Join a Team

Urban Expression recruits team leaders and deploys them in inner city contexts where church planting is appropriate. Then, in partnership with these leaders, we recruit team members. Teams can start work at any point during the year.

There are normally between 4 and 10 members of each team, each of whom commits themselves to a minimum of 3 years as a team member. Team members may be invited either to join existing teams or to participate in a new team.

What are we looking for in team members?

1. Faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to follow and serve him in mission
2. Enthusiastic endorsement of the values and strategy of Urban Expression
3. Willingness to live, work and witness in an inner city community
4. Commitment to holistic mission that is concerned about the whole person
5. Patience, determination and humility in learning from others
6. Experience, skills and abilities to contribute to pioneer mission work
7. Capacity to work well within a team
8. Courage and creativity in a high-risk situation
9. Readiness to make a minimum 3-year commitment to Urban Expression

What are we looking for in team leaders?

As well as the qualities we look for in all team members, we also expect that team leaders will:

1. Have experience in relevant areas of Christian leadership
2. Have the necessary skills to lead a mission team
3. Be willing to make a longer term commitment to Urban Expression

Those who are interested in leading or joining a team

Those who are interested in leading or joining a team are:

1. Provided with an information pack and encouraged to read it thoroughly
2. Encouraged to reflect carefully on the Urban Expression values and convictions
3. Invited to come to an introductory information day in East London
4. Asked to complete an application form and provide references
5. Invited to an interview to explore the way forward

What are self-funding teams?

One of the distinctive features of Urban Expression is that the teams are self-funding. What does this mean?

1. It is the team that is self-funding, rather than the individual team member. Teams are responsible for working out how to support their members. This will require a counter-cultural level of openness and trust in the area of personal finances.
2. Some team members will work full-time in paid jobs and will be involved in the team outside of work hours.
3. Some team members will work full-time as church planters, drawing support from friends, sending churches and other supporters in the way that missionaries do.
4. Some team members will work part-time in paid jobs, earning enough to support themselves as part-time church planters.

Some team members who are earning will help to support others who are either not earning or only in part-time paid work. Team members will also be responsible for finding housing in the community where their team will work. This is not easy to find in some inner city areas. We will do all we can to assist, but we recognise that this is a key issue for prayer and patience.