04267
June 4, 2004

Mission Work Plan

General Assembly backgrounder

by Jerry L. Van Marter

     The 216th General Assembly will be asked to endorse the Mission Work Plan (MWP) developed over the past 18 months by the General Assembly Council (GAC).

      The MWP establishes four priorities for the Presbyterian Church (USA): evangelism and witness, justice and compassion, spirituality and discipleship and leadership and vocation.

      Twenty-four specific objectives are listed under each priority.

      The plan was developed by a GAC task force chaired by the Rev. Nancy Kahaian, a pastor from Chesterton, IN.

      The priorities and objectives  are meant to fulfill the GAC’s vision of “our congregations, presbyteries, synods, General Assembly and ecumenical partners, singly and together, being so inspired and nurtured by the gospel of Jesus Christ that ministries are vibrant and inviting.”

      In a statement released with the MWP, the council said, “We pray that all will be drawn irresistibly into ministries reflecting the love and justice of Jesus, with immediate neighborhoods and the whole of the world as arenas in which the gospel is to be proclaimed and lived.”

      The plan was the basis for recent budget and staff cuts at the Presbyterian Center that trimmed 37 jobs from the national staff and $4.6 million from the 2005-2006 General Assembly Mission Budget — reducing it to $114.4 million.

This was the third consecutive year of budget and staff cuts in Louisville. They have totaled about $10 million and more than 100 jobs.

      Presbyteries and synods — most of which are facing the same financial stresses as the GAC — contributed to the priority- and objective-setting process through consultations with GAC Executive Director John Detterick and the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the General Assembly.

      The Mission Work Plan will be considered by Assembly Committee 07 — Mission Coordination and Budgets