UMC GBGM recruiting missionaries

"We need missionaries," the Rev. R. Randy Day told directors of the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) at the opening of the mission agency's semi-annual meeting in Stamford, CT. on April 23. Rev. Day is chief executive of the international mission and service agency.

The campaign theme is: "The Face of Today's Missionary: Is It Yours?" Personnel are needed for work in evangelism, church development, education, medical care, agriculture, legal services, and financial administration. A majority, although not all, assignments are outside the United States.

"Our recruitment initiative is quite broad," Rev. Day said. "It covers regular, or 'standard support,' missionaries as well as persons in special categories, including short- term young adult service, Hispanic ministries, and our Church and Community Workers program. It also includes a new category, Global Health Missionaries, which is currently focused on sub-Saharan Africa."

Extensive information on the recruitment campaign in five languages of English, French, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, can be found on the GBGM Website, www.ummissionaries.org.

Four years ago, financial shortfalls resulted in a slow down of new missionary recruitment and placement.

The fewer numbers in a three-year period, especially among standard support missionaries, increased the impact of retirements in 2006 and 2007. The typical term of a standard support missionary is three year, subject to renewal.

He pointed to the multilingual approach of the recruitment campaign. "We are an international mission agency and we are looking for missionaries from throughout our connection."

United Methodist missionary assignments are carried out in collaboration with partner churches around the world and with annual (regional) conferences and church-related or ecumenical institutions in the U.S.

The GBGM currently has 200 standard support missionaries, mostly outside the U.S. Partial support is provided to another 120 persons, mostly in the US. These include Church and Community Workers, Hispanic/Latino Plan missionaries, Alaska missionaries, and short-term young adult missionaries. These persons are "commissioned” personnel. "To commission" means to send forth for special service.

Another 100 persons are "non-commissioned" mission personnel, and the agency helps to support 293 "persons in mission" selected by partner churches around the world. (Deaconesses and home missioners are commissioned by the board but are not salaried by the agency unless they enter one of the missionary categories.)

The qualifications for missionary service are listed on the GBGM Website.