20 hours a week, this exciting post will involve working with a team of volunteers in overseeing a youth club on Monday evenings, a Thursday after school club, developing further mid week and weekend ministry, being pro-active in building relationships with local families, running special events during school holidays, and leading the provision of Sunday morning activities and worship for young people and children.

All Saints Church Council have an exciting opportunity for a Christian with experience of working with children and young people. This is a spiritual leadership role for an individual who understands and personally models Christian commitment and values.

The Children and Families Minister will enjoy building relationships with young families and have an affinity for working with children and young people of all ages.

You will be supported by the District Church Council and wider church community to strengthen the existing ministry and develop and extend this work, with the objectives of creating a more robust and sustainable ministry.

Job Context

We believe as a church that we should invest in strengthening our children and family ministry in order to build on our community presence and increase the spiritual engagement of our church family, which includes a small number of young families with children who are very committed to All Saints. To support these aims a Children and Families Minister role has been developed to strengthen this section of the church with the aim of helping it to grow in numbers too as well as in depth of faith and spirituality.

The specific aims would be to work with our Team Vicar, Church Council and team of volunteers to achieve the following:

• Lead the following groups towards growth both spiritually and numerically with the following groups:
• Sunday club Adventurers on Sunday morning
• Monday evening Shine youth group
• Thursday afternoon Holyballoo club for parents and children
• Further activities to be arranged around gaps in the church hall timetable
• Strengthen our links with the All Saints Nursery school and the uniformed organisations on our campus and find ways of engaging with both groups
• Be pro-active in building relationships with local families
• Develop Fun Days, trips out and other community and outreach projects to run during the school holidays.
• Use social media as a form of communicating and publicising the various events and activities
• Network with other children and youth leaders in the area and diocese in terms of mutual sharing of ideas of best practice and with a view to possible future joint events.
• Attend church council meetings, supervision meetings, co-leaders meetings and other such meetings
• Occasionally take school assemblies at schools in the parish

HOURS AND DESCRIPTION OF WORK

Hours will be 20 hours per week. You will have a base in the Church office to do administrative and preparation work. The central objective is to start new ministries and strengthen the existing ministries.

Some weeks the work may slightly exceed 20 hours, and others will have less than 20 hours. You will provide a monthly timesheet showing how over a month you have balanced this as an average of 20 hours a week.

We would ask that you submit a report to the Church Council every two months and attend Church Council meetings when required.

Probationary Period, Supervision and Training

There will be a probationary period of 3 months.

The job will be a one year contract for the first two years which will be renewed depending on the impact the post is having on Children and Families work at All Saints. Thereafter it will become a permanent contract but may be limited in its duration by funding constraints.

Personal Attributes
The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• A gift for inspiring, equipping and leading others
• An eagerness to build relationships with both adults and children
• A capacity for vision and initiative
• An enjoyment of learning and new experiences Competencies and skills
• Confident in sharing the Gospel
• Able to respect matters of confidentiality and sensitivity
• Self-motivated, able to work flexibly and to prioritise
• Able to organise self and others
• Able to monitor and evaluate own and others’ performance
• Up-front presentation skills to adults and children
• Capable IT skills, general office and clerical skills
• Competent understanding and knowledge of social media platforms
• Knowledge of child development
• Knowledge of safeguarding, with the capacity to demonstrate clear thinking and application in this regard

Qualifications and experience
Essential

• Experience of working as part of a team
• Experience of working with parents and children aged 0 -18.
• Experience of working with volunteers
• Experience of being involved with church and/or community children’s groups

Desirable

• Musical and/or sporting gifts
• Qualifications related to childcare, teaching or working with children
• A relevant degree level (or equivalent) qualification

All Saints is one of five Church of England churches in the Whitstable Team Ministry, in East Kent.

We have experience of having a paid children and families minister as up to the pandemic we employed someone who has now gone on to be a teacher. Our children and families work needs building up again after a significant decline over and since the pandemic. We are a friendly church and Whitstable is a wonderful place to live.