The annual ministry conference last month proved to be a time of many Home Missions celebrations!
Starting the Friday morning of Ministry Conference, a small group representing the Home Missions Board, Student Ministries Team, and students, gathered to dream and discern together how God might lead us in ministry in “our Jerusalem’s” in EFC-MAYM. The Holy Spirit was present and guiding, and you can look forward to hearing about how this plays out over the coming year.
We also celebrated many of our home missionaries and home missions projects with a pizza party, and we celebrated the transition of St. Paul Friends Church from home missions project to full church status. This young, lively congregation of Nepali refugees will be the focus of our September video.
In case you missed it previously, in order to help inspire and support you toward missional action, to pray, partner, or plant, the Home Missions Board is producing videos to send out to you each month over the sesquicentennial year. We also launched a new website: https://www.efcmaymhomemissions.com/ and Facebook: EFCMAYMHomeMissions and Instagram: @homemissions. We hope you will view and share these videos and social media posts!
But to start the challenge strong, this month we have a total of four VIDEOS that were debuted at the ministry conference, highlighting what it means to engage in mission in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Would you share these with your congregation?
We also want to introduce one important way you can partner with a home missionary or a home missions project: become a coach. Coaching is the process of coming alongside a person or team to help them discover God’s agenda for their ministry, then cooperate with the Holy Spirit to see that agenda become a reality. Coaches come alongside to help, just as Barnabas came alongside Paul (Acts 4:36), and then Paul came alongside Timothy and others. By encouraging and challenging home missionaries, coaches empower them for ministry.
A coach does not need any particular information or expertise on a given topic to effectively coach a home missionary. The coach’s role is to listen attentively and ask powerful questions that open up new understandings and possibilities for the missionary being coached. The coach helps them to identify both opportunities and challenges, develop action plans to move forward through the Journey Toward Maturity, and stay accountable for results while celebrating victories along the way.
The Home Missions Board is hosting New Coach Training on Saturday, September 25, 2021 from 9am – 3pm, both online and in person in Wichita, KS. For more information and to register, click HERE
And finally, please help us gather the history of how your church got started! We would love to have this compiled for the sesquicentennial celebration next July! You can email this to cdcorliss@gmail.com.
During this historic sesquicentennial year, we hope you are inspired and challenged to engage in new ways with your Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and to the ends of the earth! Each one of us, each congregation, and each Area across the Yearly Meeting has a unique part to play in God’s mission!
“And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will receive power be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” Acts 1:8