This is an article from the January-February 1996 issue: The USCWM is Charting a New Course

The U.S. Center for World Mission What are we here for?

The U.S. Center for World Mission What are we here for?

Motivating the troops at home is an important, but often unrecognized, aspect of mission. During the Student Volunteer Movement 100,000 students "made the pledge" to go, but only 20,000 ended up going. It was necessary for most to stay home, to help keep the missionaries on the field and to fuel them with prayer.

That's one of the things we do--fuel a movement to make sure that every people group on earth has a viable church. That idea has been the core of the USCWM vision from the beginning. Now more than ever, others are picking up this vision. We realize that many others have also helped push into this awareness around the world. We are thankful to the Lord that He as allowed us to trumpet this call.

The vision, and the mission statements that follow show what we believe God has called us to. These are not set in concrete, but they lead us in how we consider the many opprotunties that come our way.

By "come our way," we mean that we seek to be a responsible member of God's global team focused on the Final Frontiers. We try always to take our orders from the needs of the cause rather than to set organization goals for ourselves. That frustrates some people who want to see things lined up in clear, detailed order. We do set goals, but we hold them loosely, keeping ourselves open and available to take advantage of last minute opportunities.

Almost every day we get calls (not to mention letters from all over the world) asking for help or wisdom, or whatever. We are happy to help wherever possible, but we simply can't answer everything. That is partly a staffing issue and partly a calling issue.

Recently I heard about a ministry that has 50 full-time people on the phones every day working with pastors and churches providing resources for them. We wish we had a full-time church relations staff, to provide resources, assist and train in frontier missions and mobilization. We each take on parts of this role. We all have many contacts with churches and agencies, but the passion of our vision takes us so much further than our feet and hands can.

That's where YOU come in. The only way God's global team can carry on and go as far as possible is by multiplying the load. Each of you can share with your pastor or other people in your church and help introduce the frontier mission vision. Practical tools are available

that can be used to further explain God's heart for the world. You don't have to be an expert!

We would love to call the 40,000+ churches represented on our Missions Frontiers' list. But since you go to one of them, you are in a much better position to influence your church than we are. That's what sharing at the grass roots level is all about.

So…BE WARNED: we are trying to recruit you! Our hope in this issue is to give you a sense of that vision and how you can be a part of it.

While we would love for you to be able to come and join us here in Pasadena, we can only take the first qualified 150 or so. (This process includes building a team of people that will support you in prayer and finances.) The rest of you are needed where you are.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. What follows is an overall look at the why, what and how of our ministry. Each of the articles on our four divisions--Strategy, Mobilization, Training Services-- will give you more detail as to their role in our ministry. We pray that God will use it to bless, inform and motivate you in your relationship with Him, His church and His mission in the world.

Our Watchword

A Church for Every People by the Year 2000!

This phrase captures the essence of our heartbeat, prayer and ministry. This has been our watchword since 1980.

We don't know if God WILL accomplish this but we believe that He DESIRES to and that He CAN establish a church in every people by the year 2,000. The charts and results earlier in this issue should give you reason for this hope. The growth of the church worldwide and the breadth and depth of the servants ministering His word, we have every reason for hope.

We need the faith to believe God can work to touch the realities of people in need. We pray our mission statement helps to bring that big picture into reality. We are here--humanly speaking--to bring it into reality. What are we seeking to be our part in this…

Our Mission

To foster the collaboration of Christian ministries whose purpose is to stimulate and encourage the growth of the frontier missions movement throughout the United States and the world…

The statement continues with a focus on the end product, in keeping with our calling: …to the end that a viable, indigenous, evangelizing church community may be established within each of the remaining unreached people groups by the year 2000, or as soon as possible.

While we will stay focused on this, we recognize that the work we do in serving and involving others may very well be more important than what we do ourselves. So we state as part of our foundational purpose that we work through others to multiply the ultimate impact on the unreached. We have said this through our vision statement:

Our Vision

This mission is pursued by providing mission agencies, churches, and students and regional and sister Centers with strategy, mobilization, training, and other services.

The ministries of local, area, and regional representatives and offices in the United States, and interfacing with other centers in other countries are part of the process of spreading this vision on the grassroots level. Various ministries give more detail to each of these areas in their articles. While there is a particular "audience" focus with each division, there is also cross-over. In other words, while Strategy is most helpful for agencies, there are functions they can provide for churches and students. The same is true for the other divisions.

Conclusion

That summarizes our direction and structure. Of course it doesn't fill all the ministry roles that are needed--perhaps you can! In any case, you can be a part. Let us know what you can do to further the goal of a Church for Every People by filling out the response form on the outside of this issue. (See the "white pages" covering this issue. If they are gone, you can write to me at 1605 E. Elizabeth ST, Pasadena, CA 91104.)

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