Council for World Mission

The Council for World Mission (CWM) is a worldwide community of Christian churches committed to sharing their resources of money, people, skills and insights globally, to carry out God’s mission locally. The CWM was established in 1977 in its present form. It grew out of the London Missionary Society (LMS, founded in 1795), the Commonwealth (Colonial) Missionary Society (1936), and the (English) Presbyterian Board of Missions (1847). The CWM has 31 member churches: nine in the Pacific, five in Europe, ten in Asia, five in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, and two in the Caribbean. Most member churches of the CWM have backgrounds in the Reformed tradition. Several are United churches.

The Council for World Mission was created as an experiment in a new kind of missionary organization. No longer were the resources for ministry and mission to come just from Europe. The Council’s churches voted for a democratic structure in which everyone could contribute and receive from each other as equals. The CWM believes that the local church has the primary responsibility for carrying forward God’s mission locally. As a global body, the Council exists to help resource-sharing for mission by the CWM community of churches. The Council has four permanent programmes: sharing people in mission, mission programme development, mission education, and leadership development and capacity-building in mission and ministry. These programmes give encouragement, provide training opportunities, share information, and give practical help to the churches’ mission programmes.

Sharing people in mission and ministry is still an important part of CWM’s work. Over the years, a new pattern of mission personnel has emerged. Missionary movement is no longer a one-way traffic from North to South or West to East. It is multi¬directional. Missionaries are sent from South to South, South to North, North to North, and North to South. Each church is encouraged to create a possibility to receive someone from a partner church, and send someone to a partner church. Current activities of sharing people in mission include long-term and short-term missionary service, and so-called “experience-enlargement programmes”. The latter are designed for individuals or groups to go through an in-depth experience in a partner church, in a particular field or in the total life of that church, for up to three months. This can include the concept of twinning of two congregations, to learn, grow, and share together in mission. The programmes for scholarships, training, and leadership development are another dimension of sharing people in mission. CWM seeks to promote scholarship and training opportunities not only in the North and West, but also in the South and the East.

In 1992, CWM launched the Community of Women and Men in Mission (CWMM), one of several new programmes of the Council. A survey was conducted in ten of the member churches, which helped to identify issues that hinder partnership of women and men in mission. Regional consultations were held to look at these issues in the particular regional context. At the global level, the meetings resulted in the launching of the campaign “Women Taking Control of Their Lives” in 1998, which helped the participating churches to raise awareness about gender inequality in the church and society. A global meeting held in 2001 reviewed progress in the area of partnership of women and men in mission within CWM, and brought suggestions for the future; currently the CWMM programme is in full swing. There are also other more recent programmes which are being piloted and which are making good progress within CWM, its constituencies and its mission partners.

The CWM has its offices in London, UK.

Periodical: Inside Out (bimonthly)