Mission - Clarity Needed

Wade through the PCUSA web site and you will stumble across the mission co-workers main site called Mission Connections. Click on a country name and the user will be taken to a list of all mission co-workers in that country. Click on a name and it goes to a mission co-worker’s particular page (way cool). The page will give some background on the person and describe their work for the church. Starting with countries beginning with an “A” you would find:

• Teaches at a Pentecostal seminary
• Site coordinator for Young Adult Volunteer program
• Health advisor
• Bridge between partner churches and mission co-workers
• Coordinators of congregational twinning projects
• Facilitators for the Joining Hands Against Hunger Network
• Seminary instructor
• Professor
• Planting churches
• Trains and supports staff who care for children
• Regional liaison and theological education consultant
• Music professor at seminary
• Seminary professor and works with planting churches
• Seminary instructor
• Seminary instructor (him), human rights lawyer (her)
• PCUSA central Africa liaison
• HIV/AIDS worker
• College instructor
• Human rights legal advisor
• Computer science instructor at seminary
• University instructor
• The list goes on, and on, and on

I am positive that these folks are committed to the church and are excited about their work. The jobs that they do are important. I also know that their web pages cannot communicate everything that they do and say. Most of these people are not “missionaries” based on the information on the Mission Connections web site. Now I see why we call them “mission co-workers.”

Last weekend Fox News ran a special on Rick Warren and Saddleback’s ministry in Rwanda. His church is going to work with the President of Rwanda to battle HIV/AIDS, poverty, educational needs, hunger, health care concerns, etc. All of those efforts are backed by the upfront message that it is only in Jesus Christ that we find life and purpose. Everything they are doing in Rwanda has Jesus as the central message. My guess is that mission dollars will free flow into the Saddleback ministry effort in Rwanda.

The local church I serve has a “mission” component in its budget. People want to support mission. Our mission dollars given to the PCUSA go to support mission co-workers. If I showed the list of what our mission co-workers do to the session and congregation (and I plan on doing exactly that) there would be strong support to NOT give this mission money to the PCUSA. I do not consider a university instructor or professor a mission worker—he/she is a professor/instructor. The work is important; however, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary isn’t a missionary so why is one in Brazil? A health advisor is not necessarily a missionary. A human rights legal advisor isn’t a missionary. A HIV/AIDS worker isn’t necessarily a missionary. Can they be? Yes, they can. However, from their web pages it is difficult to tell.

The PCUSA needs clarity if it plans to be involved in the mission field. People will support mission work/activity that centers first and foremost on spreading the good news of Jesus. Until the PCUSA recognizes that there will be a shortage of mission dollars flowing to Louisville.