Director of Growing Churches

The Vacancy

Director of Growing Churches

Location: This is a hybrid position, with an average minimum of 2-3 days based in our London office, working remotely from your home, and extensive travel around Britain. You should live within commuting distance of our London Office.

This is an exciting new role leading, expanding, and embedding a vibrant culture of healthy, growing churches and Christian communities in every district and circuit across the Methodist Church in Britain and the Methodist Church in Ireland - supporting clergy and lay leaders in both Churches' major commitments to prioritise mission and grow relationally, spiritually, and numerically, especially related to engaging religiously-unaffiliated people and rising generations in diverse British and Irish contexts.

This post represents a fresh approach of working together as the Methodist Church in Ireland and the Methodist Church in Britain, recognizing our contextual differences and celebrating our common mission in Christ.

The successful candidate will further develop, operationalise, and manage the Missional Growth and Leadership strategic area of the Methodist Church in Britain's God For All strategy and will support the implementation of the Methodist Church in Ireland's Towards Growth: Connexional Team report. This will include working strategically; embedding deep learning and practice; managing staff, workplans and budgets; and organizing networks of leaders.

You will be a member of the Evangelism and Growth Team of the Methodist Church in Britain, working collaboratively with many other teams, groups, and networks across and beyond the Methodist Churches in Britain and Ireland. You will also be part of the wider Mission Team, playing a key role in the implementing its strategy in response to Our Calling and the Methodist Way of Life.

In this post, you will have responsibility for the following priorities:

• Supporting, normalising, and directing a culture of growth in Methodist circuits and local churches across diverse contexts
• Working with circuit superintendents and other senior leaders to build growth into standard operating missional and ministerial practice for new and existing churches
• Building and implementing a plan to oversee and deliver a Connexional/flexible orientation and accompaniment for mission/growth planning and action for churches, circuits, and districts
• Co-leading and overseeing the development of robust processes of discernment regarding the strategic deployment of property for mission
• Designing and directing a broad offering of short-term and internship-based missional encounters

About You

The ideal candidate will need the following:

• Significant leadership experience in mission and ministry
• An evidenced track record of leading growth - numerical, spiritual, and relational - in local churches
• Ability to communicate passionately, accessibly, and theologically with diverse audiences, both religiously-unaffiliated and -affiliated
• Abilities as a skilled trainer, line-manager, and supervisor/coach
• Able to manage complexity, operate strategically and build focused, relational teams

This post carries an occupational requirement for the post holder to be a Christian (in accordance with the Equality Act 2010).

Our Culture, Values and Benefits

Thank you for considering joining our inclusive and welcoming team that strives for excellence and values employee wellbeing.

We value and support all those who join our team through a positive work-life balance augmented by generous annual leave (plus an extra 3 days over Christmas/New Year), TOIL, flexi-leave and an on-site Wellbeing Adviser service. We offer a generous occupational pension scheme, where the Methodist Church will pay double the employee contribution up to a maximum of 16% employer contribution.

The Methodist Church is an inclusive and supportive employer. We are actively committed to encouraging applications from people of all backgrounds. We welcome applications from people of Black, Asian and other Minority Ethnic groups. We also welcome applications from people living with disabilities.

This post is open to applications from lay and clergy persons. Per the grade of the post, for a Methodist minister the stipend would include an additional 10% uplift beyond the standard ministerial stipend.

Closing Date: Monday 17 February 2024 by 12:00 noon

Interview: Tuesday 4 March 2024 at Methodist Church House London