Thank you for asking and thank you for supporting Home Missions and World Missions.
Home Missions and World Missions will be completing this fiscal year as two separate agencies, with two separate budgets. Both agencies still have financial and ministry commitments this year, and Synod 2017 is expected to give final approval of the transition to a new mission agency. Behind-the-scenes work to bring the two agencies together is continuing, but a lot of important steps need to be completed before making the "official" transition—such as selecting a name, designing a logo, finalizing new ministry leaders, and searching for new ministry opportunities.
We see this joining as a time to work together in new ways and identify new ministry opportunities that may not have been possible before. We hope to continue current ministry and grow new ministry, and we pray that churches will join us in supporting that growth.
You can find more information about this process, including stories of ways that Home Missions and World Missions have already been working together, at www.crcna.org/hm-wm.
We have some people on staff here at World Missions who may also be able to lend some advice. I will try to reach out to them to see if they have anything else to offer.
What you described as the "ministry description" are more-or-less personality characteristics that try to describe a little bit of how we talk about our work and the agency (it is more of an internal tool than anything else). The survey of the names is about how well these names fit with those attributes. There are a wide variety of people who have already responded to the survey and their responses are quite diverse. Some feel these names are too "edgy" or "abstract" while others believe these are too traditional and common. Most are somewhere in the middle. Our months of research has led us to this point. There are so many groups and perspectives to consider when naming the agency (young and old, International partners and North American church members, staff and pastors, etc) that there is no way to make everyone happy. What we have to do is find something that is useful, communicates well, and continue with the work of proclaiming the Gospel around the globe.
The CRC is an opinionated denomination. We wanted to make sure we gave people an opportunity to voice those opinions at some point in the process. We are not relying on consensus to guide our process. People have strong relationships with these agencies and ministries and any change is going to be tough and full of negativity. Thank you for filling out the survey and adding your voice to the already 550+ people who are also letting us know their thoughts!
It does let you continue. You just have to click on them in the lowest position to have that be your selection. I would encourage you to try to complete the survey. Only a fraction of the survey is asking whether or not you like the name, the rest is about criteria, taglines, modifiers, etc.
I would like to see an article focusing on the general topic of missions and what it looks like today, maybe how it has changed. Not a highlight of an agency's work but about missions as a practice and theology.
Posted in: Separate Offerings for World Missions and Home Missions?
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for asking and thank you for supporting Home Missions and World Missions.
Home Missions and World Missions will be completing this fiscal year as two separate agencies, with two separate budgets. Both agencies still have financial and ministry commitments this year, and Synod 2017 is expected to give final approval of the transition to a new mission agency. Behind-the-scenes work to bring the two agencies together is continuing, but a lot of important steps need to be completed before making the "official" transition—such as selecting a name, designing a logo, finalizing new ministry leaders, and searching for new ministry opportunities.
We see this joining as a time to work together in new ways and identify new ministry opportunities that may not have been possible before. We hope to continue current ministry and grow new ministry, and we pray that churches will join us in supporting that growth.
You can find more information about this process, including stories of ways that Home Missions and World Missions have already been working together, at www.crcna.org/hm-wm.
Posted in: Local Church Mission Support - How Do You Evaluate and Choose?
There are a couple posts on the network that gets at some of these ideas:
http://network.crcna.org/blog/fewer-deeper-relationships
http://network.crcna.org/global-mission/fewer-deeper-missionary-support-relationships-step-step-approach
http://network.crcna.org/global-mission/deeper-fewer-visiting-field
http://network.crcna.org/global-mission/assessing-your-church%E2%80%99s-commitments-missions
http://network.crcna.org/global-mission/habits-highly-effective-global-partnerships
We have some people on staff here at World Missions who may also be able to lend some advice. I will try to reach out to them to see if they have anything else to offer.
Posted in: Help Us Name the New Mission Agency!
Thanks James,
What you described as the "ministry description" are more-or-less personality characteristics that try to describe a little bit of how we talk about our work and the agency (it is more of an internal tool than anything else). The survey of the names is about how well these names fit with those attributes. There are a wide variety of people who have already responded to the survey and their responses are quite diverse. Some feel these names are too "edgy" or "abstract" while others believe these are too traditional and common. Most are somewhere in the middle. Our months of research has led us to this point. There are so many groups and perspectives to consider when naming the agency (young and old, International partners and North American church members, staff and pastors, etc) that there is no way to make everyone happy. What we have to do is find something that is useful, communicates well, and continue with the work of proclaiming the Gospel around the globe.
Thanks.
Posted in: Help Us Name the New Mission Agency!
The CRC is an opinionated denomination. We wanted to make sure we gave people an opportunity to voice those opinions at some point in the process. We are not relying on consensus to guide our process. People have strong relationships with these agencies and ministries and any change is going to be tough and full of negativity. Thank you for filling out the survey and adding your voice to the already 550+ people who are also letting us know their thoughts!
Posted in: Help Us Name the New Mission Agency!
It does let you continue. You just have to click on them in the lowest position to have that be your selection. I would encourage you to try to complete the survey. Only a fraction of the survey is asking whether or not you like the name, the rest is about criteria, taglines, modifiers, etc.
Posted in: Let’s Play “Banner Editor for a Day”
I would like to see an article focusing on the general topic of missions and what it looks like today, maybe how it has changed. Not a highlight of an agency's work but about missions as a practice and theology.