Mission Priorities

Introduction

In September 1998 we approved a Mission Statement to guide our life and work together. In November 2000 we described a Vision Statement representing a hoped-for picture of our mission at work.

These documents form an important base for strategic planning. But how will we build upon them?

It will be useful to identify Strategic Priorities based upon our Vision Statement. Priorities will provide us with a framework for elaborating objectives consistent with our Vision in each of our areas of work – and evaluating our success in reaching them.

(Quotations below are excerpted from our Vision Statement, unless otherwise noted.)

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Strategic Area 1: Theological Priorities

Our life and work together grow out of basic theological and missiological principles.

1.1. Knowing Christ

"We are a community committed to the Person and the Cause of Jesus. And we do not consider the commitment optional. We believe that committed lives are indispensable for authentic and compelling witness."

We will exhort one another to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

1.2. The primacy of evangelism

"We mean to be a community that regularly and unabashedly calls others to [the Person and the Cause of Jesus] as well. We mean to plead with all of our creative energy, ‘Be reconciled to Christ,’ as ambassadors of God himself…. We declare our passion for the evangelization of the world."

We will present the Gospel of Jesus with a view toward calling unbelievers to faith.

1.3. Holistic mission

"We will share the gospel. And our sharing will involve more than our words. We propose sharing "ourselves" – that is, our material goods, our money, our service, our very lives."

We will enact the love of Jesus.

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Strategic Area 2: Geographical Priorities

We are the World Mission Prayer League. We began our life together in missionary concern for South America; since then we have developed ministries on five continents. There is no area of the world in which we "rule out" a priori the possibility of further missionary involvement.

Yet we cannot be everywhere. It is our vision to prioritize our involvements by careful attention to strategic criteria.

2.1. "Where Christ is unknown or little known"

"We will remain prayerfully alert to the frontiers that surround us today, and the new frontiers that may beckon us tomorrow. We will apply our prayers and resources, in particular, along the frontier of the unreached – those peoples among whom an indigenous, missionizing, church-planting movement has yet to be established."

We will focus our prayers and our resources "where Christ is unknown or little known" (from the Handbook).

2.2. Limited access

"We will apply ourselves further, as much as possible, along the frontier of limited access – unreached peoples among whom few missionaries are at work, or traditional missionaries cannot go."

We will prioritize our ministries in areas requiring "creative access."

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Strategic Area 3: Relational Priorities

3.1. Life in community

"We must work, in particular, at building our community within the fabric of the worldwide, international, and interdenominational Kingdom of Christ.…We will advocate interrelationship, interdependence, and creative partnership in the cause of mission."

We will prefer working together. We will advocate for shared ministry, creative partnership, and genuine mutuality in all of our work and projects.

Ministry partners may include:

• "National" church structures
• US or Canadian church structures
• Individual sending congregations
• International missionary agencies
• Good-willed individuals

"We will work to make our ‘roster’ reflect our international identity – in the complexion of our staff at home and around the world, as well as in our governing Council and committees."

3.2. Transforming relationships

Through the years we have inherited many relationships here and there around the world – in particular, between our organization and international church bodies. We will not abandon our relationships with these international partners. But we will seek to transform these relationships into genuine partnerships in mission.

"[W]e will encourage the church to take up its calling."

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Strategic Area 4: Programmatic Priorities

We have developed a core of organizational values and programmatic commitments that represent priorities for our life and ministry.

4.1. Believing prayer

"We are fundamentally a praying ‘league,’ a community of men and women who are committed to prayer as a key methodology for advancing the Gospel of Christ. Prayer is the "working method" of our mission."

We will pray, first and last, in every area of our work.

4.2. Leadership Development

"We will pray, in particular, for its leadership, and work to encourage and develop its leadership in every way."

We will prioritize ministries of leadership development.

4.3. Mission Mobilization

"We will work toward an indigenous, missionizing, church-planting movement, wherever God has led us…..We believe that the mission of God belongs to the whole people of God. We will encourage Christians everywhere in its pursuit."

We will prioritize mission mobilization.

4.4. Non-solicitation

"Since God gives our resources, we will not solicit human beings."

We will hold one another accountable in our commitment to non-solicitation.

4.5. Simplified living

"We will turn away from costly comforts, a larger income, material possessions, and places of personal privilege or honor. We will choose instead to embrace the way of poverty, loss, suffering, and humiliation – whatever it takes to bring the Gospel of Jesus to as many people as possible."

We will hold one another accountable in our commitment to simplified living.

4.6. Mobility

"As for ourselves and our work, we intend to be mobile."

We will prioritize mobility, and ask ourselves regularly when we might "move on" in each of our areas of work.

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Summary

We will prioritize the involvement of Prayer League personnel or material resources:

• Along the "unreached" frontier
• In situations requiring "creative access"
• In leadership development
• In mission mobilization
• In community with others
• Where clear plans for "closure" are in place

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