Christ Church Pennington is a Christ-centred evangelical Church in Leigh in the diocese of Manchester. In style, the Church is both the modern and traditional, relies on the Bible and the Holy Spirit together in worship, and seeks to be a community of both young and old disciples of Jesus to the glory of God. We see ourselves as a charismatic evangelical Church with a strong emphasis on small groups. We have a strong tradition of Bible-based teaching, worship and fellowship. We continue to stand alongside all those who believe in the authority and supremacy of the Scriptures. We are also open to the moving of God’s Holy Spirit.

We have two main congregations. The first is based at the 19th century parish church and the second is a fresh expressions church plant, which meets in Leigh Sports Village.

Over the last few years, we have hosted a number of teams from Pais (https://paismovement.com/) and have successfully developed outreach amongst young people. However, the regular congregation remains biased towards older people. Our priority now is to reach out to families with school-aged children to guarantee our witness in the parish in the future.

Our overall vision is underpinned by these values:

Love Jesus

Jesus came to bring life, and life in all its fullness, so we have something for everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. We want to bring hope, care and joy into everyone’s life and so our meetings and our worship reflect that.

Love Life

Our whole aim in life is to love Jesus more and more and to understand more of His will for our lives. He has given everything for us and our response to His freely given sacrificial death and resurrection is to give our lives back to Him.

Love Leigh

We are a community-based Church, but we realise that community’ is now a worldwide concept, and so our love of those around us begins with those nearest to us and extends worldwide through our mission partners.

Our overall vision is underpinned by these values:

Love Jesus

Jesus came to bring life, and life in all its fullness, so we have something for everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. We want to bring hope, care and joy into everyone’s life and so our meetings and our worship reflect that.

Love Life

Our whole aim in life is to love Jesus more and more and to understand more of His will for our lives. He has given everything for us and our response to His freely given sacrificial death and resurrection is to give our lives back to Him.

Love Leigh

We are a community-based Church, but we realise that community’ is now a worldwide concept, and so our love of those around us begins with those nearest to us and extends worldwide through our mission partners.

The post is for an Incumbent of Christ Church who would also be Mission Community Leader for Leigh (with a three year commitment to this additional role).

Leigh is 40 minutes by car from Manchester, 45 minutes from Liverpool and close to the M6, M60 and M61 motorways. It is a town which was built on cotton, coal and engineering, all of which have now ceased, leading to several parts of the town having higher scores than average on several measures of deprivation, including income deprivation, unemployment, poor health and education, and crime. Pennington is a suburban area situated just south of Leigh town centre. The parish is quite varied socially with large Victorian houses along the main road, well established tree lined suburban roads dating from the 1930s with more modern additions, two working class council estates built in the 1940s and several recent housing developments including at the Sports Village site.

We have a good variety of worship to suit all visitors and members of our congregations. The 10:30am and SVC services are informal with modern worship led by one of our bands with leading and preaching shared amongst a small group of people. 8:00am and 6:30pm services are more traditional and a traditional choir is called upon to sing at Christmas, Easter, Harvest and some other special occasions.

Our mission is based on several foundations:

Prayer

We believe that prayer is the foundation for everything that takes place in and outside the Church. We have an ALM Prayer Coordinator for Prayer and Spirituality, who is developing the practice of prayer, leading monthly Prayer and Worship evenings to pray strategically for the work of the

Church, a twice-yearly Week of Prayer, Prayer and Reflection days.

Outreach

A number of activities are aimed at connecting with people in the community so that we can share the gospel and encourage people into church. These include the weekly Parents and Toddlers Group, Baby-interrupted Bible Study (BIBS), the weekly Holy Grounds Coffee Morning, the Hobby Hive Hobby and Craft Group, Men’s Fellowship, periodic Men’s and Women’s Curry Nights, Taste and Testimony evenings and other occasional events, including Men’s Breakfasts organised by Christian Vision for Men. We are currently holding am Alpha course. We also make good use of community events such as the upcoming coronation and our own services at special occasion, particularly Christmas, to widen our contact with the community and to share the gospel.

Community Care

We regularly support our local food bank and our pastoral team ministers to those who are bereaved and in other sorts of need.

The whole ethos of our Church life is one of collaborative ministry with a deep commitment to every member ministry, where every member is valued, affirmed and encouraged to develop in Christian values and gifts. We see ministry as something done by the whole Church and encourage everyonein the congregation to be involved, whether that be in welcoming, prayer ministry or leading worship in the morning service, pastoral care through our ALM-led pastoral team, children and young people’s work or in the various outreach and community care ministries.

Over the past few years, we have seen an increase in the numbers of young people associated with CCP. However, we have not seen a comparable increase in the numbers of people in other age groups. Many of the congregation are over 50 with many retirees. This has left the congregation with a “gap” in the middle. A serious challenge is to reach out to younger adults and families with children. This will be the focus of our outreach in the coming months and years.

Like many other churches, CCP was badly hit by the COVID pandemic in terms of attendance and giving. During the spring of 2022, we had a “season of return” which did lead to increased numbers, particularly at the 10:30am services, but attendance is still below pre-pandemic levels. The challenge is to encourage a greater return and also bringing in new people.

Lower attendance and the current economic situation have led to a reduction in income, which affects CCP’s ability to move forward, and our ability to meet diocesan expectation regarding our parish share. Having said that, we have also benefitted from grants from Wigan MBC and others in support of our young people’s programmes, in particular. The challenge is to sustain and increase our income.

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We expect the person God brings to develop their own ministry, according to the gifts and abilities God has given. In particular, we are looking for

• a spiritual and prayerful person who enables people to grow in faith and confidence
• a prayerful leader to guide the Church as it continues on its journey
• someone who will get to know the Church, its people and the local community and
• with us develop vision and strategy for mission, inspiring us
• someone willing to invest in the long term future of God’s Church in this place
• a pastor who will develop and harness the enthusiasm of lay people who want to effectively reach out into the community and exercise the gifts God has given them to minister in the Church
• an inspirational preacher who firmly believes in the authority of Scripture

Simeon's Trustees, the patron of Christ Church, Pennington, is a leading and long-standing Church of England patronage trust, with patronage interests in over 140 benefices in 32 dioceses.

For more information about Simeon's Trustees see www.simeons.org.uk or contact ann.brown@simeons.org.uk

For more information about the application process and for the contact details for an informal conversation do see the attached Information Letter.

​Closing date for this post is midnight Tuesday 28th March

Interviews on Thursday 27th April