Mission Committee

mission

What is the purpose of Mission?

Thousands of words in thousands of books have been written about this over many years and we are pretty sure thousands more will be written in the future.

For us it is really simple, we want to introduce people to Jesus so they can experience the positive difference faith makes to life.

Until someone does that for themselves the difference faith makes is hard to explain.

Our Presbytery shares faith in Jesus with any and all comers not because we have to but because we want to.

This is our mission.

Convener: Dr Fiona Burnett contact

The Committee has responsibility for both local and world mission, helping congregations identify opportunities and putting
in place training to realise them.

The committee’s main focus this year has been to encourage congregations to work together and share their skills and expertise in a wide range of missional opportunities.

Most of our in-person meetings have included a session where we have invited office bearers from the local churches to come together to meet the committee and share ideas.

In addition, we have run online seminars on a variety of topics with a mission theme and two-day conferences with a mission theme. Our Mission Officer has set up a number of Missional communities, e.g. forest church, new housing, pilgrimages, bringing people together to focus on a particular aspect of mission with the aim of creating areas of expertise that can assist other congregations wishing to start something similar in their area.

About Fiona

I grew up on a farm on the western edge of the Borders and then went on to study Agricultural Science at Edinburgh University.

Whilst completing a PhD in Animal Nutrition, I got involved in the local church which led to applying to the Church of Scotland to work abroad. Being a Mission Partner was not really my chosen career path but God had other plans and I ended up teaching at an agricultural college run by the United Church of Zambia and then at the University of Zambia in Lusaka.

And so started my love affair with the World Church.

In 1997, I returned, with my husband, whom I met in Lusaka, back to the family farm to set up a guesthouse and computer training centre. During this time I served on the Church’s World Mission committee in various roles and had the privilege of visiting many of our partner churches in Africa and the Middle East.

Latterly I was asked to join Presbytery to chair the World Mission group, then the Mission and Service Committee which is how I found myself convening the Mission Committee in our new Presbytery. I’m learning that Mission means so many different and varied things to everyone. But if we are ever to answer God’s call to ‘go to all peoples everywhere and make them His disciples’, we need to work together and use all of our God given skills in the process.

That is what your Mission Committee seeks to encourage.

About the role of Mission Committee Convener

Mission is within the DNA of Christians, we want to share our faith. Convenerof the Mission committee has the role of taking a lead in fostering mission across congregations within the Presbytery Area.

Whether that is running Internship Schemes, administrating mission grants or working closely with the Mission Officer.

In addition they are responsible for the good operation of the Mission Committee.

Committee remit

Mission (Local and World)

Convenor, Vice-Convenor plus 10 others

Remit

1. To enable our communities to live and share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a bias to the poorest and most marginalised.

2. To aid Presbytery to engage with political and social issues -such as social justice and care for creation -as guided by the Five Marks of Mission both locally & globally.

3. To help establish and support Mission Clusters as they engage with their mission context. Including enabling the churches in them to:

i) pray, support & care for one another

ii) share together in cluster-wide mission projects

4. To resource God’s people for mission throughout the Presbytery in their worship, witness, dialogue and discipleship.

5. To nurture prayer for all aspects of mission and discernment and outreach locally and further afield.

6. To embrace World Mission and international partnerships.

To provide support for international partnerships between local expressions of church in Presbytery and those overseas, keeping Presbytery informed of partnership developments.

7. Where possible and appropriate, to support the work of the building of God’s kingdom beyond our church. This includes ecumenical bodies locally, regionally, and nationally, encouraging inter-church initiatives and activities of interfaith work.

Mission Blog

The Rev. Peter Wood is our Mission Officer

Peter is keen to come and help you develop your mission.

He spent thirteen years planting and growing a church in an area of new housing. Added to this he has had significant cross cultural and ecumenical experience.

So be it leading a vision day; discerning the way ahead with your Kirk session or thinking about funding – Peter is ready to support you in mission.