many forms of standardized testing, such as multiple choice tests, there is only one right answer.

No form of examining based on content validity (i.e., the test is designed to see whether candidates have the knowledge required for the position) is immune from the risk of cultural bias. However, there is less risk with structured interviewing than with multiple choice tests because in the former interviewers can ask follow-up questions designed to more thoroughly elicit the candidate's competencies and because there is no single right answer to a structured interview question.

Structured Interviews vs. Standardized Interviews
Another interlocutor was concerned that a structured interview would tie the hands of the interviewers. This concern is quite understandable because some authorities use "standardized interviews" and "structured interviews" synonymously.

For some kinds of research, standardized interviews in which all the interviewees are asked the same questions in the same sequence is a strategy for increasing validity and reliability. It also permits the use of interviewers with minimal training.

This strategy is not likely to be effective in interviewing for professional positions. In such interviews, you do not wish to assure accuracy and reliability in a manner that does not permit you to draw upon the experience and expertise of your interview panel.

A structured interview is a wonderful midpoint between free-form interviewing and standardized interviewing. It provides a degree of consistency while allowing the interview panel to delve more deeply in to the qualifications of the interviewees.

Calling Ministers: Calling & Examining

2009-04-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

What is the relationship between ministerial calling and ministerial examining?

There was a lot of activity last month in the UU blogosphere about ministerial calling. Here are links to posts on the subject by Transient and Permanent, Lizard Eater, and A UU Minister in the South. They caused me to reflect on why I chose the title of "Calling Ministers" for this blog and what "calling" means to me.

When I came up with the title "Calling Ministers," I had multiple purposes. I wanted to call ministers to look at the blog. I also wanted to look at the process of UU ministerial calling and formation.

"Calling" has at least two meanings in UU context: (1) the call to ministry; and (2) the call of ministers by congregations. Once upon a time, one's calling to Unitarian or Universal ministry came from God and was confirmed by a congregation.

Congregations still call ministers, but today many of us are less certain about a calling from God. Is the encouragement we receive from others the voice of God in disguise? Or, are both an anthropomorphic "God" and "God's voice" misplaced literalisms?

Whoa, I am waxing much to philosophical/theological for the purpose of this blog. Let's see whether I can to reconnect the dots from calling to examining.

In the absence of certainty of God's existence (much less God's primacy in calling), the calling that we receive from others -- ministers, congregants, friends, and family -- becomes primary. However, once candidates move to the formal process of ministerial formation, they find a whole new set of challenges and obstacles, including examinations, that they may not have anticipated.

The challenges and obstacles are part of how candidates develop the strength they will need as ministers. And, despite all you've heard to the contrary, failure -- or at least turning away from ministry -- is an option. It should be our objective to see that to the extent of our powers and wisdom, the examining process guides examinees, examiners, and the denomination in constructive and compassionate decision-making.

Situation Comedies, Film Noir, Tragedy

2009-04-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

When I was a child in the 1950s, watching TV situation comedies often frustrated me. The half-hour shows would start with misunderstanding and failure to communicate. For the next 25 minutes, the characters would go through elaborate gyrations, faulty thinking, and emotional turmoil before one of them finally told her or his truth.

I would sit in front of the TV wanting to shout "talk to one another." I soon stopped watching these shows.

Film noir was another matter. In films such as Night and the City (1950), you could see how the protagonist's guile, ambition, and desperation led to his inevitable decline. This was not a simple and stupid miscommunication followed by an inevitable happy ending; this was character as destiny, a lesson of what might happen if you failed to take A. Powell Davies' advice to grow a soul.

Tragedy was even more compelling. As an adolescent, I saw A Long Days Journey Into Night at Arena Stage, a theater in the round in Washington, DC. On leaving the theater, I felt like I was escaping from a spider's web. Each member of that tragic family contributed to her or his own destruction and to the destruction of one another. They could not exit from the web of their own creation.

You may be wondering by now what the above is doing in a blog on examining for UU ministry. I started this blog because I believed that there were opportunities to improve examining for UU ministry for the examiners, the examinees, and the denomination. However, my interest broadened from the question of examining to the question of ministerial formation and development. That, in turn, lead to the question of the evolution of UUism, including the question: Is UUism producing the leadership it needs for the 21st century?

When I was a child in the 50s, UUism was a vital and vibrant faith in the Washington, DC, area. It was a faith for the modern, post-World War II era, not encumbered by the superstitions that weighed down other religions.

Now, 50 years later, with the average age of UUs reaching 55, I wonder whether UUism needs a new sense of purpose and destiny. Is UUism a faith with a future, or will it, like MacArthur's old soldier, just fade away?

I believe UUism can be a faith for the 21st century. I believe it is time for soul growth. Shall we grow together?

Academic, Formational, and/or Professional?

2009-04-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

I've been researching ministerial formation and examining. The access and assistance offered by a great university library and its staff are hard to beat. (Yes, dear reader, I proudly confess to being a library nerd.)

Only a few journal articles speak directly to ministerial examining. One of the most intriguing is "Beyond Wish Lists for Pastoral Leadership: Assessing Clergy Behavior and Congressional Outcomes to Guide Seminary Curriculum" by John Dreibelbis and David Gortner (the latter is a professor here in Berkeley at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific) in Theological Education, Volume 40, Supplement (2005): 25-49.

Dreibelbis and Gortner are persuaded of the need for "competency-oriented models of [theological] education in which competencies are identified as actions rooted in knowledge, character, and skill contributing to positive outcomes in congregational contexts--the ultimate testing grounds (italics in original) of theological disciplines." They go on to note that the two educational models usually found in theological education are academic and formational. They believe that a professional model must be added if seminarians are to develop the knowledges, skills, and abilities they will need as ministers.

There is a wealth of information in this journal article. For today, I just wish to point out that the Episcopal priests who were surveyed for it generally reported the most confidence in their ability to perform sacramental and preaching job activities and the least confidence in community outreach, lay leadership development, and organizational leadership job activities.

Looking at the 10 knowledge-based versus the 5 performance-based Competencies for UU Ministry affirm a mismatch in ministerial formation. Many a candidate for UU ministry has spent hours memorizing information that they may never use again while slighting important skill development. Those who participated in the Excellence in Ministry conference and members of the MFC recognize that the time has come for a review of the examining and formational processes.

What do you think?

Love & Justice

2009-03-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

The other day I had an interesting conversation with a recently fellowshipped UU minister about his experiences with the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) and his assessment of this blog. He questioned where "beloved community" was in the MFC process. He wasn't sure that his question belonged in this blog, which he categorized as being "technical."

Well, I'd heard of "beloved community" and knew it was central to the thinking of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. This article from Christian Century provides more information. This Wikipedia article credits the U.S. pragmatist philosopher Charlies Peirce as being the original developer of the concept.

King recognized that his beloved community was not a present reality, but a promised land for which those of good will should strive. It was to be a place of love and justice.

Being brought up Unitarian, the related Christian concept of "kingdom of God" made no sense to me. Hadn't we had enough of kings and kingdoms? Why would God want to be a king?

Seminary taught me that my thinking was anachronistic. There weren't a lot of flourishing democracies in Jesus' neighborhood. The choices were Roman Empire or Jewish monarchy. Under Roman rule, the return of Jewish monarchy looked awfully good.

Jesus was offering up another kingdom. He wasn't comparing kingdoms with dictatorships, republics, and democracies. He was picking rulers.

In the 20th century, humanity gained lots of experience with dictatorships, the modern form of absolute power. Their violence has reminded us of the importance of the rule of law. It helped inspire the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which includes the statement: "It is essential . . . that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."

Now I would be the first to admit that the rule of law does not guarantee justice. As Charles Dickens, whom we sometimes claim as a Unitarian, wrote (cited here at IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) from the 1948 film "Oliver Twist"):

Mr. Brownlow: The law assumes that your wife acts under your direction.
Mr. Bumble: If the law supposes that, then the law is a ass, a idiot! If that's the eye of the law, then the law is a bachelor. And the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience.

While Dickens was making a humorous comment on the state of law and marriage in his time, there is one marriage I hope we all can honor: the marriage of love and justice.

This blog, to quote the 2nd UU principle, is about "justice, equity, and compassion in human relations." Or, to say it more succinctly and specifically, it's about justice and love in ministerial examining.

Law, regulation, and procedure can go frightfully wrong. However, the laws, regulations, and procedures that are promoted in this blog are designed to promote love and justice. While the devil may be in the details, grace too resides there.

Hubris, Chutzpah, and A Long Pause

2009-02-27T17:19:00.000-08:00

One of my mentors in ministry advised me that its greatest challenge was learning to say "no." She said that there would be more opportunities for ministry than I would have the time or energy to undertake. I did not know then how right she was.

But my delay in posting from 2/15 to the present has not solely been a matter of busyness. It has also been connected with the loss of nerve. Who am I, recently fellowshipped but not yet ordained, to advise about examining for ministry? If I am challenging other ministers, it's chutzpah. If I'm challenging the gods, it's hubris.

Thankfully, my nerve has returned. This project is not about my relative inexperience in ministry. It's not even about my expertise in examining. It's about the synergy that comes from building and facilitating a high-performing team. The best examining processes are developed and implemented in teams. It's no accident that the Supreme Court has 9 members. Good examining requires teams.

So I'm not going to write a lot more right now about changing the examining process for UU ministry. Rather, I intend to move forward with my recommendation to the MFC that they charter a research team and volunteer to serve as a participant or facilitator.

In the meantime, if you have stories, questions, or feedback, please submit them.

An Aside: RSCC Interviews and "Recommendations" from the Center for Ministry

2009-02-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

The other day a seminarian told me that she'd received a "yellow light" from her Regional Subcommittee on Candidacy (RSCC) because she hadn't acted on a "recommendation" from the Center on Ministry. The RSCC told her how to implement the Center for Ministry recommendation, and required her to do so before returning to see them again. Obviously, she did not know that Center for Ministry "recommendations" are requirements unless you can make a well-documented case that they are erroneous.

You may wish to fault this aspirant for her naïveté. However, it's likely that other aspirants have been similarly naive.

After the interview, a friend told the seminarian that therapists and counselors don't direct, they recommend. This leaves me wondering whether she shared her Center for Ministry report with others and obtained guidance in its interpretation.

As my mother used to say, "a word to the wise is sufficient." May these words be that for current and future aspirants.

Step 2, Part 2: Further Research

2009-02-15T06:39:00.000-08:00

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"
US poet (1819 - 1892)

OK, OK, I'm not going to claim I contain multitudes. However, I am learning that writing a blog means at the least that I sometimes repeat myself (and probably sometimes contradict myself as well).

One of the challenges in the next step of the research is distinguishing the basic competencies expected of all UU ministers and the competencies (or the levels of attainment of competencies) for different types of ministry. (Currently, the three broad categories are parish, religious education, and community. Each of these categories could have subcategories, such as medical chaplaincies, prison chaplaincies, adult education.) For example, chaplains may rarely preach and may not have or need the expertise in this competency parish ministers develop. Conversely, some parish ministers may rarely provide counseling and may not have nor need the expertise that chaplains develop.

There is merit in having the assessment for preliminary fellowship be for ministry in general. It allows the newly fellowshipped to explore different opportunities in ministry without seeking the MFC's approval for every change. Conversely, it allows the MFC to set foundational qualification for all UU ministry.

Yet, examining need not be an either/or proposition. The MFC could continue to examine candidates for ministry in general while directing or weighting some of the questions to be more specific ministry or ministries for which the candidate is preparing. I suspect that it may already be doing so.

While I have been focusing on competencies and interviewing in this blog, a thorough soup-to-nuts review would include the entire process of ministerial formation and development. The magnitude of this task is another argument for the development of a research team. Maybe the team members will be the multitudes to which Whitman was referring.

Step 2: Conducting Research for the MFC, Part I

2009-02-12T12:23:00.000-08:00

My many years in planning have taught me that my crystal ball is often cloudy. When it comes to research, it can even be stormy. Research will go where it will. What follows is intended to be neither comprehensive nor definitive.

"Research" is too large a topic to be covered in a single post. So this is Part I.

The best place to start is assembling the research team. It should include individuals with expertise in examining, ministers successful in different types of ministry, and interested stakeholders.

The team would start by collecting information from the MFC and others about the history of the MFC and its current practices. It would then conduct a literature search and look for "best practices" in examining in other denominations/religions and in related occupations. Focus groups also are likely to be helpful.

One of the challenges facing the research team will be obtaining consensus about just what is expected of UU ministers. For example, for years there has been much discussion about UU growth (or the lack thereof). People have argued about whether this means growth in numbers of congregants, social justice, spiritual depth, or some other parameter. How important is "growth" and what is meant by it?

To put this search for consensus and clarity in the broadest perspective, what do the UUA and its member congregations hope to accomplish in the foreseeable future and how will they examine for ministry so as to support those objectives? This links examining to workforce planning and workforce planning to strategic planning.

Beginning Again at the Beginning: A Research Team

2009-02-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

This morning someone pointed out to me that it's hard to find my recommendations for the MFC on this blog. That observation is accurate. I have been dancing around the subject, collecting my thoughts, while I sought a better understanding of where the MFC was in its process. I will use the label "Recommendations for the MFC" to make it easier to locate posts on this subject.

Now I am ready to make more specific and systematic recommendations. Once I get them all together, I will submit them to the MFC. In the meantime, I would love your feedback.

Each year when the MFC visits Berkeley, it has an informal get-together on Holy Hill. At this year's gathering, it was quite evident how hard the volunteers who make up the MFC work reviewing tons of paperwork and attending meetings. Redesigning an examining process is a major undertaking. Any recommendations for the MFC should account for these facts.

My first recommendation is that the MFC charter a research team. Ideally this team should include as a consultant or a member a psychometrician (a psychologist who specializes in tests and measurements). It should also include UU and non-UU ministers and laity. A process like this always benefits from a multiplicity of perspectives.

The first task of the team would be to review the existing competencies and to collect information about ministerial competencies. Excellent sources for such information are ministers who are well respected by their colleagues and by those whom they serve.

Where is the Ministry?

2009-02-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

After more than 30 years of organizational development (OD) and human resources work, I find myself serving as an OD consultant to a local UU congregation and the author of this blog. As a recently minted UU minister, I am trying to figure out what it means to do this work I love as a ministry.

In some ways OD work is naturally a ministry. You are ministering both to an organization and the individuals who make it up. To take a broader, ecological view, you are seeking to understand and support the organization and those affected by it as part of the interconnected web of existence. In business-speak, you look for employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and affected communities. In congregational consulting, you work with the members and friends of the congregation, visitors, the congregation as a whole, the committees and groups, the board and the officers, the minister(s), the staff, neighboring UU congregations and communities, the district, and the UUA. (And, I'm sure I've missed a few.)

Somewhere during my medical center chaplain residency, I recognize that my OD background was not always serving me well as a chaplain. I wrote that I needed to move my attention from the god of efficiency to the goddess of compassion.

So what does it mean to have a compassionate organizational development ministry? In this time of economic and political turmoil, this is a wonderful question. Organizations are dying right and left; individuals are losing their jobs.

Many years ago I read Healing Into Life and Death by Stephen Levine. It had a profound impact upon me. It made me recognize that our ministries aren't always about healing into life; sometimes are about healing unto death. And the "death" may not be the death of the body; it may be the death of old perspectives and beliefs.

Over at Philocrites, there is a wonderful post and comments on the question of whether UUism is or can be transformational. By claiming that UUism could guide one in growing a soul, A. Powell Davies built upon the salvation-by-character theme of William Ellery Channing.

The comments at Philocrites indicate that the word "transformation" has different meanings to different authors. I can testify to the transformational nature of UU communities and UU ministers. What are your experiences of transformation in UUism? Are their competencies possessed by UU minsters that facilitated those transformations?

Examining for UU Ministry & the UUA Presidency

2009-02-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, iMinister posted the written responses of Peter Morales, a candidate for the UUA presidency, to a question in a candidate's forum. The question was the following:

Imagine five years have passed and imagine that your vision for UUism is fully alive and thriving. What three to five goals have been realized?

His response included the following goal:

We have developed a strategic vision for ministry and are beginning its implementation. Our strategy for ministry has been developed through consultation with stakeholders. Our strategy is a comprehensive approach that includes recruitment, training, placement, mentoring and development of professional ministry.

I am very heartened by these words. While the subject of this blog currently is examining and interviewing for UU ministry, Peter's broader approach is to be commended.

Sex, Lies, and Competencies

2009-02-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, I cheated a little bit, maybe even lied a little bit, in my choice of title for this post. It's not going to be about sex or sexual competencies; however, it will be about lies and competencies. I just wanted to give a shout out to a wonderful movie title, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape."

In Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams, Lou Adler argues that we cannot trust our intuition when it comes to using interviews to make hiring decisions. Though it is possible that interviewees may lie, he is more concerned about the lies that interviewers consciously and unconsciously tell themselves about the selection process.

Though it might well be said that in calling ministers one should use head, heart, and soul, Adler is pointing the hard headed work is needed to make good selections. He cites a study (John Hunter & Frank Schmidt, "The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology," Psychological Bulletin, 1998, vol. 124) which found that the typical employment interview is only 57% effective in predicting subsequent success on the job, or only 7% better than flipping a coin. He cites several reasons for this low success rate; a critical one being too much focus on the interaction between the interviewee and the interview, and too little on the candidate's capacity to do the job. In other words, interviewers were examining the interviewees' capacity to interview rather than their ability to work. Could "ministerial presence" be another name for competency as an interviewee?

The Paradox

2009-02-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Just finished listening to Numbers, a This American Life podcast. In Act 4 of this podcast, a marketing man tells how he used the tools of modern brand marketing to "sell" himself to his own wife and how it helped their marriage. Act 5, Break It Down, is a short story by Lydia Davis about a man who tries to calculate what love costs.

The contrast between the two Acts is telling. Both the marketer and the love love their partners. The marketer began going steady with his wife when they were both 14; they both went to the same college; they've been married for several years. The lover describes a mutually intentional short-term relationship.

The marketer thought he knew nearly everything there was to know about his wife. He felt silly using the tools of his trade to market himself to his wife, but he was doing it as a project for work. Much to his surprise, he found out that there was much he did not know.

Particularly compelling was an observation by Ira Glass, the host of the program. He speculated that the marketing work so well because it allowed a translation of what was most important to the wife into words the husband could understand.

The emotionality, the pain, and even the despair in Act 5 are more obvious. The lover loves; yet he (she?) must face the inevitability of the end of the relationship.

What do these stories have to do with "Calling Ministers"? The parallels and the paradoxes are interesting. Like love, there are aspects ministry that can't be quantified. Both stories from This American Life show the limits of communication. The surprise is that in a situation (a marriage) where one would think certain tools (marketing) would not apply, important lessons were learned.

They are interviewing and assessment tools that were developed in academia and first applied in the private sector would benefit the examining process for UU ministry. Much would be learned, both by the examiners and the examinees. In future posts will explore the benefits and the limits of applying these tools.

Professional Competencies

2009-02-01T04:49:00.000-08:00

As stated in an earlier post, there are 15 areas of competence for fellowshipping as a UU minister. 10 are academic, and 5 are professional. The latter are worship, preaching, music aesthetics; pastoral care and counseling; leadership and organization; administration and management; and anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism.

Those of you who are reading closely will note that the "5" areas of competence are actually 12 areas of competence. Let's take a closer look at a couple of these:

Worship, Preaching, Music Aesthetics: Candidates are expected to know the theory and art of worship, preaching and rites of passage, and have experience in conducting religious ceremonies.
Pastoral Care and Counseling: Candidates should be familiar with theories, techniques and issues related to pastoral counseling, and be able to demonstrate ability in pastoral counseling. One unit of Clinical Pastoral Education is required.

The first question that naturally arises regarding the Worship area of competence is whether there should be a comma and the word "and" after the word "Music" in the first competency. Are candidates expected to be competent in "music" and "aesthetics" or "music aesthetics"?

How much experience are candidates expected to have in conducting religious ceremonies? Are there measures of competence in conducting such ceremonies and how will candidates demonstrate that they competently conducted such ceremonies.

There is some guidance in the Pastoral Care and Counseling area of competence. Candidates must have completed one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). Is that sufficient experience? What distinguishes a successful CPE unit?

There are over 250 theories of personality. How "many theories, techniques, and issues related to pastoral counseling" are candidates expected to have absorbed? How are they to demonstrate competency?

Some of the above questions are difficult, if not impossible, to answer definitely. However, it's quite possible that the competencies could be written in a manner that would make expectations clearer.

Myths About the MFC

2009-01-26T02:27:00.000-08:00

The other day I was speaking to a friend who is associated with the MFC (Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee). He said that there are many myths about it.

"Myth" is one of those funny words that has two meanings: one of which is nearly opposite the other. (If there's a technical term for this, please let me know.) The first meaning is archetypal story. The second meaning is a commonly believed falsehood. It was this second meaning to which my friend was referring.

When a subject is veiled in myth, it usually means that there is a shortage of evidence. The evidence shortfall may be a consequence of its unavailability, an unwillingness to look for or at it, the desire to tell a good story, or all of the above.

In the "good story" category, someone observed that before and during MFC interviews, the level of anxiety among candidates from UU seminaries is higher than that of candidates from non--UU seminaries. Is this a consequence of more reliable evidence, or less?

A Little Reassurance

2009-01-24T04:20:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, I was asked to be a mystery guest on a radio talk show. My persona was "Mr. Know-It-All," which some may imagine was not much of a stretch for me. However, knowing my limitations, I decided to focus on familiar quotations. I also decided to cheat.

We started the program by reading and discussing some of my and the host's favorite quotations. Then we invited call-ins. The host would engage and stall the callers while I frantically searched for their quotations in the index of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (a major reference work in the pre-Internet age). Then I could cite the author and the lines of the quote that might have escaped the caller's memory.

Unfortunately, the MFC will not permit candidates to bring a library with them for their interviews. And a library is certainly what one acquires during a seminary education.

My last post may have put the fear of God in those preparing for the MFC interview. Reading the competencies and sample questions, you might imagine that you'd have to have an encyclopedic memory and the talents of a mentalist to be successful.

However, you should know the following:

MFC questions are drawn from what's in your package. If you write that you have an extensive knowledge of Buddhism, then you are likely to be asked questions about Buddhism. These questions about Buddhism may seem quite obcure to someone who says that they have extensive knowledge of Islam (and vice versa).

"I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer. While it is probably not appropriate for every question, it's not a fatal response to one or two questions. It's usually useful to follow it with your strategy for acquiring the information.

The MFC appears to be more interested in how you answer questions that in what you answer. Trying to b.s. the Committee is believed to be the worst possible strategy.

Whatcha Know? Whatcha Do? & Meltdowns

2009-01-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

There are 15 academic and professional competencies for fellowshipping as a UU minister. 10 are academic, i.e., Whatcha know? 5 are professional, i.e., Whatcha do? Another way of describing these 2 categories (academic & professional) is that they are, respectively, knowledges and skills.

Today I'd like to speak to the knowledges which are the following: theology; church history (i.e., Christian church history); Hebrew and Christian scriptures; world religions; social theory/social ethics; human development/family life education/ministry with youth & young adults; UU history and polity; religious education history, theory, method, and practice; and professional ethics/UU Ministers Association (UUMA) Guidelines. Are you overwhelmed yet?

If the fear of your own ignorance hasn't taken over yet, consider some of the sample questions from the UUA website:

This is a set of world religion questions. What religion is each of the following words from? Then briefly describe them. Five pillars. Karma. Beltane. The sh'ma. Yom Hashoah. I Take Refuge. N'amaste. Four noble truths. Nirvana (Nibbana). The four yogas.

A. I was doing a funeral for the ex-wife of member...she was Jewish. Her family wanted me to lead the recitation of the Kaddish in the traditional Aramaic. Where might you look up how to say the words properly in that prayer? B. A couple came to me recently for a wedding...they described themselves as Neo-pagan. They wanted a Hand Fasting ritual. Do you know anything about that? How would you look that up? C. The young folks in the Coming of Age program in my congregation have to spend an hour or two speaking with one of the ministers on theological issues that they find important. Each of the young people in this recent year have come to me and talked with me about reincarnation, and what I thought of it. What would you say if you were asked about your opinion of reincarnation and what it might mean in modern UU congregations?

Talking about General Assembly leads us right into congregational polity. I wonder if briefly you could compare and contrast the different polities of Catholicism, Methodism and Congregationalism/Unitarian Universalism. What are the strengths and weaknesses of congregationalism? Have you heard anyone speaking of their fear of any "creeping Methodism" in our association? Was the 1997 book produced by the Commission on Appraisal helpful to you? Who are the members of the UUA? Who are the members of the Board Of Trustees? Can you name three communities outside of North America associated with the UUA?

OK, I believe that we can generally agree that this is not easy stuff. Furthermore, the descriptions of the competencies are not reassuring. Let's look at a sample:

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION HISTORY, THEORY, METHOD, AND PRACTICE: Candidates should have an understanding of several current philosophies of educational learning theories, teaching methods (including methods of teacher training,) and the history and philosophy of Unitarian Universalist religious education. Candidates are expected to be knowledgeable about several current philosophical and methodological trends in UU religious education, and be familiar with at least one Unitarian Universalist religious education curriculum at each age level. Candidates should be able to discuss the theological and educational assumptions and methodologies each religious education curriculum uses.

At one UU seminary, the seminarians sometimes speak of "meltdowns." They're not the same as a "breakdowns." Usually, recovery from the former is faster than recovery from the latter.

Well, looking over the competencies and the questions can lead to meltdowns. More about competencies and meltdowns soon.

You Ought to be in Pictures

2009-01-20T15:57:00.000-08:00

With a tip of the hat to Charlie Dieterich, Starr King student, cinematographer, scientist, engineer, and all around great guy.

Charlie videorecorded my mock interview. Not only did he record my performance, he used a 2nd camera and picture-within-picture to record the responses of the mock panel.

Afterward, I happen to mention to him that I only knew a few of the members of the MFC. I thought it would be an advantage to know who was whom in advance. The material from Boston gives you a short bio on each member, but no clue what they look like.

Charlie had a great idea. He suggested Googling everyone and copying their images into a Word document. Googling provided me more info about each member of the Committee.

I pasted the pictures on a mirror and set about memorizing everyone's names and faces. It was a good investment of time.

Inauguration

2009-01-20T10:48:00.000-08:00

Ah, Inauguration Day. A time of beginnings.

This morning as I was catching up on the Books section of the SF Chronicle, I read the following in a review by Eric Rauchway of Adam Cohen's new book, Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America.

Adam Cohen treats the 100 days as largely the product of personalities - Roosevelt, his key advisers and their experiences. Cohen produces fine pencil portraits of the president himself, an aristocratic good-government reformer touched by polio, which imbued him suddenly with a sense of what it meant to suffer; Henry Wallace, his secretary of agriculture, scion of a long line of practical scientific farmers experimenting in the fields; Raymond Moley, his critical banking adviser, a hard-nosed political scientist keen to take credit for preserving capitalism; Lewis Douglas, his budget director, a mining man devoted to fiscal conservatism; and perhaps most important of all, Frances Perkins, his secretary of labor, the first female Cabinet member, an eyewitness to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and a shrewd proponent of working Americans.

Cohen's use of biography works because Roosevelt surrounded himself with such a variety of advisers, each intimately familiar with one aspect of the problem they together approached. Rather than trivia, then, each of these personal stories represents a section of Depression-era America, and in their diversity they suggest why so many Americans supported the New Deal: Almost anyone could see the administration addressing his concerns.

My father, who was born in 1913, didn't believe in God, but he did believe in FDR. He lived thru the Depression and served in the Navy during WW II which were formative events for him and his generation.

May the UUA "surround itself with a variety of advisers" as it looks at excellence in ministry and at forming, examining, developing, and evaluating ministers. Such a strategy served us well at the Department of Veterans Affairs when we were designing our performance-based interviewing process.

The Tyranny of Excellence

2009-01-19T03:35:00.000-08:00

Thanks to iMinister for posting the keynote speech by Daniel Aleshire of the Association of Theological Schools on the Tyranny of Excellence from the UUA Excellence in Ministry Summit. The following remark are striking:

As you might expect, “excellent ministry” is more likely to become an issue when there are fears that something is not going well. . . . When the question is being asked in earnest, my hunch is that it is often a symptom of some underlying dis-ease.

My hunch is that “excellence” is a topical way of getting at some other question, maybe some worry. I have a hunch that, if UU ministers and congregations were doing well, and if there were abundant money for all the movement’s agenda, including theological education, the question would not be asked.

Ministry always has a communitarian setting and “excellence” must have a definition that a community has agreed to honor.

When I was a child in Washington, DC, in the 1950s, UUism was busting out all over. The sermons of A. Powell Davies, minister at All Souls, not only filled the church's sanctuary and social hall, but were piped into several suburban locations by radio. These locales became the nuclei of five new suburban congregations—Arlington, Cedar Lane, Paint Branch, Mount Vernon, and what is presently known as the Davies Memorial Church—established under Davies' leadership. These "daughter" churches later founded three additional congregations—Fairfax, Rockville, and River Road. Some of these congregations -- and Arlington (which had been established earlier) -- remain among the largest UU congregations.

Yet, on the other hand, in the 48 years since the Unitarians joined with the Universalists in 1961, UUA membership has varied slightly around 160,000 adults while it has dropped from .08% to .05% of the U.S. population which has grown from 180 to 305 million. If you don't believe that numbers matter, read American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips (or at least the Wikipedia article on the book).

This phenomena is like The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) in reverse. In that film, when Scott Carey, the protagonist, begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him. UUism has not shrunk, it has remained the same size while everything around it has grown, like Gulliver's travel to Brobdingnag.

Please, please hear that I'm not saying that the formation and development of UU ministers is the source of the stagnation in UUA membership, much less the rise of politically and theologically conservative Christianity. I'm merely raising the question of whether there is any relationship between the two.

Developmental, Selection, & Gatekeeping Interviews

2009-01-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

When people think of employment interviewing, they usually think of selection interviews, which are used for appointment, advancement, and entry. Appointment interviews, a.k.a. hiring or employment interviews, are usually competitive. When we go for an employment interview, we know that we need to show the interviewer(s) that we are the best qualified candidates for the job.

An entry or gatekeeping interview is like an hiring interview, except it is usually non-competitive and our objective is to show that we are qualified -- but not necessarily best qualified -- for the position or occupation.

A developmental interview is noncompetitive and is more about acquiring information than providing it. Let's say an office work wishes to be considered for the office manager position when it becomes available. In developmental interviews, the current office manager and her or his supervisor can guide the worker on the training, education, and experience s/he would need to become well qualified for the office manager job. While the worker's current qualifications are relevant, the main focus is on the gap between current qualifications and those required for the office manager position.

One of my favorite bits of movie dialogue comes from Casablanca. Capt. Renault asks Rick why he came to Casablanca. Rick replies that he came to Casablanca for his health, for the waters. Renault exclaims that they're in the desert. Rick calmly replies that he was misinformed.

While there is often overlap between developmental interviews and gatekeeping interviews, the Regional Subcommittee on Candidacy (RSCC) interviews have been evolving from developmental to gatekeeping interviews. It therefore would be helpful to aspirants for UU ministry to understand this distinction and prepare accordingly.

This evolution is laudatory. It's helpful to aspirants for UU ministry to learn as soon as possible that they may not be qualified.

The reform that would benefit the process is that aspirants be taught that the purpose of the interview is gatekeeping so that they can both demonstrate the qualifications they have already acquired and their knowledge of those that they need to acquire before they present themselves to the MFC (Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee).

Reverse Engineering

2009-01-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

According to Arleigh Crawford, "Reverse engineering is taking apart an object to see how it works in order to duplicate or enhance the object."

Wise planners do their best thinking backwards: They start out w/ a goal or vision and then think about what steps would be necessary to achieve it.

Well, we can't take apart excellent ministers to see how they work so we may duplicate or enhance them. However, we can examine excellent ministers to learn how they are excellent and what made them excellent. We could use what we learn to help other ministers improve their ministries and to prepare candidates for ministry. Furthermore, a dialogue among excellent ministers about excellence might help these ministers enhance their performance. (Such dialogues using appreciative inquiry have helped individuals and organizations grow and thrive.)

Anticipating objections:

We don't agree what is meant by "excellence in ministry." This objection actually supports doing further study. The goal is not to achieve a single cookie-cutter answer, but to deepen our collective understanding.
Different ministers are "excellent" in different ways. This is a good argument for involving a number of excellent ministers and observers of excellent ministers to see the commonalities and differences.
Difference ministries require different kinds of excellence, e.g., being an excellent hospital chaplain may require a different set of skills than being an excellent director of a legislative ministry. This is a very interesting concern. The UUA has decided to examine candidates for ministry. It is assumed that those accepted into fellowship have the capacity to move from one ministry to another. This may be true. However, further study might reveal competencies that fellowshipped ministers might wish to strengthen before changing specialties.
The very idea of "excellence" will only reinforce hegemony. This objection argues for casting a wide net to get diverse perspectives on excellence. It even argues for reaching out to other denominations/religions to learn how they assess ministry.

What do you think?

Knowing Your Package

2009-01-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

One of the mantras among those preparing for the MFC interview is: "Know your package." The package in question is the material you submit to the MFC directly and the material that follows you from your Regional Subcommittee interview. Packages can tip the scales at more than 200 pages.

What is meant by "know your package" is knowing the vulnerabilities in your package. Did your Intern Committee identify a growing edge? Did a CPE supervisor noticed where you were challenged?

The MFC does not expect perfection. However, MFC members do seem to expect progress, reflection, and insight. If one of your documents states that you've been wrestling with the integration of your personal theology with other UU theologies, then don't be surprised if you are asked how the wrestling match is going.

In some ways, this may be one of the best parts of the existing interview system. You and others have provided the MFC with the basis for inquiry. The panel members then ask you entirely relevant questions.

It matters less what you say then how you say it. Acknowledging both your challenges and your progress is the kind of vulnerable humility and authority that is one aspect of "ministerial presence."

"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

2009-01-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

By the time of your MFC interview, you may feel a little crazed like Nora Desmond, the character who spoke the above line in the movie Sunset Boulevard.

Many people take umbrage at the thought of an interview being a performance, especially an interview for the ministry. After all, is the ministry about authenticity? Aren't you supposed to bring your true self to the interview and be evaluated on who you really are?

However, there are two meanings of "performance." Sometimes we use the word in reference to pretending, or even deceiving. The actor pretends to be someone else. The con man (con person?) intends to deceive. Yet we also talk about how well someone performed in the Olympics or what a wonderful performance the orchestra gave last night.

It is in this latter sense of performance that I'm using the word here. Sermons and interviews are performances. I am not encouraging deception or even pretense, but I am encouraging as with a good performance, and practice, practice, practice.

In the performance of an interview, body language and tone of voice are as important or even more important than words and their meanings. "Ministerial presence" may be found more in appearance and tone than in content.

Knowing this, it is important to have your mock interview videorecorded. If you can, have two cameras -- one on you and one on the panel. While it is inappropriate to video the panel's deliberations, record the sermon, the interview, and the feedback you receive after the panel finishes deliberating.

Then make this recording your favorite TV program. Pay careful attention to your posture, facial expression, body language, timing, and tone of voice as you view the video. Many of us find that our internal impression of how we did can vary dramatically from what's on the screen. Also, it's often difficult to absorb a lot of feedback at once. Watching the video several times and/or watching it and pausing it for reflection can help one absorb the feedback and make adjustments in one's performance.

The Mock Interview - Your Key to Success?

2009-01-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been off-line for a few days. I picked up a bug -- biological, not computer -- that put me out of commission. I'm glad to be back.

Although the main purpose of this blog is to recommend modifications to the examining process for UU ministry, the recommendations (even if immediately accepted) couldn't be immediately implemented. Therefore, individuals preparing for MFC interviews in 2009 can expect to be examined under existing procedures with whatever modifications are already in progress. Not wanting to leave these candidates in the lurch, this blog will also include suggestions for preparing for your MFC interview.

Though I have sought and received input from many individuals, including the aspirants, candidates, ministers, seminary professors, UUA board members, UUA staff members, and WRSCC members and staff, the opinions expressed here ultimately will be mine. (At least, until you start posting comments on them.)

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a small town to raise a minister. Many, many people assisted me in preparing for my MFC exam. Today, I will focus on the Mock Interview, which I found to be the turning point in my preparation.

Those of you who have carefully examined the Competencies for UU Ministry may have some idea of the fear and trembling with which I faced the examination. Whom do you know is well-versed in all 14 of these competencies? After 4 years of seminary and a year of residency, I was aware that there were still gaping holes in my knowledge. Cramming felt like drinking from a fire hose, alternating with despair regarding the impossibility of filling all the gaps before examination time.

Well, in the mock, I learned that I could handle most of the questions that were directed at me. More importantly, I was advised by seasoned ministers that I should give up trying to become "Mr. Know-It-All" (my phrase, not theirs) and focus on ministerial presence.

I have much more to say about the mock, but this post is long enough and the day has gotten away from me. More soon.

Fear, Trembling, & Structured Interviews

2009-01-05T03:56:00.000-08:00

The other day I was speaking to a long-time UU minister who said that as a candidate he'd been unhappy with the examining process for UU ministry, but once he'd become a minister he'd moved on to other issues, assuming that the outcomes of the interviews were generally appropriate.

For me, the experience of the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) interview for preliminary fellowship is more recent. I no longer fear that a single one-hour interview will trump years of preparation for fellowshipping and determine my future in ministry. However, I've not forgotten that concern nor the concerns of others who have been interviewed or who are about to be.

But this blog is not predominately about feelings or outcomes: it's about process.

I do not have an insider's view of the entire examining process and may be misunderstanding some aspects of it. However, there appears to be a disconnect between the competencies, such as ministerial authority, that many say the MFC is looking for and the competencies, such as knowledge of church history, found on pages 17 and 18 of the booklet Requirements for Ministry with the UUA (which may be downloaded from "Related Content" box on this link).

To generalize, successful ministry may be more about what a minister is able to do than what academic knowledge the minister has acquired. It appears that both UU seminaries are revising their pedagogies to reflect this insight.

Scientific research has much to say about interviewing and other assessment techniques. At this link, there is guidance on developing effective interviews from the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Inc., Division 14 of the American Psychological Association APA, re effective interviews. At this one, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) provides guidance on developing structured interviews. Both the SIOP and OPM web site contain a wealth of information about assessment and examining.

Assessment Techniques

2009-01-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

Federal employees do have a sense of humor. They realize that many people believe that the third great lie (after the two others about "checks in the mail" and "respect in the morning") is: "We're from the government, and we're here to help you."

We've all be frustrated at times by customer service inside and outside the government, but please consider the politics behind the above ridicule as revealed in this NY Times article. As we're about to see, there is great help and great expertise is available from the government.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sets human resources (HR) policy and issues HR guidance for most civilian positions in the Federal government. At the OPM website, you may find an Assessment Decision Guide, which includes an Assessment Decision Tool, and information on Structured Interviews. There is also a Guide to Structured Interviews.

Not all of this material is directly applicable to ministry. However, a surprising amount of it is.

For example, the Assessment Decision Tool doesn't have already-identified competencies for ministry (or chaplaincy, the nearness occupation found in the Federal government). It does have such competencies for psychology and other related occupations.

Included in the Assessment Decision Tool as possible competencies for psychology positions are conflict management, creative thinking, customer service, flexibility, influencing/negotiating, integrity/honesty, interpersonal skills, leadership, vision, etc. Obviously some of these competencies apply to some ministries.

The Assessment Decision Tool discusses assessment techniques such as accomplishment records, assessment centers, biographical data (biodata) tests, cognitive ability test, emotional intelligence tests, personality tests, reference checking, situation judgment tests, structured interviews, training and experience evaluations, and work samples and simulations. It recommends specific techniques for assessing specific competencies.

The Foundation - Occupation/Job Analysis and Competency Identification

2009-01-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

When you plan to examine individuals for entry into an occupation (including professions such as ministry), the best place to start is identifying what people in that occupation do and how they do it. Once you've identified the duties and responsibilities, the next step is to identify the competencies required to perform them.

In considering the competencies for UU ministry, we are blessed to have the work of the Market Voice Consulting for the Panel on Theological Education. At this link, you can download "Report on Excellence in Ministry." Market Voice Consulting found consistent agreement on the following competencies:

– Strong interpersonal skills.
– Self-aware, understands boundaries, mature.
– Compassionate and caring.
– Inclusive and supportive.
– Thorough knowledge of UU history and traditions.
– Solid grounding in theology – history, sacred writings, beliefs, cultural impact – not just UU.
– Savvy about organizational and institutional dynamics.
– Passionate about the work, a strong sense of calling.
– Challenges people and congregations to be their best.

Furthermore, they added:

Some people say excellence is determined by how well-matched the minister and the position/job are.

While these competencies require further review to turn them into behavioral standards, it seems like we're off to a good start in competency identification.

While there is little doubt that there are shared competencies for serving as the senior minister at a large congregation, the sole minister of a small congregation, a minister of religious education, a prison chaplain, a medical chaplain, a military chaplain, a community organizer, and the director of a legislative ministry office, it is quite likely that different positions require different competencies.

It is understandable why the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC) would not want to examine all ministerial candidates on all competencies or even on the competencies that are specific to certain assignments. However, it appears that individuals who are not preparing for parish ministry are much more likely to be tested on uniquely parish ministry competencies while individuals who are preparing for parish ministry are unlikely to being examined on competencies not required for parish ministry.

Welcome Janus

2009-01-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

January was named after Janus, the god of the doorways and beginnings and endings. He has 2 faces, one forward and one backward, so he could guard both doorways from both directions. Janitors, caretakers of halls and doorways, draw the name of their occupation from Janus.

I will start being 2-faced by both supporting and challenging the examining process for UU ministry. Ministers have fiduciary responsibility. Fiduciaries are not only financial guardians; they are any people to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of others. This not only includes accounting, but law, medicine, and the other professions. Examining processes should be designed to help protect those served by fiduciaries from incompetence and misconduct.

While there is wisdom in having formation and examining processes for professions, sometimes such processes can get out of hand or out of date. Have the examining processes gone out of balance when considering academic and experiential knowledge and preparation.

Recently, a mentor of mine who is a experienced UU minister wrote:

In the very old days ministers (and lawyers, physicians, carpenters, et al.) "sat at the feet" of those who knew what they were doing and were pushed, prodded, pulled into acquiring the sensitivity and skills they needed. At it's heart, this was also the SK method of education. At the end it wasn't just the mentors who knew a person was ready, more important, the person knew.

How does an examining panel weigh the assessments of mentors? What are the fiduciary responsibilities of mentors to mentees, to the MFC, and to UUism?

Thoughts and comments on this issue will be appreciated.

iMinister, the Summit on Excellence in Ministry, and Other Shout Outs

2008-12-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to iMinister for the shout out about this blog. iMinister is the blog of the Rev. Christine Robinson, a participant in the Summit on Excellence in Ministry, a 12/10-12/08 conference of UU leaders engaged in the formation of both our professional and lay ministers. This conference was convened by the UUA Panel on Theological Education at the request of the UUA Board of Trustees. Rev. Robinson's live coverage of the Summit thru her blog was one of the inspirations for this blog.

And while we're shouting out, please look at this post by Politywonk. Politywonk effectively argues that the Renaissance person is a myth. Candidates for ministry frequently quake in their boots because they know that they don't know it all and can't be all things to all people. And yet under current practices, they are more uncertain than is necessary because they are often under-informed about what is expected of them.

Peacebang talks about this "profound insecurity" that affects some seminarians preparing for MFC or Regional Subcommittee interviews and states:

When I prepared for the MFC I simply thought, “I trust that these people will tell me what they see and, if need be, direct me to do more work to prepare for the ministry.” I was very worried about the financial implications of being instructed to do more work, as I was already $60K in debt from my M.Div. degree but I went before the MFC prepared to heed their advice even if it should cost me more time and money. I considered genuine humility and obedience to be part of the process — and neither of those qualities come easily to me (surprised, right!!?).

Her comments remind me of government reform under Clinton and Gore. Then Vice President Gore went around to the Federal agencies saying: "We have good people in bad systems." After all the beating up on Federal employees by Reagan and Carter, it was great to hear someone who wished to engage us as allies in improving the government.

We have talented, well-intentioned, generous people who volunteer their time to help in the formation and development of UU ministers. However, the system in which they are participating can be improved. May this current dialogue in the blogosphere help inspire such improvements.

15 Seconds

2008-12-30T08:43:00.000-08:00

When I was involved in promoting performance-based interviewing (AKA behavioral-based interviewing) in the Federal government, someone told me that there was research showing that most interview decisions were made within the first 15 seconds of the interview. While I'm not sure which research he was referring to, there is some information at this link about the validity and reliability of such decisions.

As I have reflected upon this phenomena, I have wondered about the impact of reviewing application material before an interview. Does the application material help preprogram the interviewers in their decision-making?

My deeper ethical concern is about the possibility of discrimination in the absence of structured interviews and trained interviewers. There is an excellent video called, "More Than a Gut Feeling," about performance-based interviewing. While the above link points to the surprising accuracy of 15 second evaluations, it also sounds a cautionary note, especially regarding culturally variable assessments. And, arguably, all assessments are culturally variable.

Hard Work But Not Rocket Science

2008-12-29T04:54:00.000-08:00

In 1978, agencies of the Federal government responsible for implementing the fair employment provisions of Civil Rights Act of 1964 issued the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. These guidelines apply to any measure or procedure used as a basis for an employment decision, including, job analysis, crediting plans, interviews, and the selection process itself. While the UUA and its member congregations are not part of the Federal government and ministers are not traditionally "employees," the Uniform Guidelines may be used to promote fairness and non-discrimination in any evaluation process. Using non-discriminatory processes for evaluating candidates for UU ministry promotes anti-racism and anti-oppression in UU ministry.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, the two key criteria for evaluation processes are validity and reliability. Creating and implementing valid and reliable examining procedures is hard work, but not rocket science. There are several strategies. For one of these strategies, the basic steps are:

using job analysis to identify the required competencies;
interviewing high performers;
developing descriptions of competencies and a rating guide;
screening candidates;
training the interview panel;
interviewing; and
notifying candidates of the results.

I will be writing further about this process in the future posts. For now, let's look at a single competency -- ministerial authority -- and see how parts of this process would apply to it.

The lack of "ministerial authority" has been used to deny fellowship to candidates for UU ministry. But what is ministerial authority? We all might have a sense of what it is, but do we really have a shared understanding?

Our first difficulty would be to convert this attribute or construct into content or behavioral descriptions. In evaluating candidates for UU ministry, it would be more helpful to learn whether they have demonstrated the ability to effectively exercise ministerial authority than it would be to make an intuitive and possibly discriminatory judgment about whether they "have" ministerial authority.

One way to get a better handle on what is meant by ministerial authority and its criticality for effective ministry is to interview ministers and other stakeholders about what is meant by ministerial authority and how it is demonstrated. These interviews could include such questions as:

What is ministerial authority?
When is ministerial authority exercised?
How do you know when ministerial authority is exercised effectively?
Are measures of ministerial authority absolute (i.e., you either have it or you don't) or relative (i.e., individuals have it to differing degrees in differing situations)?

As a result of these interviews, a description of ministerial authority, including behavioral examples, could be developed and published as part of the application material for UU ministry. This would have several advantages:

Candidates for the ministry would have a clearer understanding of what's expected of them. They could use this understanding to prepare for fellowshipping, to identify when and how they had demonstrated this competency, and in assessing whether they were ready for fellowshipping.
Supervisors and mentors could use this information to guide candidates in their preparation.
The MFC could use these descriptions and examples in developing rating guides and interviewing candidates.
Greater clarity and uniformity would reduce the likelihood of unintentional discrimination.

Right Path

2008-12-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

Twenty years ago (1988), Bill Moyers interviewed Joseph Campbell on The Power of Myth. During those interviews, Campbell famously said "follow your bliss," indicating that when you were on the right path doors would open where you didn't know doors existed.

A little over five years ago at an informal gathering with members of the Ministerial Fellowshipping Committee (MFC), their answers to questions about their examining process--such as, "How did you validate the process? What do you do to assure reliability? Who is your psychometrician? Are the interviews performance-based?"--raised concerns. However, as a first-year student and an aspirant for UU ministry, I judged that I lacked the standing (and/or the courage?) to challenge their process beyond asking my indelicate questions.

Earlier this month I was welcomed into preliminary fellowship as a UU minister by the MFC. After they announced their decision, they asked me whether I had any comments on their process. I made several, and they asked that I provide further information to David Pettee.

Research on this subject has demonstrated Campbell's principle or possibly the more common one that "timing is everything."

The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) conducted a Summit on Excellence in Ministry. (The Reverend Christine Robinson covered the conference live via her blog, "iMinister,"an inspiration for this blog.)

Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, has been commenting on what he calls the "mismatch" problem between examining procedures and occupational performance in this excellent and interesting video and his new book Outliers. While Gladwell doesn't mention ministers, many of his comments about preparation, qualification, and selection procedures for professional sports, teachers, and attorneys apply to UU ministers as well.

Many may argue for the uniqueness of the ministry, that it's not comparable to other professions. Others may question whether a newly minted minister has the qualifications to be commenting on examining for ministry. However, this is precisely the point: the qualifications for ministry should the clear, public, and readily understood. They should be developed and revised with input from multiple sources. To do so would be a service for ministers and candidates for ministry, as well as the people and communities they serve.

The next post will speak the process of developing examining guides.

Beginnings

2008-12-26T06:10:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this blog is to explore the examining process for Unitarian Universalist (UU) ministry. It will also stray into the areas of training and education for the ministry and definitions of ministry.

Examining procedures vary widely in their validity and reliability. The validity of an examination is a measure of the degree to which it does what it's intended to do. The reliability is the consistency. To be effective and just, an examination must be both valid and reliable. In this context, the word "examination" is used very broadly, including such examinations as reviews of applications and other written submissions, oral exams and interviews, written examinations, and performance tests (e.g., typing tests).

Another critical aspect of examining is transparency. The competencies (knowledges, skills, abilities, and other characteristics) covered by the examination should be public information.

Secrecy is also a characteristic of examining. Examination questions and rating scales are nonpublic information.

Finally, to the extent possible, examinations should be reasonable. There is a tendency to "kitchen sink" competencies so that candidates may believe that they have to be everything to everybody. This risk is particularly strong in ministry and other helping professions.

This blog will focus on the process of examining for ministry, including how to identify the competencies, how to describe the competencies, how to develop rating criteria, how to develop interview questions, how to interview, and how to evaluate. Others may contribute their ideas about the content specific to the UU ministry that should be included in these processes.