Last Sunday our church voted to pursue hiring an Associate Pastor of Family Ministry and Worship. That’s a ridiculously long title but we are looking for a very specific person. This position is fundamentally a pastoral position. The primary focus will be on tending the flock of God, through prayer and proclamation of the Word of God. Specifically this person will be overseeing our youth and children’s ministries as well as our music ministry.
We are a growing church in Southwest Missouri and our youth and children’s ministries are rapidly expanding. About a year ago we made the decision to provide a free meal for our community from 5:30-7:00 on Wednesday evenings. God has used this to more than triple our youth programs. (Read more here). We are also looking at building a new youth and children’s building.
There is a great foundation already in place for our youth and children’s ministries—many great volunteers who love Jesus and love ministering to kids. We need someone to oversee these programs and help us to grow in training, involving, and equipping parents to be the primary disciple makers of their children.
We have also had an intentional interim for music the past year. When I first came on staff we had two services (one contemporary and one traditional). We now have one service where we do blended worship. My passion has always been that content rather than style will drive our services. My goal is to be a church that no longer thinks in terms of contemporary/traditional but that we’ll be focused on worshipping Christ through diverse forms.
Our interim has done a good job of helping us build a blended worship service, but we need somebody to continue in this area. This position is a bit unique too in that the person we hire will likely come on for a season and focus on the family ministry side of the duties will transitioning into the role of worship pastor as well. In other words, our interim will likely stay on for a few months to help with that transition.
I am excited about the prospect of working with an associate pastor. We know that this job is very specific and that our search pool might be somewhat limited. But we believe that the Lord is already preparing our church and a certain individual to fill this position. If you are at all interested and would like more information you can email me (and/or a resume) to mleake792@students.sbts.edu or look me up on Facebook, comment on the blog post, or call our church office.
If that were Missions and Music, I’d be all in. I just got an offer while in Lebanon to lead music in a church in Syria when a cessation of violence makes it possible. I’m not particularly gifted in children’s ministry, though, although my wife and kids are. God has your associate pastor already lined up. You’ll find him.