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Vacancy for Children's Ministry Coordinator

Join our Children’s Church 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 transform Bristol 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. 

As we’ve grown, so too has our team, and we an exciting opportunity for joining our team.


ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a Woodlands Church Family Children’s Ministry Coordinator to join our team working 1.5 to 2 days a week. This role will work across our Children’s Ministry and closely with our Children’s Ministry Leaders.

We’re looking for candidates with extensive experience of children’s ministry with the ability to think strategically, take initiative, work well in a team and be passionate to see children grow in their faith.

Key areas of work include:

  1. Training

  2. Support

  3. Coordination

Full details are contained in the job description below:


KEY TERMS

You can find out more details about these roles and full terms by downloading the document below:

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. 

Terms

  • This is a fixed term contract (FTC) position contracted at 1.5 to 2 days a week.

  • The salary will be £30K - £32.5K pro rata, depending on experience.

  • The annual holiday entitlement is 25 days pro rata, plus 8 days bank holiday pro rata.

  • The role will be based at one of our WCF sites and travel between the different sites will be required.

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.

Relocation
If relocating to Bristol, Woodlands Church Family will reimburse reasonable relocation expenses.


How to apply

To apply, download and complete the Woodlands Church Family application form:

Please send your completed application to our HR Lead Julia Shrimpton at hr@woodlandschurch.net.

If you have any questions about these roles, contact our HR team on hr@woodlandschurch.net.

The closing date for applications is midnight on Monday 9th June 2025. However, this vacancy will close once we have sufficient applications.

If shortlisted, interviews will take place during the two weeks following the close of the vacancy.

Vacancy for Early Years Lead

The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with eight sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more. As we’ve grown, so too has our team, and we have an exciting opportunity for someone to join our Children's team as our Early Years Lead with a focus on children aged 0-4 years at Woodlands Central. 

 As Woodlands Church Family we aim to disciple children and families to be connected, confident and equipped.

1. Connected
We aim to help children and families to connect with Jesus, with one another in friendships, in relationships with the church community and with a sense of belonging.

2.  Confident
We aim to help disciple children to be confident in their knowledge of who God is, to have a sense of their own identity in Christ and therefore confident enough to ask questions, explore faith and be curious.

3. Equipped
We aim to equip and support parents as they disciple their children with the help of the Holy Spirit. We aim to equip children with tools to help them to pray, read the bible and experience the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We want to equip them to own their own faith in Jesus, to obey Jesus and to be empowered ministers to the world around them. 


About the Role
This position is a leadership role to oversee and grow how we disciple our early years generation at Woodlands Central. This involves leading, shaping and delivering our discipleship programme for early years. This includes overseeing our Sunday and midweek ministry programmes, as well as events and outreach initiatives throughout the year.  

The discipleship strategy will be delivered through a large team of volunteers who you will need to recruit, train and support. You will be responsible for communicating vision to the volunteer teams and wider church. You will also be involved with the wider children’s ministry, with an investment in the whole ministry to all our children.    

Candidates should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, able to take initiative, work well in a team and be passionate to see children grow in their faith.  

Requirements: This role requires a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a member of Woodlands Central.

To find out more about this role, download the following documents:


Terms
This is a permanent position contracted at a minimum of 2.5 days per week with a requirement to work on Sunday mornings. 

The salary band for this role is £26,000 - £28,000 pro rata, depending on experience. The annual holiday entitlement is 25 days pro rata plus 8 days bank holiday pro rata.

The role will be based at Woodlands Central in Clifton, Bristol.

The post is subject to satisfactory references.

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

The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday 28th March 2025. However, this vacancy will close once we have sufficient applications. 

Please contact Nigel Savage, Senior Leader at Woodlands Central at nigel.savage@woodlandschurch.net if you have any questions about the role.

If shortlisted, interviews will take place at Woodlands Church on the afternoon of Friday 4th April 2025.

For an application form please contact our HR Administrator Jenny Hanley at hr@woodlandschurch.net.

Please send your completed application to Nigel Savage at nigel.savage@woodlandschurch.net and our HR Lead Julia Shrimpton hr@woodlandschurch.net.

Vacancy for Senior Children & Families Lead

The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with six sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more. As we’ve grown, so too has our team, and we have an exciting opportunity for someone to join our team as Senior Children and Families Lead at Woodlands Central.

 As Woodlands Church Family we aim to disciple children and families to be connected, confident and equipped.

1. Connected
We aim to help children and families to connect with Jesus, with one another in friendships, in relationships with the church community and with a sense of belonging.

2.  Confident
We aim to help disciple children to be confident in their knowledge of who God is, to have a sense of their own identity in Christ and therefore confident enough to ask questions, explore faith and be curious.

3. Equipped
We aim to equip and support parents as they disciple their children with the help of the Holy Spirit. We aim to equip children with tools to help them to pray, read the bible and experience the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We want to equip them to own their own faith in Jesus, to obey Jesus and to be empowered ministers to the world around them. 


About the Role
This position is a strategic leadership role to oversee and grow the Children’s and Families ministries at Woodlands involving leading, shaping and building an expanding children's ministry for children aged 0-11.  

This includes planning ministry programmes, events and outreach initiatives throughout the year. You will lead and line manage the staffed Children’s Team and through them recruit, train and support a large team of volunteers. You will oversee the Families Ministry including daytime groups and events, equipping parents to disciple their children in the home.  

Candidates should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, able to take initiative, work well in a team and be passionate to see children grow in their faith.

Requirements: This role requires a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a member of Woodlands Central.

To find out more about this role, download the following documents:


Terms
This is a permanent position contracted at a minimum of 3 days per week (22 hours 30 mins) with the possibility of more hours being added and the role potentially becoming a full-time position.

The salary band for this role is £29,000 - £31,000 pro rata, depending on experience. The annual holiday entitlement is 25 days pro rata plus 8 days bank holiday pro rata.

The role will be based at Woodlands Central in Clifton, Bristol.

The post is subject to satisfactory references.

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

The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday 28th March 2025. However, this vacancy will close once we have sufficient applications. 

Please contact Rachel Riddall, Senior Leader at Woodlands Central at rachel.riddall@woodlandschurch.net if you have any questions about the role.

If shortlisted, interviews will take place at Woodlands Church on the afternoon of Friday 4th April 2025.

For an application form please contact our HR Administrator Jenny Hanley at hr@woodlandschurch.net.

Please send your completed application to Rachel Riddall at rachel.riddall@woodlandschurch.net and our HR Lead Julia Shrimpton hr@woodlandschurch.net.

Volunteer Opportunity: Children's Team Administrator

The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with eight sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more. As we’ve grown, so too have our teams, and we have an exciting volunteering opportunity within our Children’s Church team at Woodlands Central.


JOIN THE TEAM

We are recruiting for volunteers to join our Children’s Church team to support and underpin some key administrative work for the team at Woodlands Central. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interested and Children’s team admin is something that sounds like an area you’d be interested in helping with!

Key areas of work include:

  • Volunteer rota checks for acceptances/declines and highlighting gaps where more volunteers are needed.

  • Processing all new children’s church volunteers through the recruitment process.

  • Processing new children into groups on ChurchSuite.

  • Transfer Sunday registers of attendance to ChurchSuite records.

  • Assist with setting up meeting dates and sending out invitations.

  • General administration as delegated by children’s church leaders e.g. booking a venue space in the building, sending prewritten emails to groups e.g. for one off events.

Personal attributes and key skills

  • Strong administration skills with an eye for detail

  • Good written communication skills

  • Administering confidential information in line with our Data Protection Policy

  • Team player

Our volunteer roles require a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a worshipping member of the Woodlands Church Family.

Could you commit to around one day a week to support this ministry? Ideally it would be helpful, if you have availability during the day, to meet with the children’s minister on a Monday between 11.30am - 12.30pm to run through weekly tasks but there is flexibility as to when the rest of the hours/tasks are delivered in the week. You’d be very welcome to join us at our Children’s team meeting too.

Support in volunteering role
You’ll be given in-house training on Data Protection and the use of our ChurchSuite database if needed.

You are also welcome to join in with our wider Central team time on Monday mornings from 10am - 11am where we gather to worship, pray, share good news and have input from key members of the team.


Hannah Dunmall
Assistant Children’s Minister

INTERESTED?

Please contact our Assistant Children’s Minister Hannah at hannah.dunmall@woodlandschurch.net for an opportunity to meet and discuss the role further.


Wholeness Course Starts 25th Feb

Wholeness: Explore Identity

Explore how our lives can be established on the sure foundation of our God given identity. This is a course with stories of breakthrough, teaching, including our ‘Spiritual spring clean’ and opportunities for receiving prayer.

Our next Wholeness 1: Explore Identity course will be taking place over 6 weeks beginning the 25th February and running on Tuesday evenings from 8pm - 10pm at Woodlands. To sign up follow the link below.

To find out more about the wholeness course head to the webpage here.


Hear some Testimony’s from the Wholeness Course

Refresh Group for Mums and Little Ones

On Thursday mornings at 10am in The Crypt, we offer new mums and babies the chance to meet up, share a cuppa, refresh and pray with one another.

This group is specifically aimed at supporting the well-being of new mums and their babies.

If you have young children of different ages, check out our Tiny Treasures Toddlers group that meets on Wednesday mornings at 10am in term time.

Volunteer Opportunity: Newcomers Admin

The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with seven sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more.

We are recruiting for volunteers to join our Newcomers Team to support the assimilation of new people to Woodlands Central. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interesting being part of the team.


 ABOUT THIS VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY

We are looking for administrative support for the Newcomers team. Ideally we would like someone who could commit to helping us 3 to 4 hours on a Monday and/or Tuesday, after our newcomers events. These happen once or twice each month on Sundays.

Key areas of work include:

  • Administer the newcomers process by submitting new contact cards, inviting people to newcomer’s events and managing the process flow.

  • Process newcomers after events, including uploading forms and photos to our database. 

Personal attributes and key skills

  • Strong administration skills with an eye for detail

  • Good written communication skills

  • Administering confidential information in line with our Data Protection Policy

  • Team player

Our volunteer roles require a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a worshipping member of the Woodlands Church Family.

Support for this voluntary role

  • In-house training on Data Protection and use of ChurchSuite database

  • Open invitation to join in with our wider team meetings on Monday mornings where we gather together, worship, share good news stories and pray for one another.

Interested? Get in touch!
Please contact our Newcomers Team by emailing newcomers@woodlandschurch.net for an opportunity to meet and discuss the role further.

Calling all Christmas Choir & Brass Player

We’re getting ready for Christmas at Woodies and are looking for people to join our choir and brass band for the Carols by Candlelight services happening on:

14th December (7pm)
15th December (5pm & 7pm)

Choir rehearsals will be on Monday nights in the Upper Hall from 7.30pm - 9pm on the following dates: 
11th November  
18th November
25th November
(No rehearsal 2nd December due to the 'Big Singalong' rehearsal) 
9th December

Would you like to get involved?
Find out how below…


WANT TO JOIN THE CHRISTMAS CHOIR?
For the Christmas choir, ideally you’d have the ability to read music and some experience of singing in a choir. This is helpful, but not essential. You do have to be able to sing in tune and hold a part.
Email our Worship Pastor Jo Demcolli for more information.

ARE YOU A BRASS BRAND PLAYER?
If you are a a brass player at a grade 7 standard or higher, please get in touch with Nigel Savage for more information.