Sending Support Director

Summary

As part of the Sending Support team at The Austin Stone Community Church, the Sending Support Director (SSD) will lead the Sending Support Department, which equips and supports the church’s sending communities across Work, City, and Nations. The SSD will provide strategic leadership for collective-focused content, training, events, digital community, cross-congregation networks, and the systems of care that help people be sent and sustained well. The SSD reports to the Executive Pastor of Mission Support. 

Essential Responsibilities

• Lead strategically toward The Austin Stone and Sending Support shared vision, translating direction into clear priorities, ministry plans, team expectations, and measures of health.
• Cohere the six congregations as one church around the Work, City, and Nations sending communities, stewarding collective-focused vision, message cohesion, theological clarity, and editorial direction under Lead Pastor authority and within the church’s shared ministry frameworks.
• Oversee the development and curation of content, stories, training, learning pathways, events, and opportunities that equip partners and leaders to live as sent ambassadors.
• Cultivate cross-congregation networks, communities of practice, and digital engagement that connect collective leaders, ministry teams, and participants for shared learning, cooperation, and member-to-member community.
• Develop and sustain staff and volunteer leaders who can host, facilitate, train, care for, and reproduce healthy collective engagement across the church.
• Provide departmental oversight for Nations ministry and Goer Care, ensuring that responsible leaders, systems, and partnerships support placement, ongoing coaching and care, risk and crisis response, and long-term faithfulness on mission.
• Establish clear moderation, safeguarding, member-care, and pastoral-escalation practices in partnership with elders, congregation leaders, Soul Care, and other appropriate ministry leaders.
• Own the ministry vision, engagement strategy, adoption, and product priorities for collective digital platforms while partnering with Technology on technical product ownership, integrations, security, and support.
• Define membership, administration, and reporting needs; establish meaningful goals and key performance indicators; and partner with operational and technical teams to maintain reliable data and useful ministry-health dashboards.
• Provide leadership, pastoral care, development, coaching, and performance management for Sending Support staff, and steward the department’s budget and resources.
• Build and maintain trusted partnerships with congregation leaders, Ministry Support, Soul Care, Creative, Production, Communications, Technology, Finance, Human Resources, sending organizations, and other ministry partners.
• Attend and engage in all Department Leader meetings, training, and policies, as well as all required events and activities for The Austin Stone, including staff meetings, prayer meetings, special events, retreats, and staff development days.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree in business, communications, ministry, or a related field preferred.
• 7 years of relevant experience across ministry mobilization, community building, content and communications, or digital engagement.
• Proven ability to build and lead a team, and to recruit, develop, and deploy volunteer leaders at scale.
• Demonstrated success launching and growing digital engagement platforms, online communities, or content ecosystems at meaningful scale.

Competencies

Strong Executive Skill - This includes strategic planning, resource allocation, and assessment. Demonstrates sensitivity and confidence in leading, serving, inspiring, managing, and equipping the staff in their tactical implementation of ministry goals. Strategic projects experience, including systems development and events. Knows how one decision will impact the whole.

Communication - Demonstrated capacity to inspire, instruct, and encourage through effective communication in various settings. Able to communicate and work within a complex organizational structure with multiple layers of input. Ability to understand, parse and communicate key project details. Cultivate purpose-driven, relational networks.

Performance Management - Skill in assessment of ministry effectiveness and supporting decision making through data acquisition and analysis. Gathers and analyzes information skillfully and can efficiently execute on multiple priorities/plans/ideas. Skilled in strategic thinking and analysis, logical oversight, long-term project management, and cost-benefit analysis.

Budgetary Management - Demonstrated capacity in management and supervision of ministry budgets.

Collaborative Leadership - Strong complementary leadership skills and capacity to lead in concert with other leaders. Collaborate across the organization and with various ministry partners. Demonstrated ability to network and connect with leaders toward Kingdom outcomes. Ability to integrate multiple perspectives and synthesize them into a cohesive plan. Have an attitude of humility and mutual submission in a high-energy, fast-paced, and collaborative leadership environment. Willingness to cultivate relationships and networks with other members of The Austin Stone staff to achieve results. Ability to receive and give feedback in a gracious manner.

Leader Development - Skilled at multiplying leaders who can communicate and uphold the values of The Austin Stone. Able to supervise and lead a motivated and diverse group of people by establishing a clear vision for the team, training and developing talent, providing feedback and ensuring the proper learning for each team member.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Occasional lifting of objects up to 30 pounds.
• Subject to standing, walking, sitting, bending, reaching, kneeling, pushing and pulling.
• May be subject to various travel restrictions and weather conditions during international travel.
• Manual dexterity and coordination are required over 50% of the work period while operating equipment such as a computer keyboard, mouse, and similar machines.

Disclaimer

The information presented indicates the general nature and level of work expected of employees in this classification. It is not designed to contain, nor to be interpreted as, a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and objectives required of employees assigned to this job.

Culture and Character   

Employees of The Austin Stone are expected to become Partners (our term for members) of the church, fully embracing the values, mission, and purpose of our church. Additionally, all employees of The Austin Stone are expected to understand, affirm and adhere to our Affirmation of Faith, Bylaws, Culture Map, and other documents defining the beliefs, culture, and mission of The Austin Stone Community Church.

Employees also possess the character qualifications of biblical leadership in the church. At a minimum, each employee must agree and aspire to maturity in these qualifications, invite the authority of church community and leaders as a means of growth in them, and pursue them humbly and faithfully by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Please read Attributes of Leaders as Employees at The Austin Stone for a greater description of cultural, character, and other aspects of joining our team at The Austin Stone. 

The Austin Stone Community Church is an Equal Opportunity Employer including Women, Minorities, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with Disabilities.