Children's and Families Pioneer

This is a unique opportunity for a highly talented children and families worker keen to make a big impact in Wallington (near Croydon). The role offers a significant stepping stone for career development as you will be able to develop and multiply the impact of our Pioneering ministries by training designated partner Estate churches across the Diocese. This is a jointly-funded position made up of two roles. Children & Family Pastor and Children & Family Pioneer. In the 'Children & Family Pastor' role, half of your time will be focussed on building relationships and pastoring children and families as part of Springfield Church in Wallington. We are growing ministries to children and young families, including our Sunday morning groups, Monthly 'All in' services', and Springers midweek Toddler group. You would develop these and other projects, such as a Sunday afternoon Bubble Church, and build upon our relationships with local schools where we run Messy Church and have mentors supporting children. In the 'Children & Family Pioneer' role, the other half of your time will be devoted to developing our innovative pioneering models such as our after-school 'tea & toast' group and 'IDK' older children's space, to also include new pioneer initiatives such as holiday clubs, spaces for parents to explore faith and a Roundshaw-based Toddler space. You will then share these initiatives with other Estate churches across the Diocese and work with them so these ideas can be developed to set up children's and families projects on other Estates. The role offers a really fantastic opportunity to develop our work, try new things and make a huge difference by bringing children and families to faith, not only in Wallington but across many Estate churches in South London. You will have ongoing support in the role from an experienced and committed staff team, led by Pioneer Vicar David Atkinson, alongside Pioneer Curate, Mel Wynn including strong operational support alongside other volunteer team members. Training and development is available , for example, to develop as a trainer for the partner churches. There is also fantastic expertise and support available from the Diocese. As part of our successful bid for this funding, we have new resources to develop a website and social media capability to promote and support your work and develop training material for other Estate churches to use. We are looking for a passionate and strategic candidate - someone who loves pioneering and pastoring children and families, and can train and release our growing team of volunteers (rather than doing everything yourself). You will understand and relate to the pressures and sense of community that come from living on a diverse Estate and you would be able to demonstrate that you have been successful in pastoring and pioneering children and family ministries in the community. You would share our values of courage, compassion and creativity as we seek to build a culture of belonging around Jesus. Ideally, you would have a qualification in children and families work, but this is not essential if you have relevant experience. If you are interested in the role please get in touch to talk to us about it. We are really keen to talk to you if you feel drawn to the role.

We are advertising two part-time roles together. We are open equally to one person carrying out both roles or two part-time appointments., The Diocese of Southwark, founded in 1905, forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Diocese covers primarily the area of Greater London, which is south of the Thames, together with the eastern part of the county of Surrey. It is one of the largest dioceses in terms of population and parishes as well as one of the most diverse. We share a vision for the future in which we will see:

• growing churches, new worshipping communities and new Christians
• deepening discipleship: engaged, prayerful and informed Christians
• growth in vocations to existing and new ministries
• generous giving and prayer supporting all we do
• justice and peace built up, and violence challenged, in our local and global community
• a shared commitment to the integrity of Creation
• a Church for all which reflects our diverse community in membership and leadership, including growth in United Kingdom minority ethnic (UKME) vocations and appointments.
Our Vision is founded on mutual commitment from all who make up the Diocesan family to walk together in the pilgrimage of faith, supporting, encouraging and resourcing each other in our common task.

31,000 Max Salary 31,000 Description of Job