Outreach Director/Pastor

Job Summary

The Outreach Pastor/Director provides strategic and pastoral leadership for how Cottage Grove Church goes to our neighbors and to the nations. This role's focus will be on evangelism and outreach, local benevolence and community engagement, and local, regional, and global missions. We are looking for someone with an evangelist's passion and a shepherd's heart - a leader who is genuinely delighted to be with people who don't yet know Jesus, and equally glad to spend an afternoon training a volunteer who will do the same.

Responsibilities

• Leadership & Pastoral Care
• Serve on the staff elder team, fulfilling general pastoral duties (teaching, shepherding, member care) and contributing to overall church direction and health.
• Recruit, equip, and manage staff, deacons, and volunteer leaders across all outreach and missions teams, building sustainable leadership pipelines.
• Oversee annual department budgeting, financial stewardship, and missions funding in coordination with the Administration Director and finance team.
• Evangelism & Community Engagement
• Develop and implement a comprehensive evangelism strategy, inspiring and training the congregation in personal and corporate evangelism.
• Serve as a liaison between the church and the city, building trusted partnerships with local organizations, schools, and agencies in Des Moines.
• Empower volunteer teams to plan and execute community outreach events that engage non-believers and invite them into church life.
• Benevolence & Care
• Steward the Local Missions Fund and benevolence ministry with discretion, dignity, and clear partnership criteria to promote wholeness rather than dependence.
• Maintain strong relationships with local social service agencies for effective referral and resource sharing.
• Unified Missions Strategy
• Lead a holistic missions strategy connecting local, regional, and global efforts under a single vision.
• Support, evaluate, and care for global missionaries, church plants, and ministry partners, ensuring alignment and ongoing relationship.
• Build sending pipelines and direct short-term and long-term mission trips, including recruitment, training, sending, and debriefing.

Qualifications

• Spiritual & Cultural
• A growing, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ, with a life that exemplifies humility, integrity, and servant leadership.
• Alignment with the vision, mission, and values of Cottage Grove Church.
• Meets the character qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1; open to spiritual oversight responsibilities and to the office of elder if called and affirmed.
• Education & Ministry Experience
• Required : A bachelor's degree in ministry, theology, missions, intercultural studies, or a closely related field.
• Preferred : A master's degree (M.Div. or equivalent) in a ministry-related discipline.
• Required : Demonstrated vocational or significant lay ministry experience - ideally 3+ years - in outreach, evangelism, missions, church planting, or pastoral ministry.
• Experience mobilizing, training, and releasing volunteers in a church or ministry context.
• Cross-cultural ministry experience, domestic or international, is strongly preferred.
• Leadership & Competency
• Proven ability to move from vision to implementation — able to make things happen and make things better.
• Strong relational skills and evangelistic warmth; genuinely comfortable with people far from the church.
• Cultural intelligence and humility in diverse settings, reflecting our value of being a Diverse Kingdom Family.
• Ability to lead through influence, developing leaders who develop leaders.

Success Indicators

• A single, coherent outreach and missions strategy adopted and understood across the church.
• A congregation increasingly equipped and confident in personal evangelism, reflected in gospel conversations, guests, and baptisms.
• Benevolence administered consistently and with dignity, with relational follow-through beyond the initial need.
• Overflow operating sustainably under strong volunteer leadership, with expanded reach into the week.
• Deepened, trusted relationships with schools, agencies, and neighbors across Des Moines.
• A healthy leadership pipeline in which volunteers are leading, not just serving.
• Missionaries, plants, and partners well cared for, well communicated with, and appropriately accountable.
• Members of Cottage Grove being identified, prepared, and sent - across the street and across the world.