“Spearheading the growth

of God’s church in Marlow”

Are you the new youth leader

for All Saints Marlow?

www.4u-team.org

Table of Contents

Page

1 Welcome to All Saints Marlow! ................................................................................................................ 3

2 Our vision and priorities ........................................................................................................................... 5

3 The Opportunity ....................................................................................................................................... 6

4 Meet the team ......................................................................................................................................... 8

5 All Saints’ Church .................................................................................................................................... 10

6 Churches Together ................................................................................................................................. 11

7 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 12

1 Welcome to All Saints Marlow! Our church is at an exciting moment of its life. We are a group of ordinary people. But we sense that our extraordinary God is leading us on a remarkable journey and we are inviting you to consider joining us on it.

Historically, All Saints’ Marlow has always been known as a traditional parish church with a strong choral tradition. This is still very much the case, but over the years new initiatives have embraced more informal ways of being church and have attracted growing numbers of families and young people. A major step on this journey occurred in 2008, when a visionary group converted the crypt of the church from a lawnmower store into a youth café (see picture below). In this space, our church began the latest chapter of our mission to reach young people with the story of God’s love.

This project succeeded in providing community-based youth work for the next 8 years, during which time many contacts were made with teenagers in Marlow.

During this period, All Saints’ church was also developing other strategies to attract families and young people.

In autumn 2012 we established a new contemporary Sunday service (called @1059), which was especially focussed on families. Changes were also made to our more traditional services. During 2017 we started an informal evening service, primarily aimed at those in their 20s and 30s. Most recently, in the past 3 years we

have recruited new staff team members: our Children’s Discipleship Leader (Anna), a Worship & Creative Prayer Leader (Gill) and New Wine Interns to join our existing part-time Director of Music (Martin).

Since 2011, Sunday attendance has grown by approximately 50% and on average we now have nearly 80 children and young people attending the church each Sunday, with over 200 on the registers in total. However, many of these young people (and their families) are new to faith and their commitment levels can be frustratingly low!

The majority of our young people are primary school age and below. But – as this graph from our database shows – many of these children are now approaching secondary school age and will shortly be moving from our children’s work into our youth work.

There are over 2,200 secondary school pupils in Marlow, most of whom never have contact with church. For the past 15 months we have had a part-time youth worker – Helen Godwin – who has made contact with our local Grammar School and we now have a weekly presence in the school via the Doughnut Club, plus some other contact through the school year as well. A description of our activities can be found below.

The opportunities for work in the Grammar School are really opening up. At the same time, our current youth worker Helen has become a foster mother and sadly the pressures of this mean that she is no longer able to continue in the youth worker role (although she will continue to be a member of the church and wants to keep serving on the youth team where appropriate). This is the reason for the position becoming vacant. We are

excited about welcoming a new leader who can build on the exciting start that has been made for the next phase of our youth work in Marlow.

Our current regular youth activities are:

Cryptics (weekly Sunday morning group for Yr6+) Cryptics is the group that meets in the crypt during the 10.59 service (except for the monthly all-age service). The young people who attend have almost all transitioned from our children’s work, and they come to church with their parents. Numbers: 20 on books, approx. 4-15 each week.

Game On (monthly Sunday evening group) A Christian youth club for Yrs 7-11, with a core of 8 regulars plus others who occasionally attend. For the summer term this has been moved from a weekly to a monthly activity club to encourage more of the fringe youth to attend.

Doughnut Club (Weekly club in Sir Williams Borlase’s Grammar School) A club run in the morning break time in the classroom of a Christian teacher in the school. Between 12 and 25 Yr 7&8s gather to play board games, consider a Christian topic and eat doughnuts.

Youth Council A small group of our most committed teenagers established 12 months ago of young people who participate in the leadership of our youth work and contribute ideas and enthusiasm!

CAKE A cell group of girls (Yrs 7-10) meeting in a home

Trips to Soul Survivor Watford SSW is only 30 minutes away, and groups occasionally attend their Saturday night worship events.

As well as these activities, we also:

Have within the 4U team a youth group that meets in Marlow Bottom as part of The Lantern church. This is led by Graham & Sami Watts (Team Vicars) and is resourced with a youth intern on the New Wine Discipleship Year (currently Alex Nungu).

Have strong links with the Haslemere Venture Holidays (CPAS), which Graham and Sami have led for many years. Last year a total of 8 young people went on one or more of these camps

Have strong links with Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School (based in Marlow), a secondary school with around 1,000 pupils. Dave (Team Rector) and Sami are regularly invited in to speak at seminars and we have strong links with the Head Teacher and Head of Psychology & Religious Studies.

We are looking for someone with a vision for reaching and inspiring young people with the life that Jesus brings. A risk-taker who likes exploring new creative avenues. A committed disciple and team-player who has an intuitive sense for the Holy Spirit’s leading and the courage to follow His lead. We are looking for someone who is more concerned with nurturing spiritual life wherever it is found than with staying within their comfort zone. We are looking for the person who reads these pages and senses God’s call to join our team and join in with what God is doing here. If you feel it might be you, please get in touch and explore the possibility further.

As you read these pages, I pray that you will be encouraged in your search for where God is calling you next and that he will make his will for your life unmistakably clear. May you know God’s peace as you wait to discover it.

Yours in Christ,

Dave Team Rector

2 Our vision and priorities At All Saints Marlow we believe God is calling us and empowering us to return our church to the centre of its community. We are part of a team of four churches (“the 4U team”) who all share the same vision.

Our vision is depicted in the infographic below. As we follow Jesus together, we sense he is calling us to take new risks to reach those whom he is drawing into his kingdom. This has already led us to make some significant changes.

Our central priority is to be Spirit-led. We have made this the first priority since the vision was formed. It is the hardest of our 8 priorities to put into practice, but we believe that if we learn to be Spirit-led then growth in the other priority areas will follow. Spirit-filled worship and ardent prayer are essential to this journey. We are committed to seeking God our Father, revealed to us in Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit. This involves taking risks (including “Innovating”) and being driven closer together in discipleship and further out in mission and generosity. This vision is already becoming a reality, and we are looking for someone to come and lead our young people on this same journey.

3 The Opportunity This is an opportunity for a gifted and enthusiastic leader to join a high-potential team at the early stages of its development.

The purpose of the role is:

To be responsible for the development of the youth work programme for the age range 11-19 within All Saints Marlow.

To establish and maintain other links with local young people in the wider Marlow community for the purpose of:

supporting the overall mission of the church in Marlow to develop growing communities of flourishing young people

pastoral care

growth of the overall youth work programme.

The person we are looking for must be:

An appealing and vibrant disciple of Jesus Christ who is a good team player and passionate about young people. A person of mature Christian faith, ablaze with the Spirit, with the necessary spiritual gifts and sense of calling for this role.

Someone with at least 3 years of youth work experience

A self-starter who shows initiative and drive

Able to interact and build relationships with young people

Committed to the needs of young people and to enabling young people to take on a responsibility for themselves and an awareness of the needs of others

A team player who is willing to play a full and active part in the staff team

The skills to supervise a youth intern and other young volunteers

Able to establish and develop relationships with young people, church members, management and the community in general

Able to recruit and supervise voluntary staff of all ages

Enthusiastic and energetic

Organised, willing to work flexible hours; able to balance priorities and make sound decisions

Full of love for Jesus sustained by personal prayer, Bible reading Quiet Days etc.

Of Christian faith (not necessarily an Anglican), and willing to become a fully committed member of All Saints Marlow.

In addition, it would be an advantage to have some of the following:

A qualification in youth work

A full driving licence

Musical ability

Drama skills

Sports coaching qualifications

Computer skills

The role we are asking you to play:

1. Co-ordinate a programme for the youth of All Saints Marlow (for the age range 11-19) which will cater as far as possible for their spiritual needs building upon the clubs that have already been established:

a. Cryptics: Sunday morning group for Yr6+ b. Game On: a Sunday evening Group c. Doughnut Club: in school on a Wednesday d. Youth Council

2. Exercise active pastoral concern for the young people and be available to them for counsel and to

support them in their personal and spiritual development. Build one-to-one relationships with them in order to understand their individual needs and the best way to address those needs, through encouraging them to participate in a variety of Christian youth activities.

3. Develop and maintain a programme of activities aimed at developing young people’s understanding of the Christian faith and support the church in its work with young people across the Marlow community.

4. Maintain a programme of sustained outreach to the young people of Marlow, being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

5. Provide ‘stepping stones’ and ensure continuity as young people move through the various stages of activities and engagement in the age range 11-19.

6. Spend a minimum of 50% of time in face to face contact with young people.

7. Act as a role model for young people in the church and the community

8. Build and maintain a team of volunteers from the church and local community to develop and implement activities for the young people to meet their needs.

9. Work in partnership with other youth workers (especially from Churches Together, see below) to create a network for young people.

Working arrangements, hours and conditions

Reporting initially to the Team Rector, accountable with him to the Church Council

20 hours per week, including Sundays and some evenings

Pattern of work to be flexible by agreement

Working from the church office on The Causeway

Weekly team meeting (Monday 9-11); monthly progress meeting

6 weeks holiday per annum, to include 6 Sundays

1 week of paid retreat per annum

All working expenses reimbursed

This post is initially for a 1 year period

6 month trial period; Annual appraisal (February)

Salary: £12,478 p.a. + expenses

Occupational Requirement: Due to the nature of this role it is a genuine occupational requirement that the successful candidate be a committed Christian.

4 Meet the team

You would be joining our diverse team, who like having fun together! As you can read, most of us are fairly new to Marlow. We are looking forward to welcoming our new team member.

Revd Dave Bull - Team Rector Dave (appointed Jan 2012) oversees all elements of the 4U Team as its main leader. He is married to Helen and has 3 school-age children. He loves mountain biking and seeing God at work in unexpected places. Dave takes particular responsibility for leading All Saints Marlow.

Revd Sarah Fitzgerald - Team Vicar Sarah (appointed October 2012) oversees the churches in Bisham and Little Marlow. She is

married to Richard and has two adult children. She loves going to art galleries. Sarah also takes particular responsibility for discipleship across all four churches.

Revds Graham and Sami Watts - Team Vicars (job share) Graham and Sami (appointed October 2014) live in Marlow Bottom and lead St Mary’s and a new church plant in Marlow Bottom called The Lantern. They have 3 school-age children and love theatre and sport. Graham takes particular responsibility for leading evangelism across all four churches. Graham and Sami are experienced in youth work and lead a youth group as part as the Lantern, as well as having a longstanding involvement with Haslemere CPAS camps.

Martin Seymour – Director of Music Martin (appointed 2010) is married to Sarah (also a church organist!) and oversees the choral

music at All Saints Marlow. This now comprises 5 choirs (including about 60 children and young people) and is a vibrant and growing community. Tours to Budapest, Paris and Ehrfurt have been recent highlights for many of the young people in the choir. Martin is assisted by

Rhidian Jones, Assistant Director of Music Rhidian lives in Maidenhead with his wife Sally. After a career in local government and being an associate music tutor for the Open University, Rhidian is now in semi-retirement and is catching up on his organ practice!

Anna Clarke – Children’s Discipleship Leader

Anna joined the team at ASM in August 2015 and works with the children at our Sunday services, the 60 children in our 3 church choirs and the 500 children at our two church

schools. She loves travelling and has lived for extended periods in Germany, France, Romania and Spain. Anna enjoys listening to music, getting creative and making

handmade cards. She also loves netball!

Revd Gabrielle Smith - Vicar

Gabrielle has been at All Saints since 1998 and is married with one adult daughter. She has a particular focus on pastoral care and bereavement ministry. She leads our monthly Healing Service.

Gill Taylor – Worship & Creative Prayer Leader

Gill moved to Marlow from Rugby in 2016 with her husband and their two boys. She leads our worship band and all associated activities, such as jamming nights, sound and

vision and our fortnightly informal evening service. She has started a Youth Band and “Small Saints”, a worship band of 10-14 year olds. Gill leads our work on interns and

together with Roland is planning to launch All Saints’ as a New Wine Discipleship Year training hub in September 2019. She also leads the whole church in Creative Prayer,

including seasons of 24/7 prayer.

Glynis Simons – Parish administrator Glynis is our part-time Parish Office Administrator. She provides administrative support to all four churches in the team, and works with her team of committed volunteers from the small parish office in the corner of the churchyard.

Paul Taylor – Operations Manager Paul is the part-time Operations Manager for All Saints’ Marlow, which he combines with his

work as an environmental consultant. He is responsible for the day-to-day running of the church, especially Sunday services, our database and our communications. When he’s not

running the church, you can find Paul running round Orienteering courses at high speed with his sons.

Harriet Miles – PA to the Team Rector Harriet (appointed 2016) is married to Chris and works part-time as Dave’s PA. After a career in HR she moved back to Marlow to run a livery yard on her family farm in Marlow. Harriet is a key member of our Alpha Course team and is an all-round force of nature. She is planning a mission trip (including teenagers) to Burundi in 2019.

Alex Nungu – Youth Intern Alex is our youth intern, shared with our sister church in Marlow Bottom. Alex is on the New Wine Discipleship Year programme and holds the Guinness World Record for most

consecutive hours of being laid back (probably) and is a purveyor of fine Doughnuts.

Amelia Collins-Patel Amelia is a children’s intern, shared with our sister church in Little Marlow. A graduate of last year’s New Wine DY programme, Amelia is now studying in Cambridge for a youth work qualification. She loves Leicester, minions and Heinz Salad Cream.

Youth Volunteer Team We also have a brilliant committed team of 8 volunteers who work together on delivering the various youth events.

The staff team aims to provide a model of collaborative ministry, working together with their diversity of gifts and emphases. Team meetings include Bible study, prayer, discussion and the opportunity to share problems and explore new ideas in their shared working. Twice each year we have an extended time away on a day-long retreat or conference.

5 All Saints’ Church All Saints’ Marlow is a welcoming church with a wide range of ages and experiences. Some of us have worshipped here for decades. Others are right at the beginning of our spiritual journeys. We enjoy varied worship styles and try to create a warm, friendly place in which to worship. We are committed to worshipping in a variety of styles. Our five Sunday services are:

8am Spoken, traditional Holy Communion

9.15am Liturgical service of Holy Communion with robed choir and 2 children’s groups

10.59am Informal contemporary worship service, with 5 children’s/youth groups (all-age monthly)

5.30pm Choral evensong with robed choir

7.00pm Our newest service – a fortnightly informal service aimed primarily at young adults

We have recently launched “Small Groups 4U” – an innovative approach to small groups that run each term and blend a wide variety of groups across all four churches. Most terms we have about 25 groups that meet during the week. We run Alpha courses twice per year, Marriage Preparation (over 30 couples are married here each year), about 35 infant baptisms per year, a “Beer and Philosophy” course in a local pub and we support a local food bank. We are linked with a charity in Romania and we sponsor over 30 children in Tanzania through our link with Compassion UK.

Over the last few years our average attendance at Sunday services has increased from 223 (including 43 children) to 348 (including 86 children). We are excited about welcoming the new people who are joining our church community.

We welcome people wherever they are on their Christian journey; we are looking for ways to go deeper in our faith and to support each other in understanding what discipleship means for each of us. We have a beautiful building and we are eager to share it with our community. We are thrilled to see what God is doing in Marlow and we are full of anticipation and prayer for what He has in store for us in the years ahead.

Our Church Schools We enjoy very strong links with our two church schools: Marlow CE Infant School (180 children; known locally as ‘Sandygate’) and Holy Trinity CE Junior School (340 children). The head teachers and staff at both schools are exceptionally supportive of links with the church and there are very frequent opportunities for church members to go into the school and vice versa. Growing numbers of families from these schools are joining our 9.15 and 10.59 congregations. We have ‘School Sunday services’ for both schools at least once per term, plus other regular services at Christmas, end of term etc. Both schools also regularly visit the church for other purposes. Every summer, the schools organise a ‘Praise in the Park’ event in the park opposite the church (see photo), involving all the church schools in the locality. Over 1,000 children worship together in the open air at this amazing event, which is led by our team.

6 Churches Together Churches Together in Marlow is very active, involving 6 of the 7 denominations in the town (Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, URC, River Church and the independent Community Church). The leaders meet to pray together and have a monthly lunch together and go on retreats together. There is a close spirit of co-operation and strong relationship between the leaders, who share a vision for the growth of God’s kingdom in the area. Examples of the churches working together include:

Messy Church: a monthly Messy Church started in 2014 and meets in the URC building.

Love Marlow: an annual town-wide festival started in 2015, see www.lovemarlow.co.uk . This has led to the setting up of several Street Associations – a way for Christians in the town to ‘love their neighbour’.

The biggest event in the Churches Together calendar is Lighthouse - a children's holiday club, using a brand and formula derived from Great Missenden and used in towns and villages around Buckinghamshire. It is now in its 11th year in Marlow and serves over 400 children between the ages of 4 and 11. The team of ‘Lamplighters’ volunteers includes over 50 teenagers. www.lighthousemarlow.com . Lighthouse is now looking to expand nationally through Lighthouse Central, which is also led by a member of All Saints’. www.lighthousecentral.org

7 Summary We believe that God is doing something extraordinary in the church in Marlow. We are looking for someone who can lead our young people to decide to follow Jesus and to become more like him. Marlow is a wonderful place to live and our church community is waiting to welcome our new Youth Leader.

If, as you have read these pages, you believe this might be where God is calling you then we would love to hear from you. We are praying for you.

Please download an application form from our website or email Harriet on harriet.miles@4u-team.org. The deadline for applications is 13th June 2018.

If you would like to know more before making a formal application

please contact the Revd Dave Bull, Team Rector on (01628) 471650.