LOUISVILLE — It was a moment of pure celebration: the commissioning, during an evening worship service, of 48 missionaries as they embark on a month of itinerating, telling Presbyterians in churches around the country of the impact that Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) international mission efforts are making.
These missionaries — who serve from Asia to Africa to South America — teach in seminaries and heal the sick and work with church partners around the world to provide jobs and education and justice to the suffering.
They were sent off for what’s being called Mission Challenge ’07, a month of “telling the story,” sent off with blessing from a national gathering of Presbyterians who are dedicated to supporting mission around the world — and to doing it right, in an atmosphere of partnership and mutual respect.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, urged the missionaries “to go out and light a fire under Presbyterians” for mission.
The sending forth took place at the PC(USA)’s World Mission ’07 “Celebration of Grace” — which is being held Oct. 2-5 and has brought more than 600 people to Louisville. That celebration is being followed by meetings of mission networks, informal groups of Presbyterians who are committed to mission work in particular parts of the world. The networks bring together, for example, workers engaged in evangelistic work in places like Madagascar and Cuba and Malawi and Northern Ireland.
“What an incredible gathering this is,” Linda Bryant Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Council, said on the opening night of the celebration. “It’s like the mission yearbook has come alive.”
During the worship service in which the missionaries were commissioned, Joan Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly, greeted representatives of Presbyterian church partners in Japan, Colombia, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Guatemala.
She welcomed them “as fellow laborers in the vineyard” and said their presence reminds her of the day coming in the reign of God “when we shall come from north and south and east and west, and sit at table together.”
Hendrik Shanazari, executive secretary of the Synod of the Evangelical Church of Iran, preached about the legacy of Presbyterian mission in his country. While at times there have been no new stories to tell — political differences have prevented cooperation — “the influence is lasting,” from the work of Presbyterian missionaries through the decades, Shanazari said.
He told of a church built 150 years ago that still nurtures people spiritually; a school built that’s considered one of the best in Tehran; a medical school that continues to educate doctors.
“The fruit is lasting,” Shanazari said.
And he suggested that every congregation to be visited this October will have their own stories to tell, their own glimpses of how God is working in those places. “The mission field people also need to hear your stories,” Shanazari said.
This national gathering also is a time of renewed hope: that Presbyterians can put aside their bickering and their losses, and combine their passion and dollars in support of international mission work. The missionaries, as they travel around the church, will speak openly of the need for Presbyterian churches to support the mission work of the denomination and to provide both monetary and other support. Some presbyteries have set goals of having every church establish or renew a relationship of support with a particular mission co-worker.
And some are responding already.
Farrell announced that San Joaquin presbytery, for example, has committed to tithe 10 percent of its share of the proceeds of the sale of property from Calvary Presbyterian church in Fresno, Calif. to the Mission Challenge effort — an amount estimated at $80,000.
Kenneth Bailey, an author and New Testament scholar who worked for 40 years as a PC(USA) missionary, teaching in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Cyprus, is leading the Bible study for this gathering. Bailey has spoken of the nature of God, the sender; the nature of Jesus Christ, who was sent into the world; and Jesus’ sending of the disciples after him.
“There’s a powerful movement of God’s spirit today moving through our church,” said Farrell, who has served as a missionary in Peru and the Congo. Presbyterians are willing to pray, to give, “they’re willing to go.”
