Associate Pastor of Church Planting
Job Description
The primary role of the associate pastor is to assist the pastoral leadership team to carry out the mission of the church in helping all people find freedom in following Jesus while advancing the vision of church to live missionally and multiply movements of disciplemaking and church planting throughout the Sandhills and beyond.
Position Focus:
The primary focus of this position is church planting. Specifically, being placed as the senior pastor of a local church plant in Moore County within the next two years.
The associate pastor will devote significant time to absorbing and aligning with the core doctrinal convictions, essential philosophical ethos and strategic multiplication plan of Christ Community Church, particularly missional living and making disciples that make disciples. This will include helping to draft core documents while identifying and developing a core team in preparation for launching a successful, autonomous local church plant.
The associate pastor, as a future senior pastor, will focus on preaching and teaching the Bible, equipping and shepherding the saints for the work of ministry, building trusted relationships with staff and launching a vibrant church plant.
Position Responsibilities:
I. Pastor (1 Peter 5:2-3)
▪ Lead the flock by example of character and competency of skill as one appointed to exercise authority over the congregation.
▪ Protect the flock from false teachers and from spiritual apathy and sin.
▪ Steward the flock as one entrusted with the management of the church by the true owner, Jesus Christ.
▪ Watch over and defending against attackers, treating injury and wounds, seeking and saving the lost or trapped, loving and sharing their lives to earn their trust.
▪ Teach the whole council of God and the complete duties of men; equipping the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ.
▪ Help plan, execute and evaluate the weekly worship services.
II. Preach (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
▪ Prepare authoritative, expositional sermons where the point of the text is the point of the sermon – make the content of the sermon the Word of God.
▪ In preparation for launching a church plant, preach regularly in the weekend worship services (8-10 times a year).
▪ Participate in the weekly pre-preach process by providing helpful insight and critical observations of the sermon being prepared.
▪ Be diligent to study; devoting adequate time to preparing sermons and submitting to the input of the pastoral team during the pre-preach process.
▪ Preach in your own voice with your own personality. Be you.
III. Plant (Acts 9:31)
▪ Work alongside the elders, the leadership team, and the lead multiplication catalyst to advance the vision of the church by implementing the multiplication plan.
▪ Participate in a nine month church planting cohort with Passion4Planting.
▪ Participate in the missional community leader training cohorts as a strategic part of the process of identifying, encouraging and equipping future church plant leaders and leadership teams.
▪ Help identify, recruit and equip a core team of 80-150 people who will serve as the launch team for a new church plant.
▪ Conduct community surveys and studies to clearly understand the unique demographics, socioeconomics and culture of a particular community in advance of launching a church plant.
▪ Build teams of volunteers to lead specific ministry areas in a church plant.
▪ Serve as the senior pastor of a church plant.
Minimum Qualifications:
Education: Bachelor’s Degree in pastoral ministry. Master of Divinity is preferred.
Experience: Possess 5-7 years of full-time experience in local church ministry or in a directly related field. Church planting experience is strongly preferred.
Credentialing: Licensure by the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) is preferred with a willingness to obtain licensure in a reasonable time frame required.
Church Membership: Willingness to join the church as a meaningful member.