Director, Church Engagement

The Role

Praxis is hiring a Director of Church Engagement to lead its work with local churches and universities. This person helps churches use the Praxis Course and related resources well, builds trusted friendships with senior pastors, and makes sure churches feel served and equipped rather than sold to. They lead a growing team and are responsible for whether churches move from first interest, to actively hosting, to a lasting habit of forming their people in the Redemptive Way. The posture is one of service to the church and its pastors, in the spirit of helping the church do what only the church can do.

This role exists to serve, equip, and enable the local church and its senior pastor. The Director of Church Engagement is the person who carries Praxis’s relationship with churches: understanding what pastors are trying to build, removing friction, and helping each church use Praxis resources in a way that fits its own community and calling. The aim is not to grow Praxis. The aim is to help churches activate people, and to help pastors lead congregations that practice generosity, courage, and care for their neighbors over the long haul.

While Praxis is known and respected amongst local church leadership, it is a newer entrant (with new offerings) to church-facing work, so unlike organizations with an established church presence, this role includes a healthy, servant-hearted invitation in the early years: helping churches discover the Course (and other formational experiences) and decide to host it. That invitation is always offered in the posture of service, never as a sales pitch.

What Success Looks Like

If this role is working, Praxis, through the Course and additional resources, is deployed as the vocational version of Alpha. We will see more people formed, through more churches, more often.

We will track our progress by asking a few simple questions:

How many churches are actively engaged with Praxis resources?

What share of each congregation is taking part?

How often do churches run the Course again after their first time?

How is the fruit and faithful action of those encountering Praxis ideas, stories and resources changing over time?

Leading indicators we will watch include:

Churches where the senior pastor is personally engaged.

Churches where a staff member owns the work day to day.

The rate at which churches return to host again.

Churches that clearly understand what Praxis offers and why.

Stories and case studies that show formation taking root.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Church Engagement Strategy

Develop the vision and strategy for how we will engage and reach local church leaders, networks and denominations. Igniting a global community activating redemptive potential of their local congregations.

Approach the role with an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset. Develop creative approaches to strategy, engagement, community, reach and fellowship.

Pastor & Church Relationships

Build and steward trusted relationships with senior pastors and church teams, helping them move from interest, to hosting, to building a lasting culture of redemptive formation.

Church Activation & Formation

Help churches host the Praxis Course well, and guide them in weaving it into the rhythms of congregational life.

Lead the development and ongoing improvement of the Church Activation Toolkit, gathering feedback from churches, naming the friction points, and turning what works into resources others can use.

Pastor Cohort & Activate

Cast vision and help run the Pastor Cohort, the program that walks deeply with a small number of pioneering senior pastors and churches each year.

Contribute to Activate, our in development annual gathering for pastors, lay leaders, and culture-makers.

Team Leadership

Lead a growing church engagement team, including the Sr. Manager Praxis Course Product & Engagement and TBC roles pending growth

Who You Are

You love the local church and have spent meaningful time inside it, ideally on staff as Senior Pastor or in close partnership with pastors.

You are trusted by senior leaders, and you carry yourself with humility, warmth, and discretion.

You can hold theological depth and practical excellence at the same time, and you are comfortable serving churches across a range of traditions.

You are an entrepreneurial builder who is happy to do the early, unglamorous work of standing something up, and a leader who can grow a team as the work grows.

You are organized, follow through, and turn what you learn into resources that help the next church.

You share Praxis’s conviction that Christians are called to be redemptive culture-makers, and you want to help the church live that out.

You practice what we preach. We have to be redemptive exemplars on our team, in how we work, and how we treat others in our community.

Additional Details

Location: New York City preferred. Remote will be considered for a highly experienced candidate.

Travel:

Quarterly team meetings (typically held at Praxis HQ in New York City)

Annual Praxis Summit

Additional travel as needed for in-person Design Sprints, film and production meetings, and major events such as our Regional Gatherings and Activate

All travel expenses covered by Praxis

Reports to: Managing Partner, Media, Brand and Product

Range: $120K to $155K based on experience and location