Director of Spirtual Life

This position involves the development, maintenance, and supervision of spiritual life and worship arts programming of Residing Hope across services and campuses. The general objective of this position is to create an atmosphere enabling youth and staff to experience God's love and care through a trauma-informed lens. This position also serves as Pastor to youth, staff and Enterprise campus.

Do you believe that every child deserves a healthy, happy, nurturing environment in which to grow? Are you an individual who desires to dedicate your career to enriching the lives of children and families? If so, we look forward to you joining Residing Hope (formerly the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home) where you can make a positive difference to children and families in need.

How We Help Children in Need

At Residing Hope, we believe that children and families should be empowered to experience the transforming love of Christ through evidence-based care and holistic services. This is reflected in our work as we care for children in crisis, including those abused, abandoned or neglected.

We give love, hope, and a place to live to more than 500 children through group homes, foster care, an independent living program, and specialized therapy.

Why Residing Hope?

• Competitive insurance plans, including health, dental, vision, life insurances, and more
• Work life balance, including flexible scheduling, generous paid time off plans and ten paid holidays per year
• Retirement benefits with up to a 5% contribution match
• Educational tuition reimbursement and certification incentives
• Incredible training opportunities
• Discounted tuition rates to our onsite Montessori school

What you need:

• Master’s Degree of Divinity from an accredited seminary school and three (3) to five (5) years’ experience working with at risk youth and/or youth ministries preferred; or any combination of training, education and experience which would provide the required knowledge, abilities and skills to successfully perform in this role.
• Must be a deacon or elder of the United Methodist denomination.
• Must be knowledgeable of the needs of at risk youth.
• Ability to maintain sensitivity to our target population’s cultural and socioeconomic characteristics.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Guides the organization in maintaining alignment with mission, vision, and values as they pertain to the Christian faith.
• Develops a developmentally appropriate and trauma-informed spiritual life program for all areas of residential life that helps each youth realize their own worth and importance, assists the youth in establishing that God loves them, helps the youth accept God's love when they are ready to make a commitment to Christ and the church, enables the youth to conceive of the worship experience as enjoyable, and provides a background whereby the youth might continue in a religious affiliation after returning to the community.
• Coordinates opportunities for youth who are not Christian to participate in faith practices in alignment with their faith tradition.
• Directs, organizes, and facilitates weekly programs in partnership with the Spiritual Life Coordinator.
• Plans and conducts the campus worship services using age-appropriate styles, including multi-media.
• Gives guidance, planning, and program content to the Spiritual Life Coordinator to assure a quality worship arts program that involves and meets the needs of the youth.
• Conduct interviews with each resident upon admission to learn spiritual background and share spiritual life program offerings.
• Serves as a member of the diagnostic and treatment team to provide feedback and determine the needs and proposed treatment plan for youth.
• Provides prayer and pastoral care services to staff.
• Develops and facilitates trainings for staff pertaining to spiritual life programs, spiritual trauma, and trauma-informed spiritual practices.
• Drafts and prudently manages annual budget for programs and departmental needs.
• Provides supervision for spiritual life staff and independent contractors providing services.
• Consults with residential staff in holistic care practices.
• Collaborate with departments across the organization for annual events.
• Attends quarterly board meetings and provide a report highlighting ministry successes.
• Perform all other job duties and responsibilities, as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This job will supervise the Worship Coordinator and the Program Coordinator.

Travel

This position may spend up to 10% time traveling to various worksites, United Methodist functions and engagement events throughout the country.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Residing Hope is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other categories protected by law are not factors in employment, promotion, compensation or working conditions.

House Bill 531 (2025) Requires that we provide the following link that we screen all applicants through the Clearinghouse

As part of our commitment to safety and child protection, Residing Hope requires all candidates for positions with access to children and teens to complete the Diana Screen®. The Diana Screen is a scientifically validated online sexual risk screen designed to help identify individuals who may not recognize appropriate sexual boundaries between adults and children. It is not a test of intelligence, but a tool to measure attitudes and potential risk.