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A Year of "Whoa, Whew and, Finally, Hallelujah!"
As we make way for our 32nd Senior Minister at the Congregational Church of San Mateo to start, the Senior Minister Search Committee would love to share a bit of the adventure that led us to this exciting moment in our long history.
The email that shocked the world — or at least, 225 Tllton Ave.
A message from Penny Nixon was always a welcomed sight in our email boxes. But the one sent on April 3, 2022 certainly knocked out our wind — Penny was announcing her retirement from the pulpit.
News like that hit hard. For 15 years, Penny led our congregation with love, curiosity, intensity, humor, grit, passion and compassion. And even considering the notion of her leaving seemed foreign to many of us.
The months that followed were filled with tears, laughter, reflection, prayer, and of course, celebration. And as CCSM sent Penny out with a lavish farewell, all of us knew that a seemingly impossible task lay ahead.
A committee was assembled. But a team was born.
One of CCSM's core attributes is the amazing diversity of our congregation. So when it came time to recruit the Senior Minister Search Committee, the intention was to build a group that reflected our diversity. CCSM tapped nine individuals with varying lengths of membership, ages, backgrounds, life experiences, etc. Each of us was a volunteer who had to juggle the important mission at hand with work, families, travel, other church commitments, extracurricular activities, and more.
And here was the final roster of CCSM's Senior Minister Search Committee:
Alexandra Gillen
Dave Olson
Deb Chang
Jim Berthelsen
Kenny Lee
Leslie Burndon
Rebecca Ruedy-Whelan
Sebastian Steinbach
Tracy Avelar
Whether by design, or just old fashioned luck, we seemed to gel from the start. (Spoiler alert: the Search team only grew stronger as the year unfolded.)
The long haul ahead. Hey, who brought the map?
No church rushes into a Sr. Minister search without a little planning and identifying critical milestones. And under the co-leadership of Alexandra and Dave, that dynamic duo kept the group focused, energized, and, yes, very busy.
The first order of business before opening up the formal search was to revisit and revise our church profile.
In the summer of 2022, we looked deep in the mirror to reassess our values and strengths, but also to seek opportunities for growth and change. And the one big question that kept popping up over and over again was this:
What does CCSM look like in a post-pandemic world?
We consulted with members of the previous Sr. Minister Search Committee to pick their brains. Sub-teams were spun up to tackle specific objectives. One team created an in-depth survey — a crucial tool designed to collect the thoughts and opinions of our members. Another team ran Competitive Intel, which was created to connect with like-minded progressive churches around the country and to speak with influential ministers, seminary presidents, and others to get the word out about our open position.
Another squad looked at our overall messaging on the web.
The sub-teams looked at other church websites for inspiration. We dug into our finances. They looked at competitive salaries at other places. We met with Ministry leads for their perspectives. We spoke with members who wanted their voices heard. We captured responses and data. We huddled over what we learned and noodled strategies for the next steps.
And after countless calls and workshops to tinker and re-tinker, we landed on our latest vision for the church, and shortly thereafter, the ready for prime time CCSM Sr. Minister job posting.
Waiting for the phone to ring. Or the email notification to ding.
Casting the net for candidates, and then establishing a consistent review process became our new priority. The team came together to design a process to evaluate candidates. We drafted a set of email templates to keep our prospects in the loop. We wanted a comprehensive setup that gathered the feedback of every candidate who reached out.
News of the open CCSM position was shared by word of mouth and through the help of the UCC Northern California Nevada Conference, where the position was officially posted at the end of 2022.
Before we knew it, interested folks from around the country were answering our call. It started with a trickle in late 2022, shortly after the job opening was posted. And by January 2023, the surge of candidates grew.
We read profile after profile. We Googled names and their current churches. We watched sermons on-line. We learned about their personal stories, their callings to ministry, their strengths and opportunities. The revised church profile proved itself a reliable filter to help us determine who we thought would align with our values and goals.
In the spring, a short-list of front-runners emerged. And over the following weeks, that list became further refined. And sure enough, we soon had our final four candidates that we flew out to San Mateo to meet our ministry teams and staff.
What transpired next was perhaps the toughest part of the journey for the Search team. As the team deliberated to determine which of the abundantly accomplished pastors could be CCSM’s new Senior Minister, we found ourselves in the last weeks with a challenging choice between two very closely qualified candidates. Hours were spent in discussions among the team, looking at feedback gathered through the Ministry-candidate meetings, reviewing the congregational survey findings from fall, 2022, and referring to the profile we had created (as a descriptor for our ideal minister). These steps brought us to the point where we felt confident in making our recommendation to the Board.
The end of a search. The beginning of a new chapter.
18 to 24. Those aren’t the Vegas odds of finding a new Senior Minister. But 18 to 24 months is the average time it takes for a church to find the right person for the job.
So it’s with great pride that your current Search Committee has finished our quest in 14 months. But it’s with even greater pride (and pleasure) that we get to introduce the Rev. Jessica Vacketta as our new Senior Minister of the Congregational Church of San Mateo.
Thanks to the staff, ministry leads, board members, congregants, and UCC counsel who offered their guidance, insights, comments, and assistance during this past year.
And Jessica, welcome to the family.
Love,
Alexandra, Dave, Deb, Jim, Kenny, Leslie, Rebecca, Sebastian, and Tracy
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