World Gospel Mission

Last updated
World Gospel Mission
FormationJune 10, 1910
Type Christian non-profit organization
Location
  • Marion, IN 46952 United States
Area served
23 countries
Key people
Dan Schafer (President)
Revenue
US$23,254,643 (2018) [1]
Website wgm.org

World Gospel Mission (WGM) is an interdenominational Christian holiness missionary agency headquartered in Marion, Indiana, United States. Aligned with the Wesleyan Holiness tradition of Protestantism, WGM was founded on 10 June 1910 in University Park, Iowa as the Missionary Department of the National Association for the Promotion of Holiness. As of 2018, WGM operates in 23 countries and supports 236 full-time missionaries, in addition to short-term team members and volunteers. [2]

Contents

About

World Gospel Mission uses the faith mission approach. Therefore, all missionaries (short-term or long-term) and volunteers with WGM are responsible for raising their own financial support with the help of the organization. Missionaries raise the funds needed to pay for salaries, housing, medical and life insurance, children’s educations, and retirement.

WGM is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and is affiliated with the Evangelical Fellowship of Missions Agencies (EFMA), the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission, Samaritan’s Purse, and several other non-profits. [3]

WGM’s areas of service include church ministries, children’s and youth ministries, educational ministries, medical ministries, support ministries, sports ministries, and humanitarian ministries. [4]

Along with mobilizing volunteers and missionaries, WGM provides a list of Projects, which are crowdfunded opportunities that correspond to needs in specific locations. [5]

History

At the instigation of Mrs. Iva May Durham Vennard (1871–1945), a Methodist evangelist and later founder and first president of the Chicago Evangelistic Institute (now Vennard College), [6] and the support of Holiness Association president, Rev. Charles J. Fowler, the Missionary Department of the National Association for the Promotion of Holiness was established at University Park, Iowa on 10 June 1910, with the specific purpose of "spreading scriptural holiness to the ends of the earth." [7] Rev. Cecil Warren Troxel and his wife, Ellen Armour Troxel (born 1875), and the Rev. Woodford Taylor and his wife, Mrs. Harriet Armour Taylor, members of the Free Methodist Church of North America, became the first missionaries in China with the Missionary Department of the National Association for the Promotion of Holiness, directly under the Christian Holiness Association (now Christian Holiness Partnership). WGM remained active primarily in China over the next decade, eventually expanding to other fields. [8]

By 1919 the headquarters was located at 825 Woodbine Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois. After a number of moves in the Chicago area, the headquarters relocated permanently to Marion, Indiana in a former YMCA building at Fifth and Boots Street. [9] In the same year, the first edition of WGM’s print magazine Call to Prayer (now The Call) was published as a bi-monthly subscription. [10] The Call is still produced and available for free in print or digital form. [11]

In 1926 the Mission became incorporated in Illinois as a separate legal entity from the National Holiness Association and was renamed as the Missionary Society for the Promotion of Holiness. [12] The name was changed to World Gospel Mission in 1954. [13]

By 1975, the headquarters had moved from downtown Marion to a newly built campus a few miles east, where it remains today. [14]

Programs

WGM offers short, mid, and long-term missions experiences. [15]

Short-term

Short-term trips typically last between 1–2 weeks. Volunteers may go on short-term trips as a team, or individuals can join pre-planned team trips designated for certain locations. [16]

Mid-term

Mid-term trips can last between 1–12 months. Volunteers choose a location of service based on need and their own ministry specialty. [17]

Long-term

Long-term missionaries are on the field for 2 or more years. Long-term opportunities require a longer application process and more involved training. [18]

Locations

World Gospel Mission missionaries and volunteers are active in over 25 locations. [19]

Africa
Asia
Europe
Middle East
North/Central America
Oceania
South America

Related Research Articles

The Third Great Awakening refers to a historical period proposed by William G. McLoughlin that was marked by religious activism in American history and spans the late 1850s to the early 20th century. It influenced pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong element of social activism. It gathered strength from the postmillennial belief that the Second Coming of Christ would occur after mankind had reformed the entire Earth. It was affiliated with the Social Gospel movement, which applied Christianity to social issues and gained its force from the awakening, as did the worldwide missionary movement. New groupings emerged, such as the Holiness movement and Nazarene and Pentecostal movements, and also Jehovah's Witnesses, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Thelema, and Christian Science. The era saw the adoption of a number of moral causes, such as the abolition of slavery and prohibition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of God in Christ</span> Holiness-Pentecostal Christian denomination

The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is an international Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African-American membership based within the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. The current Presiding Bishop is Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who is the Senior Pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ of Detroit, Michigan. He was elected as the denomination's leader on March 27, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Nazarene</span> Evangelical Christian denomination

The Church of the Nazarene is a Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism. It is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas. With its members commonly referred to as Nazarenes, it is the largest denomination in the world aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and is a member of the World Methodist Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Seymour</span> African American holiness preacher

William Joseph Seymour was an African-American holiness preacher who initiated the Azusa Street Revival, an influential event in the rise of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. He was the second of eight children born to emancipated slaves and raised Catholic in extreme poverty in Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. A. Paul</span> Indian Christian evangelist (1963-)

Kilari Anand Paul is an Indian Christian evangelist and humanitarian. He is the founder of the US-based organizations Global Peace Initiative (GPI) and Gospel to the Unreached Millions (GUM) and has operated orphanages, including Charity City in Hyderabad. He founded the Indian political party Praja Shanti.

The Churches of Christ in Christian Union (CCCU) is a Wesleyan-Holiness and Restorationist Christian denomination.

Manie Payne Ferguson was a pioneer leader in the American Holiness Movement, a Christian evangelist and social worker who co-founded the Peniel Mission, and the author of several hymns, most notably "Blessed Quietness".

The Peniel Missionary Society was an interdenominational holiness missionary organisation that was started in Los Angeles, California in 1895 by Theodore Pollock Ferguson (1853–1920) and Manie Payne Ferguson (1850–1932) as an outgrowth of their Peniel Mission. It was merged with the World Gospel Mission in 1957.

The Immanuel General Mission is an indigenous Japanese holiness denomination founded on 21 October 1945 in Tokyo, Japan by David Tsugio Tsutada, ""The John Wesley of Japan."(Sigsworth 237) It is a member of the Japan Evangelical Association (JEA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Tsugio Tsutada</span>

David Tsugio Tsutada, known as "The John Wesley of Japan," was the founder of the Immanuel General Mission, an indigenous Japanese holiness denomination founded on 21 October 1945 in Tokyo, Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juji Nakada</span>

Juji Nakada was a Japanese holiness evangelist, known as "the Dwight Moody of Japan", who was the first bishop of the Japan Holiness Church and one of the co-founders of the Oriental Missionary Society.

Frank Bartleman was an American Pentecostal writer, evangelist and missionary. He converted to Pentecostalism and became a preacher. He began his writing career in 1905.

World Radio Missionary Fellowship, Inc., also known as Reach Beyond, is a corporate entity and nonprofit, noncommercial, interdenominational worldwide missionary organization with headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Howard Durham</span>

William Howard Durham was an early Pentecostal preacher and theologian, best known for advocating the Finished Work doctrine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Frontier Missions</span>

Anglican Frontier Missions is an American-based Christian mission organization that "To plant biblically-based, indigenous churches where the church is not, among the 2 billion people and 6,000+ unreached people groups still waiting to hear the Gospel for the very first time."

One Mission Society is an Evangelical Christian missionary society. It is based in Indiana, US.

Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal relationship with God and experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. For Christians, this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Pentecostalism was established in Kerala, India at the start of the 20th century.

Iva Durham Vennard was an American educator and religious figure.

References

  1. ↑ "World Gospel Mission Financial Report–2018".
  2. ↑ "WGM Annual Report 2022" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-09-24.
  3. ↑ "About Us - World Gospel Mission".
  4. ↑ "Opportunities - World Gospel Mission".
  5. ↑ "Projects - World Gospel Mission".
  6. ↑ Merne A. Harris, "An Elect Lady: Some Reflections Upon the Life and Ministry of Iva Durham Vennard", Holiness Digest 3:1 (Fall 1989):17–18; ; Mary Ella Bowie, Alabaster and Spikenard: The Life of Iva Durham Vennard, D.D. (Chicago, IL: Chicago Evangelistic Institute, 1947); Heart and Life (November 1945). [Memorial Number - Iva Durham Vennard]; Priscilla Pope-Levison, "Iva Durham Vennard 1871–1945", Prism (January–February 2006): 3, accessed on 28 July 2008: ; Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson,, p.804.
  7. ↑ Burnis H. Bushong, R.U.N. Reaching the Unreached Now: A Brief History of the World Gospel Mission (Marion, IN: World Gospel Mission, 1995): 7.
  8. ↑ "History - World Gospel Mission".
  9. ↑ Bushong, R.U.N., 87
  10. ↑ "The Call Magazine - World Gospel Mission".
  11. ↑ "The Call - World Gospel Mission".
  12. ↑ "History - World Gospel Mission".
  13. ↑ Bushong, R.U.N., 88.
  14. ↑ Bushong, R.U.N., 100.
  15. ↑ "Get Involved - World Gospel Mission".
  16. ↑ "Short-term - World Gospel Mission".
  17. ↑ "Mid-term - World Gospel Mission".
  18. ↑ "Long-term - World Gospel Mission".
  19. ↑ "Content Map - World Gospel Mission".

Sources and further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.