Mission is a foundational and sustaining part of our life together as United Methodists, concretely expressed in everyday, ordinary ideas and actions.
These ideas and actions have their roots and their fruits in relationships:
- The life-giving relationship of a mother and newborn child thanks to a safe and healthy delivery
- The relationships of support forged within communities in times of natural disaster, famine or drought
- The boundary-crossing relationships formed between young adult missionaries and refugee and migrant families
- The relationships nurtured between church partners in different countries, allowing for new and surprising expressions of God’s grace
Mission is about cultivating relationships across boundaries because of the good news God offers us in Christ.
As followers of Christ, we must cultivate the relationships God desires us to have with one another. If we practice mission without valuing relationship, we cut ourselves off from the fullness of God’s good news.
Mission is not only how we share God’s good news; it is also how we receive the good news. Allowing ourselves to be welcomed and invited into relationship by others leads to healing and wholeness.
Reciprocal relationships form a worldwide connection of rich and diverse perceptions, experiences and cultures. They point to the wideness of who God is and how God moves in the world.
When theological understandings, organizational structures, and missional contexts differ, it is a commitment to relationship that binds us together.
In January, explore how relationship with God and with one another is embodied through the work of Global Ministries – global health, disaster response, missionaries and evangelism and church growth.
