{"id":139105,"date":"2024-02-22T11:06:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T17:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/?p=139105"},"modified":"2024-02-22T11:06:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T17:06:47","slug":"co-lead-ministry-announcement-from-the-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/co-lead-ministry-announcement-from-the-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-Lead Ministry Announcement from the Board"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Co-Lead Ministry Announcement<\/h2>\n<p>On Tuesday, February 20, at our regular monthly meeting, the Board of Trustees of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin agreed that we will initiate a search for a co-lead minister this summer. We appreciate the many congregants who expressed their opinions, support for, concern with, and opposition to this model of leadership. We took all comments into consideration and spent considerable time weighing all options.\u00a0 In the end, we feel co-ministry is the best model for a church as large as ours (nearly 500 members).\u00a0 We come to this decision based primarily on the following:<br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is clear the congregation wants a called minister rather than a contract\/hired minister.\u00a0So the main decision point was whether to call an associate minister or a co-lead minister.<br \/>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li role=\"presentation\">Rev. Chris prefers working collaboratively with a partner.\u00a0Having a co-equal to bounce ideas off of results in richer, more well-thought-out plans.\u00a0He is very much in favor of this model.<br \/>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li role=\"presentation\">It aligns best with the values stated in our mission, chalice lighting, and the 8th principle, as the hierarchical model is very much aligned with the dominant white culture.\u00a0Having co-lead ministers is one way we can start to dismantle systems of oppression.<br \/>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li role=\"presentation\">We believe it will bring us a richer pool of candidates than a search for an associate minister.\u00a0We can also look for someone with skills that complement Chris\u2019 strengths rather than duplicating them.<br \/>\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li role=\"presentation\">\u00a0While this model is not as common as the hierarchical model, it is working well for several congregations and organizations both within and outside of the UU world.\u00a0Adopting it will put us on the leading edge of governance models in the UUA, especially for large churches.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li role=\"presentation\">No governance model is immune to the risk of conflict.\u00a0We recognize that conflicts may occur regardless of the ministry model we choose.\u00a0This makes the covenant between the two ministers critical and calls us all to stay in covenant with each other.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><br \/>For more details, please see this\u00a0<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/austinuu.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=ff6a4d4114435c741c47b916c&amp;id=0bf3a32733&amp;e=3526c740be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/austinuu.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dff6a4d4114435c741c47b916c%26id%3D0bf3a32733%26e%3D3526c740be&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1708707005911000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_JZNGhRK-5RibRNhEyhIR\">list of FAQs<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0regarding our decision and the co-lead model, as well as a general timeline for the search. In addition, we will begin the process of creating a search committee on March 1 with a deadline to express interest or nominate someone on March 15.\u00a0 We are excited to embark on this process and feel it has great potential to move the church forward in our work to build the Beloved Community.<br \/><br \/>\u00a0<br \/>In faith,<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Gretchen Riehl,<br \/>President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Co-Lead Ministry Announcement On Tuesday, February 20, at our regular monthly meeting, the Board of Trustees of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin agreed that we will initiate a search for a co-lead minister this summer. We appreciate the many congregants who expressed their opinions, support for, concern with, and opposition to this model&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139107,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139105\/revisions\/139107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}