PRESENTS
Worship Arts Director
The Ridge
Des Moines, Iowa
https://ridgelife.org
ABOUT
The Ridge began just over 20 years ago in the living room of our current lead pastor, Mike Van Rees. While much has changed over the last two decades, the heart of The Ridge remains much the same. We are passionate about the birth, growth and expression of relationship with God--providing various opportunities for people to grow in their faith, connect with others, and serve the broader community. While The Ridge is known in Ankeny community and beyond for their heart to serve,they have a key focus to serving single moms and special needs adults.
The church is a part of the Reformed Church of America (www.rca.org) and reflects a theology aligned with the Apostle’s Creed, with a practical faith as mirrored in the heart of the early church. The Ridge is a place where questions are welcomed, opinions are respected but the gospel is centered.
Ankeny is a rapidly growing suburb of Des Moines, IA with a population of more than 71,000 as of 2020. This community is home to excellent schools, new retail areas, and sprawling housing developments. In 2019, according to the US Census Bureau, Ankeny was listed as the tenth fastest growing city in the U.S. and is consistently ranked as both an affordable and desirable place to live. Ankeny is a vast mission field of young families that is ever expanding.
Reaching the lost and building the found into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
WORSHIP MINISTRY
Here's a video that is a good example of The Ridge
The Worship Arts ministry at The Ridge exists to magnify God as well as inspire and facilitate worship within the church body.
Over the years, this ministry has evolved into a collaborative community with a heart for both the church and worship. A great emphasis is placed on authentic relationship with God and others, seeing the team as a collective family of worshippers pursuing God's heart and glory. The ministry has maintained a high standard of worshipful excellence in recent years, displaying a culture of preparedness and a heart leaning into the leading of the Spirit. The demographic of the worship team in many ways reflects the age range within the church (20s-50s) with the majority of the team falling within the 30s-40s category. The team currently rehearses on Thursday evenings ahead of the Sunday services with all scheduling and resourcing (sheets, tracks, guides, reference songs) accessed through Planning Center Online.
The Role
The Worship Arts Director provides spiritual/musical direction for worship services, serves as a key worship leader on Sundays, gives pastoral leadership for the worship team, and establishes the overall vision for worship in all areas of The Ridge.
Services
• This leader will work with different creative aspects of the worship service (music, arts, teacher, host, online platform) to create a context through which people engage with God in responsive worship and renewed surrender.
Leadership Development
• This leader will seek to identify and develop leaders and volunteers for worship ministry across the church (services/Ridge Youth/children’s ministry) displaying a heart/discernment for both the individual and the church as a whole.
Spiritual, Relational & Musical Growth
• This leader will carry a heart and vision for the relational, musical, and spiritual growth of team members.
Vision for Other Areas
• This leader will cast vision and speak into the culture of worship in all areas of The Ridge.
The right candidate for this job will:
Carry a confidence in leadership rooted in a humility before God and a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit
Have a commanding yet compelling presence on stage, expressed in their worshipfulness and musical ability
Display a natural ability to gather, nurture and release leaders
Have a heart for the individual as well as the church at large
Exhibit skills in the creative (visionary) and practical (administrative) worlds
SOME Q & A:
1. How would you best describe the condition of your current worship ministry? The worship team has a generally healthy team culture, is primarily multigenerational, and with solid values. The team has overall gifted musicians but much potential to improve and grow and expand. The team is accustomed to a strong worship leader vocally and instrumentally and also has musicians who desire to be led and grown in their musicianship as well as their spiritual walk. The addition of regularly using tracks has widely been accepted and appreciated by the team as well.
2. What is the general consensus of your staff about the worship in your church? The staff would concur that worship at The Ridge has become a strength in the past few years; and that people appreciate the excellence, as well as songs that are easy to worship with. They appreciate that worship in person and online are both strong and something that attracts, not distracts from people engaging with God.
3. How would you describe your church’s musical/worship style? Modern worship with guitars, vocals, drums, keyboard and at times changed up now and again with a more acoustic worship set. We do a variety of worship from songwriters: Bethel, Hillsong, Red Rocks, Passion and Elevation.
4. Are you hoping to see the worship style change? Other than perhaps changing up the worship occasionally (making the team smaller or bigger, having certain weeks be more acoustic and changing the flow of the worship service), we would see our worship style primarily staying the same.
5. What is your church’s philosophy regarding reaching people who are de-churched, unchurched, or anti-church? The Ridge is a place where we often say “you are welcome here, period. Come as you are.” Engage if you want to engage. Watch if you want to watch. Grow at a pace that works for you.
6. Does your church’s website state the mission, vision, values and key distinctives of your church?
Yes, https://ridgelife.org/about/mission-vision-values/
7. How does worship or the arts play a part in reaching people? It has an informative aspect to it in that we are learning or being reminded again of who God is and what He has done. The Holy Spirit works within this, opening eyes and softening hearts to the truth presented in song, dance, visuals and other creative as well as liturgical expressions. Music can soften hearts and compliment themes etc. We don’t want it to manipulate emotionally, but rather draw people into a place of openness - into a place of greater receptivity towards God.
8. What is your annual church budget? $2.55M
9. How many full-time pastors do you currently have? One Lead Pastor
10.How many people currently serve in the worship ministry? 40 people on music teams (all volunteers). Production team has 28, audio team has 2. One FT worship director; One FT production/audio director; one PT production assistant; one digital engagement strategist
11.What are the different teams that fall within the realm of the worship department? Sunday morning worship team, Sunday AM production & audio team; Sunday AM broadcast team
12.Please describe the current worship and arts staff structure.
A) Worship Arts Director: responsible for worship planning, direction, creative arts and decisions involved. Supervises Production/Audio Director & Production Admin
B) Production/Audio Director: runs sound and oversees production volunteers
C) Production Admin Coordinator (PT) - also works for kids ministry on Sunday am
13.Who will the person hired report to? Julie Wiemann, Leadership and Ministry Director
14.Are there particular assessment tools that you prefer when exploring potential staff people?
Can Do Attitude Test – thru HRDirect.com and Enneagram
15.How long has senior leadership been serving in your church? Lead/Sr. Pastor has been here since the beginning: 22+ years
16.How would you describe your church’s governance? Staff Led Church, Executive Board called the Focus Teams serves as oversight and mostly an advisory board for budget and staff approval.
17.Are you affiliated with a particular denomination or association of churches? If so, what websites could one investigate to gain further understanding?
Reformed Church in America – www.rca.org
18.What are the key doctrinal and theological issues where alignment is essential?
Jesus is the risen Lord and Savior and the one and only way for salvation
Bible is the inspired Word of God
19.What is your average adult weekend attendance? 1,000 - 2,000 pre-covid. Currently approximately 350 adult in worship in person; many more online.
20.In general, what is your church demographic? Primarily Caucasian, families with young to middle aged children (ages 25-50)
21.Is there more than one site or venue? If so, please describe. No, one site.
22.What percentage of people in your church have been a Christian for 5 years or less? 20%
23.What percentage of people are involved in a small group? 35%
24.How many current staff members have been there 3 years or more? 17 yes, 13 no
25.What three ministries of your church will receive the most resources next year? Missions & Outreach, Youth, Worship
26.Do you have an interest in developing alternative worship “venues” allowing for various worship styles? Have discussed this minimally – what would it look like to invest in a 3rd place?
27.Are there any non-negotiables in your church in regards to worship & art? If so, describe them. Might go without saying, but the candidate must be a professing believer in Jesus Christ. Next to that, leadership skills and music competency are highest priorities. Spiritual maturity and shepherding skills must also be high strengths. Excitement to work in a collaborative creative environment.
28.What is your church known for in the community? Serving and loving our neighbors well, strong Biblical teaching
29.Does your church lean toward being an intrinsic (internal focused) or extrinsic (outreach focused) church? The Ridge has always strongly encouraged its congregation to serve. However, due to covid there has been an even stronger sense of the need to reach out and love our community well. There has been more and more discussion about staying outside of our walls to love our neighbors. As an example, when we couldn’t do mission trips or events we turned our eyes to the community and now will be purchasing a mobile food truck as an outreach opportunity.
30.What is the Sr. Pastor/Teaching Pastor’s role in designing services? Pastor Mike gives his notes for messages about 4 weeks ahead of time. He is collaborative in meeting with a team to brainstorm ideas for titles and other engagement strategies, but very empowering in allowing the worship arts director and the online strategist to create a worship experience that involves all other elements.
31.What is the Sr. Pastor’s leadership style? Strong delegator, extremely humble empowers staff to do their jobs well.
32.How much is creativity and art valued? Very much valued.
33.What is the average price of a home in your area? Median Household Income – $81k avg. And Zillow avg home price $264k
34.What are the expected work hours and what does a typical workweek look like? Expected 40 hours / week. Much flexibility in discerning working in the office as well as working from home. An emphasis to putting God and family first.
JOB DESCRIPTION
JOB TITLE: WORSHIP ARTS DIRECTOR
JOB SUMMARY: The Worship Arts Director provides spiritual/musical direction for worship services, pastoral leadership for the worship team, and overall vision for worship in all areas of The Ridge. This leader works with various creative aspects of the service (worship team, teacher, host, online platform) to create a context in which people engage with God in responsive worship and renewed surrender. The Worship Arts Director also seeks to identify and develop leaders and volunteers for Ridge worship, displaying a heart for both the individual and the church as a whole.
REPORTS TO: Leadership & Ministry Director
Essential Tasks, Responsibilities & Duties:
· Serve as one of the primary worship leaders during Sunday morning worship services.
· Develop and build a team of worship leaders who can lead effectively on Sunday mornings & beyond.
· Lead the creative & programming process for services from planning through execution (songs, transitions, stories, video & other elements).
· Provide leadership to the worship and production teams responsible for Sunday on site and online worship.
· Manage scheduling, recruiting, auditions, onboarding and training of worship volunteers.
· Manage Planning Center Online details pertaining to music teams, songs, and service plans.
· Work alongside the Digital Engagement Strategist to assure the online worship experience is congruent with the in person worship experience.
· Lead evaluation of all worship services and related events.
· Participate in creative collaboration of all special services (Good Friday, Easter, Encounter Sundays, Christmas).
· Is responsible for oversight of worship budget, as well as providing assistance of production team in their budgets.
· Assists production team to ensure the care, appropriate use & and proper functioning of all music equipment.
· Assist in the scheduling of service hosts and work collaboratively with Communications Director in what & how things get communicated from the platform.
· Be a resource to other ministries that involve creative arts and worship/music, providing guidance and direction as needed. (Ridge Kids, Junkyard, etc.)
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
· Displays a prayerful and consistent devotional life
· Carries a confidence in leadership rooted in humility before God and others
· Is strong musically and vocally (must be able to lead on guitar plus preferably one other instrument)
· Exhibits a heart for seeing others grow spiritually but also in their gifting
· Is a natural leader of people: a relational catalyst spurring others on in their serving of God and the church
· Shows a sensitivity to where people are at personally and a maturity to navigate relationships pastorally
· Relates to others with a sense of vulnerability from a place of steadfastness
· Agrees with central theological pillars of The Ridge (Authority of Scripture/divinity of Christ, etc.)
· Possesses strong administrative and organizational skills
· Has experience in leading a similar sized team
· Has prior experience preparing and editing tracks for both rehearsals and services
· Has basic level audio recording & editing with related DAW software (Ableton Live, Logic Pro X, etc.)
Education & Training:
· College degree, preferred
· 5+ years’ experience in worship leading required
· 5+ years people leadership experience
· Experience working in a creative, and collaborative church environment
FLSA Status: Exempt
Working Conditions:
· Office space: Standard desk, ergonomic chair, computer laptop
· Stands for extended periods of time (4-6 hours or more)
CONTACT
Ready to take the next step?
If, after prayerfully reviewing this information, you sense this role and church culture could be a good fit for you, please contact Dave Miller via any of the options below.