St Peter’s is one of five Church of England (Anglican) Churches in Newton-le-Willows and Burtonwood, that together form the Newton Team. The other churches in the team are St John’s (Earlestown), All Saints (Newton), Emmanuel (Wargrave) and St Michael’s (Burtonwood). We have a vibrant, warm and friendly congregation who enjoy worship and seek to serve our community.

The five churches in Newton and Burtonwood are broadly middle-of-the-road in their tradition, with a more evangelical expression at St John’s Earlestown. They need encouraging leadership to build on their existing strengths and encourage new ventures in mission, especially in a post-Covid world.

The post-holder will have principal responsibility for St Peter’s Newton, a significant church building and congregation at one end of the High Street. St Peter’s is close to its church school and the vicarage is nearby.

Short Listing: 3rd April 2023

Interview Dates: 27th April 2023

For more information, please contact the Archdeacon of St Helens and Warrington the Ven Simon Fisher on: simon.fisher@liverpool.anglican.org.uk

As well as your local responsibilities, as a leader in the Diocese of Liverpool you will be expected to:-

• Constantly advocate diocesan strategy
• Sign people up to the Rule of Life
• Nurture existing leaders and identify new ones
• Identify and commission teams
• Build and lead a leadership team
• Create a positive culture of accountability
• Establish connections between worshipping communities
• Attend to financial health of your worshipping communities

The Priorities:

• build up the congregation of St Peter’s in numbers and in confidence
• encourage and embed a culture of serious discipleship and evangelism
• engage with missional and discipleship opportunities linked to the church school
• develop St Peter’s place as a visible presence of the Christian faith in the town

Other Key Responsibilities:

• embody a life shaped by regular prayer and study of Scripture
• identify, develop and lead existing and new lay leadership
• play a full part in the life of the wider team and deanery

Being part of the Clergy Team in Liverpool Diocese

For many years we have been working to achieve growth in our diocese. We have used different ways to express this but the aim and direction of travel has remained the same – consistent with the whole of the Church of England. We have articulated a vision for this growth by saying

we are asking God for a bigger church so that we can make a bigger difference:

more people knowing Jesus and more justice in the world.

In our diocesan vision we have identified four priority areas for our work in mission in this season:

Introducing people to God through Jesus Christ

Deepening discipleship, especially by means of our Rule of Life

Developing Christian leaders in every place

Working for justice

Like everyone entering a new role in the Diocese, you will accept the priority of these areas, and will measure your ministry by effectiveness in these areas. You will be supported and expected to be accountable (through the Ministerial Development Review as well as through regular meetings with your colleagues) for how they are being implemented within your area of responsibility.

In common with all clergy in the diocese, you will work together with others to:-

1. Establish a culture of invitation in evangelism within the local church.
2. Start new worshipping communities and maintain existing healthy worshipping communities that are accessible to all.
3. Establish a culture in the local church of expecting a deepening of discipleship and putting into practice the 6 disciplines of the Diocesan Rule of Life.
4. Develop prayerfully a strategy for mission and church growth and aligning it with the Diocesan strategy Fit for Mission.
5. Identify, train, release and support new Christian leaders and teams.
6. Encourage vocations by identifying the gifts of others and assisting people to seek God’s calling for their lives.
7. Develop the distinctive ministry of the local Church within the wider context of the Diocese, Deanery and local ecumenical setting by establishing and maintaining good collaborative working relationships with clergy and lay colleagues.
8. Lead your congregations both to pray for justice in the Church and the world and to recognize how, working with others, your congregations can work for more justice in the Church, your local communities, and the world.
9. Ensure that safeguarding, financial and other governance disciplines are followed.