Northern Church Partnerships Manager

About Spear

We launched the award-winning Spear Programme over 20 years ago, and there are now 18 Spear Centres across the country, equipping unemployed 16–24-year-olds facing barriers to employment with the skills and mindset they need to secure work and thrive in the workplace.

Spear operates a joint venture model with churches across the UK to run our Spear Centres. Some Centres operate in collaboration with independent charitable trusts, while others are run directly with the local church (both referred to below as ‘Spear Church Partners’ or ‘Church Partners’).

About the role

We’re looking for a new Church Partnerships Manager to join us for this northern based role, with travel across the region.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in driving national growth by developing and nurturing partnerships with churches across the North of England. You will be at the forefront of developing new relationships with potential early-stage partners, inspiring churches to engage with our mission, and supporting them through the pipeline, and helping to establish a diverse and thriving network of church partnerships.

We are looking for a confident relationship-builder who can engage and influence a wide range of stakeholders, particularly church leaders, and who is comfortable working in a dynamic and evolving environment.

Key information:

• Salary: £37,000


• Location: Northern Regional Hub (Leeds) with regional travel in the North


• Full-time, 12-14month Fixed Term Contract, with the possibility of extension


• Closing date: Friday 10th April, 09.00am (we interview on a rolling basis and will close the role early if we find the right candidate)

For more information please read through our Job Specification and Work with Us Pack.

If you require any reasonable adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please let us know.

Person Specification

• A practising Christian, passionate about personally representing the values and beliefs of Spear, and our mission to equip and support young people facing barriers to employment


• Strong leadership ability with the confidence to make effective decisions


• Outstanding people skills and emotional intelligence, capable of quickly winning trust and confidence, as well as network, influence and negotiate with church leaders and a range of audiences, internally and externally


• An understanding of the needs and workings of churches and their leaders, and the ability to innovate, build our growth strategy and generate new partnerships


• An excellent communicator (both written and verbal)


• Excellent initiative and a self-starter, with the ability to operate flexibly in a changing and dynamic environment and in response to the support needs of each partner


• Strong organisational skills including the ability to establish appropriate processes and structures and to manage multiple priorities to meet targets and deadlines


• Strong quantitative skills including ability to work with and interpret impact data, fundraising pipelines and basic financial information


• Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint competent and experience of/ability to use databases