Good Shepherd is a vibrant and growing parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington committed to spreading the love of God in word and deed. The parish theme is Love is all, with the aim to live out the love-ethic of Jesus as presented in the Sermon on the Mount. The church has meaningful, traditional worship; a deep contemplative prayer life; an enthusiastic community; beautiful music; active outreach programs; and robust formation offerings for all ages. Good Shepherd is a contemplative and a developmental church which means we are drawn to the depth dimension of the spiritual journey and we seek to include people with all manner of different worldviews.
Good Shepherd has been transitioning to a model of deeper engagement in church life across all ages, working to invite members intentionally into their faith journey through worship, formation, and outreach. Two functions of deeper engagement include welcoming and intentional newcomer process as well as deep and abiding pastoral care support.
Good Shepherd is seeking a loving, energetic, curious, faithful priest who will help members of the parish and newcomers engage their faith journey through the offerings of our church. This person must enjoy collaborating with staff and volunteers, leading and supporting volunteer teams, and generally enjoy nurturing individuals in their faith. This is a great job for an experienced priest to be an Associate Rector who is particularly called to pastoral ministry. Likewise, it can be a great job for someone starting out in the priesthood as Assistant Rector at Good Shepherd is an excellent place to learn to be a priest.
Vision and implementation of engagement deeper into church life
Stewardship of the pastoral care process and committee
Intentional development of welcome and inclusion practices for newcomers
Liturgical, sacramental, and preaching responsibilities regularly
Ordained in the Episcopal Church
2-3 years of parish ministry experience for Associate Rector
A deep personal faith supported by intentional spiritual practices
Experience in recruiting, training, and equipping volunteers
Strong communication skills
The perfect mix of small town and big city, Lexington is energetic, electric, and southern. The heartbeat of Lexington is the University of Kentucky and horse racing. Lexington offers a unique blend of tradition and progressiveness and is a magnetic community to call home.
For a long time, most ministry leaders have assumed they had to choose. There's been this choice between disruptive innovation or sustainable systems. Today, smart churches are realizing that their survival depends on not choosing, but embracing both creativity and structure as partners in the same dance. Our group is made up of a peculiar collection of radically practical visionaries, intensely committed to help you build healthy systems that create space for deliberate, often disruptive, innovation.
Ministry Architects has partnered with over 1,000 churches from 24 different denominations, as well as faith-based organizations and institutions of high learning all across the country. Whether big or small, Ministry Architects can guide your community through strategic planning, conduct staff searches, build sustainable ministries, and reach all generations.
Thriving, sustainable ministries can never be built on a parade of young, enthusiastic leaders try to piece together a disjointed collection of ideas from popular models, books, and seminars.
At Ministry Architects, we believe there is a better way than one-size-fits-all training events and quick-fix searches for superstar staffers. It all starts with building intentionally. So like architects, we don't tell churches or organizations what they want to build. We start by listening and create a blueprint of exactly how they can move from where they are to where they want to be. And then, we walk alongside them to make sure that they can build the kind of infrastructure they'll need to support the ministries they believe God is calling them to lead.
