Ministry Information Form Query

Vision:  Following Christ into places of brokenness and joy, NYAPC will do justice, treat all with kindness and mercy, and walk humbly with God. We believe we live out this vision through five interconnected core values:

1. Foundational Worship:  We gather to praise God, just as we are, amidst the brokenness of the world, seeking to be transformed by the Word and inspired by the Spirt to bear God’s love and justice.
2. Radical Hospitality:  We offer God's welcome to all, inspired by Jesus' ministry and empowered by God's Spirit to provide all a safe place and a spiritual home.   
3. Nurturing Community: We care for one another as God cares for us: growing in our faith, nurturing deep, lasting friendships, feeding each other’s spirits and reaching out to neighbors near and far. Although we are widely geographically distributed, the congregation uses fellowship and educational opportunities to build and sustain community. 
4. Prophetic Witness: We seek to be faithful to the justice-seeking God by witnessing against all that deforms God's good creation, so that we might be where God is, at work bringing new life. 
5. Joyful Stewardship:  We nourish and share our gifts from God’s abundance so that we may move boldly forward in our common journey of faith. We have active volunteers, a 50% pledging rate, and a legacy giving program and investments. We are challenged with increasing financial needs including support staff salaries, building renovations and maintenance.

• For over a decade now, NYAPC has been engaged in conversations on race and poverty in Washington DC and how we might best advocate and give voice to groups without power.  We feel called to continue and reach deeper into these conversations through worship, hospitality, outreach and education.
• We feel deeply called to connect our faith to our public lives, which includes our politics by pursuing prophetic preaching, relevant education classes, and participating in longer term mission outreach to marginalized communities.
• We also feel a call to better care for and support the members of the congregation especially during times of life transition including birth, toddler to PreK, child to youth, youth to young adult, marriage, divorce, fertility issues, job and income loss, sickness, grief, retirement, older years, moving homes, and end of life issues.  We seek to be more attentive to one another by growing deeper in relationships.
• For the past year the church has been engaged in visioning and strategic planning so that we might be equipped for prophetic ministry into the future.  
• With the retirement of a long tenured (17 years) Senior Pastor, we feel called toward a purposeful transitional time that will surely require theological discernment, intensive self-examination, willingness to engage with conflict, and change, which we hope will make us a stronger church seeking to be part of God’s kingdom here on earth today. 

• Providing frequent and consistently inspired sermons and worship-filled experiences that would seek to connect our faith to the public sphere, would seek to bring us deeper in our faith, and would inspire us to have deeper relationships with one another.
• Leading the church in transformational practices including some of the traditional work of the Interim Pastor engaging the congregation in a time of purposeful discernment, visioning, and strategic planning. 
• Examining deeply the organizational, administrative, and financial life of the congregation so that we might be able to improve communication on all levels, to engage and redevelop our structures including committees, schedules, and staffing models, and to encourage and inspire a connection between one’s spiritual and financial life. 

• Inspiring, thought provoking and challenging preaching regularly bringing a depth of theological insight for a highly educated congregation with many different life experiences. 
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills including in public speaking, teaching and pastoral care. 
• Spiritually wise including modeling spiritual practices for use in daily life. 
• Experience in strategic planning, organizational agility, and financial stewardship.
• We are a More Light congregation; the Interim Pastor must be fully affirming of LGBTQ+ persons.
• Willingness to engage in dismantling systems of systemic injustice especially racism. 
• Experience in interfaith and ecumenical settings. 
• Committed to advocacy and support for those experiencing homelessness. 
• Committed to advocacy and support for those experiencing mental illness.
• Media Savvy: Experience in writing content for websites, social media, and blogging. 

• Worship:  Frequent inspired preaching; communion, writing liturgy and prayers. 
• Transitional Work for time of Pastoral Transition: participate and sometimes lead ongoing-strategic planning of the church using Cultivated Ministry program through NEXT Church, assess the church’s staffing structure; assess and support stewardship and financial ministries.
• Congregational Life Support and Leadership: Support work of Evangelism ministry including participating in new member classes and support of renewed website; support and sometimes lead Young Adult Ministry Faith on Tap gatherings; support McClendon Scholar in Residence Program;  support and occasionally lead church retreats including on spiritual practices; lead Elder/Deacon orientation; support work of Adult Education committee.
• Mission:  Support the outreach missions of the church including outreach to those experiencing homelessness, mental health concerns, and large tutoring program. 

www.nyapc.org 

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