Mission Matters
The Difference Was Like Night and Day
Just four years ago, I heard Fletcher Wright, a well-respected professional in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the chair of the Myers Park Presbyterian Church Mission Council, state flatly that large congregations like Myers Park had little need of Presbyterian World Mission: “We have our own mission programs,” he said to a group of large-congregation pastors and mission leaders, “and, as World Mission is currently structured, it can add very little value to our mission work.”
That was one of the more painful “listening groups” I participated in during World Mission’s 2010–2011 work on a new strategic direction that put PC(USA) congregations—both large and small—at the heart of its work. Since the days of the Board of Foreign Missions, World Mission had engaged in international mission on behalf of the denomination. With increased global travel and communications, however, the world has flattened, revealing a new landscape where today our congregations generate more prayer, send more dollars and mobilize more people for God’s mission than any denominational office could do—including World Mission!
So is Fletcher’s assessment of World Mission as irrelevant to his congregation’s mission work true today? World Mission staff and our mission workers put a lot of time, prayer and effort in listening to congregations and understanding their hopes and dreams—and their needs—and working with them to increase the congregations’ effectiveness and faithfulness.
Last fall, Fletcher and his wife, Anne, hosted a reception for World Mission in their home. At the close of the evening, Fletcher said, “The changes World Mission has made in its structure and work have made it an invaluable partner for our congregation. In the absence of their guidance and assistance on the ground, often more damage would be done than benefits derived.” The same is proving true for average-size and smaller congregations. What value does World Mission bring to enhance congregations’ global mission work? Here’s what congregational mission leaders are saying:
- A robust, Reformed theology of mission: Congregations value World Mission’s understanding of mission and view it as consistent with our denomination’s valuing of human dignity and working in partnership.
- “Treetop” perspective: World Mission is connected to hundreds of congregational mission efforts and can help congregations connect with others who share their mission passion to better coordinate their work.
- Language and cultural expertise: In what congregations experience as the complex reality of global mission with its inherent barriers of language, culture and history, many congregations find World Mission’s tool kit to be extremely useful to their mission engagement. World Mission’s expertise includes extensive cultural proficiency, mastery of 37 languages (spoken by a total of more than 4 billion people on 6 continents) and highly developed skills in coaching for cross-cultural communication and conflict.
- Access to knowledge based on mission history: World Mission can help congregations access critically important knowledge from our long mission history (both best practices to emulate and costly mistakes to avoid). For example, World Mission can help congregations avoid unhealthy dependencies, avoid “mission as financial transaction” and develop a prudent “exit strategy” before new work is initiated.
- Enhanced accountability: With 178 years of mission relationships, World Mission can introduce congregations to a network of trustworthy relationships with global partners, share systems of mutual accountability and help congregations engage mission workers to enhance mutual accountability.
- Capacity to inspire, convene and lead powerful coalitions for change: World Mission can inspire congregations to give, pray, advocate and engage in significant ways and to join with others in more effective, broad-based coalitions.
All these gifts, by God’s grace, are yours as Presbyterians working together in God’s global mission. To see how your congregation can engage more faithfully and effectively, contact Ellen Sherby and the Equipping for Mission Involvement team (ellen.sherby@pcusa.org, 800-728-7228 x5612).
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