Website St Paris Community Church of the Nazarene
Understanding the Context:
Home to around 2,000 residents, St. Paris is a small town with big outdoor appeal. Located just 10 minutes from Urbana, 20 minutes from Piqua, and about 30 minutes from Troy and Springfield, it’s close to larger towns while keeping its relaxed, rural feel. Just minutes from Kiser Lake State Park, St. Paris is a go-to spot for hiking, fishing, kayaking, and camping. Downtown offers a quick stop for local eats and small-town friendliness, while the surrounding countryside provides wide-open views and a break from busy life.
St Paris exudes the warmth and hospitality often found in Midwest small towns, where familiar faces greet each other at local shops and community events bring neighbors together.
Living in the St Paris requires leaders/pastors who can embrace a close-knit, relational mindset, but in an increasingly post-Christian faith environment. Pastoring a community means stepping in with a missionary mindset. It requires high relational capacity, generosity, hospitality, and keen capacity for articulating the Gospel in a contextualized way, cognizant of cultural barriers that exist.
The Church:
St Paris Community Church of the Nazarene has a weekend attendance of 50 on average each week[1] .
They have had a rich history of faithful support of the mission of the Church of the Nazarene and a lineage of generosity and global missions.
They are a warm, hospitable, faithful congregation. Their members come predominantly from St Paris and the surrounding smaller communities, including Rosewood, Christiansburg, Conover, and Casstown.
They are eager for a leader that will build on the previous seven years of healthy pastoral leadership, helping them realize a significant missional impact in their community. The church has an ordained youth pastor who is reaching the next generation through a Tuesday night program that brings in 10-15 teens each week.
The Call:
St Paris Community Church of the Nazarene is seeking a pastor whose passion for the rural environment is matched with a passion for the least, the last, and the lost, a true missionary mindset, a willingness to lead the church into new territory, a shepherding heart, and the patience and longevity to settle in and call this Ohio community home. St Paris Community is looking for a leader that has capacity to help them discern their unique mission and vision for this next season of ministry and the ability to develop and deploy a fresh expression of the church to the broader community. This leader should be:
- An ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene or seeking ordination.
- Committed to support the broader mission of the Northwestern Ohio District to develop interdependent, healthy, multiplying congregations.
- Culturally humble, recognizing that ministry in rural environments requires a learner’s heart and trust is given slowly and earned over time.
- Generous, hospitable, and socially engaged with people disconnected from the hope, message, and story of Jesus.
- Thrive in interconnected, settings where culturally things move at a more measured pace
- Live within the missional field the church is working to reach
- Be a starter. This leader operates from an “opportunity mindset” rather than a “scarcity mindset.” They must have the capacity to see what could be.
- Faithful and diligent with financial stewardship.
- Committed to a culture of discipleship and leadership development, multiplying the number of people committed to the mission of Jesus.
- Ability to see what others cannot and move people toward that vision
Again, if interested, please contact Andy Monnin at andy.monnin@nwoteam.church
To apply for this job email your details to andy.monnin@nwoteam.church
