Shared Ministry Team History
What Other UU’s Are Saying
About Using Ministry Teams
I am so pleased to hear about the exciting things going on in Harrisonburg. The Shared Ministry Team document that you prepared is very impressive. I think you have done an extraordinary job in laying out the parameters of the team, the expectations, and the accountability. In fact, I would love to be able to share it with other small congregations who are in a similar position as you. I don't have any concerns about it as it is written. I am so impressed that you clearly budgeted training dollars to support your development. That is so important and so often overlooked. I'll be very interested in learning how the program develops. It sounds like a wonderful model. - Annette S. Marquis, UUA TJ District Executive
There's no other congregation I'm aware of that is or has taken this formal step. I think it's a great idea. The document looks fine to me, and pretty clear. . . Once you've been up and running for a year or so, I'd love for you all to write an issue of Small Talk to share your successes and challenges with other congregations. (Small Talk is the electronic newsletter for small congregations that Jane edits and publishes monthly.) - Jane Dwinell, Small Church Consultant and Co-Author with Ellen Germann-Meloshof of Big Ideas for Small Congregations: a friendly guide for leaders
Three years in the making, HUU’s first Shared Ministry Team (SMT) is now up and running. With a mandate to support and strengthen the ministry efforts of HUU members, committees, and the Board itself, the SMT was inaugurated and welcomed during the April 5 Sunday service.
As outlined in its mission statement, the work envisioned for the SMT will be challenging: “to increase coherence, consistency, and communication in the on-going work of our congregation.” To do this, the SMT will focus on three key activities:
- building on our congregation’s past achievements and current strengths
- supporting the efforts of members and friends to address our congregation’s key religious tasks (sense-making, care-giving, and justice-seeking)
- strengthening connections between HUU and the larger social and religious communities in which it exists
The SMT emerged out of an extensive research and planning process that began in 2005. At that time HUU’s strategic planning group recommended that the congregation explore a new ministry model: a team of congregation members who would commit to coordinating some of the tasks that a parish minister would normally have – not necessarily doing these tasks themselves, but seeing that they were not neglected.
On the basis of this recommendation, the Board appointed a task force to research the team approach to shared ministry and to make proposals that might be appropriate for HUU. That research and development stage took nearly a year to complete and was followed last spring by submission of a Shared Ministry Team proposal first to the Board for its approval and then to the congregation for comment and revision as needed (to read that proposal in full go to http://huuweb.org/shared-ministry.doc). Then in April 2008 the Board confirmed its initial approval of the plan, opening the way for recruitment of team members.
By January of this year, three members of the congregation had been identified that were willing to serve on the team and to pioneer what Jane Dwinell is calling a “great idea,” one worth sharing with other congregations (see sidebar: “What Other UU’s Are Saying”). Brief profiles of each member of the new SMT follow.
Meet the Shared Ministry Team Members