Global Ministries

The General Board of Global Ministries is the global mission agency of The United Methodist Church, its annual conferences, missionary conferences, and local congregations. 

Global Ministries has personnel, programs, and mission partners in 136 countries. It facilitates international and domestic mission, including missionary service. 

Global Ministries is committed to connecting the church in mission. Sending missionaries—including young adults—from everywhere to everywhere; partnering and engaging with volunteers; evangelizing and church planting through mission initiatives; addressing diseases of poverty and global health; and responding to natural and civil disasters remain essential functions of the global church if we are to grow and be a vital presence for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

The Advance for Christ and His Church (“The Advance”) is the accountable, designated mission giving arm of The United Methodist Church that ensures 100 percent of each gift is used for its intended mission or ministry.

For over 60 years, The Advance has been the official program of The United Methodist Church for voluntary, designated, second-mile giving. Gifts through The Advance allow local churches to extend their reach into the world.
Gifts made to The Advance through UMCOR benefit the intended projects, and can also be leveraged into additional sources of private funding and other grants.

• When there is a disaster, The Advance sets up an emergency Advance number so that churches and individuals can immediately donate to the disaster. This provides funding for immediate use and helps plan for the long-term response.
• All projects complete an application and go through a review process to attain Advance status. Accountability is assured through annual reporting and Global Ministries’ audits to ensure that funds are used as described in the application.
• Total mission giving through The Advance in 2011 was $50,423,455.
• Giving for missionary support in 2011 was $4,752,391.
• There are currently over 1,100 Advance projects.
• The Advance selection process strives to strengthen relationships with Methodist partners by choosing projects that reflect the priorities of communities and churches around the world.

New churches are being planted in new places through Global Ministries’ mission initiatives in Cambodia, Cameroon, Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), Honduras, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Mongolia, Russia, Senegal, and Southeast Asia (Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam).

Global Ministries is working in collaboration with church leaders across the world to plant 400 churches by 2012. These Mission Initiatives are unique in many ways, but mostly because they are places where The United Methodist Church is new to the population. Local churches can be a part of this movement by supporting and learning from these vibrant congregations through a church-to-church partnership with the In Mission Together program.

The In Mission Together program facilitates church planting abroad by developing partnerships with local congregations in the US. A partnership covenant is created between the two churches, which fosters mutuality and respect for each other. This is important because both will be transformed and energized by this faith-building experience.

• The average age for a pastor in a Mission Initiative is just 35 years old.
• Church planting efforts have been initiated in over 25 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
• All 50 US states are represented in the In Mission Together church-to-church partnership program, which connects US churches with new church plants in Mission Initiatives around the world.
• More than 1,000 churches have been planted since the Global Ministries Mission Initiatives began in 1991.

When a person has discerned that s/he is called to be a missionary, Global Ministries begins the cultivation process. Missionaries are commissioned after satisfactorily completing a period of orientation and training. The commissioning service is a ceremony of celebration and sending forth, which acknowledges the missional intent and affirms the calling of the person(s) being commissioned to engage in proclamation (by word and deed) of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Read more about the steps to becoming a missionary.

Recognizing the critical role of volunteers in responding to disasters, UMCOR and United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM), working as a team through the global United Methodist Church, have developed strategies to provide the most effective and rewarding experience for those whose volunteer ministry can provide critical labor that survivors will need for repairs and rebuilding.

UMCOR provides training for the earliest volunteers invited into the impacted conference to prepare them for their helping role, and to inform them of what to expect and how to be the presence of Christ for those who have been devastated by disaster. UMVIM networks with annual conferences to assure that volunteers know when they may deploy and where they will be most effective.

Sharing the goal to protect and assist hurting communities, UMCOR training and UMVIM deployment reassure everyone that United Methodist volunteers will be skilled in providing help and will maximize the best resource survivors can have— caring, Christian volunteers.

• In partnership with annual conferences, UMCOR provides disaster response assistance and support after catastrophic events.
• UMCOR also provides training for jurisdictions and conferences to help them prepare for those events and to respond to the needs of survivors.
• In 2010, UMCOR provided 31 grants to 23 annual conferences in response to tornadoes, fires, floods, oil spills, and hurricanes, as well as ongoing disaster recovery, totaling $790,000.
• In 2010, UMCOR hosted 150 disaster-preparedness trainings; trained 2,037 volunteers as Early Response Team (ERT) members; and credentialed 3,221 people as ERT volunteers.
• In 2010, UMCOR entered into an agreement with six depots to form the UMCOR Relief Supply Network. The network provides congregations a number of locations throughout the United States where they can drop off kits and relief supplies, with the assurance that their donations will be accounted for and distributed by UMCOR.

• UMCOR serves as the primary channel for United Methodist assistance when a natural or human-caused disaster strikes outside of the US.
• UMCOR works in partnership with the central conferences of the United Methodist Church and other Methodist bodies, as well as local aid organizations and international relief agencies to implement programs around the world.
• Through these implementing partnerships, UMCOR is able to respond to disasters in areas where there is no United Methodist presence.
• In 2010, UMCOR disbursed $8,009,663 in response to emergencies beyond the US.

The Women’s Division is the policy-making body of United Methodist Women, a membership organization of The United Methodist Church whose mission is fostering spiritual growth, developing leaders, and advocating for justice.

You can visit the United Methodist Women's website at www.unitedmethodistwomen.org