New Rural Vacancies Page Launched to Support Rural Churches, Communities and Charities

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At the Arthur Rank Centre, we’ve long supported those living and working in the countryside — whether in church life, farming, community support, or rural charities. Our latest offering is a new Rural Jobs page, designed to bring together roles that serve rural places and people across the UK.

This new section of our website highlights opportunities in rural churches, Christian charities and community organisations — from clergy posts and lay leadership to chaplaincy, outreach, charity development, and more. Some roles are explicitly faith-based, while others are rooted in the shared values of compassion, service, and presence in rural life.

The page is free to use and is already featuring roles from across the UK and across denominations. Whether you’re exploring a new calling or looking to recruit someone to join your ministry or organisation, we hope this space helps make those connections.

🔍 What’s included?

  • Current job listings from churches, Christian charities, and rural organisations

  • A wide range of opportunities — from ordained and lay ministry to chaplaincy, community outreach, and charity roles

  • Free listings for now — supporting churches, charities, and networks working in rural areas

  • Simple guidance on how to submit a vacancy

💻 Explore the page

You can view the latest listings here:
👉 Rural Vacancies

If you would like to advertise a vacancy, there’s a simple guide on the page or you can contact us directly via info@arthurrankcentre.org.uk.

This new page builds on our long-standing commitment to resourcing rural Christian mission and community life. We hope it becomes a valuable tool for those discerning their next step — and those seeking to support and grow their teams in rural settings.

21st Century Mission in the Countryside – LR

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Back in 2019, the Church of England in Suffolk received a grant to pioneer new forms of rural mission and to share the learning with the national church. The focus was small missional groups across the whole county, networked together in a community called “Lightwave”. Six years on, Sally Gaze, Archdeacon for Rural Mission, is preparing to share some of what they have learned at a national conference.

“Most of all we have learned to depend on God and to pray. This picture shows a gathering of Christians involved in this mission to pray. We often walk as we pray, which is a reminder that we are journeying together and with God.”

Love Rural Prayer Gathering

There are forty small groups across the county now and a culture of expectancy that God wants to make a difference in people’s lives. About a quarter of our members are under eighteen and about half are new Christians, and it has been important for us to focus on helping them develop their relationship with God rather than entertainment. The biblical and prayer content of our youth work is generally higher than many youth clubs or Sunday schools, and most groups use a discipleship pathway so that young people can move from casual interest to finding out more about faith when they are ready. We seek to care more about how people discover Jesus than raising attendance.”

We sense that God is calling us to invest in people rather than develop programmes. The personalised approach means that young people are cherished and grow from being recipients of help to volunteers and leaders more quickly. We seek to identify great leaders in local mission and then encourage and empower them. Oversight employs principles of high accountability and low control. We impose as little as we can, listen a lot and act as advocates for what they have discerned locally – helping them with obstacles, bureaucracy and finding partners in their ministry.

Love Rural Cook@Church

Each small group thinks about how they can care for people holistically. In one area outreach is based around young people and music, in another it’s sport and a foodbank, and in a third it’s the local pub and beautiful rural walks. The picture above shows a group called cook@church in a tiny village, where teens learn culinary skills, serve the wider community and learn how to pray. The second picture below shows people coming together in an area of rural new housing called Red Lodge. Here sharing hospitality through creating a café has been most important.

Love Rural Red Lodge

We recognise that a peer community is an easier place for people to grow in faith, so we help partners to intentionally create a critical mass of younger people where they can shape the community together. It is important that the community authentically embodies the Christian message. Our small group structure means we can do lots of low-risk experimenting. We expect that not everything will work and that we will learn from this. So we journey together and learn as we go.

We are sharing some of our stories and learning at a national conference in September. Lightwave and Suffolk parishes will be joined by other rural initiatives from across England to share exciting stories about how God is working in our smallest communities.

The Arthur Rank Centre will be co-hosting the conference. Join with us there.

To register for your place – click here