Ministry Trainee – Harper

Harper Church has been serving the local community around Plantation and Kinning Park in Govan with the Gospel of Jesus Christ for over 125 years. Our church is together on a mission to make and grow disciples of Jesus, seeing lives changed around our doors, in our city, across our nation and over His World.”

Harper Church is an intercultural church with approximately 40 nations represented in our church family. By the Lord’s grace we are a growing church with Sunday morning attendance around 240.

Harper Church is investing in training men and women for gospel work in an intercultural context. As part of this commitment we have an Antioch Academy which has the aim “To train intercultural leaders to be effective church members, deacons, elders and full time ministers”

Harper Church is looking to recruit a Ministry Trainee to join the staff team. This is a training role that will focus on the development of character, competence and conviction. The two year fixed-term full-time role will involve significant service within the local church in addition to theological training in partnership with an external training provider (for example, at Cornhill Scotland).

The successful candidate will be involved in the shepherding, pastoral care, discipleship and evangelism of people from a variety of backgrounds, nationalities and ages. You will be supported in this role by the church at large, and in particular by the elders, staff team and lead pastor. This role is designed to stretch individuals and they will be given responsibilities to help them grow, and equip them for ministry in the local church.

The successful candidate will serve 40 hours per week and the training role would be based in large part in and around the church and at the location of the external training provider. There would be a requirement to serve some evenings, attend prayer meetings, our mid week Growth Group meetings, members meetings (~ 6 per year), and, attend morning and evening services on a Sunday.

In order for Harper Church to live out our vision, we are guided by the following:

• Engage – we seek to engage with all our communities
• Evangelise – we seek to share the good news with the lost in our communities
• Establish
  disciples – we seek to make disciples from all our communities
• Equip – we desire that those in Harper Church become disciple making disciples in all our communities.

The successful candidate, along with the rest of the staff team, will be guided by these ‘four Es’.

The role would include:

• Shadowing and learning from experienced individuals.
• Internal training times with the associate and lead pastors, focusing on practical ministry and intercultural church.
• Preaching responsibilities with feedback prior to and after preaching opportunities. Given our complementation convictions, if the candidate is a woman, appropriate teaching opportunities will be provided with feedback before and after.
• Developing 1to1 and smaller group discipling relationships.
• Offering pastoral care to those in our church, particularly in times of personal trials; this may involve visits to care homes, hospitals and homes,
• Involvement in ministry to young people as this proves to be a useful training ground.
• Building relationships with those in our community who are not Christians, seeking to share the Gospel with them; this may include the organising of evangelistic courses.

The successful candidate will be in agreement with the church’s statement of faith. The church is a member of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches and the successful candidate will also be in agreement with the FIEC Statement of Faith and Ethos Statements.

Further, the successful candidate will have:

• A clear evangelical Christian commitment and consistent integrity in life and doctrine.
• A commitment to prayer and serious-minded study of the scriptures.
• A real love for people (young and old), including a desire to see them mature and follow Jesus throughout life. You will have an evangelistic heart.
• Ideally, experience of serving in a local church. A willingness to work as part of a team is especially important.
• An approachable personality and…