MISSIONARIES

Training, commissioning, assigning and supporting missionaries in the United States and around the world have been at the heart of mission since the founding of the first denominational Methodist missionary society in 1819. 

Today, United Methodist missionaries serve in about 60 different countries in many types of professional careers, including as pastors, evangelists and church coordinators; teachers and educators; doctors, nurses and other health workers; agriculturists; development specialists; community organizers and peacebuilders.

Explore our ministries

ARK staff meet over lunch. PHOTO: PATRICK BOOTH
Global Missionaries

Deepen relationships with partners and commitment to God’s mission in long-term, cross-cultural contexts.

Katie Peterson, Church and Community Worker at Eastbrook Mission Barn in New Castle, Pennsylvania, puts her construction skills to work.
U.S. missionaries

Bridge church and community in mission within disenfranchised communities in the United States.

global missions fellows class
Young adults

Connect faith and action by engaging in community and growing in social and personal holiness through service around the world.

Volunteers of the Teresina Methodist Church in Brazil conduct a weekly program with children from Jerusalem. Photo: Project New Jerusalem.
Mission volunteers

Engage in short-to-mid-term partnerships with communities around the world, striving to embody mutuality in mission. 

Learn about the joys and challenges of missionaries serving around the world each month through episodes of #stillinmission

read stories of impact

Missionaries commissioned for service in five continents

Fifty-four missionaries were commissioned for service in nine different worship events taking place around the world from April to July. Some begin service in new placements while others continue with work they began during the pandemic.

God prepares a missionary for service

A missionary who discovered United Methodism through the Cameroon Mission Initiative uses experience gained in 17 years of lay leadership and church development to help strengthen these areas in the East Congo Episcopal Area.

Where goes our neighborhood?

Missionary Julie Wilson tracks the progress of gentrification in her Winston-Salem neighborhood by looking out the front door. The community members Open Arms serves are increasingly losing their rental homes to people who can purchase and rebuild them.