Director of Strategic Relationships

At Awana, we believe true change happens in the communities when children and youth are transformed by the gospel  and engaged in Biblical discipleship in the presence of a caring adult. We believe that kids can come to know, love and serve Jesus, following Him for a lifetime. This is why, for 75+ years, Awana has been working with leaders in local churches in the US and around the world, providing solutions that equip these women and men to make disciples in children and youth. 

Today, God is using Awana to reach over 10 million kids in 140 countries around the world. With over 500,000 equipped leaders in 91,000 clubs/churches, Awana is able to play a vital role in global evangelism and discipleship of children and youth. If you are passionate about being integral to reaching kids with the gospel, join us, and become a part of our global cause. 

Summary

At our ministry, we are passionate about forming lasting faith in every child, everywhere!  As the Director of Strategic Relationships, Child Discipleship, you will play an important role in furthering our mission by cultivating, strengthening, and stewarding key relationships with influential churches, ministry leaders, organizations, practitioners, and voices in the children’s and family ministry space.  We’re seeking someone who views child discipleship work not just as a series of tasks, but as vital ministry work with eternal value.

This role exists to help Awana and ChildDiscipleship.com build trusted relationships with leaders who are shaping the future of child and family discipleship. Through intentional networking, church engagement, conference presence, podcast hosting, cohort facilitation, influencer conversations, social media engagement, and strategic convening, this person will help connect leading voices and churches to the broader mission, curriculum, events, content, and ministry ecosystem of Awana.

The person in this role will serve as a relational bridge between Awana and the wider children’s and family ministry community, helping identify where key leaders are, what they are facing, how Awana can serve them, and how their influence can help strengthen the broader child discipleship movement.

You’ll thrive in this role if you are:

• A relational ministry leader with strong credibility in children’s ministry, family ministry, church leadership, and adjacent ministry spaces. 

• A natural connector, thoughtful host, strategic networker, and trusted representative who can build relationships with senior leaders, practitioners, influencers, and church teams.

• Comfortable in churches, conferences, podcast conversations, private leader meetings, social engagement, and curated ministry gatherings. 

• Able to represent Awana with warmth, clarity, theological conviction, and relational intelligence.

• Insightful about the local church and care deeply about child discipleship. 

This is a full-time, remote position with domestic US and/or international travel as ministry needs indicate (est 30%).

Hiring Range for this position is:  $77,000 - $81,000

Primary Purpose and Outcomes: 

To build and steward strategic relationships with high-influence churches, leaders, networks, and organizations in the children’s and family ministry space so that Awana is increasingly trusted, connected, and meaningfully engaged in the broader child discipleship conversation leading to outcomes such as:

• Trusted relationships with leading churches and influential children’s, youth, and family ministry leaders.

• Meaningful connections with strategic churches, networks, conferences, organizations, and voices that should be meaningfully connected to Awana and ChildDiscipleship.com.

• Relational pathways that move leaders from awareness of Awana into deeper engagement with content, podcasts, cohorts, events, curriculum, and partnership opportunities.

• Representation of Awana and ChildDiscipleship.com at churches, conferences, off-sites, and strategic gatherings.

• Host of conversations, podcasts, cohorts, and convenings that strengthen Awana’s credibility and visibility in the child discipleship space.

• Source of relational intelligence for internal teams by sharing what key churches and ministry leaders are seeing, needing, asking, and building.

• Helping position Awana as a trusted partner and convener among leaders committed to forming lasting faith in children and families.

Who We Are Looking For: 

• An entrepreneurial leader. 

• A good steward of the assigned budget(s), allocating appropriate expenses for effective ministry in line with our vision and mission.

• Team player who supports, upholds and demonstrates the Awana values in internal and external communications and relationships.

• Collaborative partner who has a natural ability to cultivate genuine relationships with our internal team and external partners.

• Logical problem solver who proactively communicates workflow and/or deadline status to the team.

• Self-motivated, goal-oriented professional with a passion for helping fuel exponential ministry growth.

• Flexible team member who is open to taking on new responsibilities and easily adapts to shifting priorities and needs.

• One who can thrive in a setting of organizational values based on prayer, hustle, craft, and love. 

• Champion of children to belong, believe and become resilient disciples.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Relationship Development 

• Identify, cultivate and steward strategic relationships with influential churches, ministry leaders, pastors, denominational leaders, ministry organizations, authors, speakers, and practitioners in the children’s and family ministry space.

• Develop relational pathways that move leaders from awareness of Awana into deeper engagement with content, podcasts, cohorts, events, curriculum, and partnership opportunities.

• Represent Awana and ChildDiscipleship.com at churches, conferences, off-sites, and strategic gatherings.

• Host conversations, podcasts, cohorts, and convenings that strengthen Awana’s credibility and visibility in the child discipleship space.

• Serve as a relational intelligence source for internal teams by sharing what key churches and ministry leaders are seeing, needing, asking, and building.

• Help position Awana as a trusted partner and convener among leaders committed to forming lasting faith in children and families.

• Identify, cultivate, and steward relationships with influential churches, children’s ministry leaders, family ministry leaders, pastors, denominational leaders, ministry organizations, authors, speakers, and practitioners.

• Develop a clear relationship map of key churches, leaders, networks, and organizations that Awana should know, serve, learn from, and potentially partner with.

• Create intentional next steps for strategic relationships, including podcast invitations, cohort participation, event involvement, curriculum conversations, content collaboration, summit participation, or deeper organizational partnership.

Church and Conference Engagement

• Represent Awana and ChildDiscipleship.com through approximately 8–10 trips per year, including conferences, strategic church visits, leader gatherings, and off-site meetings.

• Use travel not simply for attendance, but for intentional relationship-building with prioritized churches, leaders, and influencers.

• Represent Awana and ChildDiscipleship.com by proactively engaging online in social media conversations relating to children’s ministry, curriculum, and child discipleship. 

• Serve as a warm, credible, and missionally-aligned representative of Awana in public and private ministry settings.

Convening and Influencer Engagement

• Host and facilitate strategic conversations with influential voices in the children’s and family ministry space.

• Help lead or shape gatherings such as the Child Discipleship Forum, influencer conversations, roundtables, and curated leadership cohorts.

• Function as a relational concierge for key leaders by helping them find the most meaningful place of connection within the Awana and ChildDiscipleship.com ecosystem.

Podcast and Content Collaboration

• Host or co-host podcast conversations that feature leading voices in child discipleship, children’s ministry, family ministry, theology, parenting, and church leadership.

• Support the Awana expanding podcast strategy by helping identify strategic guests, themes, and relationships across philosophical, practical, theological, and parenting-focused shows.

• Work with content, curriculum, and field teams to ensure podcast conversations and public-facing content are connected to real ministry needs and strategic organizational priorities.

• Assist the ministry growth and communications teams with resources as needed.

Relational Intelligence and Internal Alignment

• Serve as a listening post for Awana by gathering insight from leading churches and ministry voices about trends, needs, opportunities, concerns, and emerging questions in child and family discipleship.

• Share relational insights with internal teams including content, curriculum, field ministry, events, and leadership.

• Help ensure that Awana’s external engagement is not merely promotional, but relational, strategic, and genuinely helpful to the leaders and churches being served.

Organizational Stewardship

• Uphold and demonstrate the Awana cultural values in all internal and external communications and relationships.

• Contribute to special projects, initiatives and evolving ministry needs.

• Embrace opportunities for professional development in order to hone your craft and expertise.

What You Need:

• Depth of experience (e.g., 10+ years) in leadership, family and children ministry, serving in and caring for the Church, strongly preferred. 

• College education desired with a concentration in ministry, missions, theology, non-profit leadership, or similar from an accredited college or university.  

• Utilization of Awana curriculum, resources, & solutions is a plus! 

• Valid US Passport required.

• Valid State driver’s license required.

• Eligibility to work in the United States is required; this position is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship.

Spiritual Life

Must be a born-again Christian. Must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Must be in agreement with the Awana Doctrinal Statement.  Must be in fellowship with the body of Christ through a local church. Regularly engages in reading the Holy Bible as a guide and standard for living. 

Physical Demands/Working Conditions 

While performing the duties of this job, the team member is regularly required to communicate. The team member is also required to regularly utilize computer equipment (e.g., screens and keyboards) to perform work. Awana recommends maintaining ergonomic posture, utilizing properly positioned computer equipment to minimize strain, and taking regular breaks to stretch and move around. Specific vision abilities required by this job includes close vision. Local and out-of-town, overnight, which may include international travel may be required. 

What We Offer: 

As a ministry that equips leaders to reach kids with the gospel and engage them in lifelong discipleship, we value our team that makes this happen and are excited to offer: 

• Mission-driven work that changes the lives of children and youth around the world. 

• Remote-first work environment, allowing you to do the majority of your work from where it is you call "home”. We also have two office locations designed for collaborative work and connection with colleagues that can be used at your convenience if desired.  

• Workplace culture that prioritizes prayer, a Biblical worldview, intentional connection, flexibility, family, and community engagement.

• Benefits package, including a variety of programs you can choose from to meet you and your family’s needs. Some of these include medical, dental & vision health insurance, paid family leave, 401(k) & Roth 401(k) retirement savings plans with employer match, generous paid vacation & holidays, adoption assistance, college scholarship, an employee wellness program, and more! 

This Job Description reflects the current assignment of essential functions and is not meant to be all-inclusive. Responsibilities may be assigned or reassigned to this job at any time based on the needs of the organization and may be modified to reasonably accommodate an individual with a disability or for other reasons. Please note, this opportunity is contingent upon favorable completion of a reference check, background check, and I-9 completion.