Leader of Fountains Church Bradford (BMO)

Our Diocesan vision is about confident clergy equipping confident Christians to live and tell the good news of Jesus Christ. For all our appointments we seek clergy who have a joyful and confident faith which has inspired a track record of church growth. Here, we are looking for a leader who can take Fountains Church Bradford into the next stage of its young life, continuing its pioneering role as a city centre resource church in, of and for Bradford.

The new leader will need to operate on a city-wide stage, working with the Bishop and Archdeacon of Bradford as well as the other leaders of Fountains to continue realising the vision set for the church since its inception. (S)he will therefore be an experienced and strategic leader of leaders, who can enable each person and each worshipping community to play their part in such a way that the overall team is much greater than the sum of its parts. (S)he will also be comfortable with the governance and accountability demands related to a church of this size and complexity.

The church is developing a good track record in supporting church revitalisation and starting new worshipping communities, not least Saturday Gathering and Wrestling Church. It has a strong leadership team, comprising ordained and paid staff as well as mature and experienced lay people. In particular, the church is blessed with several very gifted worship leaders in its Sunday afternoon congregation.

The main missional challenge for the next leader of this young church is to enable renewed growth in the Sunday afternoon congregation, both numerical and also in corporate missional discipleship, so the church can inhabit more fully its role as a Resource Church. Alongside this, working with a Business and Operations Director, is the financial challenge of ensuring adequate sustainable income streams to resource the church's mission and ministry. Hence, I see the following goals for the new Leader:

• To refresh the church's strategy, building from its original vision and progress to date, ensuring the vision, values and strategy are widely understood and owned by individuals and groups from the different congregations as well as wider stakeholders;
• To strengthen and enlarge the church's core membership, setting a culture of strong corporate and personal discipleship in the church, and to continue to identify, encourage and develop new lay leaders and potential ordinands;
• To lead and manage the staff team, ensuring it is cohesive and mutually supportive with shared vision and values, and each member can play to their respective strengths.
• To consolidate and continue the church's mission, outreach and church planting work (in particular through the Fountains Network Churches in Frizinghall and Shelf with Buttershaw) so that the gospel is shared with more of Bradford;
• As current SDF support ends, to work closely and collaboratively with the person appointed as the church's Business and Operations Director to ensure ongoing financial sustainability for Fountains CIO and to ensure mission initiatives are focused ("do less, and do it better") on agreed priorities, such as:
  1. mission and ministry in and from the City Centre;
  2. growing missional capacity, particularly with the 4:30 pm congregation;
  3. work with children, youth and families.

Closing date for applications is 6th September 2026 with interviews scheduled for 18th September