8–13s Children & Youth Worker Lead

8-13s Children’s and Youth Ministries Lead Responsible to: Children, Youth & Families (CYF) Associate Pastor Contract: Full Time (permanent) but will also consider part time applications Working pattern: 37.5 hours, worked flexibly across the week (to include Sunday mornings, some evenings and occasional Saturdays) Location: Wycliffe Baptist Church, 233 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 4LS Annual salary range: £24,784.50- £28,943 FTE depending on experience Annual leave: 33 days (including 8 bank holidays)

Our Church We are an evangelical church and a community of Christians who love and follow Jesus. We are passionate about seeing lives transformed by Jesus’s love, engaging in ministry and witness to our community in East Reading and beyond. We are an urban, socially diverse, multicultural and multigenerational church, serving over 400 people across four congregations (9AM, 10:45AM, 10:45 accessible service, 6PM).

Role Overview This role oversees Wycliffe’s ministry with 8-13s, helping them explore faith in Jesus together and planning for successful transition from children’s ministry into youth ministry. This is about creating a fun, welcoming and safe space to belong, learning to be church together and grow in confidence to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with their friends.

Main Responsibilities

1. Overseeing ministry to children and young people aged 8-13.
2. Equipping and engaging leaders, parents and the whole church to understand and support the key elements to this stage of faith formation.
3. Ensuring that 8-13s ministry practice meets Safeguarding, Health and Safety, Financial, Employment and Data Protection Policy and Practice requirements.

  This involves, but is not limited to:

1. Ministry Leadership & Delivery for 8-13s • Ensure the 8-13s ministries work falls under the overarching CYF strategy and the vision, values and priorities of the church. • Lead, shape and champion the vision, values and strategies for reaching 8–13s with the gospel and to help them grow as disciples of Jesus during their time at Wycliffe Baptist Church. • Be the CYF staff point of contact for 8-13s, parents, leaders and the wider church. • Oversee the planning, resourcing and delivery of Sunday ministry, midweek groups, residentials, events and outreach activities • Ensure the 8-11s ministry builds on the work done by the Under 8s and families’ ministry; • Ensure the 11-13s ministry seeks to deepen a young person’s faith and introduces them to areas of serving as they move on to 14-18+ ministry. • Engage with the community and local schools to reach the 95% of 8-13s not in church (e.g. through involvement with REinspired).

2. Equipping & Engaging • Collaborate with other leaders to develop strategies and experiences which deliver the priorities for this faith formation stage. • Equip teams with resources and curriculum as needed. • Recruit new leaders, safely appoint, train, support and develop all leaders for 8-13s ministry. • Encourage confidence in God’s Word and an openness to the work of the Holy Spirit. • Ensure parents understand the vision, values and strategies of ministry to this age group and offer resourcing opportunities to support their offspring navigate the leap from childhood to adolescence. • Encourage prayer and interest for this ministry from the whole church. • Encourage 8-13s to get involved in wider age/all age services and events (e.g. Church Day Away, Youth residentials and Superhero Party). • Network with other CYF leaders across Reading and attend national children’s and youth ministry conferences to receive, be inspired, equip and resource ministry for the future.

3. Compliance & Administration • With the support of the Operations team maintain accurate, secure and up-to-date records of children in 8–13s ministry and ensure leaders are safely appointed (conducting interviews, initiating DBS checks, calling up references and providing safeguarding training.) • Promote and monitor good safeguarding practice (e.g. safe ratios, risk assessments, safe communication with young people, how to report incidents.) • Keep First Aid training up-to-date and ensure all leaders on and off site know how to work safely (food hygiene, safe lifting and fire plans.) • Contribute to the preparation and management of the CYF budget. • Submit expenses promptly and within limits of the budget

  About You This is the kind of person we are looking for: • is a wholehearted disciple of Jesus and a consistent model for others. • have a calling to children’s and youth ministry with the personality, gifts, skills and experience to be creative, take initiative and lead ministry to our 8-13s. • approaches ministry prayerfully and seek to be led by Holy Spirit. • has strong relational skills, is approachable and empathetic and communicate well with others both verbally and in writing. • has a desire to integrate fully into the life of the church and staff team. • is passionate about the Bible and are willing to study it in greater depth to equip you for ministry. • is committed to personal development, ministry training, and mentoring support, including regular patterns of time out for retreat and study. • consistently demonstrates the behaviours of kindness, patience, humility, integrity and servant leadership. • is willing to hold themselves accountable to others, to receive constructive feedback, identify differences and sources of conflict with others and seek to resolve them quickly. • is resilient and able to persevere when faced with challenges. • is trustworthy and will be a good steward of resources, complying with church policy where appropriate. • has a heart for reaching the community and bridging the gap between the wider community and church.

Accountability in the role You will be accountable to the CYF Pastor for your performance and development with respect to the responsibilities and expectations of the role. You will set goals together and review priorities regularly and through an annual review.

Full Job description see the below downloadable Job Description