Executive Vice President, U.s. Ministries

At Awana, we believe true change happens in the communities when children and youth are transformed by the gospel and engaged in Biblical discipleship in the presence of a caring adult. We believe that kids can come to know, love and serve Jesus, following Him for a lifetime. This is why, for 70+ years, Awana has been working with leaders in local churches in the US and around the world, providing solutions that equip these women and men to make disciples in children and youth.

Today, God is using Awana to reach over 6.4 million kids in 135 countries around the world. With over 500,000 equipped leaders in 78,000 clubs/churches, Awana is able to play a vital role in global evangelism and discipleship of children and youth. If you are passionate about being integral to reaching kids with the gospel, join us, and become a part of our global cause.

Hiring Range: $100,000 to $123,000, commensurate with experience

Summary

The Executive VP, U.S. Ministries is responsible for the overall health and performance of all U.S. church engagement, with a proclivity toward church relationship growth, retention and maximization.

This leader is first and foremost someone who has a growth mindset and bias toward action — someone who is motivated by reaching, engaging and equipping more churches to help Awana fulfill our vision and mission. Next, not only is this leader wired to help Awana grow by engaging more churches, this leader also has a retention mindset to achieve church relationships that are retained from year to year, ensuring that healthy, fruitful and effective child and youth discipleship is taking place in the local church. Lastly, this leader also has a maximization mindset with the ability to grow and expand church relationships through converting and increasing the number of our church partners to Awana training, resourcing and mission outreach.

This position is primarily remote, with the ability to work from designated worksites as needed, including our offices in St. Charles, IL and/or Nashville, TN.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic and intentional integration of quality products, sales, and service to ensure healthy, fruitful and effective child and youth discipleship is taking place in the local church.
• Lead U.S. Sales & Marketing and will:
  • Develop strategic plans around marketing and selling U.S. product and service solutions, including Awana Clubs and Brite, as well as equipping events and trainings, such as the Child Discipleship Forum and Resilient Child Discipleship Training.
  • Work with the executive leadership team to set and accomplish engagement and revenue goals for both acquisition and renewal business.
  • Build partnerships and agreements that expand the “wholesale” sales and reach of products, programs and ministry.
  • Ensure cross-functional alignment between marketing and sales, along with an intentional customer service focus.
• Lead Curriculum and will:
  • Lead and guide the Curriculum team in ensuring all Awana curriculum aligns with our doctrinal statement, theological positions, our 3B philosophy and our curriculum blueprints to accomplish our child discipleship goals and objectives.
  • Bring strategic, long-term thinking to the U.S. church landscape needs.
  • Identify, cultivate and further partnerships with like-minded churches, networks, denominations, and organizations to further distribution and collaboration of U.S. discipleship programs and resources.
  • Ensure collaboration with senior leaders to ensure the spirit and philosophy of ministry are integrated into curriculum offerings.
• Lead U.S. Field and will:
  • Form partnerships with other denominations, networks, associations and organizations to expand Awana ministry training and curriculum into groups we currently do not serve to grow our church engagement. Through these new partnerships, this leader will help these groups raise up advocates, child discipleship missionaries and trainers from within those groups to train, resource and equip their people with Awana Child Discipleship solutions.
  • Work with the U.S. Field leadership to develop a strategic plan to align the activities of the field to organizational goals to help retain, maximize and grow church engagement.
  • Collaborate on building a consultative spirit to effectively serve the church of the future.
  • Develop and oversee strategies to further Child Discipleship in underserved U.S. markets (particularly African American & U.S. Latino ministries).
• Work closely with internal stakeholders to ensure clarity and consistency in goals, deliverables and necessary projects.
• Stay current and forward-thinking regarding trends and best practices associated with areas of responsibility, and advocate accordingly for strategic change.
• Within the span of accountability, steward expenditures wisely and identify, advocate for and ultimately demonstrate ROI on expenditures.
• Support, uphold and demonstrate the Awana cultural values in internal and external communications and relationships.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years experience in Christian publishing in the areas of sales, marketing, and/or publishing, preferred, and ideally in the US children’s ministry marketplace.
• Proven experience in growing curriculum and/or programs.
• Experience in running a renewal business and managing the annual cycle of renewal effectively.
• Experience leading leaders, including coaching for development, change management, and executing engagement and retention strategies among ministry partners and customers effectively.
• Branding experience, with the ability to leverage brand identity and messaging to enhance Awana's presence and reputation within the church community.
• Intermediate Microsoft Office and Google Suite skills.
• General understanding of the Bible and the Christian church in their various expressions, preferred.
• Working knowledge of children’s inspirational or ministry space, including demonstrated program/product familiarity, preferred.
• Familiarity with the US church landscape and/or global nonprofits, preferred.
• Valid travel documents in good standing, e.g., passport and drivers license.

Competencies

• Aligns with the Awana values of Prayer, Hustle, Craft and Love.
• Passionate to see ministry growth and can participate independently and/or as part of a team towards annual goals.
• Proven ability to align with strategic goals, manage competing priorities, balance ministry and business needs, and deliver timely results.
• Data driven with the ability and desire to dig into the data to look for and identify opportunities to grow our ministry and business.
• Wired for optimization to improve the health and performance of our U.S. Curriculum business.
• Must be resourceful, creative, detail-oriented, thorough, and able to navigate complex processes while caring for ministry partner needs.
• Clear communicator and able to communicate technical issues to non-technical individuals.
• Critical thinker and can troubleshoot projects and processes as work and solutions evolve.
• Demonstrates high EQ & AQ (Emotional & Adaptability Quotient/Intelligence), including proven relationship-building, collaboration, active listening and the ability to pivot with organizational change.
• Analytical with proactive problem-solving skills.
• Values excellence, is committed to follow through, and is disciplined, accountable, and a life-long learner.

Physical Demands/Working Conditions

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to communicate. The employee is also required to regularly utilize computer equipment (e.g., screens and keyboards) to perform work. The employee is occasionally required to move about the work environment. Specific vision abilities required by this job included distance and close vision. Occasional local and out-of-town, overnight travel is required.

Our Benefits for Full-Time Team Members:

• WFH/Hybrid
• Flexible work schedule
• Medical/Dental/Vision (BCBS PPO)
• HSA (employer contribution available)
• 401(k) with employer match
• Short/Long-term Disability
• Life Insurance
• Generous PTO Benefits
• Paid Parental Leave
• Great people - great culture – extraordinary mission!

This Position Description reflects the current assignment of essential functions and is not meant to be all-inclusive. Responsibilities may be assigned or reassigned to this job at any time based on the needs of the organization and may be modified to reasonably accommodate an individual with a disability or for other reasons.