The Church of England
Head of Leadership Development
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Role Purpose
We are looking for an exceptional leader who will shape the future leadership of Church of England Birmingham (CofEB). Working under the leadership of the Director of Ministry, and consulting widely, the successful candidate will support the growth of lay and ordained leaders across Church of England Birmingham, capable of leading towards greater spiritual depth, numerical growth, and missional confidence in their roles, through the design and deployment of impactful learning approaches and experiences. They will lead projects that will find and test new ways of discerning and forming Christian leaders, including how we scale this up.
Context
CofEB has been given a significant opportunity: to strengthen and renew our leadership pipeline through strategic investment supported by £6 million from the National Church. This isn’t simply about filling vacancies. It is about shaping the future leadership of the Church in Birmingham for the next generation.
Across our diocese we see extraordinary faithfulness, deep commitment, and real signs of hope. Clergy and lay leaders serve with courage and imagination in complex contexts. Churches are engaging creatively in mission, serving communities under pressure, and seeking to reach younger and more diverse populations with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Yet we also need to be honest about the challenges we face. Many of our current systems for identifying, developing, supporting, and deploying leaders need updating and join up. The scale and pace of cultural change, increasing complexity in parish ministry, clergy wellbeing pressures, and the growing leadership demands of mission all require a more flexible, intentional and integrated approach.
At the same time, the leadership pipeline is under strain. Nationally, the Church of England is not currently developing enough future leaders to sustain and grow ministry over the coming decades. Birmingham reflects this picture. Even so, numbers are not our primary concern. This is also about ensuring we are recognising those who God is calling with their rich and varied qualities - nurturing leaders with the spiritual depth, resilience, missional imagination, and cultural intelligence needed for the future.
Alongside this, we recognise that leadership in the Church does not yet fully reflect the communities we serve. Birmingham is one of the youngest, most ethnically diverse, and socio-economically varied dioceses in the country. If we are serious about mission, we must become more intentional in identifying and supporting leaders from under-represented groups and ensuring that pathways into leadership are accessible, visible, and sustainable. We recognise that God calls people made in his image, with a rich diversity of gifts, experiences and needs. Our task as a Ministry Team is not to make people fit our leadership pathways but to generously shape those pathways to be fit for every person God calls. We also recognise that we need more entrepreneurial leadership: ‘Visionaries who partner with God and others and challenge the status quo by energetically creating and innovating in order to shape something of Kingdom value.’ (Bishop Michael)
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Could you join the team and help nurture the future leadership of Church of England Birmingham?
Key Responsibilities
Under the direction of the Leadership Theme Board and Director of Ministry this role will focus on:
- Strategy and Design: Create, consult and collaboratively plan, ensuring a robust definition and delivery approach to building the all-round leadership capabilities for primary leaders (usually this means clergy at incumbent-level) in line with our strategy.
- Programme join up: Working with other team leads to oversee the design and delivery approach of learning solutions, including curricula, workshops, digital tools, and mentoring.
- Evolving learning and development further to support formation: Work closely with the other leaders in the Ministry team to further evolve learning and development to better support the formation of leaders
- Project Leadership: on specific streams of work, leading the design, development and delivery of projects from inception to business as usual.
- Impact: Oversee the impact of development to understand and enhance its impact on formation.
Key Relationships
As well as the Ministry team, the role needs to be able to work closely and effectively with Bishops, Archdeacons, Project Management Office and the Mission team to execute effectively.
Prayer and Team Life
- Participate fully in the prayer and shared life of the Ministry Team and wider Church of England Birmingham.
- Model a collaborative, hopeful and servant-hearted approach to ministry.
- Engage in ongoing Christian discipleship, professional, theological and personal development.
Person Specification
Essential
Qualifications/Knowledge and Experience
- Anchored in Scripture, prayer, worship, mission and attentiveness to the Holy Spirit
- Able to translate theological vision into strategy, priorities and action
- Able to engage theologically with theories of leadership development
- Ethos of attentive listening to people and to God in a way which informs strategy
- The design and delivery of innovative learning approaches and solutions, including curricula, workshops, digital tools, and mentoring, for senior and emergent leaders
- Partnering with senior leaders to align and enhance development efforts with priorities
- Close and flourishing team-working
- Good presentation, negotiation and problem-solving skills
- Excellent stakeholder management
- Lead collaboratively with clarity, kindness, and courage
- The capacity to identify, develop, and release gifts and leadership in others to share ownership of and realise the vision
- Humble, resilient, emotionally mature, and self-aware
- Build trust and inspire confidence
- Manages conflict well and lead change pastorally
- Good understanding of Church of England parish life and ministry or commitment to developing such understanding as part of the role
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There is a Genuine Occupational Requirement, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, that the postholder is a practising and committed Christian with a love for the Church.
Desirable
- A skilled IT user, including familiarity with core MS office software.
- Relevant educational training / qualification.
- Demonstrates expectancy and enables growth in any context.
- Experience of working within the Church of England, another Christian denomination, church stream or wider charity sector.
- Relates credibly across cultures, traditions, and communities
- Prioritising and going the extra mile to enable individual vocations
Applications will be welcomed from lay or ordained but they must bring strong learning and development expertise and be comfortable working in a church organisation.
Consideration will be given to someone with an existing coaching / consultancy portfolio who might wish to work flexibly.
Terms & Conditions
- Salary and Pension: £47,500 per annum, plus membership of the Church Workers Pension Scheme.
- Contract: 5 year Fixed-term appointment funded through the Diocesan Investment Programme.
- Hours: Full-time, 35 hours per week.
- Holidays: Five weeks annual leave, plus Bank Holidays and discretionary days.
- Responsible to: Director of Ministry.
- Closing date for applications: 7th September
- Interviews (to be held in person): 2nd October
The Church of England Birmingham is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community: a place where all can be themselves and bring their unique identity to their ministry and/or work.
We welcome applications from any individuals who feel they meet the person specification for this post, particularly those who are currently under-represented within our staff teams, including people from Global Majority Heritage and UK Minority Ethnic backgrounds, those with visible or invisible disabilities, and those who identify as LGBTQI+.
We offer a range of inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements and wellbeing support for our staff teams.
The Church of England Birmingham is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All postholders are expected to share this commitment.
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