Lay Ministry Development Manager

Are you someone who…

• Is passionate about encouraging and equipping people for lay ministry
• Can work with a range of church traditions within the Church of England to enable communities to discern and support a variety of lay ministry
• Makes quick, warm and collaborative relationships with volunteers and staff
• Prioritises working as a team and in constant collaboration across teams
• Gets things done with excellent communication

• Lead the development of new commissioned lay roles in the diocese, including the creation and administration of recruitment and deployment processes
• Host and develop the twice-yearly diocesan Directions Course
• Work collaboratively with colleagues to develop training and support pathways for commissioned lay roles, including initial training short courses
• Work with deaneries, parishes and leaders across the diocese to plan for and encourage lay ministry in its widest forms including commissioned roles
• Seek out stories of diverse lay ministry to encourage others
• Provide diocesan connection for the Spiritual Direction Lead and network

• Developing Commissioned Roles, Strategy, Policy and Processes
• Work closely with the vocations team, to develop policies and procedures for commissioned lay roles, then administer simple but robust processes for discernment and deployment
• Reviewing and renewing all literature in relation to current and future roles and pathways to ensure engaging, relevant material, presented creatively with our new branding
• Work specifically to bring definition and clarity to each strand of role to alleviate confusion of roles and allow discernment to be specific
• In time, developing and maturing, in conjunction with a variety of colleagues an agreed structure for the creation and monitoring of vocational people plans in parishes
• Collaborating with parish leaders
  • Working with Deaneries, LSPs and Single Parishes to use mission plans and future planning to identify types of ministry and leadership roles needed for the church of the future in that area
  • Tailor resources specifically for the context and/or create bespoke events, materials etc to support local leaders in nurturing and developing disciples who are vocationally enabled
  • Ensure policies and processes for commissioned and licensed roles are in place locally, providing support for developing recording systems
  • Speaking, on request in services, meetings and events in deaneries/LSPs, being a passionate advocate for all kinds of vocation and specific role in the Church of England and this diocese
  • Leading the diocesan Directions course and ensuring appropriate and engaging initial training and development pathways are created for lay roles in collaboration with the Vocation, Learning & Development Team
• Telling the stories of vocation
  • Taking the first development of our lifecall website  as a springboard to develop a communications strategy for lifecall roles and personal stories
  • Ensure wide diversity of stories to encourage diverse responses to vocational calling through a ‘someone like me’ strategy
  • Write required copy for information, web, social media, video
  • Work with the communications team and local parish leaders to develop a strategy and plan to develop social media as a primary vehicle for communicating vocational opportunities to a more diverse audience to those currently in the Church of England and beyond
  • Seek out inspirational new stories and approaches to vocational development to strengthen the lifecall brand which has been recently renewed

The post holder will undertake other relevant duties as may be requested from time to time and commensurate with the role within the context of ongoing change across the diocese and as work develops in the Vocations Team.