Assistant Pastor

Salary £39,000 to £42,500 depending on experience.

Start Date

Start Date January 2024, ideally

Duration

Duration Permanent

Hours

Hours 6 days a week of 7.5 hours each.

Staff at Emmanuel Bristol are church family members, set aside for ministry of the Word and prayer so that we can equip our churches to make more disciples, who will plant more churches, to show more people that Jesus is Lord.

Holiday: six weeks per year including bank holidays + time for a suitable summer camp and conference.

Ministry and pastoral oversight: Ian Taylor

Location: Emmanuel Meeting House, Lewins Mead, Bristol, BS1 2NN with flexibility for some working from home.

Emmanuel Westbury is part of a family of three churches, together known as Emmanuel Bristol. The three churches are Emmanuel City Centre, Emmanuel Bishopston and Emmanuel Westbury. We work together to make disciples, who will plant churches, to show more people that Jesus is Lord.

Emmanuel Westbury’s family is largely young, though there is an increasing number of parents with grown-up children and retired workers. We number around 250 adults, with approximately 100 under-18s. This number includes approximately 50-60 students from the University of Bristol and the University of West of England. We are deliberate in our efforts to foster an inter-generational culture amongst our church family, so that mixing happens across ages and stages of life.

There are three full-time staff roles at Emmanuel Westbury, with one part-time staff member. We also currently employ two graduate ministry assistants.

Emmanuel Westbury’s pastor – Mike Cain – is currently on long term sick leave. The existing assistant pastor – Ian Taylor – has taken on the role of acting pastor. We are looking to recruit an assistant pastor to support Ian in his role. The new assistant pastor role will continue to be required regardless of the date and nature of Mike’s return to work.

In summer 2023, one of Emmanuel Westbury’s full-time staff will – God willing – move overseas for long-term mission work. Her departure opens up the possibility of the assistant pastor taking on leadership of the student ministry, though this is not the only way in which the role could be configured.

We have outlined below the character, skills and experience we are looking for – both necessary and desirable. If you do not have the desirable skills or experience, but are still interested in applying for the role, please get in touch.

• The character and willingness to serve as an elder of Emmanuel Westbury, in accordance with the criteria set out in passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
• A track record of expositional preaching and teaching.
• Evidence of leading – and caring for – teams of volunteers.
• The ability to independently motivate yourself, organise and use your time well.
• Experience of (ideally at a leadership-team level) a thriving student ministry.
• Experience of building a culture of evangelism within a church family and encouraging an every-member-ministry approach to evangelism.
• Experience of facilitating discipleship within a busy church family.
• Growing and embedding a biblical culture for community and social engagement.
• An entrepreneurial approach to ministry – being willing to try new things and challenge existing patterns of ministry.

The role will consist of 5 days a week working for Emmanuel Westbury and approximately 1 day a week of cross-church responsibility and collaboration (for example, partnering with the student ministry at Emmanuel City Centre or supporting all three churches as they seek to engage biblically within their local communities).
As staff members, one of the highlights of the week is our Wednesday staff training, where staff from across all three of the Emmanuel churches gather to discuss a book, share lunch and pray together. This is a key way in which we invest and develop our staff and create a culture of learning and growing together. We require applicants to exemplify the sort of participation in church life that we ask of everyone, such as involvement in small group, praying for the church (including coming to prayer meetings), exercising hospitality and having an outward looking mindset.

Appointment is subject to clear adult enhanced and child enhanced (barred) DBS disclosure and two references.

We welcome applications from ordained Anglicans. The Diocese of Bristol would obviously need to be part of the appointment process if you are.

There is a genuine occupational requirement for the role-holder to be a male Christian fully aligned with our statement of belief, which you can find here.

If you are interested in applying for this role please contact our administrator Dan Reid: admin@emmanuelbristol.org.uk.