Church leader jobs in Edinburgh
Learning and Development Officer (Aligned to Wales Synod Cymru and West Midlands)
Welsh speaking
Salary: £43,287.00 per annum
Location: Home based but within commutable distance to Wales Synod Cymru District and West Midlands District.
Hours: 35 hours per week
This role is part of the Connexional Team Learning Network, supporting, encouraging, and equipping the Church to live out ‘Our Calling’ through worship, mission, evangelism and discipleship. The Learning Network primarily works with lay and ordained leaders, helping them equip others.
This post contributes to Connexional-wide learning and development initiatives, and is specifically aligned with the Wales Synod Cymru District as the Welsh speaking Learning and Development Officer (LDO) and the new West Midlands District following the merger of the current Birmingham District and the Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District on 1st September 2025. Wales Synod Cymru is a bilingual District of 16 circuits, including the Welsh language Cymru Circuit which covers the whole of Wales, and the West Midlands District has 20 circuits across Birmingham, Wolverhampton and the Black Country, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Both districts are diverse in terms of population groupings and serve communities in rural, market towns, suburbs and city centre settings.
The Ideal Candidate for This Role
The person best suited for this Learning & Development Officer role will be:
A Passionate and Committed Christian:
- Deeply engaged in their faith and motivated to help churches grow in discipleship, worship, mission and evangelism.
- A member of a church in good standing with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (or an equivalent organisation).
- Committed to the values of inclusivity, justice, evangelism, and church growth.
A Skilled Educator and Facilitator
- Experienced in learning and development, with transferable skills to a church setting.
- Confident in designing, delivering and evaluating training, both and online and onsite.
- Able to engage adult learners effectively, making theological concepts accessible, and equipping people for vocations within the life of the church.
- A strong theological thinker, able to guide and develop conversations to enable A Methodist Way of Life.
A Strong Communicator and Relationship-Builder
- Able to connect with and inspire people across the church to enable them to serve in their varied communities.
- Skilled in facilitating discussions on vision, mission and growth planning.
- Comfortable using digital tools and online platforms for training and communication.
- Adept at working across cultural and theological contexts, bringing sensitivity and adaptability.
- Proactive in identifying learning and development needs and responding with creative, tailored solutions.
- A fluent Welsh speaker with strong oral and written communication skills in both Welsh and English
A Collaborative Leader
- Capable of working with diverse teams, including ordained and lay church leaders.
- Skilled in planning, organising, and evaluating learning and development initiatives.
- Proactive in identifying training needs and responding with creative, tailored solutions.
- Open to collaborating across Methodist districts and the wider church network.
A Flexible and Self-Motivated Professional
- Comfortable with travel and occasional evening/weekend work.
- Based in the either Wales or the West Midlands, with the ability to travel across both districts as required.
- Organised and self-driven, able to manage multiple projects and responsibilities.
- Creative and adaptable in responding to the changing needs of churches and communities
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), annualised hours and a 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. Please note that this is a post which includes Welsh language work for which the ability to speak and write in Welsh to a high standard is essential.
The successful applicant will be required to live either within or close to either District and will be expected to travel extensively across both Districts and beyond for work purposes.
Please note previous applicants need not apply.
Closing date: 2 February 2026 @ 9am
Interviews to take place on:
Tuesday 10th February 2026: First stage telephone interviews, conducted in Welsh, between 1 and 4pm.
Thursday 19th February 2026: Second stage interviews conducted in English and Welsh in Shrewsbury.
The rest of the recruitment process will be conducted in English.
N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Registered Charity
101 - 500
The calling of the Methodist Church is to respond to the gospel of God's love in Christ and to live out its discipleship in worship and mission.
Thank you!
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
About 500k
Our vision is a church in every village in India: an India where every person has a chance to hear the good news of Jesus.
We do this through sending Indian people to plant churches in unreached Indian villages, in partnership with local Indian leaders and Bible Colleges. Our culture is radical, sacrificial and Jesus-centric. We value effectiveness and working smart as well as hard to reach as many villages as possible. Loving God and loving each other remains our first priority.
Being founded in 2014, in our first 10 years we started churches in 4500 villages. In 2025 alone, that number was 2000. Our goal for 2026 is 3000 villages. The global 2026 budget is £2.3M, up from £1.6M in 2025 and £1.1M in 2024.
We are in a period of rapid expansion and the Founder CEO is looking to hand over many of his responsibilities to a COO who will partner with him in leading the mission.
About the role
As the Chief Operating Officer (COO) you will be forming a partnership with the CEO to lead 500k.
You will be unlocking the growth of this ministry as well as sharpening our impact and making it sustainable. You will be a key part of enabling us to achieve our goal of growing 5x over the next 5-10 years.
As COO you will have a prominent role in creating and achieving our annual growth plan. You will be responsible for the organisation’s day-to-day operations, people management, systems efficiency, financial stewardship, safeguarding and compliance requirements. You will anticipate and plan for our growing needs with the development of new people and systems.
Key details
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Reports to the CEO
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37.5 hours per week
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Remote working. Proximity to London where the CEO resides is preferable.
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Salary: £50,000–£55,000 per annum (FTE)
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Opportunities for travel to India and the USA
The current set-up of our team is that all our 17 paid staff are in India. Our 3 UK staff, (including the CEO) work for 500k bivocationally and are not paid. They work at FTEs of 70%, 20% and 15%. This arrangement has been reached through the outworking of our values of radical generosity, radical dependence on the Lord, and seeking to maximally empower our Indian team.
For the last 18 months we have been discerning whether to scale our current arrangement (with more bivocational or support-raising staff in the West) or whether to switch to a salaried model for our UK team.
We desire the new COO to be a part of this discernment process. You should be open to the options of fully or partially support-raising your own salary, or working bivocationally, alongside the option of being salaried by 500k. Having said that, we are committed to landing on a clear plan with you prior to your commencement in the role. A full time role is preferable, but we are open for your commitment to 500k being FTE 70% or more, particularly if the bivocational option is being pursued.
Key responsibilities
You will line-manage the following roles: our India Team Lead, Head of Operations, Head of Admin and Finance Officer.
You will be responsible for:
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Management of our Indian team and our on-the-ground church planting work
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Operational execution across the four branches of 500k (UK, US, Canada and Switzerland).
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Policies, systems, and organisational discipline
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Financial processes, controls, and reporting
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Safeguarding implementation and reporting
You will be empowered to:
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Form annual growth plans in conjunction with the CEO
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Make operational decisions within the agreed strategy
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Challenge inefficiencies and legacy practices
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Build systems that outlast individuals
What we’re looking for:
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Alignment with our vision and values and a passion for our mission. An openness to joining us in discerning the Lord’s plan for our future.
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High personal integrity, emotional maturity, and the confidence to lead change alongside a Founder CEO
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Experience of operational leadership and delivering strategy through people and systems
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Strong cross-cultural leadership capability
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Financial oversight skills
Bonus skills
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Impact measurement and evaluation skills
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Understanding of UK charity governance, compliance, and risk management
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Safeguarding oversight
To apply
Submit your CV and a short cover letter (max 300 words)
Closing date: 03/02/2026
First-round interviews will take place week commencing 15th February.
In your cover letter (max 300 words) please share why you are interested in the role and why you think you could be the right candidate for it.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
The Head of Advocacy, Awareness and External Relations is a senior leadership role within AtaLoss, working closely with and reporting directly to the CEO. The post-holder will lead work across the public, bereavement and commercial sectors to deliver AtaLoss’ strategic outcomes by:
- providing national leadership in bereavement awareness, advocacy and policy influence, including through Parliament, the APPG and the media
- strengthening the website as the UK’s trusted gateway for bereavement support, ensuring accessible, high-quality content and effective signposting
- enabling holistic bereavement support in communities and workplaces through partnership development, training and the growth of Bereavement Friendly Communities
- contributing to organisational sustainability through income-generating training, cross-sector partnerships and effective external engagement.
The role sits at the heart of AtaLoss’ mission to ensure that every bereaved person can access the right support at the right time, and to position bereavement as a public health issue requiring timely, coordinated and understanding response.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.