Youth Pastor (Discipleship & Evangelism)

Context & Vision

St Stephen’s Redditch is a historic town centre church currently undergoing a season of renewal. In 2024 the church started a new chapter, injected with new vision, strategy, and resources so that it can proclaim the good news of Christ to Redditch with renewed vibrancy. St Stephen’s is a part of the New Wine network and stands firmly within the Charismatic evangelical tradition of the Church of England as part of the Diocese of Worcester.

St Stephen’s renewed vision is shaped by four key emphases: worship, faith, community, and witness, through which it is hoped that the whole church will be deeply nurtured in their Christian discipleship, equipped, and released to go and make disciples in their local contexts. Coinciding with this is funding from the Church Commissioners for building redevelopment works and salaried staff roles, which will serve the vision and seek to bring it to life. Alongside the clergy, church council, and wardens, the ministry leadership team will exist to serve the church, model faithful discipleship, cast vision, build teams, raise leaders, and equip the church through gifts of prophecy, evangelism, teaching, pastoral care, and apostolic witness. St Stephen’s has a wider remit of partnership and resourcing of the Redditch Mission Area and will seek out opportunities to work in gospel partnership with other local churches.

The Role

The role will be key in achieving the ambition of growing a church committed to courageous witness where Christian faith is nurtured and disciples mature. The role will play a particularly significant role in helping young people encounter the truth of the gospel and experience it for themselves through teaching, prayer, relationship building, and having fun. The person will be committed to loving and serving the community, scattering seeds of the gospel, forging new relationships, pioneering evangelistic opportunities, and working collaboratively with other local organisations, churches, schools, and colleges. The person will also be responsible for building teams of leaders passionate about young people and for kindling the gift of evangelism in St Stephen’s through teaching, training, and helping direct mission and evangelism alongside others in the church.

At this stage, there are no fixed expectations about the role to allow the role to emerge organically as the St Stephen’s renewal project continues to grow. The role description will be outlined and agreed collaboratively after 6 months of employment. Tasks will likely involve planning and running youth programmes during weekly Sunday worship gatherings; midweek activities; evangelistic and discipleship activities; interactions with parents; organisation, leadership, and training of a team of volunteers; and formulating a vision and strategy for ministry and evangelism among young people. There is also a growing vibrancy within the Churches Together network and Redditch Mission Area meaning growing opportunities to participate in youth evangelism, outreach, and collaborative events across the town.

Note - There is an occupational requirement under the Equality Act 2010 that the post holder be a practising Christian, lay or ordained, and an active communicant member in good standing within the Church of England or of a Church which is in communion with the Church of England, or a Church that is a member of the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, Churches Together in England or the Evangelical Alliance.