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07709 November 1, 2007
Scope of Mission Initiative broadened for final push
GAC says campaign should be 'agile enough to meet church where it is right now'
by Jerry L. Van Marter Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE - The executive committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s General Assembly Council has expanded the "parameters" of the church's $40 million campaign to raise funds for new overseas mission personnel and new church development in this country as it enters the final phase of the campaign.
The committee also issued clarifications of a number of its other parameters.
The Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH) (http://www.pcusa.org/joiningheartsandhands/) was launched by the 2002 General Assembly and was originally targeted at large donors who would contribute to a centralized fund. The campaign is scheduled to conclude at next year's 218th General Assembly in San Jose, CA, though the books will remain open until the end of 2012.
Current gifts and pledges to the campaign total almost $28 million but may be revised downward when Peace River Presbytery votes in mid-November on whether or not to scale back its $6 million MIJHH-related campaign.
"We have witnessed time and again the enthusiasm for advancing global mission and domestic church growth," the committee said Oct. 29. "We have also seen donors (individuals and governing bodies) who want to contribute to the MIJHH but want to give gifts at some variance from the original intent of the campaign.
"These donors embrace the MIJHH; they simply do so in ways somewhat different from the original design."
Early in the campaign, MIJHH began partnering with presbyteries conducting their own new church development (NCD) fundraising campaigns but who agreed to include MIJHH causes in their campaigns. Most of those presbytery-generated NCD funds stayed in the presbyteries but were counted toward the MIJHH goal.
The primary changes approved by the executive committee are:
acceptance of irrevocable endowments;
acceptance of gifts from non-PC(USA) affiliated foundations, corporations and other entities acceptance of mission personnel who are not deployed through Presbyterian World Mission (PWM) as long as PWM agrees with the deployment and the mission worker completes PWM mission service training. The committee also clarified that Gen-X congregations, as well as racial ethnic and immigrant congregations, are the particular but not exclusive emphasis of the campaign's church growth efforts; and emphasized that experienced PC(USA) mission workers are eligible to be candidates for new positions funded by MIJHH.
"We have listened and learned in this process," the executive committee said. "The PC(USA) is growing into the 21st century church. The face of the church is changing, and with it, what Presbyterians want to give to and how they want to give.
"We believe the MIJHH should be agile enough to meet the church where it is right now."
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