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Mission Agency Support

In addition to the Mission Share, each congregation is asked for an amount equal to 1% of their operating income for Mission Agency Support. Operating income was reported on the total line 52 of Table 3 of the year-end statistical reports.

Find out how your congregation's Mission Agency Support breaks down. Open this Excel file, Mission Agency Support spreadsheet, type in your church's Mission Agency Support amount and view the breakdown for your congregation.

*Funds are raised for the Good Samaritan Fund to care for those whose resources have run out.

To Be Considered for Mission Agency Support

To be considered as a recipient of Mission Agency Support funds from the Great Plains Annual Conference, an agency shall:

1. Demonstrate a structural or historical connection to the Great Plains Annual Conference or its predecessor conferences, indicating a clear United Methodist connection.
2. An independent board of directors.
3. An annual audit or financial review, submitted to the conference treasurer by June 30 (or six months after the end of the fiscal year each year) each year. 
4. Completion of an annual budget request, including a narrative, as outlined in the application form by November 1 each year.
5. A signed covenant with the Great Plains Annual Conference, adopted by the agency’s board of directors and the Great Plains Annual Conference (or its Connecting Council).

Missional Priorities

1.    Missional priorities are our preferred response to the present reality of our conference. They will be reviewed regularly and may be adjusted as our context for ministry changes.

2.     Enhancing the ministry of local churches, including Christ-centered excellence in:

• Youth Ministry. We will seek to equip local churches to reach youth in their congregations and communities by providing support and training to both paid and volunteer youth leaders. We also will equip congregations that currently have no youth program to reach youth in their communities.
• Preaching and worship. We will offer opportunities for pastors to become more effective preachers, and we will connect pastors and other worship leaders with resources that will assist them in designing passionate, relevant, Christ-centered worship.
• Engaging the community. We will seek to equip local congregations to understand and to connect with the community, with a particular emphasis on going beyond the walls of the church to witness and to serve.
• Transforming service to the world. We will connect congregations to the needs of the world and offer them strategies and opportunities to address both immediate and systemic needs.

John Wesley wrote in his journal, “I look upon all the world as my parish.” His profound words remind us that discipleship and mission cannot be separated. God loves us unconditionally and invites us to be His hands and feet in the world to bring about His kingdom here on earth. 

The calling of the Great Plains United Methodist Conference (GPUMC) is to equip and connect congregations to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Our missional priorities are to enhance the ministry of local churches to produce Christ-centered excellence in youth ministry, preaching and worship, engaging the community, and transforming service to the world. Using an income-based formula for Mission Shares enables the conference to be responsive to the accomplishment of these goals.

Each of us, as members of a local church, supports our local church by giving our tithes (10 percent) and offerings. These gifts come from the income that we have received. As Christians, we believe that our income is a blessing from God. We also believe that tithing has a sound Scriptural foundation as an act of worship and discipleship.

The same motivation used to support the local church is applied to the GPUMC’s mission and ministry. Each local church is therefore called to support the GPUMC based on the income of the church. The Great Plains Conference Mission Share formula, asks churches for 10 percent of their local church’s  annual income for this budget support.

An additional way we are asked to show our love for God and neighbor is by supporting our mission agencies across the Great Plains Conference. 

There are 21 mission agencies in our conference that are separately incorporated institutions with a connection to the GPUMC. They encompass colleges/universities, health and welfare institutions, ministries with the poor, ecumenical/interchurch organizations and a retreat center. At the Uniting Conference, we made the commitment to support 21 agencies through Mission Agency Support giving set at 1 percent of a local church’s annual income. 

These mission agencies serve a vital role; they help us extend the outreach of our local churches, connect us to our communities and the needs of our brothers and sisters, offer opportunities to address both immediate and systemic needs, and develop leaders. They help us break outside the church building walls to go into the world and be His hands and feet, and to ultimately make disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Each mission agency relies on different funding sources and amounts. The 1 percent asked of Great Plains churches is an integral part of each agency’s total funding plan. The mission agencies we support as the conference are aligned with our missional priorities and collectively represent legacies of support from the three former conferences. The Plan of Organization calls for an aggregate request that is divided among them all. 

We believe that just as the hearts of individuals are warmed by the support they give to their local church, the hearts of each of these bodies of believers we call the church, will be warmed by the support they are able to offer to the equipping ministries of their conference.