Worldwide Outreach

Worldwide Outreach refers to the united effort in the Church to serve God faithfully in the areas of Christian Education, Foreign Missions and Home Missions (offsite link). The goals, plans and budgets of these respective "program" committees are brought together through the Committee on Coordination and presented in a unified fashion to the General Assembly. After the General Assembly does its work of review, correction and finally approval, the Worldwide Outreach Program is commended to OP churches and members (and also OP friends) for their prayer and monetary support. Having received the General Assembly-approved budget for Worldwide Outreach, the local OPC churches give accordingly to fund the work of the program committees.

Pictured (left to right): General Secretaries Danny E. Olinger, Richard R. Gerber, Ross W. Graham, Mark T. Bube and Douglas B. Clawson

This is how Worldwide Outreach works and throughout it gives evidence to Presbyterianism. There is both connectedness and accountability at every level. The program committees depend upon the benevolence, prayers, giving and service of the churches. The churches send delegates to the Presbyteries from which commissioners are sent to the General Assembly. The General Assembly evaluates each program committee, elects its members, and commends to the churches through Worldwide Outreach what the fiscal support for program committees should be. Following the General Assembly recommendation, the churches then give to Worldwide Outreach at the recommended levels or above and that money is then divided proportionally among the program committees according the General Assembly-designated percentage. Each level of the church—congregation, presbytery, and General Assembly—is represented and indispensable to the functioning health of Worldwide Outreach.

Worldwide Outreach Pocket Folder

A Pocket Folder containing information about all three committees of Worldwide Outreach is available. For more information, click here. To order, click here.