Head of Leadership Development

We are looking for an exceptional leader who will shape the future leadership of Church of England Birmingham (CofEB). Working under the leadership of the Director of Ministry, and consulting widely, the successful candidate will support the growth of lay and ordained leaders across Church of England Birmingham, capable of leading towards greater spiritual depth, numerical growth, and missional confidence in their roles, through the design and deployment of impactful learning approaches and experiences.

They will lead projects that will find and test new ways of discerning and forming Christian leaders, including how we scale this up.

CofEB has been given a significant opportunity: to strengthen and renew our leadership pipeline through strategic investment supported by £6 million from the National Church. This isn’t simply about filling vacancies. It is about shaping the future leadership of the Church in Birmingham for the next generation.

Across our diocese we see extraordinary faithfulness, deep commitment, and real signs of hope. Clergy and lay leaders serve with courage and imagination in complex contexts. Churches are engaging creatively in mission, serving communities under pressure, and seeking to reach younger and more diverse populations with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Yet we also need to be honest about the challenges we face. Many of our current systems for identifying, developing, supporting, and deploying leaders need updating and join up. The scale and pace of cultural change, increasing complexity in parish ministry, clergy wellbeing pressures, and the growing leadership demands of mission all require a more flexible, intentional and integrated approach.

At the same time, the leadership pipeline is under strain. Nationally, the Church of England is not currently developing enough future leaders to sustain and grow ministry over the coming decades. Birmingham reflects this picture. Even so, numbers are not our primary concern. This is also about ensuring we are recognising those who God is calling with their rich and varied qualities - nurturing leaders with the spiritual depth, resilience, missional imagination, and cultural intelligence needed for the future.

Alongside this, we recognise that leadership in the Church does not yet fully reflect the communities we serve. Birmingham is one of the youngest, most ethnically diverse, and socio-economically varied dioceses in the country. If we are serious about mission, we must become more intentional in identifying and supporting leaders from under-represented groups and ensuring that pathways into leadership are accessible, visible, and sustainable.

We recognise that God calls people made in his image, with a rich diversity of gifts, experiences and needs. Our task as a Ministry Team is not to make people fit our leadership pathways but to generously shape those pathways to be fit for every person God calls. We also recognise that we need more entrepreneurial leadership: ‘Visionaries who partner with God and others and challenge the status quo by energetically creating and innovating in order to shape something of Kingdom value.’

(Bishop Michael)

Could you join the team and help nurture the future leadership of Church of England Birmingham?

Under the direction of the Leadership Theme Board and Director of Ministry this role will focus on:

• Strategy and Design:
  
  Create, consult and collaboratively plan, ensuring a robust definition and delivery approach to building the all-round leadership capabilities for primary leaders (usually this means clergy at incumbent-level) in line with our strategy.
• Programme join up:
  
  Working with other team leads to oversee the design and delivery approach of learning solutions, including curricula, workshops, digital tools, and mentoring.
• Evolving learning and development further to support formation:
  
  Work closely with the other leaders in the Ministry team to further evolve learning and development to better support the formation of leaders
• Project Leadership:on specific streams of work, leading the design, development and delivery of projects from inception to business as…