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To maintain good practice standards, provide timely information and advice to local churches, and operate a robust casework service.  To sustain and further develop a comprehensive safeguarding training programme that delivers nationally approved training effectively and with impact. 

We are seeking to appoint two experienced Safeguarding Officers on a permanent contract; altogether 1.3 full-time equivalent between the two posts, with hours being negotiable with successful candidates.The post holders will have a relevant professional qualification and be able to demonstrate a proven track record of direct safeguarding practice with vulnerable adults or children or both. The successful applicants will be expected to provide effective leadership across the District to promote a culture of safeguarding, whilst supporting survivors of abuse.Working with partners from the Church’s Learning Network, the post holders will be expected to contribute to the planning and delivery of the District’s safeguarding training programme.

The post holders will be expected to be in sympathy with the aims of the Methodist Church.

Location: Home-based, own transport is essential as travel will be required region-wide.We need one member of staff to cover Cumbria and North Lancashire.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday, between 09:00 and 17:00. Also to include some evenings and occasional weekends.

Salary: £40,000 to £42,000 pro rata, dependent on experience.

Holidays: 25 days plus 8 bank holidays

Closing date for applications: Midday on Monday 20 May 2024

Interviews:  5th or 7th June 

Applicants need to be aware that a report will be presented to the Methodist Conference in June which may result in DSOs becoming connexional (national) rather than district employees.

You'll develop and strengthen our work with children within our passionate, inclusive and diverse faith community, particularly but not exclusively within our Sunday gatherings.

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One Church Brighton is quite an unusual church! We are messy, organic and entrepreneurial; we have a variety of projects all trying to tackle social justice issues; and we seek to encourage people to get involved with issues that they are passionate about, rather than directing the agenda from ‘the top’. We have a wonderfully eclectic worshipping church community who appreciate the space to ask awkward questions and embrace different views. We are known for expressing an inclusive theology -  if you are not open to embracing and welcoming people of different sexualities, different beliefs, different attitudes and behaviours you will find it very hard to work for One Church. If however this is the kind of thinking that thrills you, then you’ll find a wonderfully affirming community who are genuinely trying to build God’s kingdom here in Brighton. 

The outcome of this theological thinking has shaped a set of values that we  believe in wholeheartedly and shape all that we do as a church. These values are:

Intimacy with God 

Involvement in the world 

Interdependence with one another 

Inclusion of everyone

and Integrity in all we do. 

We are hoping to find a very special person to join in the journey of One  Church, helping us to develop our children’s work so all in our church family are equipped and nurtured to live out the ethos and values of our faith as we  follow Christ. Specifically, we want someone who translates all that’s good about One Church and communicates and embodies that to the younger generation who call this church their home. Working alongside the Associate Minister, we want someone to share the overall responsibility for the spiritual health and discipleship of our children’s work. You will be passionate about children, and also able to encourage other people to engage with and nurture this generation in their expression of faith. 

Key responsibilities 

To work alongside the Associate Minister and Youth Worker to ensure that strong, proactive pastoral care exists across the children and youth by  coordinating and delivering a high-quality children’s (0-11) programme on Sundays and beyond.

Whilst supporting a great team of volunteers you will oversee and nurture the children’s work across One Church including the development of age appropriate curriculum to be used on Sundays. As a Church that openly questions, we want to encourage this ethos across the whole family and  especially our children and young people. Therefore, you must have a real  heart for children and their spiritual formation and be comfortable chatting  with them, as well as their parents, about their faith and experiences of God,  giving them a real sense of belonging within the wider church family. 

The linking of our children’s work and the teaching themes on Sunday aim to  ensure we always reflect our key values so they make sense in the real world.  You will lead this work through our Sunday children’s groups – Buds (pre school), Saplings (school years r-2) and Forest (school years 3-6) – as well as supporting children’s activities in our wider church events such as the church weekend away.

Sunday children’s work development.

To nurture our children on their faith journey, in a way that reflects the values and ethos of One Church. In practise, this will involve:

• Organising great kids work content that is dynamic, creative and inclusive,  and that enables every child to make sense of faith in the real world.

• Pulling together a curriculum of content that helps the kids grow in, question, and express faith. This will involve drawing on external resources where helpful, but also developing resources where there aren’t suitable children’s group work curricula available. 

• Ensuring that our church space is a suitably equipped, bright, attractive  place that is child friendly and accessible for everyone including those with additional needs. 

• Being creative and thinking ‘outside the box’ about what kids work in a  church should be - we don’t want to be bound by the way things have  always been done.

Discipleship and community outside of Sundays.

We have a wonderful group of children, and our heart is to provide more  spaces for them to grow in love, community and discipleship together beyond  Sunday mornings. This might look like meeting up to fly kites together,  forming some regular Journey Groups or mentoring relationships to do life  and faith in meaningful ways, taking trips to Rock Farm (our therapeutic  smallholding in West Sussex) to get some dirt under their nails, or  alternatively just getting together to watch a movie and paint their nails!  Whatever it looks like, we believe that a life of faith is a life best done together,  and we want our kids to have that sense of being a part of a family in which  they are completely welcome to be themselves, to bring their faith and their  questions, and to see the whole of life as a part of their spiritual journey.

We are particularly keen to invest in our Key Stage 2 group as they transition to become part of our youth work. We also encourage collaboration with our Youth Group and joint sessions to explore and develop mentorship opportunities across the age groups. You, alongside the Youth Worker will be responsible for how this comes together  to develop a strong pathway between the groups.

Supporting families.

Parenting is rarely a walk in the park, and helping kids find their feet in faith can be tricky at the best of times. To add to this, though, many of the parents and carers in our church are asking questions around what it looks like to support our kids in faith when their own understanding of God and the Bible is often uncertain and full of more questions than answers! How do we pass on the great bits of our faith without some of the more problematic baggage that often comes along with it? This isn’t an easy question and it’s not one that you’ll come sailing in with an answer to, but it is one that you’ll need to be able to engage with with as you spend time carefully listening to, and encouraging  our children and their parents.

Volunteer Recruitment and Support.

Recruiting, training and developing volunteers is absolutely essential to this role! Without a team of inspired and enthusiastic volunteers your job will be impossible. Working out strategies, communicating with passion and vision and following people up in informal and fun ways are key to getting people to volunteer and you’ll need to invest well in this task for the success of the children’s work for One Church. You’ll

hold regular meetings with your team of volunteers to provide support and motivation, with help from our Volunteer Coordinator, Head of Operations and Associate Minister. 

Communication.

We need to tell others about all that is happening in the life of our children’s work! Part of this role will be communicating with parents and the wider church family about how One Church is equipping and nurturing their children through their spiritual journey and Christian faith. Alongside one to one chats, this will also involve the ability to inspire through ‘up-front’ verbal communication in a variety of settings including children’s talks/activities on Sundays, as well as web-based and printed communications.

Administration.

Self-organisation, good time-keeping and an attention to detail will be key. The coordination and support of a rota and clear plan for our children’s work is crucial. The better our children’s work is organised, the easier it’ll be for parents and volunteers to be engaged and to feel supported.

Safeguarding.

This role will, with support from the Associate Minister and the Safeguarding team, be responsible for ensuring good practices around child-protection and safeguarding as well as the health and safety of our kids and team.

Team Work.

We have a diverse and broad staff team, your role will sit within the Sundays and Church Community Team (Minister, Associate Minister, Development and Wellbeing facilitator and Youth Worker). You will need to be good at, and committed to, working with others. This might be quite intensive times of working one-on-one with a colleague or it might be simply being aware of the work of another team, but either way your role will help foster a strong sense of togetherness and a supportive culture where nobody’s work is more important than anyone else’s. You’ll also be a part of our weekly wider staff meeting.

Kids work in the community. 

We’ve always dreamed of increasing our kids work to benefit more people in our local area and across the city, whether that’s by exploring options to support struggling children in local schools, meeting and building relationship with families that use our café, supporting the work of Chomp, or any initiative that helps families at their point of need. This might be tricky to fit into 16 hours a week, but funding dependent, we’d be really open to expanding the role to include this area of work. 

Official bits. 

Benefits 

• 5% pension on qualifying earnings 

• Development of the post holder towards their full potential 

• An annual retreat will be encouraged and paid for by One Church 

• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays (on a pro rata basis) 

• The chance to be part of a fun and energetic team. 

One Church reserves the right to vary or amend the duties and responsibilities of the post holder at any time according to the needs of the church.

The aim is to grow a secondary school ministry by enhancing current relationships in schools and developing new ones. The individual should seek opportunities to collaborate with Christian teachers to help equip them in schools’ ministry and develop ministry through assemblies, Christian unions and other schools’ outreach within the Sevenoaks area, with an aim to draw students into further St. Nicholas ministries.

To work with and complement the Youth Minister, supporting Contact (15-18s) and Centrepoint (11-14s), giving insight from a female perspective and developing opportunities for discipleship with female young adults. We have a growing number of female young adults in our youth groups and see a need to expand our ability to reach them with the gospel.

Job Title: Local Lay Pastor

Location of job: Hybrid role - Andover Methodist Church with opportunities for some home working

Job Type: Full-time (38 hours per week)

Contract Type: Permanent with initial funding for 3 years and subject to a 3‑month probationary period

Salary: £23,712 per annum

About the Role

Andover Methodist Church is a welcoming church in the centre of Andover. Our vision is to change Andover by being a community of love, of hope and of justice - Love like Jesus, Justice living like Jesus, Hope because of Jesus.

We are looking for someone who has a passion and expertise for establishing positive and productive relationships with families and a commitment to their participation in the life of the church. The main focus of this role will be to work with us to develop our pastoral care and work programme for children and families within the church. We have a desire to further extend our outreach into the local schools and community.

This role is an important part of promoting our vision to Andover and as such has a genuine occupational requirement that the post‑holder is a practising Christian (as outlined by 2010 Equality Act, Section 9).

This role will require a satisfactory Enhanced DBS disclosure & the completion of the Advanced Safeguarding training course of the Methodist Church.

The nature of this role necessitates flexible working hours, including evenings and weekends.

About You

You should have a nationally recognised qualification in Children’s, Youth or Community work or equivalent experience evidenced for the role.

You should have the ability to demonstrate an understanding of the Church’s work with families, especially knowledge of Safeguarding and child protection procedures.

You should have proven experience of working with children and families in a paid or voluntary capacity in previous roles. This is an essential criteria.

You should have excellent people skills (both adult and youth), good organisational ability and be adept at creative thinking.

You should have a professional and positive approach, with a commitment to professional development and self‑improvement. Undertaking Core Skills Family Ministries Training will be an early opportunity to demonstrate this.

It is important that you are able to demonstrate awareness of, and sensitivity to, issues of equality, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to working with families from a diverse range of backgrounds and needs.

Our Culture, Values and Benefits

Thank you for considering joining our inclusive and welcoming church that strives to be a community of love, of hope and of justice. We value and support all who join our team through a positive work‑life balance augmented by generous annual leave and TOIL. We offer an occupational pension scheme to which you will be auto‑enrolled and to which we will also contribute.

We are an inclusive and affirming church. We welcome all people regardless of their sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, background or disability. We are registered for same-sex marriage and celebrate our diversity in Christ.

N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive sufficient applications. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Closing date: 30th April 2024

Interview Date: 23rd May 2024

About the role

The main purpose of the role is to coordinate the Methodist Church’s response to the arrival of Hong Kong nationals in Great Britain.  

This will involve liaising with the Methodist Church in Hong Kong and with circuits and local churches in Britain to ensure pastoral support for Hong Kong Methodists as they make the transition to this country.  You will help to motivate local circuits and churches to welcome and integrate the new arrivals into congregations, and you will provide support and training to facilitate this.  You will also develop connections with Cantonese-speaking groups and congregations already in existence, and may be involved in facilitating the formation of new ones.  Establishing connections and fostering supportive relationships to enable an effective network that brings together Methodists from Hong Kong and British churches, is key to your role.

About you

Bilingual in written and spoken Cantonese and English and a confident communicator in both languages.  You enjoy bringing people together and helping form new groups and congregations.  As this role will entail working with circuits and local churches, you will need strong project management and administrative skills. You need to be both self-motivating and a strong team player. Your work will help the Church to communicate and live out Our Calling.

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.

Closing Date: 8 May 2024

Interviews: 17 May 2024 in London

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.