Talk & Thought

Finding a new senior minister is not a walk in the park . . . at least not for First Congregational Church in Houston.   

Churches in other denominations might simply form a search committee.  Reflecting policies of the United Church of Christ, First Congregational Houston collects opinion from the congregation via a series of workshops, the most recent of which was held Saturday, January 26.  The sessions provided opportunity for plenty of discussion (a favorite activity of the membership).

All the "talk & thought" is in pursuit of two goals:
--provide a reasonably accurate profile of the church and its members for candidates for the senior minister position and
--help ensure that the minister hired is a good "fit" for the church and its current needs.

One of the workshops therefore worked on a profile of the church and its members.  Another attempted to get a sense of the theological/faith stance of the members.  The greatest number of "votes" on faith stance selected this statement:  "We tend to be theologically moderate to liberal."
 

But there was also strong preference for the statement "We tend to be quite diverse theologically."