Associate Director of Care

Description

The Associate Director of Care & Prayer is committed to the ongoing care and healing of the parish through counseling, prayer, and training — helping individuals and the wider church move toward wholeness in Christ (Acts 20:28, 2 Corinthians 1:3–9).

This role exists at the vital intersection of pastoral care, counseling wisdom, and prayerful discernment, ensuring that The Falls Church Anglican remains a community where wounded hearts can be tended and lay leaders are equipped to care wisely.

The Associate Director, in collaboration with the pastoral team, provides case consultation and training for clergy, staff, and lay leaders and will help develop a sustainable care infrastructure that is psychologically-informed, theologically sound, and aligned with Anglican faith and practice.  This part-time role will be informed by a background in counseling, but the Associate Director will not provide direct mental health services. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

Care Consultation

• Offer care consultation and case review to clergy, deacons, and lay leaders for complex or high-risk pastoral situations. 
• Partner with the Pastor for Congregational Care and other staff as necessary to discern boundaries between pastoral, spiritual, and clinical care, ensuring appropriate referrals and follow-up. 
• Conduct intake assessments with parishioners seeking pastoral care and connect parishioners to mental health providers where requested.[1]

Training & Development of Lay and Staff Caregivers

• Design and lead a “Transformational Care Training Pathway” — equipping lay volunteers, small group leaders, and ministry directors to offer Christ-centered, appropriate care. 
• Develop and teach modules on topics such as: 
  • Listening and discernment skills 
  • Boundaries and confidentiality 
  • Psychologically-informed pastoral care 
  • Crisis response and referral 
  • Emotional and spiritual regulation 
  • Life-stage and developmental concerns (including parenting, adolescent mental health and family dynamics)
• Facilitate care for front-line clergy and staff to promote health, reflection, and resilience. 

Healing Prayer Ministry Collaboration

• Serve alongside the church’s Healing & Prayer ministries when needed, ensuring these spaces reflect both spiritual depth and psychological safety. 
• Collaborate with ministry leaders to provide psychologically-informed prayer training and debriefs for volunteers. 

Network and Resource Development:

• Build and maintain a regional network of Christian counselors, therapists, and mental health professionals, organized by specialization and theological compatibility. 
• Develop a Counselor Vetting Matrix and referral process for pastoral staff. 
• Host periodic Christian Counselor Roundtables to strengthen relationships between TFCA and local clinicians. 
• Collaborate with Benevolence leadership to define policies and pathways for counseling grants and financial assistance. 

Pastoral Care Ministries

• Under the direction of the Pastor for Congregational Care, oversee pastoral care ministries staff and programs such as GriefShare, Pure Desire and addiction-related programs.
• Research and recommend additional programs or partnerships that align with TFCA’s theology of transformation and healing. 
• With the Pastoral Care Ministries Manager, train and supervise leaders of these ministries, ensuring accountability, pastoral connection, and theological integrity. 

Systems, Administration and Compliance

• Collaborate with the Care & Community Office to design psychologically-informed intake forms and debrief templates. 
• Establish clear documentation processes for pastoral and prayer interactions while safeguarding confidentiality. 
• Ensure all care-related ministries operate within legal, ethical, and denominational standards. 

Other duties as assigned by Pastor for Congregational Care

[1] The Associate Director of Care will not form patient relationships with parishioners or provide diagnoses or treatment plans; any parishioner deemed to be in need of mental health services will be provided with a referral to a licensed mental health practitioner.

Requirements

Position Requirements

• Licensure: Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), or equivalent state credential. 
• Education: Master’s degree (minimum) in Counseling, Psychology, or Marriage & Family Therapy from an accredited institution or seminary. 
• Experience:
  • Minimum 5 years of professional counseling or clinical ministry experience. 
  • Minimum 3 years in church or faith-based ministry settings (volunteer or professional).
  • Demonstrated experience training and supervising volunteers or ministry teams. 
• Skills and Attributes:
  • Deep biblical faith and mature emotional intelligence. 
  • Excellent communication, teaching, and interpersonal skills. 
  • Understanding of psychologically-informed care, systems theory, and church dynamics. 
  • Commitment to confidentiality, humility, and collaborative leadership. 
• Spiritual and Theological Alignment:
  • Agreement with TFCA’s doctrinal statement and ethical standards (see https://www.tfcanglican.org/visit/what-we-believe)
  • Openness to ordination as a vocational deacon within the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). 
  • Satisfactory background check

Compensation

The anticipated salary range for this position is $77,000-$83,000 annually, depending on qualifications, relevant experience, technical expertise, and overall alignment with the role. 

Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package that includes:

• Up to 80% of employer-share of medical and dental insurance
• Affordable vision insurance
• Wide variety of pre-tax benefits, including medical and dependent care
• Generous parental leave policy
• Excellent 403b retirement plan, including up to a 6% matching portion
• Paid time off for vacation and personal time
• 14 paid holidays
• Professional education opportunities

Ministry Calling

Employees of The Falls Church Anglican come together to serve God, one another, our congregation, our community and our world. As disciples of Christ, our employees steward their responsibilities with care, demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit in their daily responsibilities. We offer a workplace focused on the excellence that glorifies God as we perform our work, both in readiness to do our daily tasks and in embracing and knowing how the Word of God applies as we serve. We also model grace in our interactions, in thankfulness to the grace we are given in Christ.

We do not require all employees to be Anglicans, but because of our essential identity as a community of faith in Jesus Christ, we require all employees to wholeheartedly believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him. As a community, we submit to the authority of the Holy Scriptures as the standard for Christian faith and life. We uphold the sanctity and dignity of human life, the creation of humankind in God’s image as male and female, and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the only proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family.

Within this context, we are committed to equality of treatment in hiring and in all employment conditions and opportunities.