Pioneer Minister and Co-Leader, Southampton Pioneer Connection
LEAD PIONEER MINISTER
Maybush Local Pioneer Hub & Southampton Pioneer Connection (Fixed Term)
Southampton is taking the lead on pioneering within the Diocese of Winchester, where we are prayerfully imagining a future in which vibrant parochial and breath-taking pioneering ministry can flourish together.
We plan to create a pioneer hub in Maybush, on the western edge of Southampton, and are looking to recruit a Lead Pioneer Minister. The successful applicant will be invited to spend half their time pioneering in Maybush, and half their time co-leading Southampton Pioneer Connection with the Lead Pioneer for Sholing. This new initiative is under a deanery-wide Bishop’s Mission Order and aims to resource and release lay pioneers to establish fresh expressions of church across the deanery.
The parish of Maybush incorporates a large urban estate with a population of 26,000 people, originally built to house those moving out of the city centre after Southampton had been extensively bombed during the Blitz. This area has significant levels of deprivation, where issues associated with poverty are common – including child poverty, social housing, single parent households and single occupancy households. This parish has the lowest attendance per capita in the diocese; two smaller congregations have recently joined a third to meet at St Peter’s Church. All Saints’ Church has a well-used community hall with good facilities, where a brand new café church congregation meets.
Our Vision and Priorities
Our vision is to resource and release a network of lay/ordained pioneers, to grow and lead fresh expressions of church which emerge organically from within their contexts, as we engage intentionally, missionally and relevantly in our communities.
Our hope is that Southampton Pioneer Connection and the local pioneer hubs will provide the foundation needed to see the growth of countless pioneering projects and all sorts of new, creative, different, unexpected, innovative and fresh expressions of church in our city. Our intended outcomes are:
- 20 new fresh expressions of church (fxC) launched in Southampton within three years;
- each new fxC to include at least 20 participants;
- at least 35% of all participants at fxC to be unchurched;
- at least 25% of all participants at fxC to be under 30 years of age;
- at least 70% of fxC to be lay-led; and
- the support provided for new fxC by the Lead Pioneers and Pioneer Advocates to be
consistently assessed as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
Closing date: 7 March 2019 at noon
Visit and interviews: 24 & 25 March 2019
The role will be to develop SPC in collaboration with the Lead Pioneer for Sholing, two Pioneer Advocates, and a team of lay pioneers, gathering people together to offer training and resources, enable mutual support, minimise isolation, and nurture a creative, challenging and inspiring community of pioneering practice. By drawing together the skills and experience of pioneers and supporters of pioneering, we hope to resource and release an empowered lay leadership and lay-led fresh expressions of church. We envisage this will include:
- Pioneer training;
- Coaching and mentoring;
- Community of practice;
- Advocacy and support;
- Accountability and oversight;
- Prayer and reflection;
- Quiet days and retreats;
- Social gatherings and more.
- An experienced pioneer with a heart for mission, passion and ability to train and support others in reimagining church and growing new disciples;
- Ability to build strong working relationships with high emotional intelligence, relating to a range of people in different contexts and stages in their journeys of discipleship;
- Skilled organiser with experience of managing complex processes;
- Willingness to help others develop by assigning tasks that stretch their abilities yet allow them to achieve success;
- Ability to understand people and their motivations, build good relationships with, and achieve results through the efforts of others as well as your own;
- Willingness and ability to manage difficult situations such as conflict well and in a timely fashion;
- Effective management of resources to achieve maximum productivity;
- Willingness to take responsibility and accountability for tasks and actions;
- Ability to take in a range of information, think things through logically, and plan strategically for the future;
- Ability to engage and enthuse others, using both emotional and rational arguments, so they can understand and commit to a strategy for mission and its objectives;
- Ability to communicate well and put across your thoughts and ideas through a variety of communication approaches;
- Flexible approach to work, and ability to adapt and change practices and processes in a rapidly changing environment;
- Team player and collaborative worker, comfortable working with some direction.
Winchester Diocese
At the heart of our life is the desire to be always Living the Mission of Jesus. We are engaged in a strategic process to deliver a mission-shaped Diocese, in which parochial, pastoral and new forms of pioneering and radical ministry all flourish. Infused with God's missionary Spirit we want three character traits to be clearly visible in how we live:
- Passionate personal spirituality;
- Pioneering faith communities;
- Prophetic global citizens.
The Diocese of Winchester is an exciting place to be right now. With a grant of £4.3m from the strategic Development Fund, we are investing in missional projects across the diocese which are aimed at strategic growth for the common good. We pray that, if God is calling you to join us in his mission here, he will reveal this to you clearly as you consider this post
