Through its family of global youth ministries ICY is able to offer you a wide range of mission, gap year and job opportunities around the world. But first a note of warning….
ICY is an informal partnership of pioneering youth ministries around the world. It has a very mean and lean structure and those who do take salaries tend to limit these to what they need. This is because we want as much money as possible to be released into youth evangelism, and also because when you work globally it becomes harder to justify an affluent western lifestyle when your brothers and sisters are praying in the next meal!
ICY therefore is not the sort of organization to which to turn for a career move or security. It is challenging, demanding, hard work, and faith stretching. However if you are still reading then just maybe there could be a role for you. This is particularly true because ICY is relational rather than structural, and as such it does have a huge flexibility to mix and match roles and opportunities. So for instance if you’re a youth pastor looking for a fresh challenge, then it may be we can add a new dimension to your present role. You may for instance be able to supervise a local team, while taking on a couple of trainees in your church to free up the time to do it. Or perhaps you could coordinate mission trips to one of our African partners, or take on some training of youth leaders in Europe. Click below to go to a range of opportunities
Supervising local teams in Europe, North America or Australia
ICY is always looking to place young emerging leaders under the care and supervision of experienced and able youth workers. If you are looking to develop team, or are looking for a fresh challenge, we would be interested in exploring the possibility of doing so with you. You can for instance:
Take on a couple of trainees in your present youth ministry role
Take on a shared youth pastor role and a supervisor role which allows some hands on experience but gives you scope to use wider leadership and teaching gifts
Pioneer a whole new ministry as part of a global network.
In Europe, North America and Australia we are developing networks of emerging leaders who minister and study together on a range of courses up to Masters level. To establish these networks and serve these emerging leaders we need experienced, pastorally minded youth workers to supervise clusters. These clusters may be small, only two or three, under the supervision of a church based youth worker, or even as part of his own team in his church. On the other hand we also need pioneers who can establish networks of twenty or even more emerging leaders.
The work is hard but hugely inspirational, as you get the opportunity to invest into emerging leaders and see them reach young people through strategic cutting edge ministry. You also get to be a part of a national and international vision.
The sort of people we are looking for are those with a heart for God, a heart for young people, and emerging leaders, a desire to serve and be part of team, an ability to self start and take personal responsibility, a commitment to pastor and inspire those within your care, an ability to teach and administrate, a commitment to the Bible, local church and the kingdom, a preparedness to think radically or outside of the box, and a sensitivity to other cultures. You don’t need any specific formal training.
For our part we can offer a supervision fee of up to $1750, or £1000 per trainee per year, depending upon the level of support you are able to offer. This can either go to your church in recognition of the time given to a wider role, or straight to you. Potentially you can take on anything from one to 20 trainees, and so can build a team to fit in with the time commitment you have available. We are also able to offer you wider ministry opportunities as part of our international
network.
Take on a couple of trainees in your present youth ministry role
If you are getting a bit stale in your present ministry or if the workload is getting too much, then this might be an option for you. Taking on a new worker or two won’t necessarily ease your workload but it will probably allow you to use your time more strategically. You will hopefully be able to pass on to the trainee leaders some of the more mundane elements of youth ministry, which they need to learn, but at the moment you are doing even though it isn’t a good use of your time. You can then use your time better and in a more fulfilling way including investing it in the lives of the trainees.
Practically speaking you will need to mentor and line-manage the trainees and liaise with the national ICY leaders on their placement, training and development. We are looking for those who can inspire, release and equip emerging leaders who we hope will go on to become significant leaders in the Kingdom. Ordinarily we ask churches to cover the trainees’ board and lodging, weekly allowance and pay $3700 or £2200 per year towards their training fees. However much of the training fees are supervision costs and if you are the supervisor you will either get these fees passed on to you, or else we can waive this element of the training fee for your church. This means they would therefore only pay about $2000 or £1200 per year to cover the conference and training costs of the emerging leader. (More on this later!). Your church can therefore expect to pay about $5000 or £3000 per trainee plus board and lodging. The trainees come for up to three years and so a good long term team can be built at relatively low cost.
In the UK it is possible to be approved for EU funding which covers all the emerging leader’s training and pocket money costs and most of their housing costs too. The only downside here is that the trainees can only come for one year and English isn’t normally their first language, (though often it will be better than yours!)
You will also get to network nationally and internationally with other youth ministers with a similar vision and in a similar position to you, be able to attend ICY conferences for free, and have other opportunities to be stretched lecturing, on mission trips and in other forms of ministry.
For more details of the Youthwork Supervisor role, click here
Or email Colin Piper to find out more
Take on a shared youth pastor role and a supervisor role
We do get approaches from churches and organisations around the world to partner with us.
They have worked out that it is better to have a good experienced worker for 50-75% of the time, than a less experienced worker for 100% of the time. So we put together packages which can attract the very best. Basically this is a combination of hands on youth ministry in a local context with supervision of a local team. In many ways it is similar to the role set out above but the team is often bigger, maybe 10 trainees and these are spread across a number of local churches. The concept is that a portion of your salary is paid by the local church and a portion comes in the form of supervision fees, at about £1000 or $1750 per trainee supervised.
There are a lot of advantages to this arrangement. You get to do hands on youthwork, or another form of ministry come to that, but have a wider strategic input too. There is flexibility to develop the supervision role to the level you want or have time for, be that two or ten trainees. It can even be a thing which grows, so as you delegate more responsibility in your local setting you can take on more trainees.
However most of our supervisor roles are pioneering in nature, and this means you have to create your own network. You will need to be an initiator and the funding could be limited during the set up period.
You will be a part of a like minded visionary team both nationally and internationally, be able to attend ICY conferences for free and have wider ministry opportunities, such as teaching and leading mission trips. We tend to have some roles ready to be filled, but also like to keep a register of those interested in such roles, ready for opportunities to come up. If you wanted to find out more or be included on the register, please contact
Colin Piper
For more details of the Youthwork Supervisor role, click here
Pioneer a whole new ministry as part of a global network.
Only read on if you are a particular type of person: the word “particular” having a wide range of meanings!
We are looking for pioneers with big vision, be they individuals, churches or organisations, who can take on a whole hub of youth workers studying, training and ministering together. Basically you can then become a partner of ICY. We will recruit emerging leaders from across our networks to work under you, offer you the accredited and unaccredited courses into which we link our partners, and support you through their delivery, and of course include you in the wider global network. The challenges of course are immense but if you have a heart to make a radical difference to a generation where you live, and to train emerging leaders in the most inspirational, practical and Biblical way, then again contact
Colin Piper He would particularly like to hear from those based in Europe, Australia or North America!
Roles in the Two Thirds World
Our developing world partners have huge opportunities right now. They need youth work trainers, administrators, youth workers, gap year and short term mission workers, and much more. The challenge here of course is that where the roles in the western world can offer some funds, these can offer none. Having said that, we can provide what we believe to be the most authentic, effective and value for money opportunities you’ll find. Basically you join one of our partner works in Africa. You live with African team, as an African, you work with the African team serving the Africans, and ultimately you get to see Africa through African eyes. It is crazy but it is low cost and life changing. We need people from two weeks to two years and beyond. For more details
click here
There is one advantage of being pioneering, and that is we are flexible. Therefore if you have any ideas, skills, or vision, do share them with us. Remember again, we aren’t a resourcing organisation, just a relational one. This means we can’t and won’t throw money at you, but if we possibly can, we would stand with you to fulfil that vision or call, if you share the values and heart of all we’re about.
Sadly we can’t enter any new partnerships with those in the developing world unless introduced through our existing partners. We have two problems here, one is the practical one of time, if we are to serve those to whom we are committed fully, and the second is one of discerning which invitations are true and which are fraudulent. Sorry!
If you are interested in exploring these opportunities, please email
Colin Piper,
