At First Presbyterian Church, we seek to know Jesus Christ and to make Him known. We do this in a variety of ways including both local and world missions (defined as outside Amarillo). A review of the First Pres Mission Strategy statement as it relates to World Missions helps show how we approach our work.
Our Lord is indeed a mission God. He left heaven in the person of Jesus Christ and "crossed cultures" to become one of us. In scripture, God clearly has a love for the lost and closely identifies with poor and hurting people. If we want to experience God in our personal lives, we need to join God in what He is doing.
Knowing that each body of believers is called in unique ways, First Pres set the following three priorities for its Mission Strategy:
Prayer
The most we can do is pray! Our Lord has invited every believer to be a co-laborer with Him in prayer. We, as a body of believers, join with our brothers and sisters around the world as we agree with them about specific needs they are facing and their desires to reach out to others for Christ. At each Team meeting, we receive e-mails, letters and articles where we learn specific needs. The Team and many other First Pres members are also committed to pray specifically for "unreached people groups" using the Global Prayer Digest.
People
People grow in their love for Christ and His work as they participate in it personally. As we partner with other believers in ministry, we bless others and in return are greatly blessed. The World Mission Team helps people become involved by providing financial and other assistance to the short term mission projects our church commissions to Belize, Kenya and other places.
Pesos
We at First Pres acknowledge that all monies we possess as individuals and as a church are the Lord's. The World Mission Team has the privilege of using some of the Lord's resources to support His work around the globe. After seeking the Lord's guidance in prayer, the Team set the following guidelines for making these important decisions. As you will see, many of the people and projects we support fit more than one of the categories. Much like Paul and Barnabas, many of today's missionaries must raise their own support.
Local Missions
First Presbyterian Church supports these local ministries with our prayers and financial resources. When opportunities arise we serve them with volunteer help as well:
Habitat of Amarillo
High Plains Food Bank
High School Bible
Chair Life Challenge
Meals on Wheels
Navigators
Opportunity School
Kairos Prison Ministry
Salvation Army Samaritan
Counseling Center
Tyler Resource Center
First Pres believes strongly in the call of the church to reach out into the world by spreading the gospel and showing the love of Jesus Christ. We support a variety of missions around the world:
The Word at Work
The direction of this locally based ministry to Belize in Central America is Rev. Tim Tam. Tim for many years was on the staff of First Presbyterian Church. Currently he directs this ministry in Belize where they enable many churches to have an impact there for Jesus Christ.
Unreached People – Evangelism
We support evangelization of the unreached people groups. (Unreached People = People groups within which there is no viable, indigenous, evangelizing church movement). First Presbyterian Church has focused on the Digo people of Kenya. Many of us use the “Global Prayer Digest” a monthly publication that guides us to pray each day for one of the 10,000 unreached people groups.
Dug and Cherie McAlpine
Dug grew up at FPC and has been called to reach out to international students through the ministry of Navigators at Texas Tech University.
Andy Smith
Andy wears many hats though the ministry of Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) in the Philippines. He trains and disciples other missionaries and helps with church planting and helps develop regional plans for evangelism and church growth.
Individuals in Mission
Our members go with other groups overseas to serve our Lord. We want to support them with our prayers and our financial resources.
General Mission
Our session has asked our Presbytery (regional governing body) to use this money for only regional purposes and not send these monies on to our national organization.
Mission Contingency
These monies are used for mission purposes that were not foreseen when the budgets were purposed in 2009. One use of these funds is to help FPC members assemble HIV/AIDs Caregiver Kits to send to Africa through the World Vision organization.
Mission Materials
To help purchase material for the congregation to be better informed about what God is doing outside of Amarillo.
Dan Frank
Dan and his family have moved to Scotland after a number of years in Nazareth, Isreal. Dan is working for the renewal of a vibrant Christ-centered church in Scotland.
Persecuted Church
Millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer simply for being Christ followers. If one part of the Body hurts, we all hurt. We want to do all we can to support other parts of the Body of Christ, first with our prayers, then with our financial resources. We regularly send “Actions Packs” through Voice of the Martyrs. We learn to pray specifically through needs gained from Open Doors a ministry to the persecuted church.
Presbyterians for Renewal Youth Ministry
This organization puts on Christ-centered conferences called “Fun in the Son” and the “Great Escape.” Our youth enjoy these conferences in the Summer!
Greg and Faith Hurst
Greg and Faith are church planters in Bolivia. They do amazing work of evangelism and discipleship.
Sudan
After many years of civil war, a fragile peace is maintained in this country. We are supporting the church in the south as it regains its stability and reaches out in Christ’s name.
Billy Swan
Billy is the director of the Dublin Christian Mission in inter city Dublin. There he reaches lost teenagers and their families with the Good News of Jesus Christ. In June we take a team from our church to help run a summer camp for teenagers.
Takop Hali & Kipa Raju & Khrisi Vijay Kumar
These three young Indians are learning to be church planters in unreached areas of India. Through the organization Mission India we provide resources for their training and have the joy of learning how our Lord is using them to reach India with the love of Jesus Christ.
Pray
We ask you to join us daily in praying about the specific needs our brothers and sisters around the world are facing and their desires to reach out to others for Christ. We also ask you to join us in using the Global Prayer Digest.
Ask
Ask God to guide you in other ways you can become involved.
Give
When allocating your personal financial resources, remember that our church budget is more than utility bills, insurance premiums and staff salaries. It also includes mission work - both local and worldwide. You can establish or increase your personal financial support of mission work.
