Over the last few months, our National Board of Directors developed a strategic plan for strengthening rural churches and our Village Missionaries. This plan focuses directly on the ministry of our District Representatives.
Their roles exist to strengthen our missionaries, provide guidance to the church leadership, and identify the best ways the whole church can continue to grow in gospel-centered, mission-minded discipleship.
The Challenge
Currently, six District Representative couples oversee 25–35 churches across the United States. They visit each of their fields twice a year, once in the spring and fall.
However, the DRs grapple with three hindrances to their ministry: time, availability, and distance between their churches.
Because our DRs oversee so many churches, they cannot devote as much time to each of their individual missionaries as necessary. This also decreases their availability to our missionaries when challenges or difficult situations occur.
Less than half a day, twice a year, simply does not give our DRs enough time to fully disciple, mentor, and train our missionaries and their churches.
The Solution: Stronger Churches & Missionaries
The strategic plan devised by our Board of Directors seeks to amend this problem.
In the coming months, Village Missions plans to add 2 more District Representatives. This will decrease the number of churches each DR couple is responsible for. By overseeing fewer churches, our DRs will have more time and availability to:
- Participate in more genuine fellowship with their missionaries
- Mentor the younger/less-experienced missionaries
- Build stronger support for the church leadership
- Recruit and establish relationships with Bible colleges and seminaries
This quarter, we will share with you stories of how our churches and missionaries will be positively impacted by the expansion of the DR ministry. We hope after this quarter, you will see not only the important role our DRs fill, but also how this expansion will make our missionaries and churches even stronger.
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