1402. Responsibilities--1. To discern those places where the gospel has not been heard or heeded and to witness to its meaning throughout the world, inviting all persons to newness of life in Jesus Christ through a program of global ministries.
2. To encourage and support the development of leadership in mission for both the Church and society.
3. To challenge all United Methodists with the New Testament imperative to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth, expressing the mission of the Church, to recruit, send, and receive missionaries; enabling them to dedicate all or a portion of their lives in service across racial, cultural, national, and political boundaries.
4. To plan with others and to establish and strengthen Christian congregations where opportunities and needs are found, so that these congregations may be units of mission in their places and partners with others in the worldwide mission of the Christian church.
5. To advocate the work for the unity of Christ's Church through witness and service with other Christian churches and through ecumenical councils.
6. To engage in dialogue with all persons, including those of other faiths and to join with them where possible in action on common concerns.
7. To assist local congregations and annual conferences in mission both in their own communities and across the globe by raising awareness of the claims of global mission and by providing channels for participation.
8. To express the concerns of women organized for mission and to help equip women for full participation both locally and globally in Church and world.
9. To engage in direct ministries to human need, both emergency and continuing, institutional and noninstitutional, however caused.
10. To work within societies and systems so that full human potential is liberated and to work toward the transformation of demonic forces which distort life.
11. To identify with all who are alienated and dispossessed and to assist them in achieving their full human development--body, mind, and spirit.
12. To envision and engage in imaginative new forms of mission appropriate to changing human needs and to share the results of experimentation with the entire Church.
13. To facilitate the development of cooperative patterns of ministry so that the unified strength of local congregations and other units of the Church in designated areas can respond with more effective ministries of justice, advocacy, compassion, and nurture.
14. To affirm the concept of volunteers-in-mission (short-term) as an authentic form of personal missionary involvement and devise appropriate structure to interpret and implement such opportunities for short-term volunteers in the global community.
15. To facilitate the receiving and assignment of missionaries from churches in nations other than the United States in cooperation with the World Division, the National Division, the Mission Personnel Resources Department, with other general agencies, and with annual conferences.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
1992 Book of Discipline: ¶ 1402
1996 United Methodist General Conference