emmanuelchurch

Job Description for Ministry Trainees

Website? www.emmanuelonline.org.uk

About emmanuelchurch

Emmanuel Church is a new independent church in Bramcote, a suburb on the west side of Nottingham. It was formed in October 2006 by a group of evangelical Christians, mostly from St Michael and All Angels’ Parish Church in Bramcote, who were keen to support a long-term gospel ministry being established within the parish. When this became impossible within the Parish Church, Emmanuel Church began, a group of Christians ‘uniting to tell people about Jesus’. Nigel Styles resigned as Vicar of St Michael and All Angels’ in order to become the minister of this new church.
Our ultimate purpose is to glorify God as we seek to reach out, to build up and to send out. We describe ourselves as evangelical and as independent Anglican. (You can read exactly what we mean by this on our website www.emmanuelonline.org.uk).

The values which underpin this gospel ministry and which spell out our agenda as an evangelical church are:

We aim to be a family church which is accessible and outsider-friendly, contemporary, informal, child-friendly, warm-hearted, and caring. All of these are qualities which we value and want to shape our church.

About our new ministry trainees

Our purpose is to contribute to the training of pastors and evangelists of the highest quality in conviction, character and competence, passing on not so much a methodology for ministry as a set of values, beliefs and passions appropriate for ministers of Christ. We believe that spending a year as something like one of our Ministry Trainees provides almost indispensable training and preparation in how to study and teach the Bible and how to do gospel ministry. It will be of great value to those who are considering whether full-time Bible teaching is the best way they can serve our Lord Jesus, even if they end up serving in another capacity.

We are not seeking to employ Ministry Trainees as a cheap way to get staff. We believe that we can offer a training environment where a couple of people each year can expect to grow enormously in their ministry experience and skills, and throughout it all, in increasing Christlike character. We will be committed to those we employ, treating them as full members of the church, more concerned for their spiritual maturing in Christ than for getting our ‘pound of flesh’.

We are looking for people who are teachable, keen to learn and willing to change. At the same time, the responsibilities we intend for our trainees will best suit those who have already had some experience of Christian leadership and demonstrated an aptitude for handling God’s word and explaining it to others. A key question in interview will be ‘how have you already been exercising the kind of ministry this year will train you in?’

As a church, we will gain from the year by adding a few extra workers to our committed church family, and also through all that the Ministry Trainees will bring to us in terms of their own ideas, hard work and leadership. But we see this year far more as an opportunity for us to give, both to the Ministry Trainees themselves, and also to the wider church as these trainees eventually probably leave us for future ministry elsewhere.

Overview of the role as a ministry trainee

Our Ministry Trainees’ time will be divided into three roughly equal parts:

In each, the exact opportunities will be tailored to the Ministry Trainee’s previous experience.

Training

Ministry Trainees will attend the Midlands Ministry Training Course which runs on Thursdays each week, over three ten-week terms (www.mmtc.org.uk). Currently this course is delivered in Birmingham, but during 2008-09, it may be that some teaching will happen more locally in Nottingham. They will also be encouraged to attend the 9:38 conference for ‘apprentices’ (see www.ninethirtyeight.org/conferences/apprentices), and the Cornhill Summer School (held 30 June-04 July 2008; see www.proctrust.org.uk/conferences/students/summerschool.htm).

Ministry Trainees will receive a fortnightly one-to-one with our minister and a weekly group training session (which will include guided reading and discussion of ministry issues as well as bible study). They will also join in the various training events and courses which are run throughout the year at Emmanuel. Alongside this, much also is ‘caught’ or learnt informally by involvement in daily church life and subsequent theological reflection.

Ministry

Ministry Trainees will each have one significant Bible-teaching responsibility which may be leading a weekly small group Bible study (with adults, or young people, or children), one-to-one Bible studies, and (where appropriate) preaching and giving talks.

We will also encourage our Ministry Trainees to take part in the leadership team of a CYFA (later teenage) or Pathfinder (earlier teenage) Venture during the summer school holiday (see www.cpas.org.uk/ventures) (with time set aside for preparation and training during the year).

Because this is a training programme, in a second year (if such a step were considered appropriate) additional opportunities would be added, including the possibility of involvement as a trainer of others.

Service

Our Ministry Trainees will be trained and involved in various practical, administrative and physical tasks that help the church run smoothly. This experience allows for first-hand observation of a wide range of church activities, including some in which the Ministry Trainee would not be otherwise directly involved.

As a very new church, we can already identify obvious needs in many areas of ministry and service, and expect to discover many more as our church programme develops over these next eighteen months. In fact, one of the great attractions of coming to work with us at Emmanuel Church is the opportunity to be involved in something developing rapidly, where it isn’t yet all well-established. Nevertheless, we can already say that we expect that each of our Ministry Trainees will be involved in one or more of the following areas of church life:

Potential future areas of ministry (with which Ministry Trainees may be involved) may include:

Terms and conditions

  1. Duration: The appointment runs from Tuesday 02 September 2008 to Sunday 19 July 2009 (with attendance beforehand at the Cornhill Summer School in early July 2008). It may be renewable for a second year. One month's notice must be given on either side if the contract is to be ended sooner.

  2. Pay: There is no formal pay structure. The Church will provide accommodation (typically either in a house shared with other Ministry Trainees or with a church family). As this is a training programme for volunteers, we expect Ministry Trainees to raise as much as they can towards their own support (and we can suggest some practical ways to do this): we estimate that the year will cost each trainee something like £4000. At the same time, we appreciate that an individual’s circumstances will affect how much he/she is able to raise and we don’t want lack of money to prevent appropriate people becoming a Ministry Trainee: it is therefore possible to apply to Emmanuel Church’s ‘Finance and Property Group’ for a one-off grant to cover any shortfall.

  3. Expenses: All church expenses will be met in full, and mileage for car journeys on church business will be reimbursed at ‘public transport rate’.

  4. Hours: There will be no formal monitoring of hours worked but it is expected that it will be around 40-45 hours per six-day-week, including some evenings and weekends. Ministry Trainees are expected to attend all Sunday services, staff meetings, monthly prayer meetings and a variety of other committees and team meetings; and also to work such other time as is necessary to get the job done. The Ministry Trainee will be given and expected to take one full day off per week (on the same day each week, to be agreed with the Minister). Every effort will be made to ensure that he/she receives sufficient time for relaxation and study.

  5. Holidays: The Ministry Trainee is entitled to 20 days plus 4 Sundays holiday in the year (ie four weeks, of which probably one will be after Easter, and one after Christmas). The Ministry Trainee will be expected to be on duty on all other Sundays.

  6. Conference expenses: In addition to this holiday entitlement, we will encourage Ministry Trainees to go to the Cornhill Summer School, the January 9:38 conference for apprentices, and a CYFA Venture (and its associated training events) and will pay the expenses of these.

  7. Book allowance: Each trainee will be given £200 to be spent on Christian books.

  8. Support and supervision: The Ministry Trainee will be supervised by the Minister, and will be a member of the staff team. He/she will also be expected to belong fully to a Home Group. In addition, a member of our Leadership Team will have pastoral responsibility for each Ministry Trainee, involving a one-to-one meeting at least once a month.

A final word: is this for me?

You will be wondering if this role as a Ministry Trainee at Emmanuel Church is something appropriate for you. We are looking for evidence of (or the potential for) the following qualities which we would seek to develop in you. Read through them prayerfully now, asking if these fairly describe you:

Conviction (Knowledge)

Character (Attitudes and Attributes)

Competencies (Ministry Skills)

If you think this is for you, or would like to explore the possibility further, then please contact our Minister, Nigel Styles, at

17 Clifford Ave
BEESTON
Nottingham
NG9 2QN
0115 849 2303
nigel.styles@emmanuelonline.org.uk