Local Mission meets Wider Mission in the UCC - by William B. Abernethy

What is mission?

Our understanding of mission has been evolving in recent years, and it is important that we start out with a clear view of what we mean. One Massachusetts congregation, the Wellesley Congregational Church, recently adopted in its bylaws this working definition:

Mission "should be the expression, through useful projects, of our common humanity under God with those in wider communities than that of our church. We assume that all human beings, men and women, adults and young people, members of majority groups and of minorities, are needy and yet have something valuable to give. Outreach enterprises should facilitate the giving and receiving, so as to nourish the lives of all concerned."

The funding of local and wider mission in the UCC

With this understanding of mission in mind, we can look at the relationship between local mission--work done in the geographical neighborhood of a local congregation--and wider mission--state, national and world projects. In the United Church of Christ, questions about this relationship probably first surface in decisions around funding and budgets.

When we take the time to look at it, we can see that funding for mission is handled in a radical way in our denomination. The United Church of Christ places great power in the local church. Each congregation has the right to decide how much of its money it will keep for its own life and work and how much it will forward to our wider-mission-creating partners within the denomination.

Typically in the United Church of Christ, Conferences recommend monetary goals to local churches for Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support. In our polity these goals can be recommendations, but not requirements.

The need to communicate mission

Because our means of financing mission places great power in the local church, it also places great moral responsibility in the local church. As Jesus said, "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required" (Luke 12:48 NRSV). The wider mission work of the United Church of Christ depends in a basic way on the ability of local UCC congregations to understand that work.

In an age of tight budgets wherever we turn, local church leaders and mission committee members need to educate their fellow church members about the wider mission work of the UCC with skill, imagination and factual background. Because it is not close at hand and easy to see, wider mission work must be communicated at least as well as--and probably, if it is to stand a chance of making it to the final church budget, better than--other church committees' presentations of more immediate-feeling expenses, such as ministerial salaries and choral music, church school curricula and fuel oil for the burner.

Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support is generally at least as important as the most pressing current expense item in the local church budget. But if church members do not know about that wider mission, and if they are not caught up in its vision of meeting needs, they can't and won't support it.

  Local and wider mission are both important

Congregations are asked to support a variety of mission projects, some focusing on local needs and some on state, national, or international needs. Both local mission and wider mission are part of one mission; each is important. God calls us to mission work wherever there is need for healing and reconciliation, for justice and peace.

Too often, local church members refer to the denomination as "they." But in the United Church of Christ, the local church and the wider church are partners. The wider church does mission on behalf of the local church--mission the local church alone is not able to do. In the United Church of Christ every member and every group is called to mutual accountability and responsibility. So we can relate to each other as "we's" in a common denominational family, rather than as unrelated "they's."

How local and wider mission priorities are decided

If local and wider mission are both important, how do we decide mission priorities within and between them?

The polity of the United Church of Christ gives responsibility to decide mission priorities to those who are in, or responsible for, its various geographical regions. It is because the United Church Board for World Ministries, for example, has the best overview within the denomination of world mission hopes and needs that we in local UCC congregations entrust Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support funds to that board to spend internationally on our behalf. The phrase Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support (it might be called "Entrusted Support"), is the term we use in the United Church of Christ to describe money given voluntarily by local congregations to the wider church for that wider church to spend with its best faith and wisdom.

By the same token, the people of "First Village United Church of Christ on the Green" are in the best position within the denomination to define mission priorities for their local community. The UCC congregation has the local perspective, history, and sensitivity to decide what local projects are, and are not, worthy of church support.

The role of the local church  

The local church has a central role in the mission life of the United Church of Christ:

1. As a partner in mission, the local church has the responsibility to become educated about the mission work of the whole denomination--local, state, national and international. The local church needs to become so educated because it makes the critical first-round financial priority decision for the denomination about mission when it decides how much of its budget it will keep for its own work and how much it will send on for the wider work of the United Church of Christ.

2. As a partner in mission, the local church has the responsibility to take the lead on behalf of the whole denomination in defining and implementing mission work in its community. Because the local congregation has, within the denomination, the best perspective on and understanding of its community, it has the responsibility to lead these local mission efforts.

Together, these responsibilities define the mission role of the local church--and, therefore, the mission role of the church's leadership.

William Beaven Abernethy has served three United Church of Christ congregations in Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, where for 17 years he was Minister of Wellesley Congregational Church, UCC. He is now retired.