This is an exciting role for a mature Christian to develop musical worship within a diverse church. It would suit a versatile musician with strong team skills, emotional intelligence, and a passionate vision for the power of musical worship to ignite faith in Jesus.
Purpose of Job
To lead and encourage the congregations and our other groups to worship God and encourage each other by the use of biblically rich music, played and sung to a very good standard.
At St James, we have morning and evening services. The morning has a range from contemporary to more traditional hymns. The Gathering, our evening service, has a wholly contemporary feel. This role leads our contemporary and all modern band-led styles but takes responsibility for working with those providing more traditional elements.
Elements of the Role
The following is a current list of areas for which the job holder will have direct responsibility. The list is not exhaustive, and the job holder will be expected to champion, recruit, develop and periodically review effectiveness and consider alternatives if needed. There will be other occasional duties as assigned by the line manager.
- Set the vision for our sung worship on Sundays, paying particular attention to the words to be sung
- To play a key role in the sung worship at every service, either leading (vocally or instrumentally), or supporting those who will
- Ensuring band rotas for every service are produced in a timely manner. Our platform for service rotas Is Planning Center
- Take a lead in providing for a strong contemporary presence at the major festivals of Christmas (principally at Contemporary Carols, and Christmas Kids service) and Easter.
- Oversee and collaborate with members of staff or volunteers to produce a healthy range of contemporary (e.g., Hillsong, Sovereign Grace Music, Worship Central,Passion, Housefires, Maverick City, and Elevation Worship), and middle-of-the-road (e.g., Townend & Getty, Graham Kendrick) songs, and allow for popular hymn music on Sunday mornings and other relevant occasions
- Continue to develop the contemporary feel of the evening service, The Gathering
- Discover and arrange suitable new songs for us to sing
- Recruit train, develop and deploy musicians and worship leaders from within the congregations
- Host team meetings for the musicians to encourage a biblical vision for worship
- Participate in service planning meetings (currently online on Tuesdays), draw up agreed service orders, and communicate the outcomes to worship leader assigned to service.
- Oversee the care and maintenance of musical equipment in the church (excluding the organ)
- Assist the production manager with the set up of musical equipment for use on Sundays
You will have:
- An allocated budget to spend, in order to develop our ministries
- An office at the church, with secure storage for instruments
- The support of regular Heads of Ministry Meetings and other relevant pastoral meetings
- Regular time with your line manager, the Vicar
- Opportunities for further training and development
We would love to see your contribution in shaping the role as well, bringing your unique gifts to the team and the church.
St James is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All post holders are expected to share this commitment. You will need to attend all relevant safeguarding training and work according to our safeguarding policy.
There is a Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR) that the post-holder is a practising Christian. Schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010 applies.
Applications
We encourage all potential applicants to get in touch with the line manager, Chris Green, for an informal chat, (chris.green@st-james.org.uk or Tel 020 8051 3153).
We also invite you to visit our Sunday services, to experience our church culture and see our current music provision in action. The most recent morning service will always be on our YouTube channel. Evening services are not livestreamed or recorded.
To apply for this role, please use the online recruitment form here:
https://stjamesmuswellhill.churchsuite.com/forms/b3tx8hmf
(Please note that applications without the form will not be considered for the role.)
We also invite you to send links to recent work e.g. YouTube links from livestreamed church services, or other recordings. Recordings and links should be sent to gabrielle.moris@st-james.org.uk and please indicate your role in the link or recording e.g. vocal lead; playing keyboard etc.
The closing date for applications is Friday 23 February 2024
The first stage will be an Interview and solo 'performance'. The second stage will be a jam session with some of our existing members of the church worship team.
The Interview will provisionally be on Wednesday 13 or Thursday 14 March 2024 and the jam session on Sunday 17 March.