What the Beyond Categorical Thinking Survey Told Us

by Susan Wynn

Congregations in search of a new settled minister are strongly encouraged to include the Beyond Categorical Thinking (BCT) Workshop as a step in that process.  So, many thanks to the 40 members of the congregation who gave up time during a recent weekend to participate in our UUA-facilitated BCT workshop.  

One of the biggest take-aways from the workshop and the pre-workshop survey was to not let preconceived notions about who can be our minister limit our expectations.  And we can’t just think in terms of black and white, male and female.   How open would we be to a minister who is Hispanic?  Or someone who is gender non-conforming?  Or someone with a physical disability?  

Another point driven home by this workshop is that calling a minister who is, for example, a person of color will not magically solve all issues surrounding race that our congregation might have.

The BCT Workshop asked us as a congregation to do the difficult work of honestly assessing the level of pervasive implicit and overt bias in its system.  The only way we can commit to compassionately and actively challenging bias within the life of the congregation is to first understand what those biases are.  BCT gave us that opportunity.  

What did the results of the seventy-four Concerns and Benefits Surveys tell us about our congregation, who we are, and how we think about what we would want in a settled minister?

The findings that the Ministerial Search Committee received from our BCT Trainer, Jacqui Williams, revealed the following about our congregation:

– Our most frequent concern was for calling a minister who identifies as a person of color.  The comments suggest that the reason that that is our biggest concern is because we have too many prejudices (spoken or unspoken) including micro-aggressions.  The second most frequent concern for that choice was a tie between “Our congregation is very white; will they fit in?” and “Our community is very white.”  The most frequent benefit was that we would be living our values.

– Our next most frequent concern for calling a minister who identifies as having a disability was that our building isn’t accessible and that it would be too expensive to make it accessible.  A close second concern was stamina, that is, will they be able to do the job.  A third area of concern was about calling a minister with an emotional disability/bipolar/depression.  That concern seemed grounded in congregation members not wanting to have to worry about the emotional/mental health of their minister.  The most frequent benefit cited was that we would have the opportunity to learn about people living with a particular disability.

– Our third most frequent concern for calling a minister who identifies as LGBTQ+ was confusion over the use of appropriate pronouns.  The most frequent benefit cited was that we would have the opportunity to be educated/learn something.

And that is what the survey told us about who we are and what our implicit biases are.  Sometimes it is difficult to look in the mirror, but unless we do, we won’t know how we look to others and we won’t know what difficult yet compassionate and loving work we need to do.