Diocesan Vision: “A worshipping, growing and transformative Christian presence at the heart of every community”

Our Goals: Growing Nurturing Serving1

A Closer look at the three churches

Currently, the benefice consists of St Paul’s and St Mary’s, Rawtenstall, but we are in the process of stretching to embrace St Mary & All Saints at Goodshaw with effect from mid- April 2019, as clergy numbers decrease.

St Mary & All Saints: www.crawshawboothandgoodshawchurches.org.uk “Our vision is to follow Jesus as we learn His ways and share His love” Set in the Northern end of the Valley of Rossendale, this is a church with a fascinating history (Wesley and Whitefield both preached here!). Semi-rural, but a fair sized population – essentially covering several villages and with its own reservoir! The area has no major points of social deprivation and is fairly wealthy.The congregation is about 30, ageing, but there is a small children’s work and a range of community activities (quizzes, café, Mum’s & toddlers). Its churchmanship is more central with a small robed choir and liturgical worship. It’s the senior partner of the three churches and has good engagement of laity in church ministry with a Reader and three Authorised Local Ministers (ALMs). Low numbers of wedding and baptisms.

St Paul’s, Constable Lee: www.stpaulschurchconstablee.org.uk “The church on a hill, centred on Christ, celebrating God’s love and committed to serving” A couple of miles south down the valley is St Paul’s. Historically the youngest of the churches in the benefice, and this is reflected in its worship style which is moderately charismatic/contemporary and liturgy lite. It also has admirably lay engagement in church ministry, with a Reader and four ALMs. St Paul’s are currently seeking to launch their Parish Centre as a community centre for the Parish which does not have its own community centre. Much work is going into this and we are steadily attracting new user groups.The congregation numbers around 30 and is somewhat younger in age than the other two

churches and has with several young families. St Paul’s also has a church school linked to it and we are enthusiastically involved.

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Population Statistics RESIDENT POPULATION

Constable Lee

  Goodshaw

  Rawtenstall

TOTALS

Population count 3,350 4,690 5,970 14,010Household count 1,340 1,970 2,540 5,850

The Parish is made up of some wealthy estates and a whole series of sandstone terraced dwellings housing a good number of young families we are seeking to engage. Low numbers of wedding and baptisms.

St Mary’s, Rawtenstall: www.stmarysrawtenstall.co.uk “Our vision is to reveal Jesus as we love God and serve others in the power of His Spirit” This is the town centre civic church of the Rossendale Valley.

It is situated at a key junction for all points of the compass. It has the largest population of the three Parishes in the benefice, also the largest congregation of the benefice (60+), but again they are on the older end of the spectrum, but with some young families and a variety of activities associated with the church. It’s size and position means its attracts a good deal of use as the venue of choice for a wide variety of local choral societies, concerts, and conferences (including a regular ladies conference called RENEW – run by a team from

within the congregation, it recently launched its first full day Conference for Ladies and was over-subscribed with – 165 attended).

Annually we would perform about a dozen weddings, and similar numbers of baptisms and around 7 funerals.

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HALF TIME STIPENDIARY CLERGY POST: LEADER OF EVANGELISM AND DISCPLESHIP

Ministry within the Family of

Churches

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St Mary’s, Rawtenstall St Paul’s, Constable Lee St Mary & All Saints, Goodshaw

We are so glad you’re taking time to read about this post and to prayerfully consider if God is calling you to become part of our family.

Two of our churches (st Mary’s, Rawtenstall and St Paul’s, Constable Lee) are CPAS Patronage churches and have a strong evangelical heritage that is important to us. The third church (Bishop of Manchester Patronage) has a more broad churchmanship but is also keen to grow and reach out with the gospel to others.

Our church communities are fortunate in that we are relatively financially secure, well provided for and have few areas of deprivation, though we have some areas of low-wage income groups. We have a 5-10% population group of Pakistani/Bangladeshi neighbours who represent a thriving Islamic community that we enjoy good relationships with. Across the three churches we run a number of ventures that include toddlers’ groups, lunch clubs, a café on Tuesday, a CAP Debt Centre & CAP Job Club etc. We are very involved in ministry to our two local church schools and also contribute the life of our local county primary schools too. We have good and long-standing relationships with local uniformed groups, including the Air Training Corps. We deliver services to local residential care homes and support a good number of people who need holy communion in their homes.

Who will you be working with?

The ‘Central Rossendale Churches’ share a single incumbent who, together with the three PCC’s, leads the churches. But we also benefit from the ministry of an Associate (NSM) Priest, two Readers, 8 Authorised Lay Ministers and a retired clergy person. We are not big churches, together we minister to congregations that make up about 130 adults and 20 children. St Mary’s, Rawtenstall accounts for half that number.

What kind of ministry do we envisage?

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Our churches share a vision to grow by focussing our energy and resources on building a healthy and balanced life that has identified worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism as our core functions and joys! Our hope is that the new member of our family team will be able to bring some leadership and expertise in the area of evangelism/faith sharing and discipleship. This role will mean having good visibility amongst the people of our parishes – being engaged with the community, being a known friend who is for them, amongst them and sharing Jesus with them.

We are fortunate to have great relationships with the parishes we serve and have a good number of open doors that can be capitalised upon. We get a decent number of baptisms each year (and funerals too) and these families (alongside contacts from marriages too) represent a pool of opportunity that needs the time spent on it to make it fruitful. Many people and young families are out there, unreached, unenlightened and in need of Christ. We want this new post to help us reach them, introduce them to Christ and to build them up as fruitful disciples of Jesus in the church.

Our hopes for this role?

In addition to the above we hope this role will be able to explore what types of fresh expression (possibly something akin to a ‘Messy Church’) might be appropriate in our context, that it will utilise the contacts we have and help our churches to grow younger, stronger and numerically. We n eed to be a church ‘for a different world’ and that means we will have to face some change – we’re ready to do so.The Manchester Diocese vision is to be “a worshiping, growing and transforming Christian presence at the heart of every community”. Whilst we embrace that we believe that at the very heart of every healthy community there must be reconciliation between God and humanity – people need to know the love of Christ through repentance and in faith, by seeking His forgiveness and being born again into the family of God. Our hope is that you will be at the forefront of helping us to achieve this.

How would your role and responsibilities look?

We are keen to allow the person appointed to this role to evolve this ministry therefore we don’t want to put any particular definitions around it – but the goal is clear, to see men, women, and boys and girls, come to saving knowledge of Christ and become effective disciples.

Are you the kind of person we are looking for ?

The kind of person we are looking for will have an evident devotion to Jesus and a hunger for His Kingdom. You will love people and this will be characterised in how you relate to precious people made

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in God’s image. You may have some previous experience of outreach ministry in evangelism, or simply be enthusiastic about witnessing people come to Christ, indeed you will probably have led some people to a personal faith yourself. Personality wise we probably don’t need Tigger, but nor do we need Eyeore! Warm, friendly, communicative, genuine, and quietly visionary – that’s what we’re after! Here’s the person specification:

Person Specification Essential DesirableExperience Ordained in the Anglican Church

Orthodox in faith and ethicsExperience of successfully leading people to faith in Christa loving passion to reach the lost

Of a thoughtful evangelical heritage and open to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Skills and Abilities Ability to combine a ‘hands on’ approach with strategic planning Leadership skills – able to lead a group. Ability to communicate effectively with all ages Ability to present the Christian faith in an age appropriate way Ability to produce reports and make presentations The ability to work both independently and as part of a team within

organisational boundaries Effective IT skills Organisational and time management skills Good knowledge of safeguarding

Good working knowledge of social media

Personal Qualities Flexibility in working (evenings/weekends) Approachable and friendly personality Evidence of active Christian faith Reliability Commitment to collaborative working Organised and methodical

Where would you live?

We can offer you a large, attractive 4 bedroomed vicarage, situated in Goodshaw. It has a double garage, en suite bedroom, open views overlooking the west Pennine hills and only a stone’s throw from our local reservoir. There is easy access to both Rawtenstall and Burnley and there are several primary schools in the local area (one within walking distance – all rated by OfSTED as ‘good’ schools – and with

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whome we have great relationships!). There is also a local Secondary School in St Paul’s Parish (Alder Grange) and a few miles away Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School. Rossendale is a growing and desired place to live, many who work in Manchester choose to live in Rossendale. The sounds of the local steam engines from the East Lancashire Railway, frequently whistle up and down the valley and whisk you away to another time and place!

We have excellent local shopping facilities, branded and indigenous. A good variety of local pubs serving real ales, a fabulous array of restaurants, leisure facilities complete with swimming pools, great access to the local hills and moors, mountain biking facilities and great walking route right from your front door!

Rossendale is a great place for the whole family to grow up in!

Feel this might be you?

Please contact: for an application and to arrange a visit to see the area for yourself! We’d love to meet you and answer any questions you may have.

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