Transformation Team Programme Lead

Introduction

OVERVIEW 

As part of our commitment to develop our capacity for diocesan growth and renewal, the Bishop’s Council have committed to a period of local consultation, engagement and strategic discernment in order (through prayer, conversation, research and modelling) to develop a ten-year strategy for growth (or ‘Diocesan Transformation plan).   

As a step towards this we are recruiting a fixed term programme team to support this period of discernment, design and development. A key element of this will be appointing an experienced programme lead, with experience of church growth programme leadership, to lead the discernment and development of our transformation strategy (ready for submission to the national Church in December 2027). 

With a track record of developing vision and resourcing missional engagement, the successful candidate will have a history of leading change, will be motivated by serving and resourcing communities, able to inspire engagement and critical thinking, and able to channel the insights of a broad coalition of partners to design change and enable missional growth in an explicitly Christian context. 

Able to think creatively, you will be a theologically rooted leader, who is ready to contribute to, resource and lead strategic development and planning, working collaboratively within our governance structures and with senior leaders to energise common action around our shared missional purpose, producing workable and sustainable strategic solutions to renew missional in ways that are authentically Christian and contextually appropriate. 

Leading a small programme team, you will enjoy working collegiately across the breadth of Diocesan structures and traditions, resourcing the contribution of others, and facilitating the co-creation of a longer-term transformation strategy capable of aligning our resources, people and places towards our shared purpose. 

Working closely with the Diocesan leaders, you will engage widely with local communities and will be informed by an understanding of the missional and socio-economic distinctives of the North East, and motivated by the guiding missional charisms and convictions of Aidan, Hilda and the saints of the region, whilst drawing on the current missiological insights and resources to energise all of God’s people to respond to our shared missional call in Christ. 

The role is a full time, fixed term role (to March 31st, 2028) based at Church House, with some regular working in parishes, weekend and evening work.

CONTEXT 

The Diocese of Newcastle is one of the most diverse dioceses in the Church of England, with a population that includes the diversity of inner-city Newcastle, ex-colliery and industrial communities of Blyth and Ashington, coastal villages, market towns and remote villages of inland Northumberland. 

With 70 full time clergy, university and hospital chaplaincies, church schools and 236 churches we are well rooted in every context and keen to find ways to proclaim the gospel afresh in ways that make sense for a changing local context that has found mission and sustainability challenging in recent years. 

With support from the National Church, we are beginning a process of strategic review, discernment and reimagination, ahead of developing a fuller Diocesan Transformation programme for launch in 2028). 

THE ROLE

To accelerate the design of our strategy for transformation, lead the associated work of discernment and develop funding and sustainability, the Diocese is seeking to appoint a Transformation Team Programme Lead to co-ordinate the work of the Transformation Programme Team during the capacity funded discernment & design phase , providing high level leadership to engage all our stakeholders and support our senior leaders through the discovery and decision making process. 

PURPOSE

The purpose of the Transformation Programme Lead is to oversee and co-ordinate the discernment and development of a locally owned Diocesan Vision and supporting Strategy for missional renewal, that supports missional growth in all its forms.