From the Coordinator: Growing Through Change

Coming into this role as coordinator of MTW, I was asked to take a fresh look at what we were doing and determine the changes necessary to achieve our overarching vision and mission. As I sought the Lord, I remembered the mandate He’s given us to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” We have a clear call. And it’s our responsibility both individually and as an organization to be good stewards as we live out that call.

Our overarching desire to be obedient to the Great Commission requires an honest evaluation of what we’re doing and how we can do it better. How can we best position ourselves to advance the kingdom of God throughout the world? How can we best organize to make disciples among all the nations?

To help answer these questions for MTW, we assembled a team to initiate a home office redesign. Several factors drove the need for a new design, but the major ones are:

1. We need to mobilize workers. More missionaries are retiring than new ones going. In order to pursue our vision of seeing the kingdom of God advance, we need more workers in the harvest.

2. In a recent field survey, our missionaries expressed an appreciation for our training and care, but also a need for more.

3. Missionaries also expressed the desire to be more consistently field led/field directed—moving away from office-initiated ministries.

4. Finally, we’ve become overly complicated, overly bureaucratic, and working in silos. We need to simplify our processes and flatten our structures.

The task of bringing significant change to our office structure and culture has been, at times, overwhelming and has driven us to much prayer. We’ve asked God to direct us by His Spirit, for unity of mind, and for His wisdom in the design as well as the implementation process.

Although we’re still in the midst of implementing the recommended changes, thus far we have seen clear evidence of God’s favor in bringing alignment and growth to our home team, and new creative energy to move us ahead in helping advance the kingdom of God throughout the world.  As we seek to make wise use of all the Lord has entrusted to us, I’m excited and hopeful about how He is going to move us forward as an organization and more fully equip us to fulfill our call to “Go and make disciples.”