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Mission Society marks 25th year Bill Fentum, Oct 5, 2009
COURTESY PHOTO
Claire Mozley (at right) serves children’s ministries in Ghana through the Mission Society. Her husband, the Rev. Michael Mozley, serves as the Society’s regional coordinator in Africa.
By Bill Fentum Staff Writer
When the Rev. Andrew Howell left the U.S. in 1998 to serve as a missionary in Paris, France, most of his friends told him, “Better you than me.”
The region, the United Methodist elder admits, “is beautiful, but like most of Western Europe, it’s very postmodern. Most people there don’t see Christianity as a relevant part of life.”
Mr. Howell got busy planting house churches and leading youth ministries with his wife, Margaret. “We fell in love with the people,” he says, “and the Lord really opened our eyes to their tremendous needs.”
The Howells remain as missionaries in France today, but they don’t serve through the denomination’s official sending agency, the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM). Instead they belong to the Mission Society, an independent, evangelical group based in Norcross, Ga.
It was launched in 1984 as the Mission Society for United Methodists by a coalition of clergy and lay leaders within the denomination who believed the church needed a stronger commitment to spreading the gospel worldwide.
According to the Society’s Web site, some 200 full-time missionaries in 32 countries serve as “cross-cultural witnesses . . . [who] share the love and message of Christ while helping to equip and empower national churches and their leaders, and furthering community development and relief efforts where needed.”
They dropped the phrase “for United Methodists” in 2007 to reflect a growing number of missionaries from 11 other church traditions, including Baptists, Presbyterians and Mennonites. Individuals who are approved sign up for one-, two- or five-year terms and raise their own financial support before going into mission fields.
“It’s easier to let an agency pay the funds,” said the Rev. Frank Decker, an elder in the Virginia Conference who served as the Society’s first missionary in Ghana. “But my wife and I found dozens of churches to sponsor us, who gave us prayer support right from the start.”
Mr. Decker, now a staff executive at the Mission Society office in Norcross, started a lay evangelist program in Ghana in the 1990s, partnering with the West African nation’s autonomous Methodist Church. “Ordained pastors there aren’t eager to serve in remote areas, much like it is in the United States,” he said. “So we taught over 300 lay preachers, and they’re planting hundreds of churches in the bush.”
The church in Ghana also launched plans in 2008 for its own mission agency that will eventually send Ghanaian missionaries across West Africa. The Mission Society has helped train volunteers for the effort.
That approach keeps the churches overseas free from U.S. control, according to Darrell Whiteman, an anthropologist who is the Society’s vice president for mission education. “It’s a balancing act,” he said, “to send our people, money and materials but not breed a sense that the host churches can’t continue the mission themselves.”
Dr. Whiteman trains missionaries in what he calls “incarnational, contextual ministry”—bringing the gospel to life in a way that makes sense in each culture. He says it starts with building one-on-one relationships.
One of the Society’s missionary couples serves in northern Ghana, an impoverished region where the population is more than 90 percent Islamic. Missionaries develop trust with Muslims, Dr. Whiteman said, by treating the sick in local villages. Other missionaries help out as Bible translators, civil engineers or consultants to small businesses.
“We don’t have a cookie-cutter approach,” Dr. Whiteman said. “All of our missions look a little different, depending on the setting.” History of conflict
The Society, which has just marked its 25th anniversary, hasn’t always been at peace with GBGM, the official United Methodist missions board.
Before the Society was founded, GBGM staff had spent years in dialogue with conservatives who said liberal theology had robbed the denomination of its heart for evangelism. Others were concerned that the number of United Methodist missionaries overseas had dropped from over 1,500 in 1968 to about 500, mostly due to budget cuts.
“We did everything we could to answer their questions,” said retired Bishop Jesse DeWitt, GBGM’s president at the time, “but the talks broke down.”
The Society began sending out missionaries in 1985, often to countries where GBGM also had a presence. Some say the church has suffered as a result.
“It’s unfortunate that [the people who started the Mission Society] thought that unless you proclaimed the kingdom of God in a very upfront manner, you weren’t evangelical,” said the Rev. J. Richard Peck, a former editor for the United Methodist Publishing House. “The Mission Society and the Board of Global Ministries both serve in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ. It’s unnecessary to have that kind of division.”
Signs of change came, however, when a 2008 General Conference resolution called for GBGM to “develop new conversations and liaisons with the Mission Society for new and ongoing partnerships in areas of mutual concern.”
Months later the Rev. Tamlyn Collins, a North Georgia Conference elder, was sent by the Mission Society to work in Zambia with two GBGM missionaries, Delbert and Sandy Groves. There Ms. Collins installs water systems, teaches English and computer skills, and builds PET (Personal Energy Transportation) vehicles for people with disabilities.
To date, though, the Zambia team is the only Mission Society-GBGM collaboration.
“Not a great deal has happened,” said the Rev. Dick McClain, a United Methodist minister who took office Sept. 11 as the Society’s fifth president and CEO. “But my sense is that change will come slowly. Hope springs eternal.”
Bishop Joel Martinez, interim top executive of GBGM, commented on the General Conference resolution mandating cooperation in a Sept. 16 e-mail: “Our Board looks forward to conversation with the Mission Society. I have consulted our board president, Bishop Bruce Ough, on preparations for this dialogue. . . . listening and learning from all the voices in our denomination must always be a priority.”
Mr. McClain, a Mission Society staff member since 1986, served on a leave of absence from the West Michigan Conference for a decade because his bishop wouldn’t appoint him. His dilemma was typical, he says, at a time when few bishops openly supported the group.
He transferred in 1996 to the North Georgia Conference, where he quickly received an appointment through Bishop Lindsey Davis.
“The Mission Society has a lot of integrity about what they’ve done—that’s been my experience with them,” said Bishop Davis, who now leads the Louisville (Ky.) Area. “These days, it’s almost become a non-issue as more and more churches work with a variety of mission agencies and many of our larger churches do things without any connection to either GBGM or the Mission Society.
“In fact, I think it’s not in our best interest to centralize everything through one administrative structure. That causes us to stagnate in missions.”
COURTESY PHOTO
According to the Society’s Web site, some 200 full-time missionaries in 32 countries serve as “cross-cultural witnesses . . . [who] share the love and message of Christ while helping to equip and empower national churches and their leaders, and furthering community development and relief efforts where needed.” 
