Something new is happening at St. John's, Toronto

St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Toronto is thinking outside of the box in its search for a Family Outreach and Christian Education Worker.

Eschewing the traditional approach of creating a pre-defined job description, the congregation will instead ask the successful candidate to help create the details of the new half-time, non-ordained position. In general, the Family Outreach and Christian Education Worker will focus on coordinating events for and establishing new relationships with families and children in the neighbourhood.

“Our first goal is to let people know that something new is happening at St. John's,” says Laurie McGugan, Christian Education Team Leader and Chair of the Search Committee. “We have been working on this for a couple of years, starting with 'listening groups', where we got together in small groups with as many people in the congregation as possible to hear their thoughts on our future.

“Our committee read Christianity for the Rest of Us [by Diana Butler Bass], which stimulated a lot of thought and discussion. We defined our strengths and our weakness. We named the things that are important to us and the areas that we want to develop. Family Outreach and Christian Education is one of these areas.”

These discussions led St. John’s to develop a new staffing model. Says McGugan, “The possibility opened up to be creative with our staffing scenarios. We took to heart advice that said ‘Spend 90% of your time talking to people and looking for the right person and 10% of your time on the job description’, instead of the other way around.”

The church hopes to have the new position filled by September 2009.

The official job opportunity description can be found at St. John’s website.