OUR HOME
Located in the lower Hunter Valley, 30 minutes from Newcastle and a couple of hours out of Sydney, Maitland NSW is the fastest growing LGA outside of Sydney. Known for being a family-oriented community with young families and thriving housing developments, as well as easy access to the beaches of Newcastle and the vineyards of the Hunter, Maitland strikes a beautiful balance between the city and country life. With this location, an attractive cost of living, and expanding local amenities, families are choosing to make the Maitland area their home.
OUR STORY
Maitland Baptist Church has been serving our community for 91 years, the last 40 of them at Weblands St, Rutherford. With a prime location centred between a local primary school, high school, thriving day care centre and local shopping centre, Maitland Baptist has a history of successful outreach programs as part of loving and serving the local community.
Our church enjoys a relaxed, family atmosphere for our Sunday afternoon service, with a love of well known and home grown worship songs, a passion for God's word in our lives and a belief that God's Spirit is with us as we navigate our world. We seek to celebrate, announce and demonstrate the kingdom of the Father, and the Lordship of Jesus through the power of the Spirit by loving God, loving others and making disciples in our community.
Over the past three years we have seen a renewed sense of God's leading and blessing within our church, particularly through the resurgence of our children's ministry. What begun as a season of rebuilding and dreaming has become a period of significant growth, with children's numbers doubling in that time and further growth anticipated as our LGA expands. This growth has been strengthened by meaningful relationships within the local community including the neighbouring daycare and our OOSH ministry which provide us with exciting opportunities for mission and growth. This has led us to excitedly seek a Pastor to build on this momentum. The role has been established to see our children grow in spirituality, maturity and connections across the generations of our church; our parents equipped and supported to grow in faith; our leaders grow in wisdom, strength and love and engaging faithfully and creatively with the families God has placed around us.
Maitland Baptist Church is committed to seeing both women and men in leadership roles within the church and would invite you to apply if you feel God's call.
THE ROLE
Primary Focus – Consolidate and strengthen the Sunday children's ministry from creche to Year 6
The primary focus of the role will be to consolidate and strengthen our rapidly growing creche and kids church ministries. Towards the end of 2025, we had a weekly average of 21 children and leaders in our creche and kids church, most of them under the age of 7. We're excited by the opportunity to invest into our children and families, leading them into a life of loving and serving Jesus. The successful applicant's key responsibilities in this area will be to:
* Ensure all Sunday programs are safe, welcoming, engaging, and age-appropriate
* Provide biblically faithful and accessible teaching that supports children's spiritual growth
* Recruit and support volunteer leaders within the children's ministry
* Equip and resource parents and carers to continue faith conversations and discipleship at home
* Work collaboratively with church leadership to integrate children's ministry into the wider life of the church
Developing Outreach Ministries
After 12 months in the role, we would expect the candidate to create an intentional outreach ministry within our community. We have expressed two ideas below but would be open to the candidates' calling, gifting and discernment of where God may be leading our church in our local context.
Establish and lead a midweek playgroup ministry for parents, guardians and babies
The church has a rich history of children's ministry, one such ministry has been a midweek playgroup ministry with a focus on connecting young parents and carers outside the church with the love of Jesus through our church community. The daycare on site has almost 100 children on site everyday and is excited about the opportunity for its young families and wants to offer support to the church as we reestablish this ministry. The successful applicant's key responsibilities in this area will be to:
* Create a warm, safe, and welcoming environment that fosters community, connection, and trust
* Build relationships with families not currently connected to a church in the wider community
* Recruit and support volunteers to assist in the running of the playgroup
* Provide appropriate pastoral care and referral pathways for participating families
Develop and facilitate parenting courses and workshops for parents connected to Maitland Baptist OOSH and the local Daycare centre.
We're excited by the opportunity to connect with parents in the local school and daycare by offering relevant workshops to help them build skills in parenting, budgeting and even gardening! We have a number of capable presenters within our church community, but excited to building new partnerships to expand what we can offer. The hope is to present relevant and engaging topics to help support families and to create pathways for them towards our church community. The successful applicant's key responsibilities in this area will be to:
* Build meaningful relationships with families, educators, and centre leadership
* Create pathways for families to connect with the life of the church beyond the programs
* Partner with other church ministries to support outreach and community engagement
* Evaluate and adapt programs to ensure they meet community needs and align with the church's mission
We are committed to resourcing the role well, allowing priorities and goals to be set within each season and supporting sustainable rhythms of ministry and rest. The position is being offered as a flexible permanent part-time position for three days a week (0.6FTE) with the possibility of expanding the role as the church continues to grow.
ESSENTIAL CRITERIA
* A clear and growing Christian faith, with a commitment to the mission and values of the church
* Demonstrated experience in children and family ministry
* Proven ability to lead, train, and inspire volunteers
* Strong communication and relational skills, particularly with children, parents, and teams
* A sound understanding of child development and age-appropriate discipleship
* Commitment to child safety, including meeting all relevant legal and church safeguarding requirements
* A recognised theological qualification or ministry training (or willingness to undertake further training)
* Organised, reliable, and able to manage multiple responsibilities effectively
* To work from the Church office and provide a level of availability and accountability appropriate for the role.
All expressions of interest for this position are to be directed to Pastor Thomas Walton Office@mbchurch.org.au and should include your resume, the attached pastoral pro forma and a cover letter addressing the criteria in this profile. Remuneration details for the role are available on request, please don't hesitate to contact Tom on 4939 1888 or 0448 937 418 should you have any questions.
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