Committee Archive    

Search Committee News and Notes, October-September 08

Search Committee News and Notes, June thru August, 2008

Parish Tidings Article, Sept 2008

        The Search Nook     

A corner of our Fellowship Hall has been converted into a comfortable space for you to actively participate in the search process. Three upholstered chairs, a desk, and a side table have been grouped together to form a welcoming conversation and communication area.

Please visit regularly to check on our progress and activities and See what questions we would like you to answer.

Pastoral Search Committee

Avon Congregational Church
Avon, CT

Survey Says!
Creating our Local Church Profile from Surveys

The October 15th deadline for surveys is now past. We are grateful to everyone who has taken the time to fill them. As of the printing of this newsletter, we are not yet certain about the exact number received.

Sixteen hand-written surveys came in between October 12th and 15th. More have been submitted via computer. We’ll have to convert the hand-written surveys into a digital format first. Then we can subtract the number of hand-written surveys from the total number of digital surveys to figure out how many responses actually came in. Our goal was to have about 100 to 125 so that we could represent at least one third of our membership. Even if the total number of returns is lower, we must go forward with the information we have.

(l-r) Nick Noyes and Keith Gregorian-Michaelson work on the ACC Church Profile, Pastoral Search Committee, Nov. 11, 2008. Photo by Nora Howard

Our next step is to sift through all the answers so that we may complete our Local Church Profile. This will be easy for the questions that just required you to check a box.

The software program we are using will generate percentages. So, for example, we will determine the “most desired qualities a new minister should possess” by listing the 12 most frequently checked answers.

For the questions that required you to write your own answers, the selection process will be more challenging. We may see the same idea being expressed in many different ways, or many different ideas. Our job as a search committee will be to list the ideas that are clearly a priority, to choose from the well-expressed opinions, and to create a Local Church Profile that is a truthful blend of all the ideas offered. Essentially we will piece together our church’s Local Church Profile as if it were a community-made quilt. Like anything that is handmade by a large group of individuals, the process of writing it will take much thought and time.

We will most likely be working on this one large document until late November. Please be patient as we incorporate your survey ideas into nearly 40 separate questions, have the document reviewed by our UCC advisor, and make the final changes so that it will be ready for candidates to review. We will let you know of our progress and of the things we discover along the way. Thank you to all who took the surveys. We appreciate that you walked with us through this critical part of the search process.

The Search Committee