Associate Minister

Associate Minister - Walton-on-Thames - Ordained or Lay (with some Theological Training)
with particular responsibility for the Discipleship of adults and children, oversight of youth ministry and schools’ ministry This role is an exciting new appointment with a particular focus on discipleship and also outreach to and discipleship for the many families, who attend our weekly intergenerational service.

Worship, teaching and discipleship, preaching and leading in all services are integral to this role. You will share in high level strategic leadership alongside the Vicar, two other part-time Associate Ministers, a Curate, a Community Engagement Officer and a team of experienced lay people.

Walton-on-Thames has a population of 26,000 people, with an unusually high number of young families. It is a 25-minute train journey to London. The town is well provided with excellent schools and leisure activities, shops and the river Thames provides a lovely setting for walks.

A house is available.
Worship, Teaching and Discipleship
Preaching and leading in all services are integral to this role. You will oversee the eight
Life Groups, supporting and encouraging them in spiritual growth and pastoral care.

Families
You will lead our mission to young families; there are regularly new families coming to
both the service and the 4. You will lead and help develop these services with a team, spend time with families encouraging them in making faith a vital part of their family life and encouraging adults to take their own spiritual growth seriously, through the Alpha Course and a streamlined adult discipleship path.

You will develop discipleship groups for older primary age children to supplement the
worship offered on Sundays.
You will work closely with the Toddler Praise team, the Family Outreach team who lead
Messy Church and an annual Holiday club, which reach out to families on the St John’s
Estate.

Youth
You will oversee the Youth ministry. There is a regular core of 12 young people meeting weekly and there are three committed coleaders. There is a real opportunity to develop the Youth work.
Schools ministry
You will oversee the thriving ministry to three local Primary schools both in Assemblies
and school visits. There is a new secondary school with whom links could be made.

• Passionate about God; a contagious, mature Christian with a story to tell about
  your life and walk with Jesus.
• A heart to bring adults, youth and children to a lasting faith. A self-starter able
  to build a team of lay people.
• Eager to learn and grow in your strategic leadership abilities alongside the
  incumbent and work with the Leadership Team, while also taking on significant
  leadership responsibility.
• An excellent, confident communicator who can connect with a wide range of
  people at different stages of their discipleship journeys.
• Mission-minded and adaptable.
• A sense of humour, good pastoral skills and a range of life experience would
  be valuable.
• Experience with working in a secular or church context with children and
  young people is essential.
• Experience of implementing a safeguarding policy
• We will consider an ordained person or lay person with relevant Theological
  training.
• We would consider part-time working or job-sharing.

We worship in a variety of styles. We have a heart for mission in our community and
recognise that we have much to learn. Our Vision is:
“Taking our next steps towards deeper faith in Christ, welcome and belonging and
shining God’s light in our local community.”
This gives us a springboard for action in three key areas. We review our priorities
annually.
Our Five priorities, currently under review, are

1. Building our discipleship and worship including:
   a. Refreshing worship and discipleship for youth and older primary children.
   b. Pursuing investigation into removing pews at St Mary’s
2. Building up our church community and surrounding everything we do with prayer.
3. Building our links with the local community especially around St John’s church.
4. Building a strong team of lay, ordained, paid and unpaid ministry based on people’s
   gifts.
5. Generous giving linked to our purpose undergirding all we do.
6. Embedding Eco-church in everything we do.

Worship
The church has a wide range of service styles. There are various regular congregations across our two church sites. These are weekly: Traditional, said Holy Communion alternating between St. Mary's and St. John's
St Mary’s Church Intergenerational seeker service
‘The 4’ – service at St John’s for families with primary school aged children
Thursday morning St Mary’s Said Communion
Friday morning St John’s Toddler Praise Messy Church - currently occasionally. Ideally, monthly There is a weekly Youth Group on Monday nights and a monthly Seniors group on
Saturday mornings.
We run no Sunday schools at present. We encourage families to learn together. Many of
them come due to the Admissions policy of the local Church of England school. This is a
huge mission opportunity for us. We invite them to the Alpha course, which God has
used powerfully over the last twenty five years. We then invite them to the Bible course
and Prayer course and many have found a lasting faith and have “stuck” with the
church.

Outreach and community involvement
The church has regular involvement in civic services, annual town-wide events and
three local primary schools. St John’s church hosts the Food bank and we have a
weekly Community café running alongside this to provide a service for the community.
'Play and Chat' is a weekly Breakfast club for parents and toddlers, which has been
over-subscribed since it started 18 months ago. This could feed into Messy church.

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