¶ 1302.
Responsibilities--1. To discern those places where the gospel has not
been heard or heeded and to witness to its meaning throughout the world,
inviting all persons to newness of life in Jesus Christ through a program of
global ministries.
2. To encourage and support the
development of leadership in mission for both the Church and
society.
3. To challenge all United
Methodists with the New Testament imperative to proclaim the gospel to the ends
of the earth, expressing the mission of the Church; and to recruit, send, and
receive missionaries, enabling them to dedicate all or a portion of their lives
in service across racial, cultural, national, and political
boundaries.
[M] 4. To plan with others and to
establish and strengthen Christian congregations where opportunities and needs
are found, so that these congregations may be units of mission in their places
and partners with others in the worldwide mission of the Christian church. 5. To
advocate the work for the unity of Christ's church through witness and service
with other Christian churches and through ecumenical
councils.
6. To engage in dialogue with all
persons, including those of other faiths, and to join with them where possible
in action on common concerns.
7. To assist local congregations
and annual conferences in mission both in their own communities and across the
globe by raising awareness of the claims of global mission and by providing
channels for participation.
8. To express the concerns of
women organized for mission and to help equip women for full participation both
locally and globally in Church and world.
9. To engage in direct ministries
to human need, both emergency and continuing, institutional and
noninstitutional, however caused.
10. To work within societies and
systems so that full human potential is liberated and to work toward the
transformation of demonic forces that distort life.
11. To identify with all who are
alienated and dispossessed and to assist them in achieving their full human
development--body, mind, and spirit.
12. To envision and engage in
imaginative new forms of mission appropriate to changing human needs and to
share the results of experimentation with the entire
Church.
13. To facilitate the development
of cooperative patterns of ministry so that the unified strength of local
congregations and other units of the Church in designated areas can respond with
more effective ministries of justice, advocacy, compassion, and
nurture.
14. To affirm the concept of
volunteers-in-mission (short-term) as an authentic form of personal missionary
involvement and devise appropriate structure to interpret and implement such
opportunities for short-term volunteers in the global
community.
15. To facilitate the receiving
and assignment of missionaries from churches in nations other than the United
States in cooperation with the other general agencies and with annual
conferences.