We have two positions available: Pastor of Missional Communities & Executive Pastor
Pastor of Missional Communities
Purpose: To multiply communities which seek God’s Kingdom through missional engagement, AND seek God’s righteousness through intentional discipleship. (Matt 6:33)
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, writes, “Great organizations get the ‘right people’ in the ‘right seats’ on the ‘right bus.’”
The Right Bus:
- Our Church: BridgeWay’s mission is “Life-Change through Jesus Christ,” and our vision is to be a “Kingdom Church with Five Expressions: Missional, Worship, Formation, Power and Justice.”
- Our Groups: During BridgeWay’s eleven year history, small groups have focused primarily on “seeking God’s righteousness” as members have studied the Bible, shared their stories and prayed for each other. But to be truly missional, these communities must change the lives of those inside the group AND the lives of those outside the group. We firmly believe that in the Gospels, Jesus describes not an OR but an AND strategy. Through intentionally multiplying Missional Communities, BridgeWay’s people will seek both God’s Kingdom AND God’s righteousness.
The Right Seat:
- Missional: You must be prewired for evangelism AND discipleship, because according to Jesus they are the two sides of the same missional coin. You will leverage our missional partnerships to change lives “in here” through changing lives “out there.” Our objective is to routinely tell stories of members living out our “Value of Audacity” on Sunday.
- Communities: You must have a demonstrated track record of directing and multiplying both leaders and groups. Of particular importance is the ability to lead them to discern and implement their community’s God-given mission. Our objective is to make it abnormal for an attender not to be engaged in a Missional Community.
- Communicator: You must have the ability to communicate to groups of all sizes, and use that communication to leverage your leadership. For better or worse, people’s perception is that to be a credible “leader” you must also be a compelling “preacher.” Our objective is to have you preach monthly to help cast the Missional Community vision.
- Assimilation: You must have the people and administrative skills to make first-time guests feel at home and implement a system for follow-up. You will also champion our “Life-Change Series” of courses to mobilize people from the congregation into “The Core.” Our objective is to build a foundation for our anticipated move into a new facility.
- Ministries: You must have a passion for ministry development, and in particular drive the growth of our gender-based ministries. You will give direction to our Men’s Ministry, and serve as the staff advocate for our volunteer Women’s Ministries Director. Our objective is to put the theory of discipleship into every-day practice in the lives of men and women.
The Right Person:
- Entrepreneurial Leader: You need the entrepreneurial tools to launch new ministries, but also the organizational skills to grow existing ministries. We’re not all about the numbers, but growth is measured by both quality and quantity.
- Ministry Builder: You need to have a demonstrated track record of developing the ministries you have led. You must cast a compelling vision, pounding the table when necessary to mobilize resources and people.
- People Recruiter: You need to have a nose to sniff out leaders, getting out there to meet them and not afraid to make “The Ask.” The answer you hear from prospective leaders is never “no,” it is always “not yet.”
- Systems Developer: You need to have an uncommon combination of being both a people and systems developer. You need the capacity to not only manage today’s ministry, but to equip us for the ministry of tomorrow.
- Credible Pastor: You need to have both the personal and biblical gravitas to be recognized by our congregation as “one of the pastors here at BridgeWay.” To grow our church, we need to broaden our pastoral base.
- Compelling Communicator: You need the ability to command attention in rooms of all sizes. You need to have both theological credibility and personal authenticity as a communicator, because if you fake it you won’t make it.
Hiring Values:
- Character
- Competency
- Capacity
- Chemistry
- Culture
If you believe you may be the right person in the right seat (and just as importantly that we are the right bus), forward your resume and a sample message to
Executive Pastor
Purpose: To implement the vision of BridgeWay Community Church under the authority of the Lead Pastor and the Elder Team.
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, writes, “Great organizations get the ‘right people’ in the ‘right seats’ on the ‘right bus.’”
The Right Bus:
- Our Church: BridgeWay’s mission is “Life-Change through Jesus Christ,” and our vision is to be a “Kingdom Church with Five Expressions: Missional, Worship, Formation, Power and Justice.”
- Our History: BridgeWay was planted 11 years ago with a mission to not only reach our own community, but also to multiply “Kingdom Churches” in nearby communities and across the world. We have done the hard (and sometimes painful) work of breaking through the “800 Barrier” in our leased facility, and are anticipating a future move into a permanent facility on land God has provided. What we need now is an organizational leader to partner with our visionary leader so that BridgeWay can truly become the church God has created us to be.
The Right Seat:
- Staff Alignment: You must have a demonstrated track record of leading and managing others. You will be the direct report for our staff, and will bring to that role both a pastoral heart and an organizational mind. While being sensitive to their gifts and callings, you must ensure their roles and our ministries remain aligned to BridgeWay’s overall vision.
- Strategic Implementation: You must have the ability to bring your head to strategic planning process, and then put your hand to the even harder process of strategic implementation. You need to be a “get it done” person, determining which balls we should juggle, and even more importantly, which balls we should drop.
- Leadership Development: You must be the kind of leader that other leaders want to follow, because birds of a feather do flock together. You need to see others through a leadership lens, and after you spot leaders, intentionally develop leaders. You will be responsible for staff development, on both an individual and an organizational level.
- Systems Creation: You must understand that the devil really is in the details, and that to love people well we need to have systems. You will lead the Director Team, leveraging their knowledge and skills to create systems for finance, human resources, communications and facilities. We don’t want you to count beans, but make sure beans get counted.
- Financial Stewardship: Trust is the currency of leadership, and you must be the kind of person who inspires trust that BridgeWay’s finances are being handled well. You need to be equally comfortable interacting with those who need benevolence from the church, but also those who give benevolently to the church.
- Pastoral Engagement: You must memorize Colossians 3:14 which says, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” On both a staff and congregational level, you have to be viewed as one who really does have a pastor’s heart. To do this job you can’t be a people pleaser, but you do have to be a people lover.
The Right Person:
- Organizational Leader: Like the drum major in a band, you need to have a passion to get people marching to the beat of one drum. At the same time, you need to have enough “Pied Piper” in you to get other strong leaders to follow.
- Ministry Partner: You need to invest mutually in your relationship with our Lead Pastor, and be energized by partnering to accomplish BridgeWay’s vision together. You will be expected to challenge him, but your ability to do so will always be predicated by trust.
- Systems Creator: You don’t go to bed at night dreaming about all that you could do as much as how you can get it all done through systems. You need to bring best practices with you, but also help develop best practices of our own.
- Staff Developer: You need to be comfortable being both good cop and bad cop, often within the same conversation. You won’t always be liked, but you need to always be trusted that you have our staff’s best at heart.
- Resource Infuser: You need to see spreadsheets as a means to an end, not an end in themselves. The real end is to infuse financial and people resources into Kingdom ministries and projects, because that’s where we get the biggest bang for God’s bucks.
- Team Communicator: While you might be able to preach to a crowd, you would much rather communicate to and with teams. With you around, the right hand really does know what the left hand is doing because you hate silos.
- Credible Pastor: You need to have both the personal and biblical gravitas to be recognized by our congregation as “one of the pastors here at BridgeWay.” To grow our church, we need to continually broaden our pastoral base.
Hiring Values:
- Character
- Competency
- Capacity
- Chemistry
- Culture
If you believe you may be the right person in the right seat (and just as importantly that we are the right bus), forward your resume and a sample message to