In the 70 countries where Global Ministries works, Global Ministries partner churches and programs submit requests for persons in mission on a regular basis to fill their special personnel– usually a position involving skills or talents they cannot, at the present time, fill themselves. There is a large backlog of requests from partners for missionaries that cannot be fulfilled because of financial limitations.
The average fully-supported missionary appointment costs Global Ministries about $50,000 per year for expenses of salary, benefits, housing, children’s education and travel. Churches and/or judicatories (regions, conferences, areas, or associations) may either give generally to new missionary appointments, or, if they make a multi-year commitment (usually a minimum of $5,000 per year), can be matched with a specific new missionary being appointed.
Donor churches and judicatories then have the opportunity for ongoing news and communication with their supported missionary over the time they are in the field, and can host the missionary on a visit to their congregation or judicatory when the missionary returns to the U.S./Canada for home assignment.
A second option is for a congregation or judicatory to provide missionary support funds for a missionary currently serving. Some may choose to support a missionary with whom they already have a missionary relationship, or a missionary assigned to their region or conference as a missionary partner. Global Ministries does not field missionaries without knowing that the funds are there to pay for the entire term of three or four years, but some churches find a missionary relationship more meaningful if they have a financial "stake" in the person's ministry through special giving -- and that special giving to one missionary means that other funds are freed up to name new missionaries.
Background: In the late 1990's, the Common Global Ministries Board had a goal of fielding 120 regularly-appointed, longer term missionaries serving globally. To this end a project was launched to fund missionary appointments. In 2002-2003 the goal was reached, as special gifts were added to regular budget funds in order to field 120 missionaries. Woodmont Christian Church (Nashville, Tennessee), Country Club Christian Church (Kansas City, Missouri), and the Western Association of the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ (Western North Carolina), provided significant funding which was added to Global Ministries’ funds to appoint and sustain missionaries in Haiti, Jerusalem, and Guatemala during this period.
Almost immediately after achieving the goal of 120 missionaries, the Global Ministries revenues from Our Church's Wider Mission (United Church of Christ), Disciples Mission Fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and distributions from UCC and Disciple endowment investments drastically decreased, and the Common Global Ministries Board resolved that no more new missionary appointments could be funded from budget funds. Moreover, missionaries retiring or concluding their service would not be replaced. This meant that missionary appointments needed to be funded entirely from funds outside of the Global Ministries budget. This policy was in effect from 2004 until April 2007. During this period, five new missionary appointments were funded entirely by special gifts to Global Ministries for this purpose: one position in Angola, two positions in China, one in Colombia, and one in Guatemala.
Since 2007, the Global Ministries budget has continued to face challenges, given the general economic downturn, and even more dramatic drops in returns on invested endowment funds. The result is a drop of over 50% in the number of regularly appointed longer-term missionaries. Despite creative appointments of long-term volunteers and new missionaries appointed jointly with other denominations, Global Ministries welcomes continued special giving for the appointment of missionaries.
If you are interested in learning more about supporting a missionary, please contact the Global Ministries Resource Development Office at gifts@dom.disciples.org or 317-713-2555.
Donations
To make an online gift to this project click  here and select Missionary Appointment from the designation list. To make a gift by check to this project click here and write "Missionary Appointment" in the memo line of your check. |
