[Fuusm-l] The Human Drama of Searching for a Minister

[Teresa Hayes]

 Thank you Ted.  There was clearly a group of people involved whose "sole goal is to dismantle your career, that is an entirely different beast that no one expects, particularly from people who supposedly label themselves Christians.” 



    On Thursday, October 10, 2024 at 08:54:25 AM EDT, Ted Goertzel via Fuusm-l <fuusm-l at fuusm.org> wrote:  
 
 With Reverend Hawbaker's resignation, our church may be going through the search process for a new minister. (I say "may" because it isn't clear that our budget will allow us to offer an attractive position.)  As we consider this process, I would like to recommend a book, Search: A Novel by Michelle Huneven. It is set in a Unitarian Church and describes the human dynamics in the search for a new minister. I know some of the women in the congregation have read it because it was the topic of the UU+ Women's Book Group last month.  I recommend it to the men as well.  It's only $4.99 in Kindle format and used copies are available. Libraries also have it. 
In the October 2023 Confluence I did a review of a social science book, Preachers in Purgatory, that covers much the same ground with a lot of reports from real UU congregations. It is less entertaining, but I have a copy if anyone would like to borrow it.  Also available used on Amazon.

I'll reprint my review from last year here:

Preachers in Purgatory by Lester Mondale

reviewed by Ted Goertzel



I bought this book in 2011, but didn’t finish it then because of the writing style which the Kirkus reviewer described as “pontifical.” But this is a Unitarian book, written by a UU minister, published by Beacon, the UU press, and based on reports from over 100 UU churches reporting on crisis situations. The dust jacket is well written: “Within the self-defined island of brotherly love, the local church, there smolders a potential for searing personal conflict which is seldom openly admitted—yet which erupts into crisis with a periodicity which approaches the seasonal. The focus of the crisis is a challenge of the minister’s leadership by a segment of the congregation, but its real significance is far more complex—and its solution is seldom achieved by the obvious device of removing the minister.”

 As I understand his argument, churches have members with different expectations from a minister. When a minister is new, everybody hopes to get what they want, but with time, some are bound to be disappointed. It’s similar to a president of a country who gets a honeymoon period followed by disillusionment. A faction emerges which pressures the minister to resign. If the minister doesn’t slink away quietly, it goes to the Congregational Meeting where there is a split. Purging the minister doesn’t solve the problem, the cycle just repeats.

This classic book was published in 1966, but the same problem is described in a best selling 2022 novel, Search by Michelle Huneven, set in a Unitarian Church. She focuses on how the conflicts get even worse when the minister leaves and the church has to search for a replacement.

   The problem may be even worse in other churches. In Departure: Why I Left the Church,” Presbyterian Rev. Alexander Lang, says: “As a pastor, you know you’re not going to be able to please everyone. You know that some people are going to dislike what you do. You expect to bring new people through the door who identify with your preaching, while others will leave who disagree or don’t like your style. But when you see that there is a group of people whose sole goal is to dismantle your career, that is an entirely different beast that no one expects, particularly from people who supposedly label themselves Christians.” 

If anyone wants to borrow Preachers in Purgatory, I have a copy. Search: A Novel  is much more amusing and available on Kindle for $4.99 or $14.99 hardcover, or from the public library.  Departure: Why I Left the Church is a free blog post. A related story from Christianity Today is The Pastors Aren’t All Right: 38% Consider Leaving the Ministry.



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