Minnesota Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
A liberal religious congregation  in the Minneapolis area

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INTERIM MINISTRY
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Updated March 9  2008
The Five Developmental Tasks of Interim Ministry—for All of Us
Though MVUUF appoints an interim minister to carry out various roles of preaching, pastoral care, organizational challenge and spiritual leadership in anticipation of the next settled minister, there are specific developmental tasks recommended to lay leaders during the interim and which UUA-trained interim ministers are expected to work on. 

We do this together, as ordained minister, staff, lay leaders and members.  These are so important to the church’s development that MVUUF has included them as part of the Interim Minister Contract.  The tasks include the following:
  • assist the congregation in claiming and honoring its past and in healing any possible griefs and conflicts associated with the departure of the minister;
  • illuminate the congregation’s unique identity, its strengths, its needs, its challenges;
  • clarify the multiple dimensions of leadership, both ordained and lay, paid and volunteer, and aid the congregation in navigating the shifts in leadership that accompany times of transition;
  • maintain professional connections with available resources of the larger community, within and beyond the Unitarian Universalist Association;
  •  enable the congregation to renew its vision, strengthen its stewardship, prepare for new professional leadership, and engage its future with anticipation and zest.
Be sure to read about and keep abreast of the many important and interesting activities of this transitional time in the life of our Fellowship, including news from the Settled Minister Search Committee and our Board of Trustees. 
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   Looking Forward: Message from the Interim Minister
Roger Jones
Greetings!   It is an honor to have been appointed to serve MVUUF as your ¾ time Interim Minister.  I look forward to a year of transition, reflection, discernment and recommitment for your congregation as well as for myself as a minister. 

As you may know, I am completing ten years of service in California’s Silicon Valley, as the first full-time settled minister in the Sunnyvale fellowship’s 45 years.  We have been exchanging farewell thoughts, thank-you’s, some regrets, hugs and many good wishes.  Our final Sunday together is July 15. 

Then I will spend a week in New England, most importantly for the interim ministry training program required and provided by the Unitarian Universalist Association.

While I don’t look forward to packing, shipping, schlepping and driving two thousand miles in the summer, I am excited about meeting you all in mid-August.  It appeals to me also to reconnect with my Midwestern roots and with colleagues and friends in your area. 

I will depart the San Francisco Bay Area to reacquaint myself with what I have nostalgically remembered for 10 years as a “noticeable” change of seasons.  Winter driving, summer humidity and biting insects beckon to me. 

It is gratifying to follow the excellent ministry of Mary Samuels at MVUUF and to know the affection and high regard that abound for both you and her among Unitarian Universalist ministers and lay leaders in the Prairie Star District.

Best wishes for now! 

In faith,
Roger Jones
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Interim Minister Search Committee
Members:  Jan Wolff, Chair, Kathy Allen, Bill Lochen, Lee Swenson, Monica Williams,
Our interim minister's name is Roger Jones.  He is a 45 year old single man who grew up in a rural town near Indianapolis.  His father was an anesthesiologist and his mother was a stay-at-home mom.  His father died when Roger was young, and I have the sense that he was not a spoiled child.  He seemed to have a great work ethic even in his youth.

His held a variety of jobs from high school to the start of his ministry, one of which was working in a lumber yeard.  And I want to quote him on that experience to give you a little taste of his humor.  He says, "To ease the tedium while stocking shelves, I would dive for the phone or rush to help customer though I knew nothing about lumber or hardware.  It was sort of like pastoral care – I never know what will come up, but I always welcome the challenge.

His college education began with a B.A. with distinction from Indiana University majoring in English, Spanish, and Economics.  He then completed an MBA program from Indiana University Kelly School of Business.   And finally he received his Master of Divinity degree from Meadville Lombard.

I can't even begin to name all of the achievements and honors he has earned which are very impressive, but mostly we were impressed with his intelligence, his open, direct and honest style, and his delightful sense of humor.

He calls himself a praying agnostic and says this about his sermons:  "I write sermons with an ear to the humanists among us as well as those in whom theistic language resonates.  I guess that's because both types of person live in me.  I am a rationalist so I want to make sense (at least to myself), but religious poetry stirs me.  I have an academic curiosity in the variety of religious traditions and in various ways of looking at life.  I examine any tradition with respect and a skeptical eye, and I seek points of contact and helpful insights."

Jan Wolff, Chair
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There is a seismic shift going on as a congregation..
The Rev. Mary Samuels, Retired Minister
Many of you have been gracious about my reasons for leaving. But I don’t want any of us to ignore the qualms which are natural to any change.  So a few words about endings. …..

In last month’s column I mentioned that change is the external event and transition is the internal process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Each transition begins with an ending. We need to let go of the old before we are able to embrace the new. According to William Bridges there are four aspects of the natural ending experience:
  • Disengagement- it is primarily an external process where we disengage from the people, places, roles and activities that were once a familiar part of our lives.
  • Disidentification-much of our personal identity may be invested in the roles, activities and relationships in which we are engaged. We see ourselves reflected in those around us. When an ending shatters this outer mirror, we may feel like a part of us is missing. Much of the grief we experience in an ending is the result of feeling a loss of connection to ourselves
  • Disenchantment-becoming disenchanted with the things, beliefs or people that we thought would bring us fulfillment and happiness. Our sense of reality is challenged.
  •  Disorientation-our sense of past and future seems scrambled. The continuity of our life is broken.
Some of you may be feeling these things, and some may not. But if you are not feeling them as an individual, there is a seismic shift going on as a congregation. You may hear or see behavior that reflects a piece of some of the aspects of transition listed above. Let’s not be afraid of them or try to brush them aside. They are the necessary steps in the development of the new life of the congregation, the transformed life of the future. And I have every confidence that we all can do this together.
Blessings, Mary
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