Position Profile

Mission:

• To seek the renewal of all things in Jesus Christ, by cultivating a Gospel-centered community that multiplies churches and develops partnerships in Jacksonville and around the world.

Values:

• Grace: We aren’t into scorekeeping, earning points, or balancing the books with God. Grace liberates by putting us into right relationship with God because of what Jesus has done for us, not what we do for him. Our security lies in the status God gives us in his Son, not a status we gain through our performance.
• Growth: God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way. Grace not only puts us into right relationship with God, but also frees us from sin’s control, giving us real hope for real change. Alive in Christ, the Spirit doesn’t settle for cosmetic change, but renews us inside and out.
• Worship: Everybody worships something, seeking to satisfy the deepest longings of the heart. Unfortunately, the things we serve, like money, relationships or appearance don’t deliver. In Christ, God captures our wayward hearts and satisfies them in Himself. We gather each week to redirect our desires as we commune with God together.
• Community: God made us not only for himself, but also for each other. We accept one another ignoring common boundaries like race, age or class because God has accepted us in Christ. Within this community Jesus turns selfish, isolated individuals into a family that seeks to love one another, share life together, and embody God’s Kingdom.
• Neighbor: God loves our city. Given this, we move towards our neighbor in sacrificial love, denying the fear, arrogance and indifference that keep us at a safe distance. We seek to proclaim his love in word and deed by caring for the vulnerable, serving others in our vocations and planting neighborhood churches for the renewal of our city and world.
• Equipping: The church is not a passive crowd of consumers, but an active body of servants. We seek to equip our members, uniquely gifted by God, to serve in our church, at home, and in our workplaces. By equipping God’s servants we multiply the gospel’s impact in Jacksonville and around the world.
• Partnership: We cannot do this alone. Our commitment to the renewal of all things requires strategic partnerships that extends our reach into the world’s many broken places. We labor alongside others in joyful expectation of the coming King.

• Gospel-Driven: The gospel (the good news that God is reconciling all things to himself by grace through the death and resurrection of Christ) must always be at the center of all our work and relationships. We must worship out of the joy of the gospel, work together in the forgiving grace, patience, trust, and truth-telling of the gospel, and build each other up in the truth of the gospel. We don’t bring worship merely out of a sense of duty. We certainly don’t bring worship out of a sense of artistic pride. If we lose the gospel in our relationships—with God, with ourselves, with each other as servant leaders, and with the congregation—we lose everything.

• Ancient/Future: The Lord’s church is old; it has worshipped Him since the very beginning of the world (Gen 4:26). But the Lord’s church is always emerging, raising up new worshippers to love and serve him in the generations to come. It is critical that the worship of God’s people recognize this ancient-future character of God’s redemptive work. God has a history with us, one that is ancient and thus tracks his faithfulness through centuries of worshippers. But God speaks a redemptive Word to this world, right now, saying something meaningful and lasting to this and future generations. At Christ Church East, we desire to worship God in ways that reflect this dynamic. This will be evidenced in music selection that uses the best from every age. We will love and cherish the gospel-centered hymns of old, but we will also embrace the best of music written in this and recent generations that faithfully and accurately proclaims the gospel. An ancient-future commitment will thus be evident in the structure, liturgy, and atmosphere of our services, as we work to craft an experience of worship that unites all components around the themes of the gospel.

• Creative: It is our desire to worship creatively, so that the worship of this congregation is offered as a gift to God who created us in his image. We desire do so authentically, so that the worship rises up from our people; we want to create the sounds and play (if not write or arrange) music ourselves, using our own instrumental and vocal gifts. This will require that we identify, help train, and unleash such musical gifts for this and future generations of worshippers.

• Team Led: The gospel creates a team of brothers and sisters who work together for the glory of God. We want to build teams of musicians who work together, practice together, and grow together asindividuals and as musicians. We want this to be a collaborative effort, with the diversity of gifts and passions coming together to create beautiful and powerful worship. We want this to be an effort of selflessness and humility, where all praise is directed to the God who has given us life and a new song to sing.

• Congregational: The gospel builds community; we are a spiritual family called to live out an alternative kingdom.This means that our music and liturgy ought to engage the entire congregation inworship. Sadly, sometimes music divides a congregation into “camps”; we want our music to lead our congregation to unity as we embrace the very presence of the King among us. A word on leadership is important here. In many churches, the congregation merely “observes” the real action that takes place up front where “worship leaders”—pastors, vocalists, musicians—leadthe service, “directing” the congregation in its responses. In the approach to worship we wishto cultivate, the congregation is not directed but led humbly into His presence. “Worship leaders” give way to “lead worshippers” whose face, voice, prayers and even tears expose their own hearts and draw the congregation into the worship of God. The servants will diminish before the eyes of the people so that the Living Word himself will be exalted in our presence.

• Theologically Accurate: The gospel is the truth of God. Worship must reflect this; it must be theologically accurate. Whether songs are simple or complex, old or new, they must be Biblically true. Many familiar songs and hymns (old and new), sadly, are not. Many are purely sentimental in their text and artistically sloppy; others are purely individualistic, and thus do not reflect the communal nature of covenant life in Christ. Still others embrace inaccurate understandings of God and his ways. Whether we use ancient lyrics or songs written by our own people, we want our worship to reflect the truth of God revealed in the scriptures.

Missional: Christ Church East is on a mission, first and foremost, to be a worshipping community—bringing to the Triune God the praise and adoration which is rightfully and joyfully his. We want the worship services of this church to be so rich, welcoming and beautiful that believers will be encouraged to say, “Now this is what I need, and this is what my non-Christian friends need to hear and experience!” Christians who share their faith with friends must be confident when they bring them to church that believer and unbeliever alike will hear the gospel in a challenging, yet welcoming atmosphere. We want our love to be genuine, our language (including our musical language) to be understandable, and our message to be clear. Missional worship is the most critical event in the ministry of the church.

Indigenous: We want to bring God worship that is rooted in the eternal, and yet is culturally indigenous to this time and place. This means several things. While Biblical integrity in the texts we sing is our guiding principle, we will value a unique blend of music that includes sounds and rhythms thatpulse through the cultures of Jacksonville and Christ Church East. The rich hymns of the historic Christian church will be cherished as the anchors of our praise, but they will be supplemented by other modern music, and may be creatively arranged to communicate in the musical language of today and for the church of tomorrow.

Reformed: As Christians we are part of a catholic (i.e. universal) church. We aim to represent the ancient-future communion of the saints through the use of ancient and modern liturgies, and songs that represent a faith that is world-wide and stretches through all generations. Yet we cherish our unique heritage as Reformed believers, a heritage that grounds us in a deep understanding of the redemptive storyline of Scripture, a gospel marked by grace, an understanding of redemption as cosmic and transformational, and of life as a Kingdom/covenant enterprise. Our worship will reflect this confessional framework.

Excellent: Worship demands excellence. This is true for mission-critical reasons, and because our God deserves the best of our gifts. Applied to worship, a commitment to communal excellence reflects genuine love, honest respect, and a spirit of grace shown to one another and those we seek to bring into our fellowship. A commitment to theological excellence puts God as the focus of our worship, and stands on His Word (rather than felt-needs of people) as that which guides and shapes it. A commitment to musical excellence frees us from slavish obeisance to the style du jour (whether purely traditional or driven by the latest CDs). And a commitment to artistic excellence suggests that our music should be authentic and creative, an offering to the Lord from a whole people that makes use of the many gifted musicians in our church to create our own unique sound, the best we can offer. We believe that such excellence is attractive. We pray that Christ Church East will lead the way in creative, God-centered, grace-soaked worship in our city, and that the quality and passion of our worship will draw many to know our God.

Leadership / Program Development (40%)

• Select, arrange and oversee the band for the worship service, ensuring musical selections align with the messages being preached
• Create an atmosphere that leads to heartfelt worship and praise
• Recruit, develop and direct musicians and provide musical direction, rehearsal leadership, and performance guidance;
• Provide care to worship team members, nurturing a culture of unity, authenticity, and joy

Production (40%)

• Now that we have a part-time AV Coordinator, I think “Leadership/Program Development” should be 50% and “Production” should be 30%.
• Also, second bullet point, “Recruit, train, and coordinate volunteers to operate technical equipment…” Assuming this is referring to cameras, slides computer, and sound board, the AV Coordinator is responsible for this. I think it would be appropriate to say that the Worship Director will oversee the AV Coordinator who will recruit and train volunteers to operate this back of house equipment.
• Change the location from University of Florida to University of North Florida

Administrative (20%)

• Oversee administrative aspects of the worship ministry, including budget management, event planning, communication with staff and volunteers, record-keeping, and evaluation of ministry effectiveness.
• Ensure that all ministry activities and events are conducted in accordance with CCE policies, procedures, and safety guidelines.
• Collaborate with church staff and volunteers to coordinate ministry activities and programs.

• A love for Jesus, his gospel, and his church.
• Alignment with the Reformed faith and the vision of Christ Church East.
• A team-oriented spirit with a humble, collaborative, and relational approach to ministry.
• Worship leading experience preferred.
• Excellent musical ability—both instrumentally and vocally.
• Highly organized, responsible, and creative.
• Willingness to submit to the leadership of the church.
• Openness to diverse, biblical expressions of worship, with a readiness to yield personal style preferences for the sake of unity and mission.