Position Summary. Character Traits. Specific Responsibilities. Job Title: Middle School Pastor Type: Full Time Salary Ministry Area Leader: Josh Luse

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1 (Revised October 15, 2015) Job Title: Middle School Pastor Type: Full Time Salary Ministry Area Leader: Josh Luse Position Summary The Middle School Pastor will work closely with the entire youth team to help lead a healthy and vibrant student ministry of Lincoln Berean Church. The focus of this position is leading middle school students to passionately follow Jesus and live missionally with their friends. Two key areas that will take a priority in this job will be leading weekly creative, high quality, large group middle school gatherings and coaching leaders weekly. This job also includes shepherding students, leaders, and families in the middle school ministry. They will also be in charge of recruiting leaders to come alongside these students and their parents to help them as they disciple their middle school child. This person has a love for middle school students, and sees themself working with middle schoolers for a long time. Character Traits Humility Discernment Authentic Flexibility Energetic Loves people Sense of humor Creative Teachable People magnet Self starter A little bit crazy Specific Responsibilities % Time Responsibilities 30 Prepare and lead weekly middle school gatherings. (Activate and Recharge) Organize, develop and oversee the middle school small group ministry (Recharge groups) and work with youth staff to develop a teaching plan and creative ways to communicate the truth of the scriptures including small-group Bible studies and curriculum writing. 20 Spend time in the youth community and with families building relationships

2 20 Be a regular in the teaching rotation at middle school and high school gatherings. 20 Recruit, train, develop and give pastoral care to the non-paid youth team. 10 Lead retreats, trips and large group events. Skills and Abilities Ability to captivate a youth audience in a public speaking situation Ability to recruit, coach and shepherd non-paid staff and encourage them as they invest in the lives of students Possess a sound theological base and the ability to teach the scriptures in a relevant and engaging way Ability to function within a team The ability to speak the truth in love and give counsel to students and leaders in a one-on-one setting Be in-touch with teens and their parents about how they think and feel on issues Ability to walk into a room and seek out those that are hurting or need someone to talk to A guru on creative technology and social media Be a self-starter Leader multiplier Ability to build trust and establish deep connections with parents, leaders and students Ability to develop and manage a youth budget. Other Random Thoughts Above all, this person needs to be a shepherd, in the people sense. They must absolutely love meeting with students and leaders and have a passion to care for them and help them walk with Jesus. In addition to teaching the scriptures, this person must have the unique ability to multiply leaders. The two primary gathering environments for our Middle School Youth are Activate on Sunday Mornings and Recharge Groups on Wednesday nights. This person needs to be able to work together with the youth team to develop and lead the students teaching them to live out their faith each week. It would also help if they enjoy developing small-group Bible studies to be used by other leaders. This is a large student ministry so this person needs to have ability in administration and overseeing hundreds of students and over one hundred volunteers in the middle school ministry. Goals and Evaluation This person will answer directly to the Ministry Area Leader. Every three months, there will be an evaluation of how the ministry is doing. Each position will be given feedback on areas in which they are doing well, areas in which to improve and discuss how to help them be more effective in their role. Interested? Please send your resume, along with the completed Get to Know You sheet, a sample small-group lesson that you have developed, and anything else that you feel would be helpful to us in this process to Alicia Farnan at afarnan@lincolnberean.org

3 LINCOLN BEREAN CHURCH. A LITTLE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE // We are a vibrant community of Jesus, building our lives around the invitation of a loving God and the opportunity to love others one person at a time, one day at a time. We are ordinary, imperfect people representing different backgrounds and life stages, being changed by Jesus through this beautiful thing called grace. We are learning to love others right where they are, no matter what their circumstances or where they have been. We understand that people matter to God and, honestly, they deeply matter to us, too. Thousands of us of gather together weekly on Saturday and Sunday to laugh, cry, sing, share and listen to some incredible teaching from the Bible. We also gather throughout the week in smaller groups in all sorts of different ways to encourage, grow, mentor and live out life with Jesus. These times range from support groups, to business leaders over lunch, to grandparents praying together, to clusters of people in neighborhoods, to kids clubs, and all sorts of other ways. To see a little picture of who we are check out our website at lincolnberean.org. MIDDLE SCHOOL PASTOR. A LITTLE ABOUT THIS POSITION // It s a given, but we gotta say it. This person must know and love Jesus and His church. They are unified with what our church believes and the direction the church is going. This person loves middle school students. No really, they LOVE them. We re talking I want to work with middle school students the rest of my life. Just the thought of middle school students makes them smile and hits home on a passion deep within. They know about the pressures and challenges that these students walk through every day in this culture. And that doesn t scare them, instead it just spurs them to dive into their setting, their lives, and their stories. It also challenges them to get creative in the way they bring the invitation of God s beautiful truth into their lives. This person understands the value of missional intimate community, but they also realize the value and catalytic power of larger gatherings. In fact, one of the key roles they will have is bringing students together in a weekly middle school large gathering. These gatherings have some variety; there are times to teach the Bible, times to serve the city, and at times just an opportunity to get out and have some fun while building relationships. This person is able to gather students, is a gifted communicator, and has creativity that helps them develop unique ways to rally students together to serve their schools and neighborhoods and positively impact this city.

4 They are on a team. A team of youth pastors and other youth leaders that play off each other s giftings and respect each other s input and overlap into each other s roles. They are also a part of a team of some hundreds of other people that serve in the middle school in various ways. This person loves teams. They are a strong leader, they are a self-starter, they take initiative, and yet somehow blend that into a beautiful, unified team aspect. The middle school ministry also gathers in smaller communities called Recharge groups. This person will share in the responsibility of recruiting and leading Recharge group leaders for the middle school. They will also share in the opportunity to write some Bible studies and develop some videos for those small groups. This person understands that with a large church like this, they will have to find a rhythm of spending time with students and with leaders, both. They realize that they are a youth pastor but are also in essence a youth pastors of youth pastors, pouring into tons of volunteers who pour into hundreds of middle school students. They will also help plan and lead out on creative experiences with the middle school students ranging from summer camps, big events, missions opportunities and retreats. OUR TEAM. A LITTLE ABOUT US // We have a paid youth team of nine people ranging from full-time to part-time, who work alongside the rest of our volunteer youth team. The part-time positions are divided up into various roles of shepherds that help counsel and connect students, to worship leaders, to video editing and various other roles. We currently have four full-time youth staff. Josh Luse has been here five years and loves teenagers. You ll see him speaking from time to time, helping developing curriculum, working with the students parents, helping coach leaders, and teaming up with the other youth guys. Before coming to Lincoln, he was a youth pastor in Iowa and Nebraska and was a church planter in Boulder, Colorado. He is also the youth Ministry Area Leader which is also referred to as MAL (job title, not Spanish description) which in essence means he oversees the youth ministries. Jason Harms has been on the team for seven years, working from a part-time position to the full-time position he now has. He is widely gifted and has headed up our tech teams for gatherings and our missions trips as well as well as working with and equipping our high school student leaders. He brings the fun, the creativity and some great game ideas. Jason

5 has a knack for making good things even awesomer (not a typo)! Also, our best designs and craziest ideas typically come from his brain. Bob Verwiel works with our high school. Before coming on staff almost two years ago, he worked as a teacher in Wisconsin public schools. He has seen a variety of different roles in churches and even spent some time in the business world in downtown Chicago. He leads the weekly high school large group gathering and high school house groups. He is a gifted communicator, great organizer, has a huge missional heart and is a huge Badgers fan (we are still trying to fix that). Alicia Farnan is our youth ministry ninja. Well, I guess some people call her the youth administrative assistant. She works behind the scenes to pull together details; everything from picking up 70 pizzas for the gathering, to setting up the registration for the next event. She is good at making us look good, but more than that she loves helping students get connected and serving in a way that enables them to take the next step with Jesus. A few things you may want to check out to get to know us a little better Church Site Youth Site Facebook Videos

6 Want to take the next steps? If you have interest in this position and you would like to take the next steps in this process Please send your resume, along with the completed get to know you sheet, a sample small-group lesson that you have developed, and anything else that you feel would be helpful for us in this process to Alicia Farnan at afarnan@lincolnberean.org.