The Idle and Sands, Retford – Vicar

The parish of Idle and Sands, Retford is located close to the pleasant market town of Retford, in the north of the diocese. The united benefice and united PCC was formed in 2019 and contains the former parishes of Bothamsall, Eaton & Gamston, Elkesley and West Drayton which have been linked together since 1992 and Sutton-cum-Lound, Babworth and Ranby, and Scofton who have historically been linked. It has a rich heritage, committed and capable lay leaders and exciting mission opportunities, especially through the three church primary schools.

The parishes, deanery and diocese are looking to appoint a person who has

• A personal devotion to the Lord reflected and rooted in prayer
• A vision for, commitment to, and experience of, evangelism and church growth across all ages,
• An aptitude, experience and gifts in exercising strategic leadership, especially towards vision and implementing plans for growth
• Excellent relational gifts, emotional intelligence, tenacity and resilience,
• The ability to discern, develop and deploy the gifts of others in mission and ministry
• The willingness to work with the existing team of clergy and laity to build and sustain life-giving teams
• The ability to lead and enjoy a variety of worship and musical styles, including contemporary expressions and the Book of Common Prayer
• A commitment to, and expertise for, engaging biblical teaching and whole-life discipleship
• The ability to relate to, and inspire, children, young people and young families as well as retaining and building on the existing congregations
• The capacity to see new missional opportunities and implement them

Priorities of the role in the next five years

• To grow the church numerically so that it reflects the age profile of the parish population, in particular growing significantly the ministry amongst young families, their children and young adults
• To engage with the three Church of England schools at Gamston, Ranby, and Sutton-cum-Lound (as well as the community school at Elkesley) and to explore the possibility of midweek new worshipping communities based in one or more of the schools
• To explore how best to resource the spiritual needs of all members – those new to faith as well as the current congregational members
• To enable and oversee the lay leadership across the benefice including the identification and deployment of Licensed Lay Ministers, Local Missional Leaders and collaboration with churchwardens
• To create a sustainable pattern of services (both traditional and new contemporary styles) that will focus on growing disciples and will be delivered by the ordained and lay resource available.
• To develop and implement the Growing Disciples Plan in collaboration with the lay leadership across the benefice
• To create a strategy to develop the stages from first enquiry through to full participation and integration in the church.

Idle & Sands, Retford – Profile Feb 2021

 For an informal discussion and further information contact:

Archdeacon of Newark – Venerable Tors Ramsey

 [email protected]