Willow Creek Community Church is an egalitarian non-denominational, multi-site church in and across Chicagoland passionate about our vision of helping people take next steps to love God, love people, and change the world. Part of this is to see every person taking next steps with Jesus on a journey to achieve our vision. Our primary strategy to do this is that everyone is in a group and that every group is on mission.
As the Groups/Compassion & Justice Pastor your primary focus will be on recruiting and developing small group coaches & leaders at the campus level. Through your care structure, the you will shepherd the adults in your congregation. Collaboratively, you will develop strategies with the Central Extended Groups team and oversee all group efforts, including Rooted, serving groups, and all other types of groups. In addition, you will equip and engage a team of volunteers to support the strategy.
We believe that life transformation happens best in and through community, so our strategy to serve people in our local communities is through our groups. As an advocate for all people facing poverty and injustice, as the Groups/C&J pastor you will help educate the campus congregation about issues of injustice, act as the primary liaison with local partners in the community, and then mobilize your congregation to serve and advocate for people, both locally and globally.
The salary range for this position is $50,000 - $70,000 and is dependent upon levels of experience and/or education. Our comprehensive benefits package includes health, dental and vision insurance, life insurance, retirement savings with company match, maternity and paternity leave, generous paid time off, mental health counseling reimbursement, and more.
Job Responsibilities
- Develop leaders who lead others through a layered leadership approach. This includes identifying, recruiting, onboarding, developing and caring for Group Leaders, Group Coaches, Rooted Facilitators, Local & Global Advisory Boards, and other Groups/C&J Volunteers.
- Participate in facilitating regular leader trainings and communication with the extended Groups ministry team
- Contribute to the overall team culture (both at the campus and at the extended team levels), embody the vision & strategy of Groups/C&J, and implement church wide initiatives (Groups Launches, COH, Hope Packs, etc.) at Willow South Barrington.
- Help cast the vision for discipleship and share the strategy for our vision that everyone is in a group and every group is on mission
- Build and maintain relationships with strategic Local Partners who fit the vision of the C&J strategy while also being relevant to the campus's passions and context. Engage with and encourage our Global Partners (either directly or indirectly through volunteers).
- Pastor those who are a part of your structure of care by praying with, encouraging, and inviting them to take their next steps with Jesus, as well as performing other pastoral duties as needed. This includes baptism and overseeing service response such as prayer and next steps as well as caring for the coaches who are caring for your leaders as an essential way to maximize care of all.
- Utilize our database to populate the groups directory and track engagement of leaders, coaches, and congregants to its fullest capacity.
- Skillfully use all other systems such as HIVE, Google Suite, etc. to manage hundreds of volunteers and several ongoing projects to support and execute all Groups/C&J strategies, creating a space where people feel welcome, cared for and have a place to belong.
Staff Values:
- Believing the Best | Trust is our default
- Commit to Candor | Kindness is our way
- Embrace Challenge | Grit is our style
- Setting the Tone | Joy is our attitude
- Choose Unity | Diversity is our strength
Success is Defined As…
- An extremely vibrant volunteer culture with high capacity volunteers leading and executing on vision.
- Continually adding new group leaders, who will help build and develop this culture.
- Positive contributor to staff culture with team collaboration as a top priority.
- Robust & healthy group culture with a majority of our church family engaged in groups, growing in their faith and taking steps to serve others together, on mission.
Preferred Skills and Experience
Skills/Competencies:
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Can balance and manage multiple demands simultaneously
- Skilled in Building effective teams
- Caring for Direct Reports,
- Excellent conflict management skills
- Passion for Developing and caring for volunteers
- Excellent Drive for Results
- Strong Leadership and Delegation skills
- Effective in using systems and software to stay organized and communicate effectively
Personal Characteristics:
- Spiritually Mature: Deep relationship with God and sees the vision of community and fighting poverty & injustice as an integral part of the gospel
- Self-Aware: Knows where they have weaknesses, and finds others to fill in those gaps
- High Emotional and Cultural Intelligence: Self-awareness and the ability to quickly read and respond healthfully to people who are different than you
- Action-oriented: Thrives in high-challenge situations, highly responsible, and able to make progress in multiple areas at the same time
- Team-oriented: Strong team player who can bring their absolute best to staff and volunteer teams
- Galvanizer: Confident to engage people in conversation so that they can invite people into the bigger vision
- Culture-builder: Passion for serving people well and understands what it takes to create a culture of connection and spiritual growth
- Willow Creek is (or will be) your home church, and you regularly attend and serve at one of our campuses
Education and Experience:
- Pastoral, ministry and/or shepherding experience required, (preferably in a multi-site church model)
- Experience with recruiting for groups, volunteers or sales, recruiting & leading teams (preferably volunteers)
- Competency with the Google suite and project management systems (ex. Rock, Hive, etc.)
- College Degree in discipleship or missions-oriented fields preferred, but not required