Associate Pastor: Students & Young Adults

Status:
Full-time, salaried

Avalon Church’s mission is to make disciples who make disciples. We have moved away from a traditional attractional model toward an approach we call Big Church, Small Church.

Our weekend gatherings, “Big Church,” are centered on worship and serve as a wide, welcoming entry point, particularly for those exploring faith, working through doubts, or returning to faith after time away. “Small Church” refers to communities where people live out church life together through worship, genuine community, and blessing the world.

At Avalon, discipleship means helping people take meaningful next steps in following Jesus, building community, and serving the world. This includes students and young adults.

Avalon is led by a Ministry Board, with the Lead Pastor serving as part of that team. We practice shared leadership rather than top-down decision-making. Our congregation spans a wide range of racial, cultural, and theological backgrounds, held together by a shared allegiance to Jesus, unity around our core convictions, and grace in secondary matters.

The Associate Pastor of Students and Young Adults provides pastoral, relational, and strategic leadership for Avalon’s ministry to middle school students, high school students, college students, young adults, and their families.

This role is not primarily about personally running programs, but about developing leaders, discipling the next generation, partnering with parents, and helping students and young adults stay connected to the life and mission of Avalon Church.

As a member of Avalon’s pastoral staff, this person will also help strengthen the church through pastoral care, occasional preaching, leadership development, and active participation in staff planning and ministry collaboration.

Develop and oversee a leadership culture for Avalon’s ministry to middle and high school students. This includes recruiting, training, coaching, and empowering adult and student leaders who disciple students, lead ministry environments, and help students grow as active participants rather than passive attendees. The goal is to build a student ministry culture where students experience belonging, encounter Jesus, ask honest questions, grow spiritually, and learn to bless the world in Jesus’ name.

Success means students are known, leaders are equipped, students are growing as disciples and leaders, and transitions from middle school to high school and from high school into young adulthood strengthen their connection to the church.

Develop and oversee a leadership culture for Avalon’s ministry to college students and young adults. This includes identifying and equipping adult and young adult leaders who can build relationships, create environments, and develop pathways where young adults ask honest questions, grow spiritually, build community, serve, worship, and connect into the broader life of Avalon.

Success means college students and young adults are not left on the margins of the church, but are connected, discipled, equipped, and meaningfully participating in the life and mission of Avalon.

Partner with parents as the primary spiritual influencers in their students’ lives by providing regular communication, encouragement, practical resources, and pastoral support. Help parents navigate key transitions, faith questions, cultural pressures, and the work of discipling their students at home.

Success means parents feel supported, informed, and equipped as they help their students follow Jesus.

Strengthen Avalon’s pastoral capacity by serving students, young adults, families, volunteers, and the broader congregation through pastoral care, spiritual guidance, occasional preaching, and participation in staff planning and ministry collaboration. Work with the Lead Pastor on ministry direction, preaching development, and pastoral mentoring, and with the Executive Pastor to keep ministry plans, communication, budgets, and systems clear and sustainable.

Success means Avalon’s pastoral capacity is strengthened without pulling this…