How do YOU use YOUR Mission Yearbook?

Let us know! We will post your responses within the week that we receive them.

Recent Contributions

Kirsten York Gerling writes the she has her browser set so that the Mission Yearbook is her home page. Everyday she is reminded to read and pray for the specific mission and those who are involved.

Gloria Tufft of Vacaville, California, records the Mission Yearbook for a 100-year-old church member and former missionary who is sight- and hearing-impaired.

Elmer "Bud" Frimoth of Portland, Oregon, writes that when he did a pastoral exchange in Australia in 1969, he took the Mission Yearbook with him. "It was great to have that little book along because I had the various mission representatives we met sign it. I consider that issue a special treasure in these latter days of my life."

Suggestions for using your Mission Yearbook

Personal Use | General Use | Pastors, Session, and Staff
Christian Education | Fellowship Dinners | Church Library
Preparation for Mission Trips | Presbytery Use

Personal Use

Use the Mission Yearbook daily for your personal devotions.

• Send an encouraging message to names listed for that day.
• Pray for those persons in the mission story and use the MissionYearbook to bring family together for prayer daily.
• Have your family brainstorm ways to implement similar projects in your own community.

Dr. Stuart A. Ryder II of Elgin, Illinois, uses the Mission Yearbook each morning in his devotional time before breakfast. He writes, “"I often use the information on the Mission Yearbook pages in occasional preaching or in conversation, and at one time in my classroom. After having used it for many years, I would find it inordinately difficult to find any other worship aid that could fill its place."

Marian Bauer of Akron, Ohio, uses the white space in the Mission Yearbook to record her personal prayer requests. Each Yearbook becomes a record of her prayer concerns and God’s faithful answers.

Mary Currie of Sugar Land, Texas, uses the Mission Yearbook online as her home page for the Internet, changing it each day. Mary says that each time she goes to the Internet, she is reminded to pray for the ministry and people on the page for that day.

Let the daily lectionary be your daily devotional Bible reading. The listing is on the corner of each page.

When you travel or when space is an issue, pull the needed pages from the Yearbook. They are perforated for easy removal.

Use the Mission Yearbook if you are called on to give a devotional on the spur of the moment. Each page features Bible readings, a mission story, and things and people to pray for.

On your birthday, look in appendix called “Mission Personnel” and find someone with your first name. Find the best way you can support his/her mission work, with a personal note and some funding, if possible.

General Use

Keep a copy in church office reception area and copies in the church pews.

Use in church communication, newsletters, and other media.

The Rev. Matt Miles writes that the session of First Presbyterian Church of Big Spring, Texas, started purchasing a Mission Yearbook for each family in the church and a children's version for each child in the church. “They give them out with pledge cards and letters as part of the annual stewardship campaign.”

Prepare daily congregational prayer list to accompany the list of prayer items in the Mission Yearbook.

Include each week’s minute for mission emphasis, location, and ministry on prayer or bulletin board.

Post a world map where each week’s current geographical area is flagged, using different colors for current and past locations.

Plan a yearly mission festival. Use the Children’s Mission Yearbook and the Mission Yearbook to inspire ideas!

FOR PASTORS

Denise Group of Chariton, Iowa, highlights the types of mission going on in the PC(USA) by using the Mission Yearbook each Sunday in worship. She finds that this sparks the congregation’s interest in new ways of mission within their own community.

As a pulpit supply, Carol Collier of Tuscola, Illinois, finds the Mission Yearbook of Prayer & Study to be an invaluable resource in preparing for the message, the prayers of the people, and the order of worship. She says that when there are troubling times in certain areas of the world, the Mission Yearbook is a great help in finding contacts for that area.

Congregational Ministry

Staff Meetings

• Pray for the staff/mission workers being highlighted for the day.
• Use both yearbooks to consider ways in which a congregation can become involved in a partnership in mission.
• Give each staff member a copy and encourage staff to take turns preparing weekly opening devotions, alternating between yearbooks.
• Find a presbytery in the Mission Yearbook with which your staff is unfamiliar; find out what is written about it, pray for the members of its staff, and let them know you are praying for them.

The Rev. Dr. Bobbie McGarey writes, “In the Southwest Oklahoma Presbyterian Parish, with five congregations, we read the entry from the Mission Yearbook every week.  In some of the churches a young person or lay reader will take the responsibility.”

Worship

• Place the minute for mission text for the Sunday emphasis in the church bulletin.
• Include mission workers and mission partners in your prayers.
• Place copies in pews.
• Connect current events to an appropriate reading in the Mission Yearbook.
• Use Sunday listings as a resource for Sunday lectionary listings and hymn suggestions.

Session Meetings

• Make sure each member of session has a copy of the Mission Yearbook, and encourage each officer to use it daily.
• Introduce the Mission Yearbook and use it to open meetings and for session devotionals.
• At each meeting of the mission committee, highlight a local connection mentioned in the Mission Yearbook.

New Member Classes

• As part of the first meeting, ask all new members to read a paragraph from their birthday page.
• Give new members copies of both yearbooks in a new member orientation pack to help them learn about the mission of the PC(USA).
• Include a world mission map/place mat (PDS #7061206932) in the orientation pack to help members connect with the local and worldwide ministry of the PC(USA).
• Ask a new member to read from the Mission Yearbook in Sunday class or service.

Christian Education

Adults

• Incorporate the Mission Yearbook into opening and/or closing prayer.
• Post a world map and presbytery/synod map like the one in the Presbyterian Planning Calendar. Show the class the areas emphasized for the coming year, and encourage the members to pray for the missions listed.
• Choose a designated person in each class to read and report on mission being lifted up throughout the week in the Yearbook.
• Have different classes commit to become involved with a mission worker family and send emails, cards, gifts, and pictures for at least one year.
• Ask teachers to integrate mission stories from the book into their lessons, reflecting on how the day’s topic connects with the mission listed.
• Use Mission Yearbooks from previous years and recycle them into new curriculum.

Youth

• Present each confirmation student with his or her own copy of the Mission Yearbook upon beginning the confirmation process.
• Use in youth leader training and confirmation class to cultivate understanding of and commitment to mission.
• Encourage youth to have an online chat with someone in the book.
• Use both yearbooks to open evening meetings.

Children

Kim Hayes of Coshocton, Ohio, leads a choir of early elementary-age children. She uses the Children’s Mission Yearbook each week as part of their time together. They especially love learning the Word of the Week and talking about how it applies to their lives.

Fellowship Dinners

Highlight a specific mission need or area in mission using the Mission Yearbook as a resource.

Invite a person listed in the book to speak.

Use color insert section for the program and discussion — provide a separate copy for each at the dinner plate.

Prepare international recipes for fellowship meals; create a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt with ideas from the Children’s Mission Yearbook to help participants learn more about new cultures.

Church Library

Make sure the church library always has a copy.

Have stationery and envelopes available for correspondence with those listed in the yearbook.

Organize a section that highlights books about various countries or missions.

Feature both Mission Yearbooks daily, display the current page, and have other copies available either as gifts or for purchase.

Preparation for Mission Trips

Vernon Elgin of Kent, Washington, writes to say, “The Mission Yearbook is a “lifeline” resource for me in daily prayer. When I go overseas volunteering in mission, it gets the priority my passport gets. I often write to folks I pray for and have been refreshed by the responses.”

Have participants read entries as a point of reflection on the work they will be doing.

Learn tips from other presbyteries’ mission experiences from the Mission Yearbook. Using the information in the back, contact them for more information.

Use the Mission Yearbook to choose new mission work or new mission trips.

Encourage mission trip participants to purchase fabrics, communion chalices, and plates for the church while they are on their trip. Use these items in worship to highlight world mission.

Presbytery Use

Linda Marley Smith writes, “Every Monday morning, before we begin the workweek, the staff of the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia gathers for prayer and sharing. We always begin by reading the Mission Yearbook page for that day, followed by reflections on its content. Over the past several years we have been inspired by God’s call to mission all over the earth, in many, many ways!”

Make sure every committee of presbytery has a copy.

Use both yearbooks as inspiration for displays.

Use in mission and prayer workshops.

Lift up mission needs at presbytery meetings using the Mission Yearbook.

Make prayer beads at a meeting as an icebreaker and use them as tools for personal prayer.

Have you seen the Reader’s Guide?

For more ways Presbyterians use the Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study to provide a link between an individual’s faith and the mission of the church, order a copy of the Reader’s Guide. This handy guide is packed full of ideas and suggestions for how you, your children, and your congregation can use both Mission Yearbooks in many areas of ministry.