St Thomas St Stephen with Associate Vicar Parish Profile, Job Description and Person Specification
From the Vicar Thank you for your interest in the post of Associate Vicar. This is a key appointment in the life of STwSS, to work closely with the Vicar, as well as the Children and Families Minister and Youth Minister as part of the senior leadership team. I have been vicar of St Thomas with St Stephen since June 2014 and I sense God calling us to focus on growing ministry in the three key areas: i) children, families and young people; ii) 20s and 30s and iii) the local estates. We are at an exciting stage in our journey as a church. Last year we combined our two morning services into one main service at 10.15am and have moved into the newly refurbished St Thomas Church. The new joint service means we can offer Sive different age groups for our children and youth ministry. We have also recently appointed Sam, our Sirst full-time Youth Minister and are recruiting a full-time Children and Families Minister. We are growing our 7pm evening congregation, particularly amongst younger people, and are seeking where God is guiding us in our continued outreach to the local Clapham Park and Weir Estates. We are looking for an Associate Vicar who will partner the Vicar in leading the church. Someone who will take a lead role in fulsilling the vision with a particular focus on mission and discipleship. Someone passionate about knowing Jesus and making him known, a prayerful risk-taker, gifted in leadership, mission and teaching. Two specisic areas of responsibility will be to lead, develop and resource our ministry and outreach to the growing number of 20s and 30s in the area - with a particular focus on the evening service. And to lead us in our mission to the local estates. If you d like to chat informally please do not hesitate to contact me through the church ofsice, 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 Hill 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 signisicant contrast of afsluence 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, reslecting 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 Sit for purpose as our main worship space and as a resource for the local community. Phase 2 has recently Sinished 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 already provides 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, with a strong preaching focus, but with different styles of worship. We now have around 100 adults and 40 children and young people at our Sunday morning service drawn from across the parish and a few from further asield. 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
The last 12 months We have undergone signisicant changes as a church over the last year and there is a real sense of the church entering into a new chapter of its life. We look back with gratitude on how God has led us to where we are today, particularly with the miraculous sale of our old church hall to Sinance the re-development of St Thomas. And we look forward with a sense of expectation of what God wants to do in and through us across the whole of our parish. There is a genuine desire to hear God s voice and be open to where he wants to lead us. With the single morning service and the refocusing our worship at St Thomas, the merging of the two parishes that happened in 2006 is becoming more of a reality. There is (most of the time!) a deep appreciation for our different traditions of worship, and within this a growing sense of unity rooted in prayer. There is a sense of a deepening spiritual life within the church. During Lent in 2014 we went through the 24/7 Prayer Course together as a church, encouraging everyone involved to take up fasting once a week, and to try new approaches to prayer. There is a growing appetite for worship and this has been the focus of the evening service in 2015. As a church we sense God calling us to a period of consolidation in 2016, learning to worship as one family in a new building. Our youth ministry amongst older teens is growing and the number of young adults in the congregation is also growing, particularly since the refurbishment. They are particularly involved in leading the monthly evening service which is followed by a meal. More broadly we have recently become part of the Clapham Park Group Ministry with two other Anglican churches - All Saints, Clapham Park and St James, Clapham Park. The group exists to encourage and pray for each other in ministry and to co-operate together in mission to Clapham Park. We are also part of Christians together in Clapham Park, praying with and on occasion working with another three local churches: two Baptist churches and a Pentecostal church. We also have strong links with the local Knight s Youth Centre. There is a desire for increased collaboration if we are to make more of an impact locally. Our staff Martin is our Vicar Sam is our Youth Minister We are currently recruiting for a Children and Families Minister Penny and Sarah are our Parish Administrators Shaun is our Caretaker Kate is our Bookings Co-ordinator Mike, David, Eileen and Glenn are our Readers and Helen is in training.
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 Sive groups: creche for 0-4s, 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 specisically aimed at children. Our weekly Wednesday morning Prayers and Bears is for pre-schoolers and their carers. Teatime Praise is an occasional service 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 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 prosile 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 and Christianity Explored. 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 local networks In addition to the Clapham Park Group Ministry and the Christians Together in Clapham Park we have an active and supportive Deanery, an Archdeacon who, as former Vicar of STwSS fully appreciates our context, and there is a newly started Streatham Ministers breakfast for churches of all denominations who work across Streatham.
Associate Vicar Purpose: - To work in partnership with Vicar in the leadership of the church. - To take a lead across the church in mission and discipleship. - To have two areas of pioneering responsibility. Firstly, to develop our ministry amongst the 20s and 30s in the area, with a specisic focus on the evening service. Secondly, to lead our ministry to the local Clapham Park and Weir Estates. Main duties and responsibilities SpeciSic responsibilities - To take a lead across the whole church in developing our mission and our discipleship - both in continuing existing ministries such as Alpha and home groups, and in exploring new ministries. - Responsible for developing, communicating and delivering a clear vision and strategy for our ministry to 20s and 30s. This will involve developing and growing the evening service, growing discipleship, reaching out in mission, and encouraging community. We have been having fruitful conversations with other churches about partnering together to grow our evening service. - Responsible for developing, communicating and delivering a clear vision and strategy for our ministry to the Clapham Park and Weir Estates. This will involve leading the conversation about our mission to the local estates and Slowing out of this, discerning what and when and how we plant back into St Stephen s. It will also involve exploring how best to collaborate with the other churches in Clapham Park. General - Regular leading, preaching and presiding at our Sunday morning and Sunday evening services - Full participation in the life of the staff team, PCC and Standing Committee, including weekly prayer meetings and staff meetings - Active involvement in the pastoral care of the parish, including baptisms, weddings, funerals and home communions - Other responsibilities as may be deemed necessary by the Vicar from time to time to ensure the effective development of the church s mission - including management of staff, involvement in PCC sub-committees, leading short courses, other teaching responsibilities and ministry opportunities. The successful candidate would ideally be considering an initial 4-5 year commitment.
Person Specification We are looking for an experienced, mission-focused leader who is passionate about connecting with different communities in the local area and beyond, seeing them grow in faith and make a difference where they are. Theology and faith - 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 committed Evangelical Christian comfortable with Charismatic worship and sympathetic to diverse expressions of faith. - A love for people of all ages from all walks of life and all stages of faith Experience and knowledge - A track record of working with 20s and 30s both inside and outside the church, to engage them in the life of the church - A track record of working with working in areas of higher density housing and levels of deprivation to engage them in the life of the church - A track record of strong leadership - Experience of starting new things - Experience of church or congregation planting (desirable) Gifts and abilities - Ability to teach 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 lead and inspire those who are enthusiastic as well as those who are reluctant to engage in mission - Ability to develop compelling vision and strategy - Ability to form, develop, resource and lead teams and be a part of a team - A trainer and equipper, able to draw in volunteers and release them - Skilled in planning, organising, co-ordinating, setting priorities and timemanagement - Creative and imaginative and willing to try new approaches, take risks and work with uncertainty Education and qualisications - Good formal education, ideally to degree level or equivalent - Competent user of IT including Microsoft OfSice and presentation software
Terms and conditions Reporting to: The Vicar Housing: The Associate Vicar s house is a two-storey modern and purpose-built 1990s house immediately adjacent to St Thomas s Church. Small front garden and large back garden. Ground Sloor: two reception rooms, kitchen, study, WC, utility room. First Sloor: four bedrooms, bathroom, shower room. Garage. The address is 12A, Salford Road, London SW2 4BH and it is near two excellent primary schools. OfSice: OfSice space, including the use of a computer, is provided. There is also administrative support from our Parish Administrators Training: We actively encourage the Associate Vicar to seek opportunities for ongoing training, attending conferences and retreats. Applications E-mail: romana.nelson@southwark.anglican.org for an application form. Deadline for applications is midday Monday 25th April at midday Successful applicants will hear by Friday 29th April. The parish visit is on Saturday 7th May. Interviews are on Thursday 12th May. Notes The post is subject to an enhanced DBS disclosure More information Website: http://stwss.org.uk