Now Hiring: Director of Faith Formation

Pilgrim is hiring for our Director of Faith Formation role! Interested candidates are encouraged to apply by emailing pilgrimcyf@gmail.com by November 1. Please include a cover letter and resume.

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Position Description

Position: Director of Faith Formation

Job Status: Exempt

Job Time Commitment: Part-time (20 hours/week)

Salary Range: $25,000-$30,000

Eligible for health insurance and pension

Colleagues and work environment:

Serve with a team of multiple staff who are also part-time; workflow is shaped with part-time staff in mind to support work-life balance; respect, care, dialogue, and shared creativity are at the heart of our ministry as a staff together. 

Program areas:

• Weekly Sunday morning Faith Formation: PreK-12th Grade (September-April)

• Supporting Confirmation ministry in partnership with Lead Pastor (January-May)

• Quarterly formation events for children birth-Age 3 with parents/caregivers

• Quarterly service and relationship-building experiences

• Weeklong summer day camp in collaboration with local congregations, off-site partner bible camp, and youth summer trip/s in partnership with local congregations

• Monthly meetings with Faith Formation Committee, currently meeting and considering changing needs and hopes of families and volunteers with an eye on some experiments in the coming year; monthly coaching for rest of program year provided for Faith Formation Committee as a group and individually for Director of Faith Formation

Responsibilities:

Foster Belonging among children, youth, and families of Pilgrim as dearly loved children of God

• Get to know the kids, youth, and their parents. Care about them. Pay attention to them. Pray for them. Make sure they know you care

• Help children and youth become comfortable, open, and have fun with peers, becoming friends and/or friends in Christ

• Be on the lookout for obstacles to connection; name them and work on them together

• Lead by example and guide adult leaders and congregation members in how to welcome and empower children and youth

• Listen and lead with compassion while ministering with parents/caregivers

• Offer deepest respect and curiosity about differences among children and youth and the gift that those differences bring us; Pilgrim has many children and youth who are neurodiverse and wonderfully so

• Identify gifts of children and youth to lead and serve in various aspects of congregational life

Cultivate Formation for children, youth, and families as they learn and grow

• Plan and lead experiences that treasure and meet children and youth in various ages and stages

• Find, tinker with, and create curriculum and other resources to shape experiences that deepen faith authentically

• Provide a variety of means of formation through play, thought, feelings, service, faith practices, art, and movement

• Make space for children and youth to experience joy and challenge in their faith formation; make as much space for questions and wondering as answers

• Ground all faith formation in the love of God, as Jesus showed us

Engage Community within and outside Pilgrim Lutheran Church

• Support and train adult leaders to serve with children and youth

• Share what is happening in faith formation in different ways with families and the larger congregation

• Continue Pilgrim’s collaboration with St. Paul ELCA congregations for summer trips, weeklong faith summer day camp, and experiments in shared youth ministry events with St. Paul ELCA congregations

• Include connections with Pilgrim’s mission partners as part of regular formation

• Steward the budget for children, youth, and family ministries

• Create strategic ways for people of different ages to connect and get to know each other

• Learn and care about our immediate neighbors and neighborhood, including Groveland Park Elementary School

Qualifications/Experience:

• Four-year undergraduate degree. Relevant experience and/or coursework may be substituted for a degree.

• Experience with children and youth with differing abilities

• Theological alignment with ELCA faith tradition

About Pilgrim: Pilgrim Lutheran Church is an inclusive Christian worshiping community that seeks, nurtures, and empowers hungry minds and souls of all ages to live generously in response to God’s love. Pilgrim is a vibrant congregation of about 450 members, located in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul, between Macalester College, the University of St. Thomas, and St. Catherine University. Pilgrim is an ELCA congregation, a Reconciling in Christ congregation, and a Caring for Creation Congregation.

About Faith Formation at Pilgrim: Pilgrim’s community of children, youth, and households consists of about 90 PreK-12th graders with an average attendance of 30 individuals on a given Sunday for Faith Formation.