Exploration Director directs and develops an organization's oil and gas exploration projects. Analyzes and evaluates the opportunities, risk and profits for oil and gas deposits exploration. Being an Exploration Director initiates exploration plans based on compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. Directs geological and geophysical programs and may have oversight for land acquisition and leasing activities. Additionally, Exploration Director requires a bachelor's degree. Typically reports to top management. The Exploration Director manages a departmental sub-function within a broader departmental function. Creates functional strategies and specific objectives for the sub-function and develops budgets/policies/procedures to support the functional infrastructure. Deep knowledge of the managed sub-function and solid knowledge of the overall departmental function. To be an Exploration Director typically requires 5+ years of managerial experience. (Copyright 2024 Salary.com)
Mid-sized Unitarian Universalist congregation in MetroWest Boston (Needham) seeks a half-time Director of Religious Exploration who has experience with children and youth as well as an understanding of UU principles and is committed to our values of environmental and social justice.
First Parish in Needham, Unitarian Universalist — a vibrant congregation of 230 adults and 20 children and youth — seeks a Director of Religious Exploration to create, lead, and implement this congregation’s programs for children, youth, and families. We are a dynamic, involved, collaborative, and intellectually curious congregation. First Parish is committed to living out its values in the world as a Welcoming Congregation, Green Sanctuary, 8th Principle Congregation, and Level 2 Sanctuary Supporting Congregation. Our religious exploration programs are central to this commitment to social justice work.
This will be a 20 hour position with help from an assistant for 10 hours per week. The DRE has the responsibility of nurturing and guiding children, youth, and their parents on their spiritual journeys, while also fostering a sense of belonging and connection within our congregation. As such, the DRE plays a central role in shaping the present and future of our community.
The ideal candidate will help us continue our beloved programs (such as OWL, Neighboring Faiths, and Coming of Age), while evaluating our current programs for improvements and innovations in collaboration with our other religious professionals, the RE Committee, and our Innovation Team, and in collaboration with other local UU Congregations.. The ideal candidate will also be enthusiastic, creative, flexible, collaborative, organized, and motivational. The ideal candidate will be experienced and committed to Unitarian Universalist religious exploration for our children and youth. First Parish values diversity in its community and staff team, and candidates from historically marginalized identities are especially encouraged to apply.
Due to lower enrollment in the wake of the pandemic and demographic changes in religious affiliation, we are shifting from having a solo, full-time Director of Lifespan Religious Exploration to a children’s and youth religious exploration team staffed by a 20-hour per week Director of Religious Exploration and a 10-hour/week assistant. We hope through collaboration, innovation, and experimentation, the children’s and youth program — and the directorship position itself — will grow over time.
Essential Functions
Core Competencies
Education and Experience
Job Conditions
The position is hybrid, with remote work possible during the week and mandatory onsite presence in Needham on Sundays. The DRE has their own office, and our classrooms are on the lower floor of our program building. This job is multi-faceted and sometimes requires work under time pressure; however, the First Parish staff culture emphasizes self-care, mutual support, and not over-working.
Salary and Benefits
We strive to meet UUA Fair Compensation Guidelines for salary and benefits for all of our staff members. At present, we’ve budgeted $28,000 for this half-time position. The DRE will have one Sunday off a month and vacation/study leave weeks, as well as professional expenses and benefits eligibility.
Accessibility
Nearly all parts of the church are accessible for those who use mobility assistance; the chancel and one meeting room behind it have four steps and a railing, and the organ loft is up a set of stairs. We also have an elevator and chair lift.
An application will include:
Deadline:
Applications will be reviewed and considered as they are received. We’ll begin interviewing mid-June and hope that the successful candidate can begin in August.
Address inquiries and applications to: dresearch@uuneedham.org
2. ABOUT FIRST PARISH
OUR COVENANT
We gather as a loving community,
to encourage and comfort one another.
We gather as a diverse community,
to support each other in our search for spiritual truth.
We gather as a service community,
to live our beliefs through action and care for our world.
VISION STATEMENT
First Parish in Needham is a vibrant and inclusive congregation in which all are free to grow spiritually and ethically in a supportive community. First Parish offers a wide menu of programs and activities dedicated to:
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of First Parish in Needham is to create a welcoming, diverse, and compassionate religious community that celebrates the sacredness of all living things, nurtures lifelong spiritual and ethical growth, and works for social and environmental justice locally and throughout the world.
FIRST PARISH AT A GLANCE
DEMOGRAPHICS
The First Parish in Needham membership is mostly from Needham. We are a dynamic, involved, and intellectually curious congregation.
Age: Our congregation has a large contingent of older adults and a smaller number of families with young children. Our congregation as a whole is program-sized yet our RE program for children/youth is pastoral-sized. We are eager to attract more young families to our congregation. We’ve recently hired an engagement coordinator to assist us with this; the DRE will work closely with our Engagement Coordinator in attracting and retaining families with children.
Sexual orientation/gender identity: We have a commitment to being a Welcoming Congregation. LGBTQIA individuals and families have found a nurturing community here for themselves and their children.
Spiritual orientation: Spiritual orientations listed by our members include: Agnostic, Atheist, Religious Humanism, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoism, and Islam.
Why we come to First Parish: Key reasons members attend include, “community,” along with “celebrating common values,” and “intellectual stimulation.” We’ve recently started an Innovation Task Force that’s exploring how we can increase engagement among our members.
HISTORY
To see our full history, including how First Parish was founded along with the Town of Needham, go to our website at
In 2002, First Parish retained Rev. John Buehrens as its settled minister. A leading figure in UUism and president of the UUA for eight years, John had been minister at churches in Knoxville, Tennessee, Dallas, Texas, and New York City, and he brought a wealth of experience, skills, and energy to his new post. John helped stabilize the finances of First Parish and grow our congregation. He urged us to undertake our successful capital campaigns, including updating our Meetinghouse and rebuilding our program building with environmentalism and accessibility in mind. He created the Lyceum, our continuing education program, and through his teaching at Harvard Divinity School, brought six students to serve as interns at First Parish. Helping John mentor them was a highlight for the congregation, and we have continued to serve as a teaching congregation. By May 2010, our congregation had grown by 33 percent.
As the church grew in that decade, the congregation became increasingly divided between older, long-time members and younger, newer members with families. To increase interaction between adults and children, First Parish in 2009 formed a Multigeneration Task Force, which issued its report the following year. Many of its recommendations were put into place, including children in worship until the end of the Time for All Ages as well as multigenerational services and activities, with the goal to “build a community with a sense of ownership and partnership across and among all ages.”
In 2011, First Parish and Needham jointly celebrated our 300th Anniversary, with a year-long schedule of events that included lectures, historic displays, tours of historic buildings, a concert, a gala ball, and a special 4th of July parade (First Parish had a float).
In 2014, Reverend Catie Scudera began her ministry at First Parish. As a minister, Catie sees her role as pastor, teacher, and preacher. This includes providing pastoral care, facilitating religious education, assisting lay governing bodies, designing worship, and pursuing social justice work to heal our wounded world and end the oppressive aspects of the wider culture. Her ministerial call is particularly drawn to the vision of creating beloved community, where there is equality after equity has been achieved; restorative, loving justice in the face of broken covenants; and, deep interconnectedness between all members, with an understanding of our “interbeing” with all living beings and the Earth itself. During this time, we have founded a Racial Justice Task Force, become a Level-2 Sanctuary Supporting Congregation, hosted the annual MetroWest Trans Day of Remembrance vigil, and supported local legislation aligned with our UU values such as the ROE Act, public accommodations for trans people, and immigration reform. We founded an invested fund, the Ed Lane Lyceum Fund, to support our adult education programs in honor of our beloved member of blessed memory, Rev. Ed Lane. We have weathered a controversial vote to decline naming Rev. Buehrens minister emeritus, and the Committee on Ministry helped guide us to a process of re-engagement. We founded the Worship Café with YouTube live-streaming in 2017, which was unexpectedly helpful preparation for virtual church during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many religious organizations, as we came out of the pandemic our numbers decreased as congregants felt less connected to the community after gathering only virtually. As we move forward, we’re working to rebuild our vibrant community, increase engagement, and deepen our connections. In 2023, we started working to redevelop our overall vision and strategy through our volunteer-led Strategic Task Force. The Task Force did research with members of the congregation to better understand their feelings on, and relationship with, our church community. We’re using these insights to begin laying out a roadmap as we look to move into the future.
3. RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION AT FIRST PARISH
Here at First Parish, we believe that religious learning and spiritual exploration are lifelong endeavors. Since we adhere to no creed or dogma, we believe that each person’s path is a unique and fascinating journey. In this spirit, we offer many paths for religious exploration at all ages: Sunday morning exploratory programs for kids ages 1 to 14; Youth Programs; continuing education opportunities for adults; multigenerational programs and events; justice projects; service work; small group ministries; the Lane Lyceum, which brings notable speakers and topics to the broader community; and Spirit of the Earth, when we collaborate with our Green Congregations Committee to offer environmental programming leading up to Earth Day. Currently, adult programming will be led by the minister, ministerial interns, and lay leaders, while our new DRE will lead programming for children and youth. We both appreciate many of our traditions and current programs and also look forward to fresh ideas from our incoming DRE for exciting new opportunities and programs and for increased collaboration between children, youth, and their families.
Children and Youth
At the core of First Parish RE is our Sunday morning small groups for children in preschool through 9th grade. We offer RE programming September through June, with small group meetings roughly two out of every four Sundays, special all-kids-together Sundays once monthly, and one multigenerational worship service per month when we gather as one with the adult community. A Time for All Ages, led by the DRE, is included as the first 15 minutes of each service. The RE program provides children and youth with developmentally appropriate opportunities to explore topics that include: UU heritage and history; morals and ethics; community; social justice; health and sexuality; world religions; and spiritual exploration. We encourage wonder, asking questions, critical thinking, compassionate loving, and honoring diversity of beliefs. Our Youth Group organizes a service trip during either February or April vacation week annually. Our Music Director runs a Song Squad for children ages 5-10 and also collaborates with the DRE for our holiday pageant program each December. We are excited about the possibility of more collaboration in the future as well.
Some we’ve offered for children and youth:
We participate in the UUA’s “Safe Congregations” program, and the DRE is a member ex officio of our Safe Congregations Response Team.
Job Type: Part-time
Pay: From $28,000.00 per year
Expected hours: 20 per week
Benefits:
Ability to Commute:
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Needham, MA 02492