Lantern church was established in 2023 in Bedworth, Warwickshire, an old coal mining town. Lantern Church is a church plant that works within the boundaries of Bedworth Parish. Our mission is to introduce non church families to the good news of Jesus Christ with the idea of creating new worshiping communities for the un-churched.

We currently run a successful Messy Church weekly at St Michael's Family Centre, run small group sessions with the primary school and take school assemblies and run a community café for the marginalized in the community. We have various other exciting projects in the pipeline planning to start the next few months.

Apprentices will be working with Lantern church Bedworth, primarily with working class un-churched people from all age ranges as we develop church for the un-churched and we build on the success of projects we have already started. As well as developing and nurturing new projects and ideas. Working within a team of paid staff and volunteers.

There will be the opportunity to bring your own interests and passions to create new projects to encourage un-churched people to find faith.

A lot for our work is around developing projects to bring faith to the marginalized in society.

One day a week will be spent at St Marks Academy in Coventry an established leadership training program..

Year 1 is a general leadership training scheme, through which we seek to ensure that students grow in theirfaith,by receiving a good biblical and theological grounding, in theirleadership,by developing skills for mission and ministry, and in theirdiscipleship,by exploring resources to nurture their own character and spirituality. Year 1 students have a ministry placement, and this will involve worship, children, youth, students, media and creative, operations, or church planting.

At the conclusion of the year 1 programme, candidates can apply to join the year 2 programme, to further develop their leadership ability.

 The Year 1 Academy role is one of learning, personal development and empowerment, to enable the postholder to function at assistant departmental leader in a specific ministry area. It consists of three main elements:

1.   Teaching programme

Participation in the year 1 teaching programme is an important component of the year. The programme consists of six modules which are categorised into three broad streams (faith, leadership, and discipleship).

2    Personal formation

Throughout the programme year 1 academy students meet regularly with a personal formation mentor, who will accompany, support and challenge them. The aim is to help each student grow as a disciple of Christ, develop self-awareness, and deepen their spirituality, and students are expected to actively engage with this process.

3    Ministry placement

Year 1 academy students spend the majority of their week serving within their chosen ministry stream. Each student is assigned a ministry placement supervisor (usually the ministry head) who provides coaching, management, and feedback to help students develop strong ministry skills. The type of work students are involved in varies between departments, but they normally work with the ministry leader on the delivery of a plan for the area of ministry that may include:

•     Planning and running sessions to a high standard

•     Helping with administrative tasks required for the department to function

•     Planning and running outreach activities to draw people to Jesus and his Church

•     Communicating with team members and wider church as required

•     Recruiting and developing a team of volunteers 

•     Collaborating with other ministry areas to ensure alignment to the vision.

•     Ensuring that the safeguarding is at the forefront of all activity.

Other work associated with the church

Year 1 academy students are full members of the staff team, and as such need to be flexible enough to be involved in other work as required across the church – in line with their skills, experience and capacity. 

The wider work in ministry means there is a genuine occupational requirement that the post-holder be a practising Christian. This role will require an enhanced DBS check.

The Culture

In addition to meeting the person specification, the successful candidate must be able to demonstrate that they subscribe and aspire to the church and staff values, which shape our culture. The staff values are;

1. PURSUIT -We are led by God and pursue Him in all we do

We prioritize our relationship with God, seeking his voice, praying for the church. Gathered prayer and worship is our non-negotiable; we step out in the power of the Spirit and chose to be courageous not cautious.This means people take responsibility for their own spiritual growth and come ready to contribute to prayer meetings. We meet for prayer together three mornings a week, and we pray for God’s Kingdom to come in our city and community. 

2. LEADERSHIP-We lead and inspire others as we serve the church together

We are passionate about and proactive in leading ourselves, our teams, and the wider church by inspiring others to follow Christ, pursue His kingdom, and build His Church.This means we seek both to function as leaders and to behave as leaders. We also recognize that we are each under leadership: we work by the rule of thumb that we have a duty to challenge leadership decisions which concern us up to three times. Then we have a duty to be loyal to the decision we disagree with.

3. HUMILITY-We are teachable and flexible

We recognise that our team is stronger than a sum of its parts. We value, champion, and seek to draw out the unique contributions, personalities and God given gifts of those we work with. We receive feedback openly. We are marked by grace and show it to others.This mean we are not self-promoting or competitive, but choose to celebrate others’ gifts and actively promote them for the benefit of the Kingdom.

  4. COURAGE

We are a faith-filled team, and are brave enough to experiment beyond our comfort zones, to risk failure, to persevere through difficulty, and to change direction where necessary. We cherish creativity and seek heavenly inspiration to try new things and embrace our individuality.This means we think big! We would rather risk failure than play it safe. We have a ‘can do’ attitude and seek opportunities to en-courage one another.

5. HONOUR-We communicate the value of others through mutual respect

We honour each other’s time, space, and roles by being professional and considerate. We meet the commitments of our own job descriptions whilst being a team player.This means we each play a part to uphold organisational structures for the benefit of everyone (getting expenses in, keeping areas clean and tidy, leaving rooms as we found them, being punctual as examples). We are loyal and positive in the way we speak about team members in the wider church, and in this way we seek to foster the unity of the church.

6. COMMUNITY-We share life’s ups and downs together

We value vulnerability and foster a safe environment where we can be real in sharing victories and bearing difficulties together. Holding in balance the relational and the professional, we are ready to celebrate milestones, enjoy God’s goodness, and have fun together.This means we love a party and look for ways to celebrate, but that we are also comfortable with tears. We foster safety by listening without judging or ‘fixing’, and above all, by upholding confidentiality within the team.