Director of Evangelization and Mission

Job Description

The Director of Evangelization and Mission is an executive-level leadership position responsible for advancing the pastoral vision and evangelizing mission of Saint Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church. Working directly under the leadership of the Pastor, the Director translates the parish's mission and vision into strategic priorities, coordinated initiatives, and measurable outcomes across evangelization, lifelong formation, discipleship, parish engagement, communications, charitable outreach, and Catholic social mission.

The Director provides strategic direction and executive oversight to assigned departmental directors and personnel, ensuring that the various ministries of parish life function collaboratively and intentionally toward a unified mission. Particular emphasis is placed on forming missionary disciples, strengthening parish engagement, developing ministry leaders, and integrating service to the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized into the evangelizing life of the parish.

Essential Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership and Mission Alignment

Work closely with the Pastor to understand, articulate, and implement his pastoral vision for the parish.

Develop and implement integrated annual and long-range strategies for evangelization, formation, discipleship, engagement, communications, and outreach.

Establish departmental priorities, goals, and measurable outcomes aligned with the parish mission.

Evaluate existing ministries and initiatives to identify opportunities for growth, improvement, collaboration, restructuring, or discontinuation.

Ensure that parish programs and ministries advance the parish's mission rather than simply maintain existing activities.

2. Executive Management and Staff Development

Provide direct supervision and executive leadership to the Director of Lifelong Formation, Director of Parish Engagement, and other assigned personnel.

Establish clear expectations, conduct regular leadership meetings, evaluate performance, and promote professional development and accountability.

Ensure that departmental directors effectively supervise and develop their own teams.

Foster a culture of collaboration, initiative, professionalism, excellence, and Christian charity.

Serve as a member of the parish's senior leadership team, collaborating with the Pastor, Director of Parish Operations/Chief of Staff, and other parish leaders.

3. Evangelization, Discipleship, and Formation

Develop a comprehensive strategy for evangelization and missionary discipleship that reaches active parishioners, inactive Catholics, newcomers, visitors, the unchurched, and those seeking a relationship with Christ.

Establish intentional pathways that lead people from welcome and initial encounter to conversion, formation, sacramental participation, discipleship, service, and mission.

Provide strategic oversight of lifelong formation through the Director of Lifelong Formation, including children's formation, youth ministry, adult formation, OCIA, sacramental preparation, and marriage and family formation.

Promote a parish-wide understanding of evangelization as the responsibility of every baptized Catholic.

Evaluate formation and evangelization efforts according to their spiritual and pastoral fruitfulness, not merely participation or attendance.

4. Parish Engagement, Communications, and Ministry Development

Establish strategic direction for parish engagement and communications through the Director of Parish Engagement.

Ensure that communications reflect the parish's identity, mission, priorities, and pastoral vision.

Develop effective processes for welcoming newcomers, integrating parishioners, increasing meaningful participation, and connecting individuals with ministries.

Strengthen volunteer recruitment, formation, placement, appreciation, and leadership development.

Promote collaboration among ministries, reduce unnecessary duplication, and help parishioners discover and use their gifts in service to the Church.

Collaborate with stewardship and development efforts to foster a mature understanding of stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.

5. Outreach, Charity, and Catholic Social Mission

Provide executive leadership for a comprehensive parish strategy for outreach, charitable service, justice, and community mission rooted in the Gospel, Catholic social teaching, and the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

Integrate service to the poor, vulnerable, marginalized, and those in need into the parish's broader mission of evangelization and discipleship.

Identify significant needs within the parish and surrounding community and develop collaborative responses involving parish ministries, volunteers, and community organizations.

Oversee strategic initiatives addressing needs such as poverty, hunger, homelessness, support for families and expectant mothers, foster and adoptive families, the elderly and homebound, immigrants and refugees, and disaster relief.

Promote Catholic social teaching, including human dignity, the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, care for the vulnerable, and responsible stewardship of creation.

Recruit and form parishioners for charitable service and evaluate outreach initiatives according to their effectiveness, community impact, volunteer development, and alignment with parish priorities.

6. Budget, Resources, and Organizational Effectiveness

Provide executive oversight of assigned departmental budgets and collaborate with directors to develop annual budgets aligned with parish priorities.

Monitor expenditures and ensure responsible stewardship of financial, human, and physical resources.

Work collaboratively with parish operations and finance personnel on budgets, contracts, purchasing, personnel, and administrative matters.

Establish appropriate measures for evaluating departmental effectiveness, strategic progress, and mission impact.

Facilitate coordination between programmatic ministries and the parish's administrative and operational functions.

Qualifications

Required

Practicing Catholic in good standing who faithfully supports the teachings, mission, and sacramental life of the Roman Catholic Church.

Demonstrated commitment to evangelization, missionary discipleship, and the Great Commission.

Significant leadership and management experience, including the ability to supervise professional staff and lead through other directors.

Demonstrated ability to articulate vision, develop strategy, establish priorities, and translate plans into measurable results.

Strong understanding of Catholic evangelization, formation, discipleship, parish life, and mission.

Excellent communication, interpersonal, organizational, and relationship-building skills.

Preferred

Master's degree in theology, pastoral ministry, organizational leadership, business administration, communications, education, or a related field.

Formal theological or pastoral formation.

Experience in Catholic parish, diocesan, apostolate, nonprofit, or comparable mission-driven leadership.

Experience overseeing multiple departments, strategic planning, staff evaluation, organizational development, and change management.

About the Employer

The mission of Saint Mark the Evangelist Catholic Parish (as part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama) is to respond to God's call to proclaim Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of the living God. We are witnesses to the Gospel as we announce the death of the Lord, proclaim His resurrection, and await His coming in glory. At the heart of our Christian Community is celebration: of the Word, of the Eucharist, of the Sacraments. We journey with the Holy Spirit as our guide, with Mary, the Mother of God as our model, and in communion with the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome.