Global Ministries

Global Ministries works with churches and congregations by providing funding and development programs to build new mission-related buildings and strengthen existing churches. The United Methodist Development Fund (UMDF) invests in communities by providing loans to churches and related institutions for new building projects and major renovations.

Global Ministries-supported community centers, schools and colleges, residential child care centers, women's residences, and mission complexes enhance their communities.

Global Ministries is engaged in a variety of programs to nurture and sustain community programs and organizations. Through financial assistance, volunteer skills, economic development, advocacy, and material resources, Global Ministries creates new initiatives to support the lives of women, children, youth, families, and older adults.

The Community Developers Program (The Advance project) involves partnerships of churches and community sites to raise awareness and take action on social concerns such as lack of affordable housing, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and child and senior abandonment. The program partners work to provide transitional housing and opportunities for economic development.

Global Ministries is a national partner with Communities of Shalom, an initiative that began as a response to the Los Angeles uprising in 1992 and thrives today. The subsequent community built in L.A. served as a model for subsequent ones and inspired a movement.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the global humanitarian aid organization of The United Methodist Church, responds to emergencies around the world - whether due to war, conflict, or natural disasters.

United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) provides an official channel for volunteers to serve at home or around the world on short-term assignments at their own expense. Visit the UMVIM pages to learn more, search for volunteer opportunities, or locate the coordinator in a particular geographic region.

United Methodists offer compassion, hospitality, discernment, stewardship, advocacy against injustice, and communion to all sojourners.

Migration around the globe often stems from poverty and the desire to help one's family and community. While a complex issue, Global Ministries works with partners to examine the causes of migration in addition to assisting immigrants, migrant workers, and refugees.

UMCOR provides free and professional legal services through the National Justice for Our Neighbor Program (NJFON), a nationwide network of monthly clinics that offer legal solutions for immigrants. Visit the NJFON website to find a clinic where you can volunteer or learn how you and your church can assist a refugee in your community.

Important to the Global Ministries' health work are ministries with and advocacy for the sick and marginalized. For example, Global Ministries has led the way for HIV/AIDS work since the early days of the disease's discovery.

Global health is a priority of Global Ministries, with a special focus on protecting children from preventable deaths from diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. Learn more about how you can Imagine No Malaria.

The United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV) administers to those affected by substance addictions. The initiative provides educational resources to raise awareness and to equip church leaders to effectively respond to dependency and related violence. 

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) , the global humanitarian aid organization of The United Methodist Church, responds to emergencies around the world - whether due to war, conflict, or natural disasters. Visit the UMCOR site to learn more about this work and ways to become involved.

Human rights embrace the dignity of every individual, encompassing civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. One way that Global Ministries advances human rights is by raising awareness through educational programs for lay ministers and young people. Projects that seek to alleviate conditions of poverty, illness, and homelessness directly underscore the struggle to affirm basic human rights.

Global Ministries works with partners to alleviate hunger by changing patterns of entrenched poverty. The related issues of hunger and nutrition, in turn, are connected to patterns of farming techniques and sustainable agriculture. Global Ministries projects help communities faced with food shortages to develop into thriving centers of food production.
Read more about Sustainable Agriculture and Development in Topics.

Learn more about B1, a 24-hour fasting event for young people which raises money to empower the poor and disempower unjust systems sustaining poverty in our world.

Global Ministries is working to cultivate new church leaders and to strengthen those in place to ensure a growing and vibrant church. Mission studies and training programs in the US and throughout the world broaden the reach and accessibility for leadership training in the United Methodist community

Global Ministries provides leadership training for members of local congregations, for pastors and lay people, and for young people embarking on more active roles in their church and community.

Global Ministries sponsors leadership development with World Communion Scholarships.

Look for training opportunities on the Events page.

Global Ministries provides many music and worship resources for global worship and spiritual growth.

Global Praise is a program that gathers, receives, and shares the songs of the Methodist and the ecumenical community. As part of a global community, the program enables and facilitates indigenous song among peoples for the enrichment of life and worship. Visit Global Praise to learn more about workshops and services, and browse the music resources to listen to 30 second clips from themed-based collections.

Explore Find Resources to learn about the historical foundations of Methodism, including sermons by founder John Wesley, a selection of hymns by Charles Wesley, and essential documents on the Wesleys and their lives and times. 

Resolving conflict and restoring a balanced, fair life serve as core tenets of Global Ministries.

Peace

Finding nonviolent methods for bringing peace serves as the objective of many Global Ministries projects. For example, students from different faiths in the Israel/Palestine region meet in person to learn about peace and conflict resolution. In post-conflict Democratic Republic of Congo, students in the North Katanga region now have access to university training as opposed to the alternative of joining a militia.

Racial Justice

In the spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Global Ministries is committed to racial justice, desegregation, and non-violence. Through projects such as the Community Developers Program, Global Ministries works to affirm and expand guaranteed human rights to people who have been denied their rights based on their race.

Restorative Justice

Through education, tools of mediation, and peace training, restorative justice repairs and heals the harm caused by crime. The effect on surrounding communities is transformative. Restorative Justice Ministries support work with victims, offenders, prisons, communities, and families in locations around the world.

One of the core missions of Global Ministries is the alleviation of poverty, as the lack of adequate economic resources underlies a host of related challenges - hunger, homelessness, illness, and powerlessness. Programs and projects both in the United States and globally address the specific geographic and social contexts for poverty.

Poverty Initiative, for example, works to build leadership in a movement to end poverty in the United States. Other initiates in the U.S. focus on specific regions such as Appalachia and coastal South Carolina.

The challenges to ending poverty around the world require Global Ministries to develop and sustain a myriad of programs and projects.

Visit ministrywith.org to learn more about the United Methodist campaign to eradicate poverty.

Supporting young people and students through scholarships not only ensures the future of the church in mission but also supports active young leaders of today.

The World Communion Scholarship Program supports United Methodist students and students who are directly related to Global Ministries mission partners so that they may carry out their master’s or doctoral studies at universities or seminaries. Additional national and international leadership development grants support bachelor level and post-secondary studies.

International Leadership Development Grants supports students who are directly related to Global Ministries mission partner institutions (church, ecumenical or grassroots) for their post-secondary, master’s, doctoral, professional or leadership development studies. 

The United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV) administers to those affected by the diseases of alcohol and other drug addictions. The initiative provides educational resources, networking opportunities, and public advocacy to raise awareness and to equip church leaders to effectively respond to dependency and related violence. 

In order to become better stewards of the earth and to alleviate conditions of poverty and hunger, Global Ministries promotes care of the environment through eco-friendly advocacy and practices. Projects in Sustainable Agriculture and Development train people in the necessary skills in local sustainable food production to promote healthy diets and to reverse the ills of undernutrition. New farming techniques, along with producing crops such as moringa and soy, allow local communities to develop into thriving centers of economic activity.

Explore UMCOR's program in Sustainable Agriculture and Development to learn how UMCOR offers livelihood training in rural communities, promotes Free Trade practices, and provides grants to eradicate the causes of hunger and poverty.  

Children are the most vulnerable segment of the world’s population, often marginalized in their societies. Many have been orphaned as a result of armed conflict, natural disasters, or by HIV/AIDS. The children of the oppressed and dispossessed are affected by conditions of poverty and hunger. Global Ministries works with children by supporting projects and programs such as supervised afterschool activities and curricula to help them understand their human rights.  

Global Ministries works with congregations around the world to provide resources, training, leadership development, pastoral services, and programming so they may grow and become more vital in their communities.

Congregations possess specific needs based on their respective memberships, financial resources, geographic locations, and social conditions. For example, congregations in low income communities face particular challenges with their own survival. Global Ministries has partnered with the Susanna Wesley Society to establish new congregations and support existing ones in low income communities. See Faithful Congregations in Low Income Communities.

Global Ministries also supports strengthening ethnic and racial congregations in the U.S., forging mission partnerships between congregations in the US and those in other countries, and assisting indigenous leaders in starting and nurturing new churches.

The Office or Rural and Urban Networks works with churches and communities in small towns as well as with those in urban areas.

Global Ministries works with migrants, immigrants, and refugees to meet the individual, family, and community needs posed by relocating to a new place, whether permanent or temporary.

The impulse to migrate may be due to economic concerns, armed conflict, natural disaster, loss of land, climate change, or lack of opportunities. In some areas of the world, refugees and migrants arrive in a new community with few resources. In Tunisia, Africa, for example, Global Ministries provides emergency assistance, food, medical services, and schooling for those fleeing from conflict in neighboring countries. At the US-Mexican border, Global Ministries partners with The Methodist Church of Mexico, Mexico Conference to assist migrants who have been robbed, exploited, and stranded.

Missionaries provide the living connection of the church in mission. Representing the world's growing diversity, the missionaries of Global Ministries serve in a range of capacities and places, and at varying length of service, to fulfill the mission's transformative goals. Global Ministries recruits, trains, and commissions United Methodist missionaries from everywhere to everywhere. Over 300 missionaries serve in over 60 countries.

Global Ministries works with missionaries in a discernment and community-building process to prepare them for their service, placement sites, the context of the work, and individual needs.

Get to know current United Methodist missionaries.

Is God calling you to be a missionary? Learn more about the different types of missionary service and discern your call to mission.

In recognition and celebration of the increasing diversity of the world, Global Ministries administers four of The United Methodist Church's six ethnic/language ministry plans, also known as the U.S. "national plans." These three ministries serve Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, Korean, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States. The national plans strive for unity within diversity. They aim to expand the ministry of The United Methodist Church in a way that does not compromise the ethnic and cultural context of each of the communities they serve.

Global Ministries works with volunteers who offer their time and skills to projects and programs.  

The United Methodist Volunteers in Mission network (UMVIM) provides guidance, organization, and training for volunteers serving the poor, building churches, assisting in community health programs, and building leadership skills. 

Global Ministries offers several specialized programs for volunteers to meet particular needs, including:

The Individual Volunteers program offers opportunities for individuals and couples, ages 18 and over, to volunteer from a period of two months to two years.

Health Volunteers are medical professionals who have given their skills and resources in support of projects related to the health priorities of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Volunteers may participate as individuals or as groups, typically working with United Methodist hospitals and clinics in Africa.

Primetimers offers educational and mission service for older adults. 5 to 10 day events offer educational opportunities, cross-cultural reflection, and faith-filled reflection.

Global Justice Volunteers offers young people between the ages of 18-30 short-term mission opportunities where they can explore the links between faith and justice.

Ready to volunteer? Explore more and find a project.

United Methodist Women is the largest denominational faith organization for women with approximately 800,000 members whose mission is fostering spiritual growth, developing leaders and advocating for justice.

Visit the United Methodist Women's website at www.unitedmethodistwomen.org. 

Global Ministries works with young people through special programs, educational seminars, networks, internships, volunteer opportunities, and young missionary programs. Young adults are not just the future of the church in mission, but they are providing valuable leadership today.

The Global Justice Volunteers program offers young adults between the ages of 18-30 short-term mission opportunities where they can explore the links between faith and justice.

The Individual Volunteers program supports opportunities for individuals and couples, ages 18 and over, to volunteer from a period of two months to two years.

Young Adult Mission Service is designed for participants between the ages of 20 and 30 who are called by faith to seek social justice and transform communities. US-2s serve in the U.S. for two years. Mission Interns serve for two years, half of the time abroad and the other in their own country.

Visit Young People in Mission to learn about service opportunities, youth networks, and resources.