Perhaps you remember the Association of Church Mission Committees (ACMC). David Mays was one of ACMC’s stars. Funny how some of his resources still live on, standing tall even yet today. See them at…
In addition, Catalyst Services (Ellen Livingood) does individual consulting at…
Simply Mobilizing has done some work toward some of the goals that ACMC tackled…
Are there locations in which other ACMC resources are housed? Is there a modern-day equivalent for ACMC?
David Meade was with ACMC back in the day. He now leads Prompemp International.
https://propempo.com
ACMC had great networking conferences and resources. It’s focus initially on churches was unique. The DFW Mobilizers group in North Texas came out of a national ACMC conference.
One helpful subset of ACMC was NAMP – National Association of Mission Pastors, but it too has died out. I know of no other national org that only focuses on the specific issues that local church mission leaders face and primarily networks them. Missio Nexus includes church leader tracks in their various events and provides resourcing, but it is not their main focus. Ellen’s org comes the closest that I know of to being specifically for the local church. Kudos to her and Catalyst.. but I believe we still need a networking org that tries to provide a forum for collaboration among those who serve in local church mission leadership.
I have a certificate from NAMP showing I’m a “Certified Missions Pastor”. That plus $3 gets me a cup of Starbucks.
Don, a couple of us have been staging a missions ministers gathering (“Missions Ministers’ Roundtable” at the website http://www.MissionsMinisters.com and http://www.MissionsPastors.com ). We started it in 2005 at the request of a good friend who was a brand new missions minister and it’s been growing ever since. We’re up to 50 full-time attenders these days. We’ll try to broaden it with a bit broader marketing. Thanks for pointing out the need!
I would add Propempo and 1615.org to the list here.
Hey Doug,
David Mays was a part of Missio Nexus (via the Mission Exchange) in his final years of ministry. Some of his material we hold and some is just out there on the web as you note. We have a plan to redeploy the Stuff books and a couple of David’s titles that were released when he was on our staff. If there is a volunteer editor out there, we would love to have him or her come forward and work with us to update the material and republish it. The bones are there but much work is needed to modernize it David Mays was a treasure and is certainly missed.
Awesome. We’ll ask, Ted! Thanks!
I served with ACMC for a few years and spent time with “Heroes” of that group. Roy Smith was my mentor, Tom Telford, David Mays (spent a day at his home), Col. Bill and others were instrumental in me becoming a Missions pastor. I’ve been out of that role for several years but the need for a group like ACMC is still needed I’m sure
ACMC and Caleb Project came under the umbrella of Pioneers in 2007. ACMC continued to function under this umbrella until 2011. The intellectual property rights of both organizations (books, DVDs, and other resources of various kinds) belong to Pioneers. Many are now out of date, but a few are probably still available through Pioneers.
Pioneers has some of ACMC materials.
I have some of the materials and a good supply of Dave’s stuff disks.
Through meeting David at international gatherings, together with the ACMC materials, an Australian connection was established through the Sydney Centre for World Mission, which morphed in to Becoming Global Ministries and now in to Growing Global Churches. Ellen gave some great encouragement along the way.
Good to see my good friend and co-collaborator in ACMC materials, David Mays mentioned!
There are lots of options out there. Most are not focused on church mobilization but on missionary candidate mobilization.
Propempo International extends the intellectual property of ACMC, with permission, to the training of church leaders and pre-field selection, training, and shepherding of their cross-cultural workers, with a focus on UPGs. See https://Propempo(dot)com
Propempo.com articles and blogs are full of references, free PDFs, and links to other resources.
If you are a church leader wanting training and resources for church missions leadership, Propempo has answers.
If you are a Missions Team leader wanting a pathway to MT training, operations, policies, focus, strategy, et. al., for church mobilization, Propempo has answers.
If you are an individual looking for ideas for participation in missions, Propempo has answers.
If you just have a question, Propempo has answers at https://Propempo(dot)com/ask-propempo
Also see (links modified to avoid being filtered as spam here) —-
http://www.catalystservices(dot)org
http://www.dualreach(dot)org
http://1615(dot)org/
http://www.thetravelingteam(dot)org/
https://thejourneydeepens(dot)com/
https://missionnext(dot)org/
https://antioch-network(dot)org/
http://themissionnetwork(dot)org/
https://www.worldthrust(dot)com/
http://www.globalfocus(dot)info/
https://www.askamissionary(dot)com/
http://deltaministries(dot)com/
… with apologies to some newer ones I haven’t cataloged here. DM
Feel free to contact me with resource sources, particularly for church missions mobilization.
Was just about to post this, and I am glad to see you got the comments in here!
Add to that list Three Strand Partners! We have some resources geared specifically towards the local church but also have a perspective from agency side as well. I have most of those website links listed on our site and will add the others. It would be a great idea to have a “central hub” somewhere, as there are so many good sources!
Also..
https://www.shorttermmissions(dot)com
Regional and national gatherings for local church leaders involved in global mission are still very much needed… in my estimation. ACMC conferences served a very useful role in creating space where such leaders from various denominational backgrounds could meet one another, trade resources, and engage in peer learning and coaching… all with a bent toward serving the needs of the local church. I found these gatherings extremely helpful in the 1990s. Since ACMC disbanded, nothing comparable has arisen to take its place. While there are some city and regional meet-ups around the country, I find there to be space yet remaining for a 21st century version, especially where younger leaders can have a voice and learn how to effectively lead their churches in fruitful global engagement. What’s needed is not only an online depository of resources, but a vibrant network of people who can meet and learn from one another.
The church and the world have changed a lot. Some of those models and paradigms just don’t stand the test of time. For example, I spent quite a bit of time trying to revise (for Pioneers) one of the popular ACMC tools, the ACMC Missions Assessment Profile, or MAP, but eventually gave up and tabled the project because it was quite prescriptive and out of line with the attitude of humility that we as an agency felt was essential in how we approach partner churches. Our church partnerships team uses David Mays docs with churches frequently though we’re no longer publishing any ACMC resources.
Great response, Marti. Thanks for chiming in with the Pioneers take on ACMC resources.
Thank you for remembering David Mays in your report on ACMC. It was 7 years ago today that David died. This was his mission statement: “My purpose is to empower individuals, churches, and organizations to greater commitment and effectiveness in making Christ known around our rapidly changing world by learning, modeling, mentoring, teaching, writing and energizing.” He was passionate about this mission, and it’s so good to see his passion is remembered and is still alive today through others. I know this is how God works to further His Kingdom on earth. All glory to HIm!
Whoa… Marcy… is that “Mays” in your voice somehow related to THE David Mays???
Yes, we were married over 47 years. A great gift.
Now, I’m remarried to another missions mobilizer, Tom Schlee. Another great gift from God. His is coordinating a Perspectives class in Marion, IN in fall 2019.