St. Luke's United Methodist Church-Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana 46260
Full Time , On-Site
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
At St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, we are an open community of Christians helping people find and give hope through Jesus Christ. We are committed to our community on the northside of Indianapolis and have seen our reach grow regionally and beyond through our digital presence. With a membership of over 6,000 we are the largest United Methodist Church (UMC) in Indiana and one of the largest in the U.S.
People are attracted to St. Luke’s for our values: Our commitment to live the mission of the UMC, “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” and living the Christian faith in a way that is open to everyone - regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, or socioeconomic background. As a church we are working to ensure that our congregation and its leadership represent the diversity of the community in which we are located. We are dedicated to including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ as staff and in positions of leadership and decision making.
POSITION OVERVIEW
The Pastor of Care and Contemplation Ministries oversees St. Luke’s efforts to meet the spiritual needs of our congregation and community with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. This includes a variety of ways people might find and give hope through care groups, support groups, worship experiences, visitation, prayer, and other opportunities. A key component of this role is the supervision and empowerment of staff and volunteers for the execution of a breadth of ministry. This position includes serving in a clergy role in worship, officiating funerals and weddings. In addition to caring well for people the following skills are crucial to this role: mobilizing and managing people, system thinking and usage, as well as scaling care initiatives for hundreds/thousands of people.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Evaluate and shape a comprehensive vision for Care Ministry and Contemplation Ministries
- Continue to evaluate our existing offerings with the Care and Contemplation
- Advisory Committees of lay members and other pastors; cast a vision for and create growing care ministries that meet the needs of the congregation and community. i.e. Furthering Dementia Caregivers Support, Support Groups for LGBTQIA+ Youth, expanded Addiction Recovery offerings, etc.
- Work with staff and volunteers to strengthen robust ministries crucial to care of any congregation, i.e. bereavement ministry, elder care ministry, etc.
- Ensure the implementation of systems for executing Care and Contemplation Ministries as well as tracking care needs and touchpoints. Use data to provide follow-up and assess ways to improve and extend ministries.
- Ensure every member of the congregation has a care touch each year.
- Serve as a member of the Leadership Team and Ministry Team to integrate Care Ministry with other congregational priorities.
- Support and create teams necessary to carry out care ministry in a large congregation.
- Work with existing staff to resource and utilize each person’s gifts in providing care.
- Create a healthy team atmosphere through regular meetings and discussions in the department.
- Assess the health of our existing (lay) care teams and oversee the recruitment, training, and development of new team members; support the health and flourishing of current teams and empower the creation of new teams to support the Care Ministry.
- Visitation and Follow-up
- Work collaboratively with the Pastor of Visitation to further develop, execute and communicate visitation with the Care and Contemplation Team, other pastors, and the volunteer visitation teams.
- Support the creation of strong visitation teams that extend the number of people visited each year.
- Ensure that people receive care on the continuum of their visitation needs.
- Organize the system for on-call ministries or pastor office days including after hours and weekends.
- Oversee the pastoral visitation calls as needed in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice or homebound, especially in times of critical incident and end-of-life.
- Be one of the principal pastors who does visitation
- Funerals and Grief Support
- Oversee funerals, bereavement, classes, groups, and experiences to provide grief support.
- Contemplation and Arts Ministry
- Evaluate, organize, and implement contemplative ministries.
- Create new offerings that support the essence of this ministry through contemplation, art, and healing.
- Work with other ministries and volunteers to strengthen this ministry and infuse it into the life of the church.
- Prayer Ministry
- Develop the spiritual practice of prayer in and through the congregation in collaboration with other ministries.
- Distribute prayers from the congregation to teams and individuals who pray support in the congregation.
- Manage the other aspects of Care Ministry including:
- Department organization and budgeting
- Care and Contemplation staff and volunteer coaching, management, and evaluation
- Oversite of department administration
- Oversite of ministry effectiveness and execution
- Clergy Responsibilities
- Participate in Sunday worship services by prayers, preaching, baptisms, communion and to participate in the worship planning process.
- Preside at funerals and officiate at weddings/rehearsals.
- Plan/lead special worship services as well as contribute/plan/ participate in all Advent, All Saints, Longest Night, Maundy Thursday, and Lenten Services as needed.
- Assist as needed in the teaching ministries of the church.
- Attend community and special functions as a representative of the clergy staff.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Demonstrate passion about the Christian faith, actively seek to grow in personal relationship with God, and be committed to the mission and purpose of St. Luke’s.
- Ordained clergy in the United Methodist Church
- Upper Mid to Large size church experience for 2+years
- Clinical Pastoral Education, Counseling Coursework, or other equivalent and related experience/education
- History of successfully managing a department with multiple employees
- Effectively led multiple staff and/or volunteer leaders at the same time toward ministry impact
- Record of successful ministry (min.5 years) demonstrating ministry growth; volunteer recruitment, training, and retention; and the development and implantation of a team concept of ministry.
- Inclusive in theology, leadership, and speech
- Fluid in use of technology including Microsoft 365, TEAMS, database usage, and beyond to mobilize and communicate ministry
This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
Organization: St. Luke's United Methodist Church-Indianapolis
Contact: Pastor Jen Gibbs
Phone: 3178463404
Closing Date: 01/20/2026
