Applications, including letters of reference,
are due by March 15, 2019.
Apply now
Beacon is a recently chartered church that strengthens our community of Kensington in Philadelphia through art, storytelling, and faith.
Since 2011 Beacon has been re-envisioning worship and what it means to be a faith community as a part of the 1001 New Worshiping Community movement, an initiative of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Both Beacon and the 1001 NWC movement are thrilled to invite applicants for a special pastoral residency at Beacon.
The Context
We are in a post-industrial context that is rapidly gentrifying, which presents us and a future resident many opportunities of how to grow a sense of community across deep cultural and socio-economic chasms. We do this work through explanatory, freshly-written liturgy in worship, facilitating relationship growth between neighbors at community art events, recruiting, training, and maintaining a volunteer base for our weekly after school literacy program at our local elementary school, and hosting twice-monthly meals that gather people to mobilize them for good in the field of social justice. Residents will have a leadership role in all programs, though some may include more delegation than others, according to skill set and sense of vocation.
The pastoral residency at Beacon is a residency for the faith-motivated entrepreneurial in the 21st century. Residents participate in all aspects of Beacon’s life and work: leading worship, building relationships with community members and organizational partners, designing curriculum, supporting community programming, participating in board meetings, and learning about grant-writing, administration, and leadership from one of Beacon’s founding pastors. Beacon offers both one- and two-year tracks for residency. If interested in the two-year track, the first year would be spent as an immersive learning experience on the ground at Beacon and the second year would be a hybrid of refining skills at Beacon and doing the groundwork to begin a different new worshiping community in another area of the city.
Ideal Applicants
The ideal applicant to this residency program at Beacon has an appetite for risk, a commitment to doing what needs doing to accomplish an overall mission, an openness to learning about how things have come to be at Beacon as a test case for his or her future ministry, and an appreciation for and commitment to clear communication The ideal resident lives and breathes a theology of incarnation: loving first, storytelling second. She or he works well on a team, taking direction from his or her supervisor, but is also willing to “own” a program—to be responsible for its execution and success, from start to finish. The ideal applicant knows how to get away from the job when needed but when at the job, is truly present. She or he takes the gospel incredibly seriously but the institution and him or herself much less so.
Selection Process
A discernment team selects candidates for the program. In addition to possessing the qualities described above, an ideal candidate for the NWC Residency will possess an interest in journeying with a community to see them grow in awareness of God’s work and presence in their lives. She or he delegates and equips people to take responsibility for their faith practices and has excitement and enthusiasm about starting things from scratch. He or she is an unapologetically Christian leader who is savvy about loving and meeting people where they are.
Financial Support
The total package available for support of this residency is $40,000 for the year, to include salary and at least a $1500 health insurance reimbursement. Beacon will work with the successful candidate to organize the package to be most beneficial to the resident. The resident will be an employee of Beacon Church. Residents also will take part in an advanced national training (costs covered by the Presbyterian Mission Agency) with 1001 apprentices and other residents this summer in Kansas City. Applications, including letters of reference, are due by March 15, 2019.
For more information about 1001 New Worshipping Communities contact Sara.Hayden@pcusa.org
For more information about Beacon, go to: thewordatbeacon.org and/or find us on social media: facebook.com/thewordatbeacon, @thewordatbeacon.
