Our first session of Summer Bible School looked at the book of Job. Dan Viner hosted the evening and we were joined by Dr Philip Thomas who took us through the book at the start of our Wisdom Literature series.
Vacancies in our Youth Team
Join our Youth Ministry Team
The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with eight sites located across the city of Bristol. Our vision is to see Bristol transformed through the love and power of God as we create spirit-filled, visible communities of faith in neighbourhoods across the city.
Each congregation is distinct in their style, but we all share the same vision, mission and values to be communities which are welcoming of everyone, authentic in our faith, empowered by the Holy Spirit and expectant of all that God will do in us and through us.
Central to our plans to reach this city for Jesus are young people! In Bristol, there are 90,000 young people who don’t have regular contact with church or faith. We would love to see this change!
As we’ve grown, so too has our team, and we have several exciting opportunities for joining our youth ministry team.
ABOUT THE ROLES
Candidates should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, able to take initiative, work well in a team and be committed to see the church community grow in their faith and reach the city for Jesus.
The following positions are available at Highgrove Church in Sea Mills. Find out more about each role below:
SENIOR YOUTH MINISTER
£27k - £30k (pro rata) | Full or Part Time Role
View Role Summary & Terms
View Job Description
YOUTH MINISTER
£25k - £27k (pro rata) | Full or Part Time Role
View Role Summary & Terms
View Job Description
Occupational Requirement
These roles have an occupational requirement that the post holder be a follower of Jesus and to be a worshipping member of the Woodlands Church Family (if not already) to ensure protection of our strong Christian ethos and values, and our charitable objective of advancing the Christian faith. We also want to ensure all team members thrive and flourish in this environment.
Right to Work in the UK
We have a legal responsibility to ensure that all our employees have the legal right to live and work in the UK. Therefore, please only apply if you are eligible to work in the UK as we will have to verify this before you can start work.
How to apply
To apply for either of these roles, download and complete the Woodlands Church Family application form:
The closing date for applications is midnight Sunday 28th September 2025.
If you would like an informal conversation to discuss questions about the role please contact the Lead Recruiter, Jack Saunders at jack.saunders@woodlandschurch.net.
If shortlisted, the first interviews will take place online during the week commencing Monday 29th September 2025.
If you are taken through to the second stage in the interview process availability all day on a Sunday 5th October 2025 will be required. We will consider other interview dates for candidates not able to make the 5th October 2025, this date will be confirmed at the first stage interviews.
Please download and complete the Woodlands Church Family Application Form.
Please send your completed application to our HR Team at hr@woodlandschurch.net.
Vacancy for WCF Trustee
Thank you for your interest in joining our Board of Trustees
The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a registered charity, governed by a board of trustees. Our trustees play a vital role in making sure that the WCF achieves its core purpose. Collectively, they hold responsibility for setting the strategic direction of our churches’ ministry, ensuring that the work and goals are set in line with our vision, and oversee the overall management and administration of the churches. They work closely with the Senior Leadership Team, supporting them through their day-to-day leadership and challenging decisions if necessary.
ABOUT THE ROLE
This role is a voluntary position. For terms of office, time commitment duties and person specification please see the WCF Trustee Role Description.
Acting as a Trustee offers the privileged position of working collaboratively alongside Trustees from across the eight Woodlands Church Family sites. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to use their skills and experience to serve strategically, across the church family.
One of the additional benefits of volunteering is being able to access learning and development opportunities relevant to the role. We would ask the successful candidate to undertake the following training within the first 12 months of your role:
• Safeguarding
• GDPR (Data Protection and Confidentiality)
KEY TERMS
Our volunteer roles require a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a worshipping member of the Woodlands Church Family.
Vetting trustees
All prospective trustees must be asked to provide two references: their church leader and one other person of good standing, with professional knowledge of the individual.
All prospective trustees must be DBS checked.
All prospective trustees must declare any conflicts of interest.
Terms of service
All trustees will be expected to serve a four-year term. At the end of four years, they may be invited to stand again on approval from the remaining members of the Board. There is no limit to the number of terms a trustee may serve.
A trustee may be invited to resign after one year if they or the Board recognise that the appointment has not been a success, or if at any point their actions or behaviour put the Board at reputational risk.
How to apply
Our application process includes the offer to have an informal conversation with the Chair and/or Vice-Chair before submitting an application. If you would like to take this opportunity please contact catherine.penn@woodlandschurch.net, Secretary to the Board of Trustees.
To apply please submit an application form and CV with covering letter to Catherine Penn (see above).
Shortlisting and interviewing
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview, ideally in person but with a virtual option where applicable.
Closing date for applications is 9am Monday 22nd September 2025.
Interviews will take place week commencing Monday 29th September 2025.
Following interviews, a decision will be taken no later than one month after the interview.
Once approved, the successful candidate will be invited to attend a meeting of the Trustees, before giving a formal acceptance of the offer.
August Prayer Calendar
Pray each day
Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.
Life to the Full, a Deep Dive into Colossians
Life to the Full, a Deep Dive into Colossians
Paul writes to a young church in modern-day Turkey, likely planted through the ministry of Epaphras, his co-worker in the gospel (Col 1:7-8). This church, early in its journey, is being unsettled by a local “philosophy”, voices urging them to trade the freedom of Christ for the weight of religious rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” (Col 2:21).
Concerned, Epaphras brings news to Paul. And Paul responds with clarity: Jesus is enough. He is not just part of the story, He is the centre. Supreme. Sufficient. The only Saviour. In Him alone is true life, beautifully captured in the soaring hymn of Colossians 1:15-20.
“15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Our talks in this series at Woodlands Central will look at the below topics:
A Worthy Life - What is our focus in life?
Death to Life - How is Baptism a picture of this?
New Life - Putting on your new self
A Peaceful Life -Living in peace
Sharing Life - Prayer and sharing faith
See you on Sundays or catchup on the livesteam!
MESSAGES FROM THIS SERIES
Woodlands Bible School - Jude
Anna Anderson tells us how to read the book of Jude well
July Prayer Calendar
Pray each day
Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.
Navigating Life with the Psalms Series
Navigating Life with the Psalms Series
Our emotions can be mystifying. Science struggles to fully explain their origin and for Christians, they can be both life enhancing and seriously undermining! God created us to experience emotions, but wants to give us godly ways to manage them.
The Psalms—ancient Jewish poems of prayer and praise— can give voice to some of our deepest emotions. They are timeless, profoundly human, and deeply spiritual prayers that can help us process life. One aspect of the Psalms is how they can help move us along when we get stuck! They guide us on journeys from sorrow to joy, fear to faith, longing to fulfilment, despair to hope.
Over the next few weeks we will be enlisting the help of the Psalms to help us process some of our most common emotions. As we take the opportunity that summer brings to recharge our relationship with God, we want to dig into the literary and psychological genius of these three thousand year old prayers.
Our talks in this series at Woodlands Central will look at:
An Attitude of Gratitude - 6th July
Overcoming Fear - 13th July
Navigating Uncertainty - 20th July
Contending for Contentment - 27th July
Download our discussion notes to go deeper with the topics each week.
See you on Sundays or catchup on the livesteam!
MESSAGES FROM THIS SERIES
June Prayer Calendar
Pray each day
Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.
The Holy Spirit for Everyone Series
The Holy Spirit for Everyone Series
As a church, we want to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. As Pentecost Sunday approaches on the 8th June, we will be thinking about the gift of the Holy Spirit. But there’s more to it than that.
Living the Christian life is impossible without the help of the Spirit. Our character growth depends on the fruit of the Spirit. Our prayer life depends on the unction of the Spirit. Our ministry depends on the power of the Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost the promise of the Spirit was for everyone (Acts 2:39). This series looks at some of the aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit - for everyone.
Our talks in this series at Woodlands Central will look at:
Everyone’s Invited – 1st June
Good News for Everyone – 8th June (Pentecost and Global Partners Weekend)
Generosity for Everyone – 15th June
Freedom for Everyone – 22nd June
Worship for Everyone – 29th June
Download our discussion notes to go deeper with the topics each week.
See you on Sundays or catchup on the livesteam!
MESSAGES FROM THIS SERIES
Final Spring Bible School session on Genesis
Here is the audio for the final Spring Bible School session on Genesis, looking at “Where is Jesus seen in Genesis”?
Spring Bible School - Genesis part 3
Here is the audio for the third session on our Spring Bible School. Here we cover Genesis ch12-50
May Prayer Calendar
Pray each day
Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.
Spring Bible School - Genesis Part 2
We continue our journey through Genesis looking at the Fall, Cain & Abel, Noah & the flood, and the Tower of Babel as we see the impact and spread of rebellion against God.
Our Culture Series
Our Culture Series
This May and June, all of our congregations across the Woodlands Church Family are sharing a preaching series called Our Culture where we’ll be looking at four values that shape our life together.
Our talks in this series will look at how we aim to be:
Welcoming
Authentic
Empowered
Expectant
As a church family spread out over eight sites, we're increasingly trying to call together the distinctives that help us understand the shared mission and journey that we're on. It's difficult to boil all of our culture and values down into simple, memorable phrases, but we're going to do our best in this series.
A particular distinctive about the Woodlands Church Family is the ‘both/and’ idea and concept that runs through so much of what we do in our theology and our practice. And you'll find it running through this sermon series as well.
We want to unpack some key things that you'll find and experience if you come into any of our celebrations, gatherings and communities around the city and region.
Download our discussion notes to go deeper with the topics each week. We hope you find the questions useful to help you look at these values in more detail.
See you on Sundays or catchup on the livesteam!
MESSAGES FROM THIS SERIES
Spring Bible School - Genesis 1
Here is an introduction to the book of Genesis and a closer look at the creation narrative
Spring Bible School - starts 22nd April
Here at Woodlands we love the Bible. It is an inspiring, supernatural book, but at times hard to understand. Woodlands Bible School helps you to grapple with different books of the Bible and themes within it. This spring we are going to take four evenings to take a deep dive into the book of Genesis.
Join us from Tuesday 22nd April at 7.30pm in the Foyer at Woodlands Central. All welcome
April Prayer Calendar
Pray each day
Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.
8am Talks
Here are a selection of messages shared at our 8am services, with the most recent talks appearing at the top of the list…
Reading John's Letters Well with Dave Roderick (Mar 2025)
This month Dave Roderick takes a look at the letters of 1, 2, and 3 John. You can listen to the audio from the link below
