Women's Minister
Grace Covenant Church, Austin, Texas
This Profile Contains
- Overview
- Austin & the Spiritual DNA of Grace Covenant
- Vision of Grace Covenant Church
- The Organization
- Strategic Priorities
- Reporting Relationships
- Gender Issues
- Primary Function
- Additional Duties and Responsibilities
- Education & Theology
- Experience
- Compensation & Commitment
- Women's Ministry Values & Mission Statement
- Contact Information
Overview
Elizabeth Eliot said: “God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”
Grace Covenant Church is looking for a gifted communicator to lead others to discover and follow Christ. This person will be the primary teacher and strategic overseer of our Women's Ministry, which is vital to the health of the congregation. By equipping and leading paid staff and volunteers, this person will impact the entire congregation. As Grace moves into its new 1,800 seat worship center in the summer of 2008, we desire to develop and expand this vital ministry to women.
Austin & the Spiritual DNA of Grace Covenant
Grace Covenant Church (www.grace360.com) is a dynamic and rapidly growing conservative evangelical church in the northwest section of Austin, the sixteenth largest city in the United States. The city of Austin has a population of 700,000 and a metropolitan population of over 1,400,000.
The character of Austin is reflected in Grace Covenant Church:
- Austin is home of one of America's largest universities—The University of Texas at Austin has over 50,000 students. At Grace, these attributes are reflected in penetrating biblical sermons that reach the heart, mind, and intellect. Members are trained in a strong Protestant tradition—to read and understand the Bible for themselves. A very large number of adults have collegiate and graduate degrees. Relating to families, Grace has a large number of private and home-schooled children.
- The city government of Austin calls itself “the live music capital of the world.” Currently at Grace, the two “contemporary” and one “classic” worship services contain teams of outstanding musicians, many of whom have professional music careers outside of church. Grace has recently hired Mike Gould, an “authentic worship leader” for our contemporary services (see www.mikegould.org).
- Austin is the seat of the government for the state of Texas—with a feeling of influence beyond the city borders. At Grace, local and international missions are important, having a ministry to those beyond our church grounds.
- Austin has a motto to support city business and culture, “Keep Austin Weird: collaborative fission of coordinated individualism.” Grace has what few churches have—an openness to diversity—accepting people for who they are and how God is drawing them to Himself. Much of Austin's businesses are “high tech,” spawning many affluent and upscale residents. Many businesses are “start-ups,” giving the city a flavor of entrepreneurial risk-takers. To help reach this community, the church is re-designing its website to be interactive with “web 2.0” and to include a new logo, colors and branding. On April 24, 2005 Sr. Pastor Matt Cassidy preached a now classic message “Grace is Weird.”
A church is called to model its ministry and ministers after Christ—at Grace each believer is a minister. A church is also called to be relevant to its society, “to seek and save the lost.” Grace tenaciously holds to its biblical beliefs and core values.
Vision of Grace Covenant Church
Every church needs to have a vision statement that answers the question, “Why do we exist?” Grace filters every program, budget request and idea through its vision statement. If whatever is planned doesn't help meet the vision, then it isn't done.
Grace Covenant Church exists to glorify God by leading people to Christ and presenting each believer mature in Christ. Grace desires to be “a courageous church, where every believer is a minister, equipped and united, to impact people for Christ, for the glory of God.”
- Our lives and ministries are to be Christ-centered,
reflecting the following values in balance:
- The Bible: we desire to hold and teach Biblical truth unequivocally. (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35; 2 Timothy 4:2; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Revelation 22:18-19)
- Prayer and Worship: we desire to have a deep personal and congregational relationship with God through meaningful prayer, praise and worship. (Philippians 4:6-7; Matthew 22:37; Psalm 63:1-6; John 15:7)
- Community: we desire to relate biblically and with love toward one another using our Covenant of Fellowship as our basis and incorporating the principles of The Peacemaker book by Ken Sande. (Ephesians 4:1-6; John 1:3; Hebrews 10:24-25)
- Evangelism and Global Outreach: we desire to share the Gospel boldly by life and by word. (John 17:24; 1 Peter 3:15; Acts 1:8; Matthew 4:19; Romans 1:16; Matthew 28:19-20)
Grace Covenant uses a “3 Cog” motif for explaining how members learn in different sized groups. The first cog is “Worship,” where every member can participate in corporate worship—which can be continued in private and family worship. The worship services are designed for believers in Christ to worship the triune God. Seekers and “de-churched” people are welcome to see how Christians worship in Word and Truth. The second cog is “Learning.” The medium-sized Adult Learning Communities are vital to the growth of members, prayer and fellowship. The third cog is “Connection.” These small groups emphasize study of the sermon, relationships and doing ministry together.
The Organization
The church emerged from a home Bible study in 1968. The first study was on the biblical covenants, culminating with the “grace covenant” and so the name of this independent Bible church. In 2004, the ministry celebrated its 35th year. Early pastors were Dick Flaten and Max Anders, followed by Jim Rose. Matt Cassidy became the fourth Senior Pastor in 2002, having served on the staff for 13 years in other positions.
Today, the community of Grace Covenant includes over 2,000 adults. The three worship services—a “classic” service at 8:00 and “contemporary” services at 9:30 and 11:00 am draw more than 1,100 people each week; the new worship center will seat 1,800. There are over 360 children in Children's Education and 250 youth in The Attic (7-12th grades). Midweek AWANA attracts over 200 kids. There are over 35 home study groups, called Impact Groups, which continue the study from the Sunday sermon. Fourteen Adult Learning Communities and ten Introductory/Equipping Classes allow people to gather on Sunday morning in medium-sized groups for study, prayer and fellowship. Local and International Missions are also important at the church, with a significant amount of people and funds being invested each year.
Strategic Priorities
Grace Covenant is a church on the move—literally. After two years of careful study, in 2004 the leadership set forth a master plan to build or rebuild almost every building on the church campus. The goal was to accomplish this Herculean feat with the minimal use of long-term debt. Over eight million dollars were pledged for the first phase of the project: a new office building for staff, renovation of the Cornerstone Building for Children's Ministry and a new 1,800 seat worship center.
- In the spring of 2005, the congregation pledged $8,000,000 for the new building. An adjacent office building was purchased for staff offices and renamed the Grace360 building.
- In the summer of 2005, the staff moved from the Cornerstone building into the Grace360 building.
- In the summer of 2006, renovation was completed on two floors of the Cornerstone building. This created new Early Childhood facilities.
- In the spring of 2007, the old Children's Education building will be demolished.
- In the summer of 2007, the new worship center will break ground.
Grace is a church that is planning for the future—including the staff needed as the church grows. The Women's Minister is a vital part of the staffing needs at the church.
Grace is launching several new ministry strategies. With an established Stephen Minister program, the church wants to expand its care in a new direction. Grace will launch Celebrate Recovery in the fall of 2007.
In a desire to help people resolve conflict biblically, Grace set on a far reaching strategy of changing its spiritual DNA to include “peacemaking.” This began with the intentional design of the Elders, followed by a series of messages in the fall and winter of 2006-07. The church desires to have a regular sermon series on biblical conflict resolution and to develop a “culture of peacemaking.”
To reach men in the congregation and community, the church is
setting its strategic priorities for a “Men's Ministry for the 21st
century.” Leadership development is important for the church, and
Grace feels that leadership development needs to be offered to key
men and women. The process of integrating men and women for
leadership development, a men's ministry and a women's ministry, are
the current critical thinking areas for church leadership.
Dedicated to Giving
Few churches have a history of such dedicated giving. The leaders of the church have made a commitment to give ten percent of their income to Grace Covenant. The percentage of donations by members/attendees is among the top one percent in the United States.
Reporting Relationships
The Minister to Women will report to one of the Executive Pastors. Grace has a three person executive team, consisting of the Senior Pastor and two Executive Pastors.
Gender Issues
In its theological construct, Grace sees men and women as both actively involved in ministry. When it comes to office, Grace sees that Elders and Elder-qualified-men should be preaching from the pulpit and performing marriages and funerals. Under the authority of the Elders, women are fully able to teach in the church. Even with our biblical freedom, Grace seeks to be sensitive to cultural issues regarding the roles of men and women in ministry.
Thus, the term pastor at Grace refers to men only. Concerning the staff, the term minister refers to women on staff. Director refers to a man or woman on staff who serves in a leadership role but does not have requisite ministerial training or experience. Other churches understand the Scriptures in a different light and we understand their position. Beginning in 2005, Grace and its Elders and Pastors have studied gender issues, and arrived at our position in February 2007. A position paper is being honed that articulates these issues.
Primary Function
The Women's Minister will respond to a genuine call from God to:
- Strategically Lead and Teach the Women's Ministry. Help shape and implement a shared vision and strategy to grow and strengthen women in alignment with the mission of the church. Servant leaders at Grace are inspirational, relational and collaborative. This includes a strong teaching component that will develop a new holistic teaching curricula for Women's Ministry.
- Oversee the stewardship of people and material resources in
the Women's Ministry, maximizing the investment of each person
in the ministry.
- The Minister shall touch and influence single, married, divorced and widowed women.
- Ministry will happen with women in or emerging from critical life issues, such as chemical dependencies or addictive relationships.
- Because of the encompassing nature of this ministry, as well as peacemaking and counseling, every person at the church will be affected by this dynamic ministry.
- Build, Mentor and Develop strong leaders and effective teams in the Women's Ministry. Proactively seek and build leaders according to their giftedness. Give direction to the leaders and ministers by clearly communicating vision and strategy on a regular basis. The Minister should be able to formulate and articulate a vision for the ministry that aligns with the church vision and inspires participation of others. Recruit, challenge, train and develop current and future people to become part of the Women's Ministry.
- Collaboratively work with the pastoral staff, administrative staff and the Women's Ministry Leadership Team. Utilize the giftedness of volunteer leaders so that ministry is shared, enhanced and expanded. The Minister should coordinate with the other ministry areas to maximize mutual effectiveness.
Additional Duties and Responsibilities
- Assess the current needs of the congregation for growth in Women's Ministry.
- Be informed of trends and culture as it relates to Women's Ministry.
- Develop effective relationships with congregational leaders and key volunteers.
- Ensure that conflicts and complaints within the department and staff are quickly identified and resolved in a biblical manner.
Education & Theology
- It is highly preferred that the Minister have a Master of Divinity degree or similar advanced degree. Candidates with only a Bachelor's degree may apply, but must have the highest professional qualifications.
- The candidate will have a history of an ongoing program of personal and professional development.
- The candidate will have a theological base shaped by conservative evangelical theology and fully agree with and be able to teach the church's doctrinal statement.
Experience
- The candidate may have experience in a multiple staff church
setting, with a minimum of five years ministry experience. This
may be as a department head at a large church, a teacher in a
public or private school, or perhaps from an education-based or
evangelism-based para-church ministry.
Key Competencies/Attributes - A shepherd with a heart for women's ministry. A born-again Christian with integrity, high moral values and a genuine call from God to this church and position.
- A highly effective relational leader who inspires, motivates and mobilizes others to strive for and attain dreams and goals that are bigger than they thought possible. A leader who can inspire others with vision so as to achieve desired results. A sensitive leader who is aware of this multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-generational congregation.
- A skilled manager who can plan, budget, delegate, allocate resources and meet deadlines on time and under budget.
- A skilled communicator, with keen listening skills and effective oral communications. A leader who can handle the Word of God accurately and points women to the Word and personal devotion to Christ.
- A mature, self-sacrificing and driven team player. One who is committed to the success of the ministry and others.
Compensation & Commitment
Compensation will be commensurate with other Women's Ministers of similarly sized congregations, as based on a periodic salary survey by the National Association of Church Business Administrators (www.nacba.net).
A relocation budget will be provided. Two weeks of paid vacation are given, along with 9 paid holidays and 2 personal days per year. Medical, dental and life insurance are provided.
Grace desires a candidate who will invest the next 7-10 years, or more, in this position.
Women's
Ministry Values
Mission statement for Women's Ministry
- Our mission is to
- Introduce women to the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
- Connect women to each other to stimulate courage in living life
- Disciple women in biblical truth and Christian living
- Develop women for personal ministry with their family, neighbors and co-workers
- We desire a vital women's ministry that implements the maturity model of ministry with the Women of Grace and supports the overall growth of our church.
Why our Vision & Values are in print
- Repeatability—the ability for the next generation of leaders to learn
- Communication—we want to share our goals and abilities with the congregation and other churches
- Life-long learners, growth—we want to continue to grow and not become sedate
- Spiritual DNA—we want to know and express our values
- Defining our purpose—we want to delineate why do we what we do; if we fail to learn the lessons of history, we will repeat its mistakes.
Women's Ministry Activities
- MOPS–Mothers of Pre-Schoolers–We have two very active MOPS groups. Each meets on alternating Friday morning. There is a strong steering team for each with key positions filled by Grace women. We have helped other churches launch MOPS programs.
- Precept Bible Study–A group of women meets weekly to do various Precept studies.
- Women's Bible Study–This is a weekly meeting with one session in the morning and another in the evening. There are usually 2-3 alternative groups that women can join. One has been for younger believers, a second for those that want to study the Bible using an inductive method and a third has been a video Bible Study, such as a Beth Moore study (note: this is a critical area for the Women's Minister to evaluate and to present a holistic teaching curricula)
- One-on-one discipleship–there is some one-on-one discipleship, but this should become a greater emphasis.
- Annual Women's Retreat–For a weekend during the winter, the women go on an annual retreat. This includes a speaker, small group discussion, quiet time and various fun activities.
- Annual Christmas Coffee–As an evangelistic outreach a coffee with a guest speaker is done during the holiday season.
- Neighborhood Bible Studies–over the last year, several women's small group Bible studies have started as an evangelistic outreach.
- Hearts of Grace Learning Community–This is an adult learning community on Sunday morning exclusively for women.
- Special Events–during the year various social events are planned.
Direction of the Women's Ministry
- We desire to see our Women's Ministry increase its capacity to minister to our current women's population and to be prepared to expand its ministry as new women come to Grace with the opening of our new Worship Center. We desire this ministry to be more effective at discipling women to grow toward maturity and equipping them for personal ministry.
Contact Information
Please send your resume in Adobe Reader Format via email to:
Dr. David Fletcher, davidf@gccaustin.org
All e-mails will receive an initial response within 48 hours and a determination of status within 10 days. You can learn more about our style of hiring in one of Dr. Fletcher's articles on hiring.
As this position entails a teaching ministry, be prepared to e-mail MP3s of several recent teaching sessions.
