Mission volunteer numbers show 'incredible' growth
May. 14, 2007
NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Elliott Wright*
NEW YORK (UMNS) - The number of participants in United Methodist Volunteers in Mission climbed from just under 20,000 in 1992 to almost 111,000 in 2006, with several peaks and valleys across the 15-year period.
"This is an incredible growth of voluntary mission service," said the Rev. Clinton Rabb, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. "The growth and the appeal come from the grassroots nature of the volunteer movement."
The figures specifically chart the expansion of United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, a ministry involving mostly congregation-based teams engaged in short-term construction, medical and educational service around the world.
The total number of mission volunteers registered by Global Ministries in 2006 was 112,486, including several programs in addition to Volunteers in Mission.
Short-term volunteer services are widely considered the primary channel through which United Methodist youth and young adults become acquainted with the mission mandate of the church today. "Volunteer service is woven into the fabric of congregations, district, annual conferences, and jurisdictions," Rabb explained.
Participants in United Methodist Volunteers in Mission reached an all-time high of 135,000 in 2005, which organizers attribute to the deadly hurricanes along the Gulf Coast.
Growth was slow but steady from 1992 to 1997, then saw a dramatic upswing in 1998 through 2000, with a sharp fall in 2001 as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Total participants fell into the mid-60,000 range in 2003 and 2004, down from some 96,000 in 2000.
"The figures, of course, vary with what is happening in the world," Rabb said. He said the increase in late 1998 through 2000 was attributable, in part, to the response to Hurricane Mitch, which devastated large parts of Central America, especially Honduras and Nicaragua, and moved on into Florida.
Rabb added that the phenomenal growth, especially in 2005, "strained the system but we did not fall apart. The challenge has helped us to find way to strengthen the interaction between UMVIM and the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief," he said. "As a network, we are always looking for ways to improve our outcomes and the experiences of mission service without doing damage to the very concept of voluntarism."
The 2006 UMVIM figure of 110,912 represents reports from 60 of 63 annual (regional) United Methodist conferences in the United States.
There were 7,410 construction teams and 264 medical teams - 2,074 of which took part in hurricane relief.
Volunteers in Mission is the largest component of the volunteer ministries but not the only one. Individual volunteers, who serve from a few months to years, numbered 78 in 2006, working in 28 countries and nine U.S. states. Last year, there were 1,100 documented participants in Health Care Volunteers, with the possibility of some participant overlap with people on medical teams.
In 2006, there were 1,152 active members of NOMADS, mostly seniors who move around the United States and sometimes in Central America, living in recreational vehicles while they engage in mission volunteer work.
*Wright is the information officer of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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