The Office of Search and Call
The Web-based Ministerial Profile System
The The Office of Search and Call staff would like to introduce you to the Web-based Search and Call System for the purposes of maintaining ministerial records, and also relocation of clergy.
If you are a vocational minister with Standing, or a person who has been given permission by a region to use this system while Under Care of that region, or being considered for Standing, this system is for you. The only people who are authorized to use this Web-based Search and Call System are vocational ministers and those preparing for vocational ministry who have been credentialed by a region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
If you are a Disciples minister, whether or not you desire to consider relocating to a new position of ministry, you can regularly use this system to keep your permanent ministerial record up to date, as needed. This will help you ensure your proper information is listed in the annually published Minister's Directory that is part of the Yearbook. Your updated information can also help keep the regional office for the region in which you currently serve in ministry informed as to your most-current contact information, personal status, and vocational situation. Always keeping such data up to date will also help the Office of Search and Call staff facilitate your vocational needs related to Search and Call, Standing, and other matters in a more timely matter as any issue and/or opportunity arises.
Thus, we recommend that, as a vocational minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), you create a permanent ministry record with the use of this secure Web-based program, and then maintain your personal ministry record by updating the information at least annually.
Due to the nature of the Search and Call process, we are forced to limit the number of your active references to four. Your ministerial forms will not be circulated to the regions or anywhere else until we have received all four of the references listed on the Ministerial Profile System (Please note: one of these references must be from a regional ministerial staff person in the region wherein you hold Standing – Standing is determined and held by the region in which you are currently serving in vocational ministry. If you are not currently serving in a position of ministry, Standing may be determined by the region in which you reside, or are Under Care).
Please know, even though you may regularly update your ministerial records, such information will never be released and/or circulated for position consideration unless you choose to formally Initiate your Search and Call process and complete all steps for circulation, including determining exactly where you formally authorize us to send your records. Your relocation papers will not be available to any regional office unless you first formally release them and then so acknowledge such through the Circulation Preferences portion of this system.
This new system does not require you to download any software to the computer you will use for completing the Search and Call process. This new system makes use of a secure server accessed through the Web by password. Thus, you can make changes to your ministerial data, initiate and complete the Search and Call process, order a CBC (CBC), and/or even contact references and provide them with a secure online form they can complete from any computer to which they have access. If you do not have your own computer, this system allows you to use any other computer that is connected to the Internet and available through such places as libraries, friends or family, community centers, churches, and Internet cafés.
We recommend you follow the links listed below to familiarize yourself with the latest issues and policies regarding the new Web-based Ministerial Profile System for use in the Search and Call process, as well as simply maintaining your ministerial record:
- Minister's information requirements
- Information for Search Committees
- Clergy Criminal Background Check (CBC)
- The Ministerial Profile
- Reference forms
- Disclosure form
- Circulation Preference form
- Access to the Search and Call process
- Eliminating delays to circulation
- Responsibilities after accepting new call
- Specific requests for circulation and limitations
- Change of information concerns
- How to submit your profile to the Office of Search and Call
- Proof-reading and correcting your information
While we do urge you to read completely through this Web page's helpful information first, you can enter the Web-based Search and Call Ministerial Profile portal at the following site:
Access the online Ministerial Profile System log in page.
To enter this Search and Call Profile portal, you will need your own personal e-mail address and a password that is sent to you by staff in the Search and Call office. Please contact Anne Marie Moyars at (888) 346-2631 to request your personal password. In order to protect your confidentiality, and provide the contact and confirmation information necessary to receive a password, your request for a password cannot be received via e-mail; rather, we must talk to you over the telephone.
If you do not have a personal e-mail address, you may find out about free e-mail service through:
http://email.about.com/cs/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm
Please know, the Office of Search and Call staff do not make any recommendations about various free e-mail service vendors, nor information listed on the above-mentioned Web site.
The Search and Call Ministerial Profile System will not disperse any additional or attached documentation that is not a mandatory part of the current system. Thus, please do not add attachments or send additional information for use by search committees that have not been requested by the new MinPro Web-based System. Regional offices and search committees ask that all information be contained on the forms provided. If you would like a resume, curriculum vitae, current photograph or other informational materials to be added to your personal permanent ministerial file in the Office of Search and Call, for historical or other purposes, please feel free to send such material to our office. Photographs are especially helpful for Search and Call staff as it helps us put a face with the voices we talk to and e-mails we receive.
The staff at Disciples Home Missions suggests you contact your regional/area minister for a pastoral conference before you begin to complete the Search and Call forms. It may also be wise to have your regional or area minister review a copy of your file before you choose to have your file officially circulated beyond the Office of Search and Call.
To experience a more positive outcome during this important process of Search and Call, it may be helpful for you to download and read a variety of ministry related documents from the ministry resources section of the Web site. These documents are also available in printed format, upon request, from the Office of Search and Call staff.
Especially important to your experience regarding all facets of pastoral relocation is the Pastoral Relocation Guide, which is available for download from the downloadable documents resource page.
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Minister's information requirements
If you want to enter the Search and Call process you are now required to use the most recent Web-based Minister's Profile System for either updating old information or beginning a new circulation. This must be done every time you update or circulate information through the Search and Call System. If you have ever used the previous electronic Search and Call System, the Search and Call office will most-likely be able to initiate your Search and Call process in this new system with online forms that have already been filled in with your previous submission; this will keep you from having to develop new answers from scratch. However, at the least, you will need to update this information before re-circulating it in the system. And, a CBC that was mandated by the General Commission on Ministry and affirmed by the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a required part of this process.
Please note, the CBC application, References, Permission to Release and Disclosure forms, which you are required to submit to the Office of Search and Call in order to circulate your profile for relocation consideration, are now Web-based documents that should be submitted via the MinPro Web site and include any required digital signatures; thus, faxes and photocopies are not acceptable.
If any of your referents are not able to complete a reference online, you may obtain a hard copy through the Web-based system for the referent; the referent may then submit the completed form to the Search and Call office by mail.
Also, for a variety of reasons surrounding the balance between
- each congregation's ability to evaluate the qualifications of potential ministers;
- each minister's need to most effectively communicate the fullest measure of their gifts and talents; and
- the accuracy life-span of the now-required CBC;
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here is a time limit within which the Office of Search and Call staff can allow a minister's Search and Call forms to be in circulation without updating. Your forms cannot be in circulation longer than three years, without being updated. When information older than update requirements is discovered to be in circulation, the Office of Search and Call staff will offer you a brief but realistic opportunity to update. If information is not updated within a time period designated by the Office of Search and Call policies, your information will be removed from Search and Call circulation according to the decision of Search and Call personnel as guided by policy.
A minister's forms cannot be in circulation longer than three years, without being updated. When information older than update requirements is discovered to be in circulation, the Office of Search and Call will offer a minister a brief but realistic opportunity to update. If information is not updated within a time period designated by the Office of Search and Call, the minister's information will be removed from the Search and Call circulation system according to the decision of Search and Call personnel.
While a three-year limit is the mandatory policy for non-updated information other than the clergy background report to remain in circulation, we recommend you update your information at least annually.
Please understand that upon accepting any new call to a ministry position, whether full-time, part-time, permanent or interim—you should use the new Web-based Search and Call System to remove your Search and Call forms from circulation. Should the Office of Search and Call staff confirm you have accepted a new call but not removed your own papers from circulation, the Office of Search and Call staff may remove your papers. If there are legitimate reasons for immediately re-entering the Search and Call System, you may update your papers and do so, but papers must at least initially come out of circulation at the time of any new call.
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Information for Search Committees
All congregational search committees and other groups seeking to use Search and Call forms for considering ministerial applicants should understand that all information submitted to the office of Search and Call is determined to be accurate to the best of our ability at the time it is initially circulated.
Hiring and/or calling bodies should also use due diligence and follow-up with regard to any information, referents, past-employers, etc. that are noted by the candidate. It is the calling body's responsibility to evaluate the final veracity of a candidate's information. So also is it the calling body's responsibility to understand the sensitive and confidential nature of all Search and Call profiles and other forms. All ministerial forms about any minister should be destroyed by search committees when such ministers are no longer in consideration for a ministry position.
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Clergy Criminal Background Check (CBC)
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is committed to proactively combating sexual and other forms of misconduct within the church. To facilitate the completion of certain screening recommendations that have been designed and approved by the General Commission on Ministry, leaders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have chosen to work in cooperation with Oxford Document Management (ODM), a Minneapolis, Minnesota based screening company with a proven track record of service to the broader religious community. No papers initiated or updated through the Web-based system after this time can be circulated for position consideration from this point forward without a completed CBC report on file in the Office of Search and Call, and attached to a minister's circulated Search and Call forms. This includes students, Qualified Ordained Ministerial Partners, and those who are already Disciples ministers with standing—both licensed and ordained.
Such a CBC will report on all convictions, as well as national sexual offender registry data. This will include county, state and national searches within the areas in which the noted minister has lived and been employed during the previous seven years.
The process for you to obtain this CBC has been integrated into the new Search and Call System. Upon login to the Web-based MinPro you will have the opportunity to initiate a CBC on yourself, if you are using the Web-based MinPro for Search and Call circulation purposes. This is true if you are coming in to the system for an initial circulation, as well as if you are already in circulation and updating your papers but have not yet provided a CBC within the last three years.
Your cost for the CBC will be $140, payable online to ODM at the time of requesting the CBC. The entire amount of this cost goes to Oxford Document Management for the actual CBC; no part of this money is retained or received by any office of the Christian Church. It is understood and hoped that any organizational body (congregation, region, General Ministry, educational institution, etc.) of the church that calls you to a position of ministry will reimburse you for your cost of the CBC, as a part of the negotiated Letter of Call.
Upon completion of the Criminal Background Report, a copy of the final results will be sent to the Office of Search and Call for purposes of circulating with your profile. Such information is to be treated with sensitive and thoughtful confidentiality by regions and search committees who may receive this information as part of your ministerial Search and Call forms.
Within the Web-based Search and Call System, you will have the opportunity to review your own confidential Criminal Background Report by ODM and must approve this report before it can be released.
If you decide to dispute the results of the Criminal Background Report, you can contact Oxford Document directly. In such a case, you should also contact the Office of Search and Call staff to let us know why you have not released your report until the dispute is resolved. It is your responsibility to initiate such contact, if you desire it. Your Search and Call Ministerial Profile will not be released without a background report that has been formally approved and released for circulation by you.
A Criminal Background Report is good for up to three years as long as your profile forms are continuously in circulation. If your forms are removed from circulation, whether according to your direction or for another reason, and you then seek to place your papers back in to circulation at some time in the future later than a year after your most-recent CBC was reported by ODM, you must request and pay for a new CBC from ODM before your forms can go back in to circulation.
Your CBC application should be one of the first steps you complete if you are seeking to enter your profile into Search and Call circulation. The research for this CBC will take several days to a week or more to complete, and you cannot enter into circulation until the final background report is in the office of Search and Call, and you have approved it's release.
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The Ministerial Profile
When completing the Ministerial Profile, please do not refer to resumes or attachments that are not an official part of the Web-based Ministerial Profile System. Also, in all pertinent places on the forms, ALL information should be listed in descending date order, i.e., beginning with the most current and ending with oldest.
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Reference forms
Reference forms are now a part of the online process of the Web-based Ministerial Search and Call System. Your referents you list will receive either an automated invitation to complete an online form or be given a hard copy form by you, according to your choice at the time you decide to disperse each reference form. If at all possible, we recommend you choose to have your chosen referents complete these forms online.
Please note, if reference forms are distributed by you in hard copy form, rather than by the automated Web system, these reference forms should be completed by referents, either by typing or NEATLY hand-writing them in black ink, using only the one-sided pages of the provided form. There should be no attachments and nothing should be written on the back of the reference form papers. Also, the names and addresses of both you, as the minister, and your referent should be on page one and the referent should be reminded to complete, sign and mail the form as soon as possible to:
The Office of Search and Call
Disciples Home Missions
P.O. Box 1986
Indianapolis, IN 46206-1986
One of the most common reasons minister's papers are withheld from circulation is because the Office of Search and Call staff are waiting for one (or more) of the minister's references to arrive.
When you sign the waiver for any reference form, or signify this choice through the Web-based system, you are waiving your right to see that reference at any time in the future. In order to protect the confidentiality of the referent, the Search and Call office personnel will not forward, make comment about, or make available, to you—copies of any of your references for which the waiver has been approved by you.
It is a good idea to keep references up-to-date. References that are over three years old cannot be used. It is our experience that even references older than one year, may be less helpful than those that are more current.
Please also be aware that any of your referents has the option of having their reference removed from your file at any time, upon their request. Should such an action take place at the request of a referent, your profile forms will be removed from Search and Call circulation until you can update your referent choices in the Web-based Search and Call System, and provide a new reference appropriate for replacing the previously removed copy.
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Disclosure forms
For your forms to be placed into the Search and Call process, you must also use the newest version of the Disclosure. This form is available to be completed as part of the online Web process for Search and Call.
This form will be included in the packet of Search and Call files that are distributed to regions for congregational search committees. Like all Search and Call materials, especially the CBC, the regional and area ministers will instruct search committees that this information is sensitive and they are expected to treat it and all ministerial information materials with great discretion. It is important for you to understand that what is reported by you on your Disclosure form should be consistent with any information that may be discovered during the CBC by ODM or by a search committee's due diligence, and consequentially reported.
Copies of your completed Disclosure forms will be kept in your confidential personnel file in the Office of Search and Call.
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Circulation Preference form
Please be very specific in completing the Circulation Preference form. Regional/area ministers look at this form first to determine if you are interested in relocating to their region/area. While the Circulation Preference form is intended to be instructional to regional/area staff, regarding how and whether to circulate your papers in each region, it is also true that all regions will be notified that your papers are now in circulation upon the initial circulation of your papers. The regions/areas you choose to NOT circulate in, according to your Circulation Preference choices within the Search and Call Web-based System, will no longer have access to any portion of your actual Search and Call papers. It is standard protocol that regions/areas will abide by your instructions noted in your Circulation Preferences. If any area/region has even just circulated your name as a possible candidate without your prior expressed approval, and in disregard to your expressed instructions (as noted in your chosen Circulation Preferences), you are invited to contact the appropriate regional/area minister to diplomatically communicate your concern and resolve the matter.
As a part of the Web-based Search and Call System, if you are in Limited Circulation you may now choose up to every-region-except-one as a part of a Limited Circulation choice for your papers. Of course, you may also be as specific as to select only one position for which you desire to be considered.
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Access to the Search and Call process
Ordained ministers with Ministerial Standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will have complete and unhindered access to the Ministerial Search and Call process of the church.
Licensed ministers with Ministerial Standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), students and others preparing to come Under Care or preparing for and/or approved for ordination through a regional Commission on Ministry regardless of residence, and students seeking Field Education ministry positions in the region in which they are in school may now also have access to the Ministerial Search and Call System through the Office of Search and Call's Web-based System; such papers will only be circulated according to the limitations of the Policies and Criteria for the Order of Ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the expressed understanding of each appropriate regional church manifestation. Currently, such persons who are not ordained are limited to the following circulation of their papers:
- Licensed Minister: limited to region in which they are licensed;
- Field Education student: limited to region of schooling and also Under Care region;
- Persons coming Under Care: limited to Under Care region.
All Field Education Students, anyone Preparing to come Under Care of a region, anyone approved for ordination but not yet ordained, and all United Church of Christ clergy who are currently QUALIFIED Ordained Ministerial Partners are required to have a letter on file with Disciples Home Missions from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) region through which they are seeking to enter Search and Call; this letter must be from either the regional Minister or Chairperson of the regional Commission on Ministry, and state the specific person has been authorized to enter the Search and Call process, and state the specific reason(s) for such. It is the responsibility of each minister to see that their prerequisites are met and the respective region has offered written permission to the Search and Call office in order for the minister to enter the Search and Call process in a timely manner.
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Eliminating delays to circulation
As noted in several places above, there are a variety of reasons why your Search and Call forms may be held up from prompt circulation. The information we currently have for you may be out of date, a referent has not yet completed and submitted a form, your mandatory Criminal Background Report has not been completed, or other such details are not attended to by you as you seek to enter the Search and Call System. Even when just updating information, you need to make sure you are attending to all the required details of this important process. Please read the instructions in the Web-based MinPro if you are not familiar with the current process.
As you move through this ministerial Search and Call system, you will be able to monitor your status online. You can then resolve any delay according to what is noted in the Web-based system; perhaps, reminding a referent to submit a reference form (or by changing your choice of referent if it appears there is difficulty in obtaining the designated reference), by notifying the regional office that an authorization letter is needed in order to circulate, or dealing with whatever other matter is of concern. Your file will not be placed into any kind of circulation until all forms are completed and on file in the Office of Search and Call.
Once all the forms are received, they will be forwarded to the appropriate regions/areas and/or institutions only as designated and authorized by you. Except for a limited number of holiday weeks, circulation files are usually sent to regions/areas weekly.
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Responsibilities after accepting new call
At the time you enter the Search and Call process, you receive a notification letter along with the following documents: Change of Ministry form from the Pension Fund, a Letter of Calling for position negotiating purposes, and offers to help with the relocation of a minister and their family and property by third-party moving companies that have been negotiated with through the Office of Search and Call.
Once a you receive and accept a call to relocate, it is your responsibility to contact the Office of Search and Call staff, in order to notify us of such a change. Please make sure the Office of Search and Call is one of the first places you notify; it is very distressing to search committees who become interested in you, only to discover you have accepted another position and possibly already even relocated. This very important step of notification is done electronically (and easily) through the new Web-based MinPro system. After logging in to the minister's personal information record location, and if your are currently in circulation, you can click on the yellow "Withdraw Profile" button to begin the process to remove your papers from circulation. At that time, a new window will come up requesting you select a reason for withdrawing from circulation, as well as providing a small amount of information related to your reason for withdrawing your forms from circulation. You can then click on the "Submit" button on that page to complete the withdrawal process. The minister's papers should come out of circulation on the following Friday.
When a minister accepts a call to relocate, and as soon as the Office of Search and Call staff are notified, the minister's forms will be removed from circulation and all forms will need to be updated before they can be placed back into circulation in the future.
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Specific requests for circulation and limitations
Upon your written request, the Office of Search and Call staff can send your forms to universities and seminaries, ecumenical institutions and to judicatory officials of other denominations. Forms are not usually sent directly to search committees within congregations.
When a request from a regional minister is received for your specific Search and Call forms at a time when you are not active in the Search and Call process, or have not chosen that region/institution for circulation, contact is made with you and you are invited to formally change your Permission to Release decision online, in order to comply with the request. Usually, it is a regional ministerial staff person who calls a minister with such a request.
Please note, your file may also need to be updated in order to comply with any request if forms in the file are more than three years old, or if the forms on record are on outdated versions. Such an update is your responsibility. For the purpose of you being considered for a position of ministry, the Office of Search and Call staff will only circulate the latest versions of forms.
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Change of information concerns
While you are in the Search and Call process, you are advised to keep your online records (address, telephone or employment information, etc.) current and up to date on your personal Web profile. Your forms may be removed from circulation if you cannot be contacted, or do not respond to requests, by the Office of Search and Call staff.
Since a your e-mail address is one of the means through which you securely sign on to your personal record site within the Search and Call System, you should promptly make a change to your record if your e-mail address changes.
The Office of Search and Call staff are happy to help you successfully navigate the Search and Call process and hopes the above information will help keep problems and delays to a minimum. Please feel free to contact our office at any time for information, if you need help with the Search and Call process, or to check the status of your file. You may send a letter to:
The Office of Search and Call
Disciples Home Missions
PO Box 1986
Indianapolis, IN 46206-1986
Or, you may contact Anne Marie Moyars, toll-free, at (888) 346-2631, or by e-mail at amoyars@dhm.disciples.org.
A more detailed description of the Search and Call process can be found in the Policies and Criteria for the Order of Ministry, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Section VI, Ministerial Search and Call.
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How to submit forms to Office of Search and Call
Due to the nature of how your papers are circulated, the Office of Search and Call staff will need your profile in an electronic format. Simply go online to the log-in page, Ministerial Profile System log-in page, complete your correct e-mail address and log-in password (as initially given to you by the Search and Call office) to access your files in the Ministerial Profile System. Once you have logged in to the Web-based Search and Call System for the very first time, you will be able to change your password to one of your own choosing. Please call the Office of Search and Call if (when) your e-mail address changes in the future. If you forget your password you can have it emailed to you from the log-in page.
Again, due to the Web-based format of the new Search and Call System, you will be able to access/update your profile and other forms, and work through the system from any computer that is connected to the Internet. Such possibilities include most libraries, some community centers, Internet cafes, some relatives, friends or colleagues.
Once you are logged-in to the Search and Call System, simply follow the instructions and complete the process, as needed. If you have any questions, or are unable to complete and/or process your profile information, please call the Office of Search and Call staff, toll-free, at (888) 346-2631; ask for extension 2652 or the Rev. Warren Lynn. If Warren is unavailable, you can also ask for Anne Marie Moyars at extension 2664.
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Proof-reading and correcting your information forms
It is a good idea to print completed copies of all your forms, including the Profile, for your own records. You will want to proofread your profile, as well, before submitting the final electronic version. This will help you make sure the profile is free of grammatical and spelling errors (a very important step if you want search committees to evaluate your potential in positive light), and contains your information as you would like congregations to see it.
To obtain a copy of your profile for evaluative purposes, click on the PDF logo on the right side of the Edit Profile button on the Overview page of the Web-MinPro. This will download a version of your profile in a form similar to how search committees would see it. You can then print this PDF document to review it in hard-copy format.
