Global Ministries Leadership Team Report (April 2008)

Jeff Bleijerveld
Director of Global Ministries

Some may know that the GMLT met on October 17th and 18th. I’d like to provide you with a report on what was discussed and the decisions we made.

First, those present were: Luke Fetters - chairman, Bishops Ron Ramsey (USA) and Brian Magnus (Canada), Kurt Uhen, Lois Mason, Dave Datema, Randy Fennig, Ruth Benner, RuthAnn Price, Tim Flickinger, Jeff Sherlock, Jeff Bleijerveld (director), Donna Hollopeter (associate director), and Darlene Burkett (administrative assistant).

Aside from reports and updates, we discussed the following:

Student Member
We will add a new position to the GMLT - that of a qualified university student (preferably a United Brethren member).

Relief Partnership and Emergency Funds
We agreed to form a strategic partnership between Global Ministries and a major relief and development organization to strengthen our efforts among our national conferences and our overall response to humanitarian need around the world. Such a partnership will allow us to match our gifts with those of others and help us gain access to the expertise and resources needed by our partner conferences in developing countries.

The selection of a partnering organization will take place in consultation with the executive committee and a tentative agreement presented at the fall 2008 GMLT meeting. We also agreed that at the completion of a relief project, excess funds may be redesignated by Global Ministries for similar purposes in the same country or region.

Partnership Agreements with Other Agencies
We will be providing the option to those considering or currently serving with a partner agency, to become full employees of Global Ministries. Under this category, missionaries will raise full support as a Global Ministries missionary. They will receive their salary, health insurance, pension, and all other benefits just as any UB missionary does, with the exception of being assigned to a ministry with another agency. Under this arrangement, the partnership will be “agency-to-agency” and a seconding agreement will be formed with the partner agency.

Advantages:

Closer identification with the UB Church.
Creates a ministry “home” for years to come regardless of assignment changes.
Provides opportunity for a “seamless” transfer to a UB assignment should the possibility present itself.
Increased opportunity for GM to share ownership of the assignment, even recruiting more missionaries or volunteers to lend support.

We will maintain our current “endorsed” category, but offer missionaries the opportunity to transfer their employment to Global Ministries while continuing in their current assignment with a partner agency.

Guiding Values
We spent time working on our guiding values. We have a statement of purpose:

“The purpose of Global Ministries is to help United Brethren churches fulfill the global mandate of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).”

And a mission statement:

In order to accomplish this, we will:

Mobilize local churches in the United States and Canada by encouraging and assisting them in fulfilling their global Great Commission mandate.

Send United Brethren persons to serve within United Brethren national conferences, or to serve in other countries in partnership with qualified sending agencies.

Partner with local churches, missionaries, mission agencies, and United Brethren national conferences to fulfill the Great Commission by praying, sharing resources, encouraging and equipping.

Pioneer among unreached and lesser-reached people groups in partnership with United Brethren churches.

The following emerged from our discussion as guiding values for the members of the GMLT:

i. What is it that motivates us to do what we do?

love for God
concern for people
mandated by the denomination
lost people matter to God
seek and save the lost
God’s glory, mission exists to make worshipers
If we don’t we miss out on God’s blessings
God’s heart is that people be reconciled to Him

ii. What kinds of outcomes are important to us?

that people become reproducing disciples of Christ, involved in a local fellowship, able to articulate their faith and obedient to Christ’s commands
that leaders are trained, empowered and unleashed
that churches are planted; self propagating, self governing, self supporting, culturally relevant, which may or may not be U.B.
develop “missional” (glocal) U.B. Churches in North America

iii. Do we value certain methods, principles or means in carrying out our mission?
seek partnership to maximize our limited resources.

partner with local church bodies when possible
coordinate our efforts (whether GM or local church initiated), using GM as a conduit
sustainable, reproducible, culturally relevant, technologically appropriate
communication, of needs, opportunities

iv. Do we have any priorities that would dictate how we allocate funds, distribute our efforts or deploy our personnel?

lesser-reached peoples
we are not a ‘relief’ organization, so we prioritize evangelism and evangelism-related activities which lead to redemptive opportunities over solely social-action activities (see the minutes of the GM executive committee meeting of January 2003)
we value leadership development over construction projects
we value local ownership of projects
we believe it is important to maintain emergency and contingency funds
we prioritize opportunities where we already have connections and can expand our efforts and multiply resources

Additional work will be done on these to abbreviate and clarify these statements, but we would love to have your input. How do you respond to the questions we asked ourselves?

Global Ministries Identity

Name
The only reason to consider changing our name would be if our name became a hindrance in accomplishing our goals. Changing our name just to be “fashionable” is certainly unnecessary. At present, it does not seem to be an issue. However, if we anticipate moving into restricted access locations in the future, acting sooner rather than later would be advisable as old and new organizational names can be linked for some time.

Branding
Can we summarize in a single statement the value Global Ministries offers to a local United Brethren in Christ Church or individual member? Since the time of our meeting the following has been developed as a tentative statement:

United in Purpose – United in Vision (tag line)

We are committed to being united in Purpose – recognizing the call of God to make disciples of all nations, proclaiming his glory and demonstrating his love.
We are committed to being united in Vision – expanding Christ’s Church by reproducing disciples, leaders, networks and movements around the world.
We are committed to being United in our efforts – recognizing the importance of each one’s efforts in expanding Christ’s Kingdom.

Web Identity
We discussed what we want our website to accomplish and whether or not we are doing this effectively. What could be added? What restrictions do we want to maintain? (ie. safety and security)

Publications
In additional to our web presence, we currently distribute WorldView. In the coming months Donna Hollopeter will have “God’s Kids Go Global” ready for distribution. This is a great resource for teaching kids about missions. We’ll also be producing a new brochure for Global Ministries.

Media
We recently purchased a video camera to shoot short “thank you “ videos for donor churches. We’ll be working on additional applications.

Improving our Serve

Day of Missions
Gary Dilly and Donna Hollopeter began holding what has become known as a “Day of Missions” on a regional level. We will continue this and include reports from missionaries, opportunity for teaching/training, and opportunities for group interaction on a variety of topics.

Discovery Weekend
A “Discovery Weekend” will provide an opportunity to those who want to know more about what it would mean to be a missionary to spend a weekend learning more about missionary life, ministry and the preparation required. Each attendee will meet one-on-one with a mission representative for consultation and leave with a list of suggestions and recommendations.

CultureLink
Both Donna Hollopeter and I are familiar with the CultureLink curriculum and training materials. We’ll be using it as our official program for training team leaders and preparing volunteers.

Donor Relations
To provide additional options to donors in supporting GM projects and missionaries we’ll look into setting up automatic withdrawal and web-based Pay Pal service for projects and volunteer accounts

We will also be instituting a number of “awards of recognition” for significant donors (ie. highest giving per capita, highest giving, greatest increase in giving, etc.).

Administrative Fees
We lowered the administrative fee charged to project accounts from 10% to 7%. On missionary support we currently charge 6.65% for home office expenses and another 3.35% goes into the missionary’s contingency account.

Volunteers
Another motion was passed that we charge a sliding fee to all mission team members of trips organized through Global Ministries to cover our cost for travelers insurance, ticketing, receipting expenses, advances to the field, and CultureLink training materials. Teams of 1 to 5 members will be charged $100 each, 6-19 will be charged $75 each, and 20 or more members will be charged $50 each.

Global Ministries Homecoming 2009
We’ll be conducting a Global Ministries Homecoming that would involve all our full-time and endorsed missionaries in conjunction with the National and General Conferences in June 2009.

Our purpose will be to bless our missionaries and their children by allowing them to be appreciated by our churches, reminded of the family they belong to, and enriched through times of worship and teaching.

How will we “pull” something like this off? Supporting churches will be asked to adopt an individual or family they support and provide for their airfare costs.
Volunteer ministry teams will be recruited to provide music, entertainment, children’s ministry, youth ministry, serve tables, carry luggage, prepare gift baskets, etc.

Gifts-in-kind and project funds will be solicited to provide for meals, transportation, supplies and gifts.

Potential Impact:

An excitement about missions and our missionaries.
An outward focus for our national conference body.
Opportunity to hear reports from around the globe.
Increased unity and familiarity among our missionaries.
A renewed sense of ownership on everyone’s part of the mission we share in reaching the world for Christ.

Be watching for more information and reserve early June 2009 on your calendars.

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