St Thomas St Stephen with Children and Families Minister Parish Profile, Job Description and Person Specification
From the Vicar Thank you for your interest in the post of Children and Families Minister. This is a key appointment in the life of STwSS, to work alongside the Vicar, Associate Minister and Youth Minister. Children and families are at the heart of St Thomas with St Stephen. Three of our four services have provision for children, with two of the services being specibically focused towards them. Our area has a high percentage of families with young children and we see many who wouldn t usually come to church coming to Prayers and Bears or having contact with the church through baptism. Our vision is for church to be fun and engaging for children (as well as for adults!) so that they will meet Jesus and grow in faith. We long for this faith to be something that is shared and nurtured within their families as well. The children s work at St Thomas with St Stephen s has been very high quality over the years. This new role will build on and develop the existing children s work as well as having a greater focus on reaching out to families. We are looking for someone who is passionate about Jesus and passionate about children, who will join us to help develop our ministry in this exciting new chapter of the church s life. I have been vicar of St Thomas with St Stephen since June 2014 and am excited by what God is already doing here and the potential for much more. If you d like to chat informally about the post please do not hesitate to contact me through the church ofbice, 020 8675 5086. Revd Martin Gordon
Parish Profile In brief Our vision is to build the local church and transform the local community through worshipping God, growing in faith and reaching out to those outside the church. We are one parish with two church buildings. Our Neighbourhood St Thomas with St Stephen is a parish serving Clapham Park, Streatham and Balham, with around 5,000 houses and a population of 14,000. We are in an urban area of southwest London with a diverse mix of Victorian and Edwardian terraced and semi- detached houses, local authority and housing association estates. There is a signibicant contrast of afbluence and deprivation. There is a small amount of light industry, and a few local shops, but the parish is primarily residential. The parish is framed by the A24 Balham High Road, A205 South Circular and A23 Streatham Hill, and is in London Transport s zone 3. There is easy access to Balham and Clapham South tubes and Streatham Hill station. Tooting Common is in the south of the parish and Agnes Riley Gardens in the north - a busy park acting as a hub for children and sports. There are two state primary schools, a Catholic primary and secondary girls school and a large number of nurseries, reblecting the population of the area. One nursery is run out of St Stephen s and another from the Weir Link Centre. Our buildings Our two church buildings, St Thomas Church and St Stephen s Church Centre, are 7-8 minutes walk apart. St Thomas is in the south of the parish and St Stephen s in the north. St Stephen s was built in 1974 to replace the old Victorian church and is a single- storey combined church and community centre. It has a central worship space, two halls, lounge and a kitchen and is used extensively during the week for community activities as well as for worship. It was recently refurbished in 2010.
St Thomas is a large Victorian church that underwent phase I of its redevelopment in 2011 to make it Bit for purpose as our main worship space and as a resource for the local community. Phase 2 has recently Binished to provide an upper and lower hall, a chapel, a kitchen, a full- immersion baptistery, more toilets and a community garden as well as new audio visual equipment. This will provide more facilities for the local community and more space for children and youth work on a Sunday morning. The church helped to establish the Weir Link Centre in 2008, transforming a derelict building right next to St Stephen s, on the Weir Estate, into a purpose- designed children s centre run in partnership with Lambeth Council. It provides a nursery and education, health and wellbeing activities for young children and their parents. The Weir Link has priority usage of two of the rooms at St Stephen s on weekdays. A number of church members are actively involved in Weir Link as trustees and volunteers. Our Sunday services In 2006 two neighbouring parishes merged, both having a similar Evangelical tradition but with different styles of worship. We now have around 100 adults and 30 children and young people at our Sunday morning service drawn from across the parish and a few from further abield. In July 2015, after 6 months of consultation and conversation in the church, we merged our more traditional 9.30am service with our more informal 11am service to form one single Sunday morning service at 10.15am. This service moved to the newly refurbished St Thomas Church in September when the building work was completed. At the moment our 7pm service varies from week to week, but we are developing a more informal service with an emphasis on worship, teaching, testimony and prayer, aimed at young professionals. This service is currently at St Stephen s
Our children and youth work One of the main reasons for merging the two Sunday morning services into one single service was to offer better provision for our children and young people through a greater variety of children and youth groups. We now offer Bive groups: creche for 0-3s, two Sunday School groups (reception and years 1-2; and years 3-5) and two youth groups each Sunday morning. We also hold two other services specibically aimed at children. Our weekly Wednesday morning Prayers and Bears is for pre- schoolers and their carers and attracts around 30 adults and 30 children. Tea Time Praise is once a month at 4.30pm on a Sunday is aimed at primary aged children. During the week there are cell groups for discipling our young people and a very successful open homework and youth club (isource) for 11-18s working on the Weir Estate. Before our previous children s and youth worker left in August 2013 we also had stronger links with the local schools and ran after school clubs for ages 4-11. Some of our other activities We have 9 home groups meeting for Bible study, prayer and encouragement. They are diverse in probile but tend to meet fortnightly. Over half of the church is in a home group and we are looking to develop this. We run the Alpha Course with the next course starting in October We have active groups involved in supporting mission partners overseas and local partners closer to home such as Clapham Park Foodbank. Church members are involved in various other courses such as the Parenting Course, Growing Leaders, Fresh Expressions, Jesus Ministry and the Global Leadership Summit. Our staff Martin is our Vicar Sam is our Youth Minister We are currently recruiting for an Associate Minister Penny and Sarah are our administrators, working 20 hours a week from the ofbice space at St Stephen s. Shaun is our caretaker Mike, David, Eileen and Glenn are our Readers and Helen is in training.
Children and Families Minister Purpose: To lead, grow and resource our work amongst children aged 0-10 and their families within the church, the community and the local primary schools. Over the next three years some of our aims for children and families ministry are to ensure corporate Sunday worship better reblects the needs and input of children and families, to grow our Prayers and Bears and Tea Time Praise services which reach out to more occasional churchgoers, re- start our after school clubs, rekindle strong links with the local schools, equip parents to nurture the faith of their children, resource and release our volunteers and to look for more opportunities to engage with Clapham Park and Weir Estates. Main duties and responsibilities Vision and strategy - Responsible with the vicar for developing and communicating a clear vision and strategy for working with children from 0-10 and their families Sunday mornings - Develop and oversee the rotas, material and session structure for our 0-11s Sunday school groups - Oversee the recruitment, training and development of Sunday school teams and volunteers - Work with the vicar, service leaders and worship leaders to develop appropriate children s worship and all- age services within the main Sunday morning services Prayers and Bears and Tea Time Praise - Develop and oversee the rotas, material and services - Encourage, enable and equip volunteer involvement from church members as well as attendees
Families - Enable and equip parents to feel conbident enough to be able to nurture their child s faith at home - Run parenting courses as appropriate - Look for opportunities to develop links with parents outside our main services, and enable opportunities to engage with the Christian faith - Offer appropriate support and pastoral care to families Work with local schools - Rekindle our links with local schools and seek opportunities to introduce the children to Jesus, for example on school visits to the church or in school assemblies Other ministry duties - Organise special children s services when appropriate - Organise social activities for children and families as appropriate - Restart our after school clubs to act as a bridge from Prayers and Bears and Tea time Praise into Sunday morning services Areas of potential future development - Involvement with children and families on the Weir and Clapham Park estates - Running summer holiday clubs - Acting as a resource to develop children and families ministries within other local churches General - Participate fully in the life of the staff team, including weekly prayer meetings and staff meetings - Represent children and their families within the church and report regularly to the church council and the annual meeting - Maintain up to date information of children s activities on the website - Manage the Binance and administration for the ministry and keep records as appropriate - Ensure safeguarding procedures are met for all children and families ministry activities - Other responsibilities as may be deemed necessary by the line manager from time to time to ensure the effective development of the church s mission
Person Specification We are looking for a committed Christian who is passionate and experienced in working with children and families and is able to take a signibicant leadership role in developing this area of our church s life. Theology and faith - A committed Christian open to the traditions of the Church of England - A personal vibrant relationship with Jesus and a love of God s word - A disciplined life of prayer, worship, Bible reading and wider Christian reading - A love for children and their families and a vision to see them grow in their Christian faith in understanding, worship and prayer. Experience and knowledge - A proven track record of delivering children s ministry within a church context - Experience of leading teams and working with volunteers - A good understanding of Biblical truths - Desirable: experience of working in schools Gifts and abilities - Ability to teach children the truths of the Christian faith in ways which are engaging, age appropriate and culturally relevant - Ability to share their own faith and story in a natural and relevant way - Ability to encourage adults in the Christian faith - Skilled in strategising, planning, organising, co- ordinating, setting priorities and time- management - Ability to form, develop, resource and lead teams and to be a part of a team - A trainer and equipper, able to draw in volunteers and equip them - Strong interpersonal skills, able to connect easily with both children and families - Creative and imaginative and willing to try new approaches Education and qualisications - Good formal education, ideally to degree level or equivalent, preferably in the Bields of teaching or children s ministry - Competent user of IT including Microsoft OfBice and presentation software
Terms and conditions Reporting to: The Vicar Hours: 37.5 hours per week to be worked Blexibly, including signibicant Sunday work and some evening work, as agreed with line manager. We will consider 30 hours per week (80%) in line with a reduction in salary. Contract: The contract will initially be for three years Holiday: Five weeks per annum plus Bank Holidays. It would be expected that the majority of this holiday would be taken during school holidays. Salary: 24k- 28k depending on experience OfSice: OfBice space, including the use of a computer, is provided Training: We would support the Children and Families Minister to seek opportunities for ongoing training Notes There is a genuine occupational requirement that the post- holder is a Christian. The post is subject to an enhanced DBS disclosure Applications Deadline for applications is midnight on 27th September 2015. Please send the completed application form to ofbice@stwss.org.uk Successful applicants will hear by Friday 2nd October Interviews will be held on Wednesday 7th October More information Please contact us for a copy of our most recent Annual Report (2014) and Parish ProBile (2013) Website: www.stwss.org.uk