Mission Opportunities Part III
Church and Community Workers
The Church and Community Worker movement emerged more than a century ago to provide service and leadership development ministries in isolated rural areas. Today church and community workers work to uplift the poor and disenfranchised in rural and urban areas, primarily in the US. Workers are assigned to cooperative parishes, ethnic ministries, criminal justice ministries, congregational health ministries, cooperative ministries, mission institutions, immigration services and rural and urban ministries. Some are deaconesses. Both clergy and laity may serve in this mission category.
US- 2– Missionaries
This more than 50 year old program provides two-year terms of mission service for young adults in the US. Assignments are often to mission institutions, congregations or projects engaged in community ministries including community development, health services, youth ministries, education and services for abused women and children. Objectives are to provide young adults with opportunities to explore church–related vocations and to provide leadership development opportunities.
Mission Interns
Mission Interns participate in a three year cycle of service, 16 months outside the US and 16 months inside the US. Their international assignments are most often in places of acute economic need; the US portion may be spent in a mission institution, health and welfare agency or in an urban ministry setting. Strong emphasis is place on the development of a sense of global contemporary economic and social systems.
Non-Commissioned Personnel
The category of non-commissioned personnel covers groups and people with ties of the General Board of Global Ministries, but who are not in covenant relationship. They may be engaged in time limited projects or provide support services. One group, community developers, operate from local bases but form a network that the board services.
Person in Mission (PIMs) and International Persons in Mission (IPIMs)
There are mission personnel from partner churches outside the US, serving in their own or another country
Mission Volunteers
The United Methodist Church and its annual conferences in the US offer a wide variety of volunteer mission opportunities for both teams and individuals. Volunteers are not considered mission personnel, and the church provides not compensation or benefits for them. However, volunteers perform extremely valuable mission services . Every annual conference has a volunteer service coordinator and the annual conferences work cooperatively with the General Board of Global Ministries through the Mission Volunteers Program Area.
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