Regional Secretary For Africa at Lutheran World Federation

The incumbent will be working from his-her home country with regular travels to the Communion Office in Geneva. 

Required Qualifications 

• Degree in Theology.
• Endorsed by the Lutheran member church of his-her country.
• Ordained pastor in a member church
• Excellent written and spoken English. Other languages as required by the region of responsibility.

Additional Study and Experience 

• Successful and significant experience in positions involving holistic mission, theological reflection, as well as planning.
• Demonstrated excellent capacity in mediation, coaching, and group/process facilitation.
• Demonstrated diplomatic, relational and political skills.
• Solid experience within a LWF member church and in regional settings.
• Demonstrated excellent capacity to develop interpersonal working relationships at both strategic and operational levels.
• Proven ability to lead and interact with multi-cultural and multi-professional teams with indirect supervision role. 

LWF Core Skills 

• Analytical thinking: Expert level
• Initiative: Expert level
• Leadership: Expert level
• Achieving results: Advanced level
• Accountability: Advanced level 
• Working effectively with others: Expert level 

Required Skills 

• Organisational development: Expert level       
• Communication: Expert level
• Networking: Expert level
• Facilitation / Negotiation / Mediation: Expert level
• Advocacy / Influence: Expert level
• Project management: Basic level

Responsibilities

Position Environment and Dimensions

• Represents the LWF Communion Office regionally and acts as the primary entry point for accompaniment, advice and support to and from member churches.
• Nurtures and gives shape to programmatic work and activities in member churches at regional level, in accordance with defined work plan.
• Provides guidance and contextualizes LWF policies and practices, ensuring consistency and quality at regional level.
• Contributes at regional level to LWF’s sustainable development and funding.
• Major influence role in shaping regional and global LWF impact and outcomes.
• Internally, interacts with the General Secretary and the staff of the Office of the General Secretary, all LWF departments, program staff, event organizers, Regional Expression Officers.
• Externally, interacts primarily with representatives of member churches as well as other churches, ecumenical bodies, donors and related agencies, and any other relevant LWF stakeholders. 

Main duties 

Under the leadership of the General Secretary, and in relation with her-his region of responsibility, the Regional Secretary for Africa: 

• Provides pastoral accompaniment through regular visits to the member churches.
• Identifies and promotes the development of church leadership regionally and globally, both clergy and lay.
• Facilitates relationships between member churches, mitigates tensions and manages conflicts as needed.
• Monitors and develops LWF orientations, strategy and objectives.
• Plans and facilitates regional and sub-regional leadership meetings.
• Supports the initiation, design, planning, implementation and reception of programs and processes of the LWF Communion office as a whole and in the region of responsibility.
• Identifies and coordinates expertise and resources in the Communion for program work and capacity building.
• Participates in and contributes to the periodic program reviews of the departments.
• Cooperates with other LWF Regional Secretaries to ensure global cohesion of the Communion Office and consistency between and in the regions in programmatic work, LWF approaches and methodologies.
• Advises and supports communication for the purpose of communion building.
• Convenes a regional Communion Office staff working team to exchange information and address issues in the region of responsibility.