Job Summary:
The Rector will serve as the spiritual leader and chief executive officer of the parish, guiding all aspects of its ministry and mission. This role is ideal for a warm, innovative leader and engaging
preacher, deeply committed to fostering an inclusive community and to supporting us in taking
bold action aligned with our mission through collaborative, empowering and strategic management.

Essential functions of the role:
Mission, Strategy and Program Development:
● Inspire and lead the parish to live God’s love in the world.
● Work with the vestry and parish leaders to shape and implement St. Columba’s strategic vision and plan.
● Empower lay and staff leaders to initiate and effectively implement programs that fulfill this vision.
● Foster communication across ministries and programs to ensure alignment with strategy.
● Spearhead inclusive processes to evaluate progress and plan for the future.

Worship:
● Guide the planning and effective execution of worship services that proclaim and celebrate God’s love, reflect the diverse needs and interests of the parish, and foster the participation of many clergy and lay people of all ages.
● Serve as the primary spiritual leader and preacher, offering intellectually and spiritually challenging sermons while supporting other clergy to deliver high-quality weekly preaching in on going rotation.
● Enable creativity and experimentation with liturgy and different types of worship that allow parishioners to grow together spiritually both in and outside the structure of traditional Sunday services.
● Leverage our investments in broadcast technology and social media to build and sustain a faith community beyond our walls.

Management:
● Build and lead a highly effective and collaborative team of clergy and lay staff, delegating to them and coaching them to fulfill parish goals.
● Ensure strong management of all church operations, including the effective and responsible use of a $3.3 million annual operating budget.
● Oversee significant updates to church property as envisioned in the recent master planning effort, effectively utilizing capital campaign resources raised in 2024.
● Empower staff and parish leaders at all levels with appropriate guidance and support.
● Foster strong vestry engagement to maintain appropriate governance and stewardship of all resources.

Fundraising and Stewardship:
● Work with intention to ensure the parish raises there sources required to achieve the mission and strategy, increasing pledge revenue at a rate that keeps up with expenses.
● Invite parishioners to prayerfully and gratefully share their financial resources in their annual contributions.
● Continuously build our endowment for the future by inviting participation in the Iona Society, our planned giving program.
● Foster new member engagement that will enable us to build for our future.

Education and Formation:
● Teach the Gospel by word and example, calling the congregation into a deeper relationship with God.
● Oversee Christian education that meets the evolving needs of children, youth and adults of all ages.
● Foster curiosity, deeper understanding of Jesus’s Gospel message, inward reflection, interpersonal and community bonds, learning about local and global issues and inspiration to live God’s love in the world.
● Engage in personal continuing education and spiritual development.

Community and Pastoral Care:
● Strengthen the bonds of our intergenerational community by emphasizing fellowship in our ministries, programs and parish life.
● Establish onramp sand strengthen pathways for connection among members of our community.
● Ensure pastoral needs are met through direct care and by equipping clergy and laity to provide support.
● Lead efforts to draw new members to the church and warmly welcome and engage them in the community.
● Nurture a culture for enriching and replenishing leadership.
● Strengthen connections between the Church and Nursery School communities for mutual vitality.

Outreach and Community Engagement:
● Facilitate the development of direct service and social justice outreach ministries that achieve tangible impact in our community.
● Offer deep commitment to and thoughtful guidance in our journey to be come anti-racist.
● Build and maintain relationships in our neighborhood and across Washington, DC that cut across the divides of race, culture, income and faith.
● Foster collective action to achieve systemic change and offer direct service to our neighbors in ways that draw us closer to God and one another.

Core competencies:
● Strategic Executive Leadership: Aligns the congregation around a strategic vision, leads strong planning processes and creates the conditions for effective implementation of plans, including mobilizing required human and financial resources.
● Preaching and Teaching: Serves as an inspiring preacher and teacher, balancing the uplifting with the challenging and the personal with the intellectual, fostering spiritual development of congregation and staff and calling us to action to live God’s love.
● Team Building: Attracts, hires and retains talented staff; provides effective oversight and coaching; empowers and mentors clergy and staff to lead and inspire each other and the congregation; recruits lay leaders for key ministries and leadership roles and creates a pipeline of new leaders; fosters a collaborative, positive work culture among staff and lay leaders.
● Interpersonal and Conflict Management Skills: Builds warm relationships across a large multi-generational congregation; prioritizes deep listening to various view points followed by courageous decisions; able to diplomatically hear feed back, bridge varying views and engage constructively in conflict.
● Communication: Communicates vision, inspiring the congregation to embrace bold ideas. Anticipates the communication needs of the congregation and effectively develops and delivers key messages through multiple oral and written channels, including via video.
● Spiritual Leadership: Possesses a deeply rooted personal faith and can weave this faith in to the life of the congregation, encouraging spiritual practices.
● Compassion and Pastoral Care: Demonstrates empathy, maintains appropriate care boundaries and supports the pastoral needs of the congregation.
● Stewardship Leadership: Embodies and promotes good stewardship practices, encouraging generous giving of time, talent and resources. Possesses good financial sense.
● Emotional Intelligence and Resilience: Exhibits high emotional intelligence, demonstrates resilience and models good self-care.
● Creativity and innovation: Willingness to experiment, take measured risks and learn from successes and failures.
● Humor, Playfulness and Commitment to Service: Appreciates the playful nature of the congregation, leads with a sense of humor and humility (without a strong ego) and is passionate about making the world a better place.
● Inclusivity, Diversity and Racial Equity: Embodies an enduring and urgent commitment to fostering a deeply inclusive community, embracing diversity and promoting racial equity, justice and love in all aspects of parish life.

Qualifications:
● Ordained Episcopal priest in good standing with the Episcopal Church.
● Minimum of 10years of ordained ministry experience, including substantial leadership responsibilities in a parish setting.
● Proven experience leading a medium to large, complex, congregation with multiple ministries led by staff and lay leaders.
● Experience building and leading a team responsible for all aspects of the operation of a large church, including worship, fundraising, financial management, property management, internal and external communication, member engagement and many outreach, pastoral spiritual and worship ministries.
● Proven ability to engage and inspire through preaching and teaching.
● Demonstrated success in collaborative visioning and strategic planning processes and implementation of plans.
● Track record of growing church membership and revenues through stewardship and fundraising.
● Strong record of fostering inclusivity, diversity and racial equity within a church community.
● Advanced theological education (M.Div. or equivalent) required; additional qualifications in leadership, pastoral care or related fields are desirable.

How to Apply:
If you are hearing a call from God to enter into a deeper conversation and possibly to love and
lead us, please apply by sending a cover letter, your resume, and your OTM Ministry Profile by email
by September 30th, 2024.