Mission Committee toolkit: Learn

Mission belongs to God, and the church is an instrument for carrying it out. Learn new ways your mission committee can participate in God’s mission around the world.

• Think about which mission “mode” you are in
  • Modes of Mission Engagement

• Join Matthew 25
  By accepting the Matthew 25 invitation, you can help our denomination become a more relevant presence in the world.
  • A Guide to Engaging Matthew 25 Resources and Studies
  • How to Become a Matthew 25 Church
  • Find all Matthew 25 resources here.

• Do mission in partnership
  • Presbyterians Do Mission in Partnership (English) policy statement
  • Los presbiterianos hacemos misión en hermanamiento
  • “Called as Partners: Serving Together in God’s Mission” International Partnership Manual
  • Begin or Grow Your Partnership resource page

• Connect with PC(USA) mission co-workers
  • Mission Co-Workers: A Bridge to the Global Church
  • Mission Connections: Read profiles and letters from mission workers
  • Hosting a Mission Co-Worker

• Learn about global partners
  • Country pages

• Use assessment tools
  • Finding Your Mission Focus
    This guide is designed for the congregational mission or outreach committee. It is meant to help your committee take a closer look at congregational mission involvement, evaluate its current work and begin to discern its call in God’s mission.
  • Discerning Your Mission Focus
  • Eight Steps to Make Your Mission Committee More Effective + Next Steps
    A quick tool for maximizing your mission committee’s work.
  • Measure Your Mission!
    An assessment tool for evaluating your congregation’s mission involvement, with guides for enriching and deepening your mission efforts.
  • Mission Selection and Evaluation Tool
    A resource to evaluate existing congregational mission activity, and to help discern future activities.

• Learn from other resources
  • Other Congregations
    • Connect with other church mission and outreach committees in your presbytery to learn about each other’s mission work, discover how your committees function in similar and in different ways, and possibly identify opportunities to partner together in God’s mission. Contact your local presbytery office or your pastor to learn how you can meet with others.
  • Articles
    • “Mission and Anti-Racism”
      Laura Cheifetz, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Vocation, and Stewardship at Vanderbilt Divinity School, explains how looking at mission through a lens of anti-racism can help reshape our understanding of mission and how we engage in it.
  • Books
    • “Doing Good…Says Who? Stories from Volunteers, Nonprofits, Donors, and Those They Want to Help,” by Connie Newton and Fran Early, goes deep into best practices for mission, featuring five stories that explore key principles centered on mutual respect and trust. The book includes a discussion guide.
    • “Neighborhood Church: Transforming Your Congregation into a Powerhouse for Mission,” by Krin Van Tatenhove and Rob Mueller, offers practical tools to help church leaders live out their faith in their local communities so their churches become life-giving institutions in the neighborhoods.
    • “Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community,” by Suzanne G. Farnham, Joseph P. Gill, R. Taylor McLean and Susan M. Ward, encourages all people to practice spiritual discernment.