Kids Ministry Director

Westside Community Church · Hillsboro, Oregon
Full-time (30 hours a week) with healthcare and benefits
Reports to: Tim Wooten, Family Ministries

Nobody gets stuck

At Westside, nobody gets stuck.

That is the whole idea. Some people here are just starting to figure out Jesus. Some are finding their people. Some are figuring out what they were made for. Everyone is moving, and our job is to keep them moving. It starts with kids, and it depends on the adults who show up for them every weekend.

We are looking for the person who keeps that going: someone who loves kids, builds the volunteers who developes them into leaders, and makes sure every weekend service is led well whether or not they are in the room. We are a reproducing church [see Outreach Magazine; Dave Ferguson and Warren Bird’s book Hero Maker]. Leaders here make leaders. No perfect people allowed, and that goes for you too.

What you would own

You lead everything from the nursery through fifth grade: nursery, preschool, elementary, and Club 45, across our weekend services on Saturday night and Sunday morning. You will not be at every one of them. You will make sure every one of them is led well.

More than the programs, you own the people. Your presence draws kids in. Your week draws volunteers in and keeps them. Your relationship with parents makes Westside the place a family brings the friends they are praying for.

What you will do

• Build the volunteer team. Recruit, train, schedule, and shepherd the adults and students who serve in kids ministry, and build them into leaders who can run a room without you. Grow the shepherd program so every kid has an adult who knows their name.
• Lead the weekend. Prepare the lessons, schedule the teams, and make sure every weekend service is led well, by you or by someone you built.
• Keep kids moving. Guide kids along Westside’s path, Connect to Jesus, Connect to Community, Connect to Mission, in language a fifth grader can own, and build the handoff from preschool to Club 45 to student ministry so nobody gets stuck along the way.
• Partner with parents. Know the families. Equip them for the faith conversations that happen in the car and at bedtime, and make Westside easy for a new family to walk into.
• Keep kids safe. Own the check-in, screening, and safety standards, and hold the line on them every week.
• Plan the big days. Run the events that fill the calendar and the building: Easter, fall outreach, summer, and whatever you dream up.
• Sit at the table. You are part of the Family Ministries team and the paid staff team, with a voice in Tuesday staff meetings and a coach in your leader.

What you bring

• A real passion for the spiritual formation of children, and a track record of showing up for them.
• Warmth. Kids come to you, parents trust you, volunteers want to serve with you.
• Emerging leadership ability and a hunger to grow. You can build a team, not just fill a schedule.
• Stage presence with a room full of kids and the discipline to prepare for it.
• Comfort creating new structures. You will be building systems that have not existed here before.
• Sound theology and a growing walk with Jesus.
• A coachable spirit and alignment with Westside’s mission.
• Ministry, education, or a related field is a plus. Church or ministry experience is a plus. Neither replaces the list above.

What Westside offers

• A full-time role at 30 hours a week, with healthcare and benefits.
• A church that has been growing leaders for decades, with regular coaching and real development from the people you report to.
• A seat on a paid staff team, with a leader in Family Ministries who has built student ministry and wants a partner on the kids side.
• A brand-new building and the chance to open the kids space in it.
• Aloha, Oregon: the west side of the Portland metro, twenty minutes from downtown and an hour from the coast and the mountains.

How to apply

Send a résumé and a short note (a paragraph is fine) about why kids ministry, and why now, to [Tim @ westsidemail.com]. If you are still in school, tell us your expected graduation date.

We would love to hear from you.

Steve Barker

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