The Presbytery of North Central Iowa

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One way this undertaking comes to life is through Mission and Ministry (M&M). This initiative takes the traditional approach—that of a presbytery setting mission priorities—and turns it upside down. Instead, M&M encourages congregations, specialized ministries, and programmatic committees to nominate proposals for presbytery mission projects that extend current or anticipated ministries. Each congregation then elects and sends a voting delegate to a presbytery-wide mission consultation. The consultation involves reviewing proposals and establishing priorities. Once projects receive approval, newly organized leadership teams set the parameters and budget needs of each project. These requests then make up a significant part of the presbytery’s mission interpretation and pledge requests for the coming year.

“It is all about reconnecting congregations to the presbytery and to one another,” the Rev. Kerry Carson, Mission and Ministry Board chairperson said. “The conversations about mission that have taken place to date have been transformational. Our people are realizing that by doing mission together, we can multiply our effective witness in a variety of communities and settings.”

Projects include providing shoes for low-income school children, helping fund a parish nurse program in a rural community, building a Habitat for Humanity house, sponsoring a youth mission trip to Mexico, providing assistance to a free health care clinic, and exchanging mission experiences with overseas partners to build on existing relationships. The M&M initiative offers just one example of how the Presbytery of North Central Iowa is experiencing transformation and renewal while discovering new ways of doing and being the church together.

The presbytery has 55 churches with 9,391 members.