Definition of mission changing

I attended and covered MissionFest 2012, an event designed to introduce church members to some of the many missions the United Methodist Church is engaged in around the world.

I filmed the message from Rev. Dr. Thomas Kemper, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, about the changing context of mission in the United Methodist Church and around the globe. I processed the 28-minute segment with an introduction by Bishop Scott J. Jones and posted it to the conference website and YouTube.

I also took photos of Dr. Kemper and at the fair portion of MissionFest and wrote an article that was posted to the conference website and run in the electronic and print newsletters.

Definition of mission changing

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas communications director

The definition of what it means to be in mission is changing, and The United Methodist Church is changing with it, said Rev. Dr. Thomas Kemper, general secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries.

“I take it as a mandate to try to lead our church and our global ministry to become more and more an expression of our global church,” Kemper said.

Kemper talked about three ways we are in ministry “with” rather than “to.”

“The first ‘with’ is to be with God,” Kemper said.

“We have now [more than] 100 churches in Vietnam in a country, where 10 years ago, there was no Methodist presence,” he said.

The first missionaries actually were Vietnamese who had come to the United States as immigrants, found Christ and The United Methodist Church and wanted to go back and share the good news in their home country.

Second, when we are in mission, we are in mission with one another.

Today, mission is from everywhere to everywhere. No longer are missionaries only from the United States or Europe. Other countries now are sending people into mission as well.

Kemper shared the story of a Chinese graduate student who was studying in the United States. She became a United Methodist Christian, and she wanted to minister to other Chinese students. They found a place for her, and she is a missionary in the United States from China.

“We are also in mission with those we serve,” Kemper said.

It was working in this mission that he first learned what it meant to be in ministry with those he served. Each week, the Catholic sisters ran a soup kitchen on Wednesday, the day of the street market.

“We cooked the soup on an open fire under the bridge where a few hours ago the street market had ended,” Kemper said. “The soup was cooked from whatever the people brought. No one was excluded from being able to contribute. All participated. No one was just a recipient.”