God is doing something new in Marin.

Is He doing something new in you?

Join us in building up a church in Marin!

Here's the Scoop:

Hillside Church of Marin is a great church with two locations just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Over the past few years God has been leading us to find better ways to love, serve, and reach our diverse community. Marin County is one of the most secular places in the United States but we are seeing God move and we have been growing a lot! We're looking for someone to help us steward that growth and strengthen a legacy of healthy ministry at Hillside. If you love developing leaders through tools like Practicing the Way, groups, and Alpha (which we’ve been running for 28 years now and love!) and are excited by ministry in a very secular context, we would love to talk to you! We have a dynamic and diverse team that are passionate about ministry in Marin. This is challenging soil but God is clearly at work and we can’t imagine a more rewarding place to serve Christ.

What makes this position different from the other 325 you've seen online?

We know it sounds cheesy but it's true so we'll own it. We LOVE our community and our hearts long for the people of this county to know the love of God in their lives. We're looking for someone who has tasted and been transformed by the love of God and wants others to experience the same.

Love

Location

This is Marin County — one of the most amazing and beautiful places in the world to live and one of the most challenging, unreached, (and exciting) places in the US to do ministry. We are surrounded by vibrant neighborhoods bursting with young families, retirees, and everything in between.

We have a great and diverse team of people who are forward thinking, love God, enjoy working together, and have worked hard to build a healthy staff culture of trust, candor, fun and support. Our church is a diverse mix of men and women of different age groups, cultural backgrounds, and ethnicities. To the degree that it is possible we strive to have our leadership team reflect the diversity in our community and congregation. We believe this makes us a stronger team, helps us better serve our community, and better represent the Kingdom of God. We strongly encourage candidates who share that value to apply.

Team 

We are working to develop a different kind of multi-site strategy to meet the unique challenges of our context. Think of it more like a network of congregations, each with live teaching, shared resources, cooperating staff and shared support. Our dream is to see our county cease to be one of the "least churched places in America" by renewing historic centers of worship spread through our community. Since this can only happen through people growing in their faith, we see this role as critical for our ability to do what God has put on our hearts.

A Different Strategy

One of our key values is Kingdom connection. We love working with other churches in Marin, the Bay Area and around the world. Our pastors lead local pastor networks, support smaller churches, and participate in gospel centered initiatives around the Bay. We also love learning from church leaders in other cultures and contexts like Turkey and Kenya.

Kingdom Connections

Interested?

Please take some time to read through the full position summary and the following information. If you think this might be your next step in ministry, instructions on how to apply can be found below.

Job Description

Summary:

The Associate Pastor will be responsible for Adult Spiritual Formation at both of our current locations, casting vision, building teams and equipping the congregation in the areas of evangelism, discipleship, care, and mission. They will also have the opportunity to teach at our Sunday services throughout the year, and will be a member of the core leadership team of Hillside Church of Marin, speaking in to all major decisions in the life of the church.

This is a full-time exempt role.

    • Lead teams to effectively run spiritual formation experiences like Alpha, Rooted, Practicing the Way workshops and small groups.

    • Multiply, train and support leaders who share a vision for outreach and discipleship.

    • Develop and implement a vision for lay-led Pastoral Care.Teach at our Sunday services several times each year.

    • Support missional engagement initiatives with our local community.

    • Lead our prayer team and champion a culture of prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit.

    • Continually create pathways to connect people into community.

    • Participate in regular meetings with the Hillside team.

    • Serve the other Hillside staff members with humility, contributing whenever possible to a sense of team and cooperation.

    • You get fired up and smile at the thought of running another Alpha. (Hillside’s run Alpha for 28 years and we can’t wait for the next round to begin!)

    • You know that “Practicing the Way” doesn’t refer to Star Wars.

    • You enjoy identifying, developing, and releasing volunteer leaders.

    • You love helping people get connected into community.

    • Cultural and contextual complexity excite you. (Easy bores you.)

    • You are comfortable both leading and following.

    • You enjoy speaking and want to further develop your speaking abilities.

    • You want to be a part of a healthy team together on a mission.

    • You are experienced with and excited by a ethnic and socio-economic diversity.

    • An authentic, active walk with Christ that fuels compassionate ministry

    • A love for local church ministry

    • A self-starter with a high level of energy and enthusiasm

    • Ability to think big picture and strategy without losing sight of details

    • Team player demonstrating humility, and strong interpersonal skills

    • A desire to learn and grow as a leader

    • Alignment with Hillside's core beliefs and mission.

    • Experience and ability to successfully lead, recruit, develop, motivate, train, encourage, and challenge a team.

    • Conducts life with the utmost integrity in all situations.

    • Able to keep calm under pressure and respond in a measured way in stressful situations.

    • Proven organizational and administrative skills.

    • 5+ years ministry leadership experience on a church staff with similar responsibilities

    • Proven ability to effectively recruit and lead staff and volunteer ministry teams to accomplish goals

    • Proven ability to articulate and defend the Christian faith, particularly the Gospel, to a diverse audience

    • Solid verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills

    • Tech savvy - Well versed in Mac and cloud based programs

    • Seminary degree or comparable ministry experience.

  • Reporting

    • The  Associate Pastor will report to the Lead Pastor.

    Compensation

    • Information on compensation will be discussed early in the application process. We believe in investing in our staff. We also recognize this is one of the most expensive places in the country to live. With that in mind we have set compensation for this position to meet the needs of family. Compensation will include a base salary, housing, health and dental insurance for the pastor and immediate family, paid time off as well as retirement contributions.


Hillside is
a great church!

(But don’t just take our word for it!)

Scroll through these thoughts on Hillside from some of our friends and partners in ministry.

  • "My wife and I have attended for 20 years, and we’ve always felt a sense of belonging and community. Anyone joining the team will land in an environment that is nurturing, supportive, and consistently excited and courageous about following where God is leading."

    Ken Ip
    Board Member
    Hillside Church of Marin

  • "Hillside is great because they are a people who keep their doors open. I say a people, because everyone I have met on Sundays and during the week, expect Jesus to walk in at any moment bringing someone with Him. Hillside welcomes the lonely, the hurting, the searching, and the faith-filled."

    Shauna Pilgreen
    Strategic City Director for Alpha San Francisco

  • "Hillside Church has helped us to spread love and the gospel across the Bay Area and to bring light to a world in darkness."

    Henry Cornejo
    Pastor - Min. Int. Mahanaim
    San Rafael

  • "Hillside sits inside of the least churched county in the 11 counties of the Bay Area. The challenge and satisfaction of working with this remarkable staff and congregation to deeply understand and implement what Spiritual Formation looks like in the post-Christian culture awaits just the right person."

    Nancy Ortberg
    CEO - Transforming the Bay with Christ

  • "I've worked on and off with Hillside Church for over a decade and have always been impressed with their fervour to make disciples. Whether it be to reach and serve their county, or to raise up spiritual giants, Hillside has always been led from the front with a discerning blend of humility and boldness."

    Sean Morgan
    Founder
    The Ascent Leader

  • "Hillside has a wonderful ministry of inviting the unchurched into the way of Jesus! They inspired our church in running the Alpha Course, and mentored us in doing so. They serve with excellence, and are a source of strength to the broader church and the county. "

    Caleb Klinge
    Lead Pastor
    New Life Church - Marin

  • "Hillside is firmly rooted in the Word of God, with its leader modeling Christ-centered living in his daily walk."

    Wung Valui
    Lead Pastor
    Santa Clara FBC

More About Us

Hillside Church of Marin is a diverse group of people from all across Marin County. Some have been Christians for years; others are trying to decide if they even believe in a God. We are a multi-generational church and with lots of young families and empty nesters. But what most people notice when they visit us are the smiles! What you won’t find at Hillside is a bunch of people pretending to be perfect with a holier-than-thou attitude. This is a group of people becoming, a group of people who find hope, meaning and joy in the person and the work of Jesus.

We are a group of about 500 adults, and another 120 children and teens with Sunday attendance currently averaging about 350. We have grown by 102% in the past two years.

In 2018 Hillside became a multi-site church using a network and live teaching model. Covid set that momentum back a bit but we relaunched our second location at the end of 2022 and it is once again gaining traction. Our vision is to steward growth by replanting in historic places of worship in neighborhoods around our county.

We have a heart for cooperation and friendship between churches in the Bay Area and are involved in leading the Marin Pastors Network as well as working closely with Transforming through Bay with Christ (TBC). We also value connections with and learning from the global church, working with an Iranian refugee church in Turkey, and Nairobi Chapel in Kenya. We have also benefitted from almost three decades of Alpha and interactions with Holy Trinity Brompton, in London.

Feel free to watch some of our services and get a better sense of who we are on our website and you can learn more about our amazing team members.

We’d also recommend you take some time to read about Marin County.

How to Start the Conversation

While we know you're great, it's actually really hard and time consuming to find you in the midst of the applications we get from others. So this is where we're going to ask our first favor: can you make it really obvious why you think this would be a good fit so we don't accidentally overlook you? There are probably many ways to do that. But the easiest way is to help us out by answering the following questions.

Note:  There are no time or word limits; tell us your story in as much detail as you think is helpful. Provide teaching samples, videos -- whatever you've got. Before sending, ask yourself: "Knowing nothing else but what's said here, would I reach out to this person?" If not, rewrite it. This is your time to shine; make the most of it!

 

Questions:

  • What is your ministry experience? Particularly related to adult discipleship and spiritual formation.

  • What are you reading or listening to in this field?  

  • What do you want to do in this coming season of life and how does this position align with your sense of calling?

  • How did you hear about us? A job posting? Chalk on a sidewalk? From a friend? Let us know where you saw this opening. 

 

That's it for now. Email answers to the above questions, along with your current resume to: marge@hillsidemarin.org

If you make an honest attempt to answer all the questions, we'll make an honest attempt to reply in a timely fashion. We can't wait to hear from you soon!