We made the following announcement during both our services on Sunday 14th January 2024 and are sharing it here for those who were not able to make it.
At St John’s over the last 18 months, God has been leading us on a journey of refining our vision and call. During this, we have sensed God affirm that Growing Faith (that’s what we currently call work with Children, Young People, Families, and Schools) is a critical and core area of our ministry. Our passion is to see children and young people know Jesus, grow in their relationship with Jesus, and become leaders of mission. We want St John’s to be a place where a child can go from 0 to adulthood and be discipled at home, at church, and in school.
During this review of vision and values, we sensed our staffing structure wasn’t right. This led to Scott being employed in a newly created role. With Growing Faith, this has led us to believe that the roles that have worked well in the past need changing to realise our vision going forwards. The balance of human resources across children and young people and the existing Job Descriptions are no longer fit for purpose. We determined that we need a new role that can bring strategic oversight to the entire Growing Faith area including the church-school partnership, with a greater emphasis on identifying and developing volunteer leaders and building teams. The PCC is committed to this approach and has decided that we will transition to it early in 2024.
We firmly believe God is leading us to appoint the new role. The new role will be called Director of Growing Faith (or something similar). We believe there is a huge kingdom opportunity among children, young people, families and schools in and around St John’s. Also, as Resourcing Church, we have a developing vision to serve a network of churches and resource and stimulate mission wherever we can. Within the existing membership of St John’s, we have wealth of leadership potential that with the right form of oversight and encouragement can be released to do something quite amazing. With its more strategic focus and emphasis on identifying, equipping and supporting workers and leaders and on building teams, this new role will help us build the kingdom and realise a vision. We have the potential to build on the excellent foundations laid so far and develop this ministry to impact an entire generation.
The restructuring will impact both of our existing Growing Faith roles. As we heard earlier, Sharon will transition to a new role to begin a new ministry called “Be-Loved.” Sadly, it also means that following a formal process, Josh Young will soon be leaving us through redundancy. We have walked closely with Josh through this period of discernment and explored various options with him. The PCC has been at great pains to ensure we manage the process in a discerning, caring, sensitive, prayerful, and legally compliant manner.
We are extremely sad to be saying goodbye to Josh. He has been a valued and core part of our team and is much loved by parents and children alike. We know that many, especially among our young people, will be very sad that Josh is leaving us. He has made a huge contribution to St John’s in the 5 years he has been with us. As we build for the future, we are building on the foundations he has laid. Sunday 21st January will be his last Sunday and so we will say a full farewell and thank you then.
We are pleased to share that after he leaves us, Josh will take up a new role as Youth Worker at Holy Trinity. This is an exciting opportunity for him and represents a great next step on his developmental journey. It also enables him to be part of the same church as his wife, Lois (Lois is employed by Holy Trinity leading their work with students), which he has wanted for some time. We are so pleased for him and sense God’s hand in this.
Josh’s departure will create some short-term challenges. Members of the youth team and our young people will be so sad that he is leaving. It also means that at the end of January, we will enter a period where we do not have a paid worker in Youth, Children, or Family. We are working on a plan to help care for our children and young people and our committed team of volunteers that ensures we do not lose momentum in this critical area. Scott will be meeting with parents of our young people soon to discuss this. Please pray for our children, young people, team, and leadership as we go through this period. Pray for relationships, faith, and community. As the church family, please be ready to help where you can.
It's understandable that you may have questions or concerns about this. if so, please speak to Scott, James, Huw, Fiona, or any member of the PCC.
We will commence recruitment of the new director imminently. This is a critical appointment, and we pray for God’s man or woman. Please pray for this. If you or anyone you know might be interested in applying, do let us know.
We are convinced that God is leading us through this foundational process and although challenging, it will enable us to build on the existing work and develop our Growing Faith mission and ministry to a new level.