Ministerial Search Committee
We're happy to provide you with a much more complete picture of Rev. Darrel! Please feel free to download this pdf file so that you can get to know him better: Rev. Darrel's Information Packet
From David Marsh, Ministerial Search Committee Co-chair:
The Ministerial Search Committee is happy to announce that Rev. Darrel Richey is the candidate for the settled minister at our church. Last summer, many of us completed a survey and participated in a cottage group meeting where we explored what we wanted in a new minister. From this range of activities, the search committee found three themes in what we wanted to find in a successful candidate.
First, we wanted a strong Sunday service leader. Rev. Darrel has great perspective and insights about worship. He is a wonderful collaborator about actual worship, and he has solid sermons—ones that are coherent, inspiring, and useful to our lives.
Second, we wanted a strong church leader. Rev. Darrel has served his current church for over 7 years. We saw that he has great experience but more importantly, he knows how to use it to help us. He has already transformed churches in terms of themes like financial and membership grow, but he is especially talented in creating a more lively and vital community as the base for everything we do at our church. He is a true partner who works hard, and has great insights about governance.
He is a respectful listener and is really comfortable with himself as a minister—he knows when and how to be decisive and when to work for collective agreement. He is great at working with the paid staff be more effective as team. He also has strong track record with collaborative social justice efforts.
Third, we wanted a minster with strong interest and skills in pastoral care. We are happy to report that Rev. Darrel is one of the most empathic/authentic people we have met—we have rarely seen a person who so quickly builds trust and deep engagement. He is deeply committed to strengthening our processes for caring about and for one another
Finally, it is clear that Rev. Darrel loves and respect us. It is also clear that Rev. Mike Young has been a very important bridge as our interim minister, and that his advice about how to proceed has been immensely helpful to both the search committee and the Board of Trustees. Please join us for Candidating Week (April 22-29) when we can get to know Rev. Darrel better, and be able to decide whether we want to call him as our next settled minister.
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From Anita Mermel, Ministerial Search Committee Co-chair:
The following are the personal reflections that I shared with the Congregation on Sunday April 1 when the Ministerial Search Committee announced Rev. Darrel Richey as our candidate for Settled Minister. Please seek out any of my colleagues for his or her thoughts about him as well, and about the 48 privileged hours we spent with him earlier this year. I think that I speak for each of us—We are truly excited about introducing you to Reverend Darrel in person on April 22!
Standing 6 feet four, with a gentle Texan accent, Rev. Darrel Richey comes to us after serving over seven years at the James Reeb UU Congregation in Madison, Wisconsin.
I think Rev. Darrel will help us become more joyful and successful at what we do as a church. He is a preacher who speaks from the heart. He is caring, energetic, and humorous; and with his innate talent for creating a sense of community and a welcoming atmosphere, he is truly a joy to be with.
Martin Luther King’s concept of Beloved Community reinforces all of Rev. Darrel’s work with congregations, increasing the depth and quality of both members’ as well as visitors’ church experiences. Proud of his mixed European and First Nation (Native American) ancestry, he promotes worship that is both theologically and culturally diverse, he embraces inclusive language, and he addresses the whole person, not just the intellect.
He has tremendous anti-racism experience and gently guides his congregations to meaningful social justice initiatives.
He is steadfastly supportive of finding ways to involve persons with disabilities, whether physical or mental, into the fabric of church life.
He also connects well with children and youth and, I suspect you teachers will be happy to hear, that he routinely visits the Religious Exploration classrooms several times a year.
Rev. Darrel has good instincts, backed up by a solid grounding in organizational systems theory, for moving members’ experience through diverse stages of involvement and satisfaction. He understands a church’s growth cycles, and helps members find satisfying volunteer positions, matching their passions and talents. You can count on him to help cultivate sustainable leadership throughout our church, and he looks forward to helping us seek congregational and denominational growth as well.
Before his call to ministry, Rev. Darrel was a successful furniture and interior designer for over 20 years, and before that, received his degree in landscape architecture. We can anticipate his bringing those aesthetic and space organizational skills to our many efforts to improve our own physical environment.
To keep himself renewed and fresh, Rev. Darrel looks forward to long motorcycle rides along the PCH and Mulholland Drive. He also greatly enjoys gardening, reading, movies and music. He’s passionate about Mayan history, and using Spanish and Sign Language. He is partnered with Daniel Fogel, and they have a teenage daughter, Alyson, who begins college in Texas this fall. You will get to meet all three of them at the end of the month.
