Job Board

Lead Pastor Job Description

We are searching for our next Lead Pastor, as our founding and senior pastor transitions to retirement. The position can start immediately and will transition to Lead Pastor by June 1, 2025.

Overview:

Lakeland Community Church (www.lakelandcommunity.org) is on mission to build a community of authentic followers of Jesus Christ. We are a healthy congregation in Lee’s Summit, Missouri (a large suburb of Kansas City, MO) with a passionate church staff. We have Evangelical Presbyterian roots but are currently unaffiliated with a denomination, and are led by an Elder Board. We have a strong focus on reaching our friends for Christ. In addition we maintain excellent family ministry and discipleship programs, participate in contemplative spiritual practices and retreats, and partner with local and global biblical justice initiatives. We have a newly renovated facility with state-of-the-art technology and a regulation-sized indoor soccer field which is heavily used by the larger community. Our budget is healthy, and our financial campaigns have always exceeded expectations. We are a generous and fun group and have been a positive force in the Lee’s Summit community for over 25 years.

We are seeking a visionary leader. He/she must be highly collaborative, with dynamic and engaging teaching and preaching skills. We are seeking someone who is motivated to reach unchurched but spiritually curious people in our community, as well as those with past church hurts. We are looking for a Lead Pastor who has passion and calling to move the body of Christ forward with radical love and hospitality as part of our mission mandate. He/she must be able to equip, develop, and mobilize people through God’s word and establish new opportunities for the People of God. We are seeking someone who takes their pastoral call and our shared mission to make disciples seriously, but doesn’t take themselves too seriously, as we seek to always remember the joy of our salvation.

Qualifications:

• Meets the Biblical qualifications of a Pastor/Teaching Elder (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, 1 Peter 5)
• Formal education in ministry, theology, or a related field (MDiv preferred)
• Prior professional church or ministry experience
• Demonstrated ability to provide relevant Biblical preaching
• Leadership and staff management skills
• Enthusiastic, energetic, hospitable, approachable, and generous
• Visionary who can communicate that vision clearly and effectively
• Mature, contemplative spirituality and spiritual practices
• Heart for the unchurched and for the dischurched
• In agreement with the Lakeland’s doctrinal essentials (www.lakelandcommunity.org/beliefs)
• A call from God to our community and a willingness to locate to the Lee’s Summit, Missouri area and engage with the community
• Per Lakeland’s polity the Senior Pastor must be willing to form ongoing accountability relationships with other pastors (currently Lakeland’s pastors are ordained through the Associated Ministerial Order – www.associatedministerialorder.org) and with at least two of Lakeland’s Elders to ensure accountability for pastoral leadership qualifications

Responsibilities:

• Provide relevant Biblical preaching and teaching at 75% of Sunday services
• Collaborate with the teaching team – calendar planning, topics/themes, joint review of sermons, co-development of teaching skills amongst team members, etc.
• Provide vision for leadership, ministries, and the community of Lakeland
• Provide oversight and leadership for Lakeland staff – annual review of strategy as approved by elders, annual creation of goals and measures/metrics with staff, feedback discussions with staff regarding performance, input to elders as to pay adjustments
• Provide oversight, leadership, and vision for financial challenge events (Capital Campaigns) as a means of spiritual growth for the members of Lakeland and an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus
• Serve as a Teaching Elder and attend Elder Session meetings (oversee discernment and strategic planning sessions)
• Assist staff, Elders, and others in providing pastoral care for congregants

Compensation & Benefits:

• Base salary: $100,000 to $120,000 (commensurate with experience)
• Relocation assistance negotiable
• 401k at a 3% match
• No medical insurance, but basic dental is provided
• Workers Compensation and Long-Term Disability Insurance (if eligible)
• Family Medical Leave
• Paid Vacation and Solitude Time
• Sabbatical (eligible after 7 years, provided every 7 years)