Job Overview
Lead Pastor Search
Grace Community Church is seeking someone to become our Lead Pastor upon retirement of our current lead pastor. We envision that the candidate will initially fill the role of Associate Pastor during a brief time of acclimation and transition, with the length of time based on the candidate’s level of preparation.
Meet Grace Community Church
Grace Community Church is a healthy, growing, non-denominational church located in Rochester, NH. Our mission is to TELL people about Jesus, LOVE God and LOVE others, and GO do something for Jesus. A vibrant congregation seeking to hold fast to the Apostle’s Creed, we work to live out the teachings of Jesus in a way that shows the life, mercy, and grace of God to all we encounter – within our local body and beyond.
We are seeking an Associate Pastor who aspires to become our next Lead Pastor. We’d like to find someone who would become part of our community, who would help us continue the good things that are happening, and who would inspire us to see areas in which we could grow, leading us into our next season.
Location, Demographics, & Brief History
Our Sunday services draw nearly 400 attendees each week from the greater Rochester area of New Hampshire and parts of southern Maine. We estimate that over 500 people are regularly engaged in our church community throughout the year in meaningful ways through Grace Groups and ministry opportunities.
Grace Community Church has grown spiritually over the last four decades from a rule-oriented church led primarily by one individual, to a grace-filled church led by a team of pastors, elders, and deacons, who partner with staff and ministry volunteers. In the last 15 years Grace was led to launch an additional location in Farmington, NH, as well as relocate our Rochester gatherings to a downtown building that has allowed us to have a visible presence in the middle of the city. As we navigated the impacts of the COVID pandemic we recently merged our two locations into one in Rochester while maintaining a ministry center in Farmington.
Beliefs & Values
Grace Community Church holds to the Apostles’ Creed as its Statement of Faith, affirming the foundational beliefs of Christianity. Our mission, summarized as “Tell, Love, Go,” encompasses evangelism, disciple making, devotion to God and others, and active service for Christ. As a church we emphasize active participation in personal faith development, community involvement, and biblical commitment. We recognize the authority of the Bible and rely on spiritual gifts for ministry. We value fellowship within the broader Christian community.
Grace Community Church encourages the sharing of the gospel through good works and maintains a commitment to unity based on essential beliefs while allowing for diversity in non-essential matters. Overall, we seek to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission by embodying love, evangelism, discipleship, and service.
Grace Community Church follows a governance model that is pastor-led, elder-governed, and staff-driven, emphasizing teamwork in line with the biblical portrayal of the church. The Leadership Team, made up of the Lead Pastor, Elders, and Deacons, supports the staff to guide the church’s direction, serve and equip its members, and engage the community. Together, they strive to ensure a balanced approach to leadership and ministry, seeking God’s guidance for the unity and well-being of the church.
Ministry Areas
Our Sunday services are informal and friendly with dynamic worship, intentional teaching, and the sharing of communion together weekly. Grace Community Church has an active Grace Kids program and we encourage families to participate in worship together before being dismissed to their classes. A focus for all our ministry opportunities is for people to utilize their gifts which can be seen on Sundays through our preaching team, host team, worship team, and Grace Kids team.
As a church we desire for our people to be engaged in following Jesus every day of the week and we place high value on ways that can happen in community outside of Sunday services. Our student ministry (GYG) meets weekly with over 30 middle school and high school students, there are multiple Grace Groups that gather in homes or at the church every week, and we have established a Care Team that extends our ability to provide care to our congregants as well as others in our communities. We also have a very active Missions and Outreach department that runs two food pantries, community suppers, short term mission trips, and other opportunities that allow us to reach out to our greater community.
Job Description
The Lead Pastor provides primary spiritual, visionary, and strategic leadership to Grace Community Church.
Education & Experience
The ideal candidate will have the following:
- Master of Divinity or comparable graduate degree from an accredited evangelical, theological seminary or its equivalent.
- Training and experience necessary to lead a vibrant, growing congregation, including knowledge of multi-generational and multi-campus ministries, as well as leadership of paid staff and unpaid volunteers in a multi-staff ministry setting.
- 5+ years of experience as an associate or senior pastor at a church with 300+ Sunday attendance.
Ministry Responsibilities
The primary responsibilities of the position after transition to Lead Pastor include the following:
- Provide primary spiritual, visionary, and strategic leadership for the church.
- Shape and oversee a comprehensive vision of discipleship for the congregation including a variety of pathways to meet the needs of an intergenerational church.
- Primary preacher, leading our preaching team, including strategic planning of sermon series and long term development of preaching team members.
- Provide organizational leadership to employees and lay leaders as needed, with a passion for developing new leaders.
- Shepherd the congregation, providing spiritual leadership and oversight of the pastoral care team.
Initial responsibilities as Associate Pastor would be worked out based on the candidate’s strengths under the direction of the Lead Pastor.
What you bring to the position
The ideal candidate is characterized by the following:
- Spiritual maturity as a growing Christ-follower, demonstrated through a vibrant personal walk with God that overflows into the lives of others, exhibiting the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
- Integrity and character above reproach as encompassed in 1 Timothy 3:1-7.
- Able to subscribe without reservation to the Apostles’ Creed.
- Proven ability to cast vision and craft effective strategies to lead people and staff through change.
- Consistent and objective decision-making skills.
- Effective communication skills: able to maintain healthy communication among various groups, including the leadership team, staff, and the congregation as a whole.
- Ability to build and maintain a cohesive and effective team spirit among staff and ministry leaders, fully aligned with Grace’s mission, values, and statement of faith.
- Wisdom in knowing how to appropriately delegate responsibility.
- Approachability, humility, and compassion, exhibiting emotional intelligence and humor.
