General Conference Mission Consultation

Representatives from all Annual Conferences’ (AC) Boards of Mission together with members of the Council of Mission gathered at Wisma Methodist from 12th-14th of April to discuss the coalition of mission work between the Annual Conferences. The framework of the consultation was derived from the Action Plan in Cross Cultural Mission which was written in the 20-Year Methodist Road Map. The consul-tation began with sharing from all the representatives. Most of the Conference Mission boards shared similar plans in mission work for example, commissioning missionaries overseas, short term mission trips for churches and to provide training. 

"In those days, Moravian’s ratio of missionaries per population was 60:1; whereas currently in SCAC, it is 800:1. Thus, we [SCAC] are targeting on commissioning at least one missionary from each church in 10 years time, " Rev. Dr. Tie King Tai from Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference (SCAC) emphasized on the board’s vision. 

The question that was asked most frequently was the one on finance. Rev. Dr. Tie mentioned that in SCAC, the board only provided financial support on soft-ware but rarely on hardware. Software provisions included salaries, allowances, claims and EPF while hardware included the setting up of churches and training centers. However, Sabah Provisional Annual Conference (SPAC) and Chinese An-nual Conference (CAC) supported both software and hardware. An example cited was that CAC signed a memorandum of co-partnership with the Council of Churches in Thailand, and SPAC had just launched a Wesleyan Training Center in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Funds were collected from members of the church on Mission Sunday, through voluntary donations and through the adoption of missionaries by churches. 

The formation of Malaysia Methodist Mission (MMM) was mooted at the conclusion of the conference. The budget on mission work is expected to be nearly 10 million ringgit per year. "A huge mission entrepreneurship," said Bishop when he touched on the formation of MMM. Since a huge amount of money is involved, proper guidelines concerning finance and property have to be drawn up. Besides that, Bishop Hwa Yung also emphasised the need for prayer so that God would raise up more men and women to work in the mission field, and that the congregations in our churches would understand the important role of prayer in mission. The blue print of the formation of MMM will be drawn by the Council of Mission. It will also deal with some outstanding issues such as partnership between Methodist churches locally and abroad, research centers for mis-sions and preaching to indigenous people. 

By Issac Ng