United Methodist Agency Steps Up Missionary Recruitment

STANFORD, CT - The United Methodist church is launching a long-term missionary recruitment campaign.

"We need missionaries," the Rev. Randy Day, General Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries, told directors of the General Board of Global Ministries at their spring board meeting.

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," Day siad. "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 as well as qualifications for missionary service can be found on the website of the General Board of Global Ministries at www.ummissionaries.org.

Day indicated that there is no numerical goal for the campaign. "While we need new personnel in the immediate future, we are thinking long-range. We need to cultivate people with a mision call, to help young people make the educational choices that will equip them for mission, and to identify existing professionals who may want to use their talents and skills in missionary service."

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 missionaires, increased the impact of retirements in 2006 and 2007. The typical term of a standard support missionary is three years, subject to renewal.

Day said that several new groups of missionaries are in the final stages of placement. Nine Church and Community Workers were commissioned in Stamford on April 24, 2007. Sixteen standard support missionaries, including six in the global health category, will be commisioned and assigned to work in Africa in May and 20 short-term young adults will be commissioned in July.

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.