ST JOHN AND ST STEPHEN’S READING: YOUTH MINISTER POST

We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic youth minister to join our vibrant church and help us develop an overview of youth work at St John and St Stephen's as well as work with our partners, St John's CE Primary (year 6 school leavers) and with Reading College and RE Inspired.

Indicative Terms

• Title: Parish Youth Minister
• Employed by: The PCC of St John and St Stephen's Reading
• Accountable to: The Incumbent on behalf of the PCC
• Hours of Work: 37 hours/week, including some evenings and weekends. One day off/week, day to be agreed.
• Annual Leave: 32 days/year
• Salary Range: up to £32,000/annum depending on experience and/or qualifications
• Application Deadline: 08.09.26
• Interviews: 16.09.26
• Start Date: as soon as possible after references and DBS check and proof of eligibility to work in the UK, though we are prepared to wait for the right candidate.
• Contract: The post is for three years with a possibility for extending this under the right circumstances (with a probationary 6 months).

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

• Vision and Leadership: To pray and work with the Ministry Team to develop and implement a cohesive parish youthwork strategy that builds on our existing children’s ministry, and to help us move towards being a more intergenerational worshipping community.
• Discipleship: To develop a youth ministry programme that will help our young people become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. To create a programme of events and activities, suitable for younger and older youth (11-18s) that will be attractive to our young people and their friends, including Bible based discussion groups, social/sport events and to involve them in the annual Reading Youth Day. This will nurture giftings and prayer life, develop whole life discipleship and encourage integration within the church community. We envisage widening the reach of the group via friendship evangelism, drawing on school-based friendships and other connections. To promote equal opportunities and ensure that young people with special needs are valued and included. To be a role model and Christian witness to young people across our community.
• Team Building and Communication: To identify more volunteers to be involved with the teens, and to encourage and support a team of adults in delivering youth ministry in collaboration with the existing volunteers and vicar. To communicate the vision for youth ministry in our church and to ensure the voices of young people are heard within our church and its leadership teams. To liaise with all involved in children’s ministry to ensure good transitions between children’s and youth ministry. To communicate effectively with parents/guardians about the vision for youth ministry and programme of events, and the specific needs of their children.
• Outreach: To develop an outreach strategy that sees unchurched youth making links with our church teens group. To work with year 6 at St John's CE School to prepare pupils for the switch to secondary school. To take part in the Student Enrichment Programme at Reading College. To join the RE Inspired team in the Reading Secondary schools. To engage with and work alongside other local church youth workers through the Reading Youth Workers Network based at Greyfriars' church.
• Safeguarding: To ensure compliance with the Diocesan and Parish Safeguarding Policies, making sure safeguarding procedures are understood and followed in all sessions and events, and team members are safely recruited and trained.
• Administration: To begin to identify a budget for youth work, keep accurate contact details, and ensure compliance with GDPR.
• Ongoing Professional Development: To participate in training appropriate to the role and personal development.

Youth Minister Person Profile

• An enhanced DBS will be required.
• A committed Christian with a lively faith that draws others to Christ.
• Someone who is seeking to grow in Christ-likeness.
• Someone who has an affinity with young people and is gifted to help them grow.
• A strong desire to reach out to young people outside the church.
• Someone happy to work with diversity (social, ethnic, sexual identity).
• Ability to connect with neuro-diversity and additional learning needs in young people.
• Good bible knowledge and skill in linking Christian beliefs to our lived life.
• Ability to lead change.
• A reflective practitioner.
• Good sense of humour.
• Aware of the need for appropriate boundaries and knows the value of rest themselves.
• A good listener, aware of current mental health challenges in society.
• A leader who can motivate volunteers and signpost them to relevant training.
• A good team player who can work with our older volunteers and the ministry team.

Essential – Experience and Skills

• Demonstrable experience of working with youth and being aware of the culture they are growing up in.
• Strategic thinker, able to envision creative change in the church.
• Obvious good communication skills across different ages.
• Clearly able to work in a team and take collaborative decisions.
• Evidence of being well organised administratively.
• Willingness to work flexibly, including weekends and evenings.
• Awareness of how social media can enhance youth work & also be a possible trap for teens.
• High awareness of safeguarding around all youth work.

Desirable

• Youth work qualification or training.
• Experience of recruiting and maintaining volunteer teams.
• Experience of working in non-church settings, e.g. schools/colleges/uniformed or sports.
• Experience of different church contexts and diversity of worship styles.

About Us

We are a church with a strong sense of community. Because we are physically attached to a large primary school (St John's CE School) who use our worship space throughout each school day, we are used to sharing our ministry generously within the community. We are an Estate Church in a highly populous and multi-cultural area with a younger than average age demographic and a fairly high deprivation index. Our primary school has more than 400 pupils speaking 70 different languages. Their year 6 teachers have been used to working with our Time for God volunteers and there is a strong Christian ethos. Round the corner is Reading College on the King's Road: our church has a small outreach team that offers a lunch time games club once a week. This could be further developed by a youth minister based at our church. In addition, the college are very open to a youth minister enhancing their student enrichment programme. RE inspired is a Reading based charity delivering high class RE sessions according to the local syllabus of primary and secondary schools, via a team of ecumenical Christian volunteers and paid team leaders. Our church is highly involved in this, both in terms of volunteers and financial support. Our youth minister’s involvement in the participating secondary schools work could make further fruitful links. St John and St Stephen's has a history of youth and children's work that, like many congregations', has waxed and waned along with societal trends and post Covid challenges. Our youth and children's volunteers currently number around 14 individuals; some give time once a month, others more often, enabling weekly Sunday provision for creche up to 11 years. This includes a once a month a Forest Church that takes place off site. In addition, a small group of older youth have summer trip to the Taize Community in France. Recognising something of a gap in provision for youth of 11 years and above, a small (8) mid-week teens/tweens group was set up in 2024 and we're on an ongoing journey with them around personal discipleship. Recently some short football sessions on the primary school Astro-turf on Monday evenings, launched for our teens as a football world cup- related activity, have attracted other teenagers from the estate and we hope that this cross-over with church teens and local teens might take off more in the future. Two consecutive Time for God Volunteers have given valued input to our church-based work with teens, and also within the primary school supporting year 6 pupils transitioning to secondary school. However, TfG volunteers only stay for one year and are teens themselves (typically on a gap year). We feel the need now for a more experienced youth minister to re-imagine our youth provision, help us join up the vision for children and youth, and to make full use of the opportunities that our strong links with St John's Primary year 6 children, Reading College and RE Inspired provide.