LOUISVILLE – The executive committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board has endorsed two new churchwide initiatives for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) – one a proposal to improve education for 1 million children; the other a commitment for Presbyterians to live missionally.
Supporting education is “deep in our DNA,” as Presbyterians have started schools around the world and many in local congregations work in education, said Roger Dermody, the PC(USA)’s deputy executive director for mission. He stressed that the intent would be to work to improve education for children in places of need. And with the second initiative, “we’re going to be known as people who serve.”
If the ideas win approval from the full board later this week, they’ll be sent to the 2014 General Assembly for consideration. Dermody said the board made a determination some years ago that it wanted not only to pass on business from other entities to the assembly, but to propose ideas of its own – including, over the past five years, the 1,001 New Worshipping Communities endeavor and the focus on “Growing the Church Deep and Wide.”
Dermody stressed that these new proposals are broad-brush ideas – currently, “we have ideas, we don’t have solidified plans,” he said, and hope both mid-councils and congregations will be play a role in shaping them.
The new proposed initiatives are being called “Educate a Child, Transform the World” and “Living Missionally.”
The education proposal calls for the PC(USA) to work to improve the quality of education for 1 million children both globally and in the U.S. over the next four years. The “Living Missionally” endeavor would ask Presbyterians “to continue to go beyond the walls of their congregations and increase their engagement in service to their communities and the world.”
Both proposals call for the Presbyterian Mission Agency to develop “tangible metrics to determine success and impact” and to report back to the General Assembly in 2016, if the 2014 assembly approves the initiatives.
