Description
An exciting opportunity to partner with the parish of St Illogan in sharing the good news of Jesus with young people, children and their families and enabling people of all ages to grow as disciples of Jesus.
Our priority, however, is that you grow in your own discipleship and have lots of opportunities to discover more about your gifts and Jesus’s calling on your life.
We hope that you will have lots of opportunity to try new things in a supportive and encouraging environment.
We would expect you to get to know our current congregations and be involved in some of our regular activities, including praying together.
Core role: lifechurch
You will be part of a team leading and developing 'lifechurch', our new congregation which started in September 2025, gathering to worship every Sunday afternoon. Although this is for all ages, there is a particular focus on children, young people and their families, and especially those currently unconnected or connected very loosely with church. The aim is for the life of this congregation to go beyond Sunday gatherings, with a focus on what it means to follow Jesus as his disciples.
This will include being involved in preparing and helping to lead the Sunday gatherings, including the provision of creative activities for those who attend.
It will also include connecting with families outside of the Sunday afternoon context. Involvement in some baptism visits and/or baptism preparation may be part of this. There is also the possibility of developing other midweek activities connected into and springing from lifechurch.
Other
The following will be part of the placement, and we would expect you to have some experience of them all initially, even if you then choose to specialise further on into your time with us.
Youth
Help to lead The Hub, the youth group that meets every Sunday evening at St Illogan. Potentially, help to develop other youth activities springing from this.
Also, to strengthen links with national Christian youth organisations and movements.
There is also the potential to explore and develop a greater connection with Pool Academy, where several of the young people are studying.
Primary Schools
Be involved in some or all of the following: assemblies, school lessons, school visits to the church building, Open the Book.
Help to prepare and lead Christmas and Easter presentations/activities for school visits to the church buildings.
We are developing work with at least two of the schools that follows from our mission partnership with Street Kids Direct in Central America, and so there could be scope for you to be involved in taking that forward.
Other possibilities
We would love to see creative prayer develop in our parish – along the lines of 24/7 prayer. If this is something you would like to be involved in, we can see this having a lot of cross-over with children’s/youth work.
Learn from other children’s and/or youth work happening in churches in the local area and be involved in us partnering with them where appropriate.
Connecting with the wider church and enabling others to experience worship, teaching and mission in other contexts.
Finally, this is just an aspiration right now, but there may be an opportunity in the future for a ‘vision trip’ to Guatemala to experience more of the work of Street Kids Direct and the life of children and young people in that context.
Essential Criteria
Love for Jesus and a desire to grow as his disciple.
Confidence in the Bible as the written word of God.
Openness to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
A desire to explore a calling to work with young people and/or children and their families.
Willingness to try new things in a supportive and encouraging environment.
Commitment to working as part of a team.
Flexibility when it comes to the working week, whilst also having a commitment to taking good time for rest and refreshment.
Teachability – openness to learning in all kinds of ways and sharing that learning with others.
Preferred Criteria
Creativity and a desire to use that for God’s glory.
Experience of leading – or helping to lead – worship in informal and intergenerational (all-age) settings.
If you had some experience of Spanish, that could be a very useful skill for connecting with local primary schools, but this is definitely not essential.
Being able to drive and having a car could be useful, but not essential
Accommodation Details
Accommodation will be a with a couple in Illogan who have successfully hosted SWYM workers in the past (and have also hosted clusters).
Week Overview
The pattern of your week is something that will depend on your areas of focus and what you would like to try out, so the following is very much a rough outline and open to change. (E.g., meeting with your mentor is not listed below but would be part of your normal week.)
- Monday – Cluster and study
- Tuesday – Day off
- Wednesday – Schools work
- Thursday – Supervision, Planning for lifechurch, Schools or families work
- Friday – Study and/or planning, schools/youth/families work
- Saturday - Day off
- Sunday - Lifechurch, Youth Group - and potentially involvement in one of our morning services