Terms of reference for Overseas Mission Committee of the Wesleyan Reform Union
The Committee is appointed annually by the General Secretary and meets at least prior to each General Committee meeting. The Chairman is appointed by the Committee and is a three year post. The Secretary and Treasurer are also appointed by the Committee. All posts are reviewed annually but the Treasurer and Secretary usually remain unaltered unless the post holder wishes to resign the position. The nature of the committee requires members to be in regular contact and this is done mainly by email. The various roles of the committee can be summarised as “connecting”, “uniting” and “empowering”.
Connecting
- To support our Mission Personnel and Associated Personnel in prayer, by contact via email and telephone if possible.
- To ensure that our Churches know who our Personnel are by producing appropriate materials and through the Year Book.
- To encourage members to pray for the personnel, to contact them and maybe even to “adopt” a missionary to pray for and specifically partner
- To progress our vision of all of our Churches partnering/twinning with a Church somewhere else in the world and, as appropriate and necessary, make opportunities for our Churches to do that.
- To send Christmas cards to all of our Personnel, care being taken on our choice of card depending upon where the recipient lives.
Uniting
- To arrange Away Days to either meet some of our Mission Personnel if they are in the country or to learn more of how to share the Gospel with those of other faiths
- To unite in prayer for all of our Personnel, for both specific and general needs informing via emails, Contact and Excited by Mission
- To be part of the wider Church of God through sharing of information and prayer for the Church Worldwide. As part of the Body of Christ we need to be united in joy and pain, friendship and fellowship, evangelism and building up of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
- To invite a speaker to Conference as required to inform us of their work that we might be united with them in their mission and calling.
Empowering
- To be aware of the situations of our Mission Personnel and support them by financial gifts at least annually.
- To ensure our Churches are aware of “how the other half live” in terms of freedom for sharing the Gospel; freedom to meet together to worship and availability of Scriptures by producing articles for “Contact” and “Excited by Mission”
- To ensure our Churches are more aware of persecution through articles in “Contact” and “Excited by Mission” and to be pro-active in engaging with government and Mission organisations to fight against persecution of all kinds against those who believe.
- To set up specific projects on an annual basis to enable our Churches to actively engage in partnering with other Christians to improve the lives of others in both a physical and spiritual way.
- To enable our Churches to see beyond the four walls of our own Churches and beyond the shores of our own land and share in the great commission given by Jesus to “go and make disciples of all people”.