Children and Youth Area Coordinator

General Council on Finance and Administration•Fort Worth, TX

1d•$8,000 - $0•Hybrid

About The Position

The Horizon Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church seeks a Children and Youth Area Coordinator. Area Coordinators will be tasked with coordinating connections and serving as support for collective plans for children, youth, families, and workers. This includes service days, learning days, social events, summer camp, and more. The conference is large and requires support at a local level. The role involves fostering a healthy network that offers mentorship and support for those in their area, ensuring every director is within one hour of a conference children or youth worker for support and care, especially for leaders serving smaller, rural, and town and country churches.

Requirements

Previous experience within the United Methodist Church, preferably within the Horizon Texas Conference.
Experience planning, coordinating, or supporting church-related programs and events.
Demonstrated commitment to supporting the spiritual growth and development of children and youth, as well as their families and communities.
Ability to work collaboratively and effectively as part of a team.
Strong organizational and time-management skills.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to build and maintain effective relationships and connections among churches, ministry leaders, and community partners.
Ability to provide verification of a completed MinistrySafe certification and required background screening within two weeks of accepting the position.
Must be able to commit to a minimum of 30 hours per month average for connections and events. Additional times of year may require more work while other times (December, May) may require less as this is based on the work of the directors in your area.
Willingness to commit to three years of service in this role.

Responsibilities

Build relational connections within the area and across conferences through engagement with Conference-utilized communication streams, including social media groups.
Connect with every children’s and youth director yearly within your area, focusing on 25 churches that have youth and children that are still disconnected from the work of the conference.
Serve as a feedback loop for emerging trends, needs, and situations as they arise in the ministry of the church in the area.
Build a leadership team from across the region to support/multiply relational connections and meet regularly with this team.
Inspire and encourage churches to connect to host something together that benefits workers, parents, youth, children, and communities.
Attend gatherings of area coordinators for collaboration, training, and long-term visioning with the Director of Children and Youth Empowerment.
Cultivate an environment that supports innovative ideation and execution, reinforces healthy feedback, and builds confidence and enthusiasm for regional and conference-level programming.
Plan and execute a gathering four times per year for children’s and/or youth ministry leaders to provide relational opportunities, training of best practices for the Conference, and program support.
Plan a Service Day each semester where students can learn about a local opportunity to share or a Learning Day for Parents/Pastors/Directors/Workers to learn how best to move forward on a topic based on expert sharing.
Execute one conference-wide event per year.
Gather for meal, coffee, etc. as needed for the connection of your area.
Enthusiastically support Conference level children’s and youth ministry events and programming through timely communication, collaborative planning, supportive presence, and involvement at the events.
Support new children’s and youth ministry leaders within the area and help onboard them to the resources and connection available as well as communicate the Conference goals and vision.
Commit to particular events for the conference, depending on availability, with an expectation of three below per year: Annual Conference support as chaperones for youth, Participation as needed in other area events across the conference as available, Summer Camp volunteer for at least one week.
Participate in the collective, collaborative mission trip.
Maintain communication across assigned areas and with the conference, recognizing when pastoral support is required and ensuring care is taken.
Reach out to the churches in your area via email, phone, or visits to confirm they know resources are offered and open the conversation of how to support.
Connect people with needed resources.
Ensure all documents are updated, digitally stored for easy access, and distributed in a timely fashion (including the ministry leader directory, the District/Region Intergenerational Event Calendar, Safety and Safe Church protocols, and District/Regional and/or Conference Registration Forms).
Support children’s and youth ministry leaders in such a way that builds confidence in and enthusiasm for the district, area, and Conference children’s and youth ministry programs, working to cultivate an environment in which children’s and youth ministry leaders feel welcome to bring their concerns, suggestions, and requests.
Inform Director of Children and Youth Empowerment of leaders/ministries in crisis and/or needing additional support.
Create a culture of mutual sharing and uplifting best works and innovation beyond the area for all in the conference and outside the conference to grow.
Ensure every congregation in the coordinator’s assigned region has a children’s and/or youth ministry contact (full time, part-time, or volunteer) with current contact information.
Ensure this contact information is regularly updated and connected with.
Provide the Director of Children and Youth Empowerment with input and feedback, informed by interaction with the district/area’s children’s and youth ministry leaders.
Collaborate with others in your area to recruit and support the ongoing connectional needs including with children and youth directors and students for events, service days, learning days, and more.
Provide project management and leadership to work with student leaders and directors to develop basic leadership skills for student-driven and community-driven requests.
Foster the inclusion of all children, youth, families, and workers into the greater community and connection found in the UMC faith.
Understand and respect the need for diversity in our churches and communities.
Perform other duties as assigned.