Assembly committee recommends Valentine for second term as GAMC leader
Also hears figures on Basic Mission Support
Linda Valentine
MINNEAPOLIS
By unanimous vote, the Mission Coordination Committee of the 219th General Assembly (2010) recommended that Linda Bryant Valentine be confirmed to a second four-year term as executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC).
The Assembly will vote on the recommendation later in the week.
In other business, Valentine walked the committee through the latest figures on mission giving.
“Basic Mission Support (BMS) continues to decrease,” she said.
Valentine shared some sobering statistics:
- Between 1999 and 2009, unrestricted BMS declined 44 percent.
- The projected 2010 budget passed during the 218th General Assembly (2008) has already been cut by 20 percent.
- Two rounds of staff reductions occurred in October and May.
However, not all was gloom and doom.
“While funding to denominational mission has declined over the last decades, Presbyterians are giving more to mission than ever before,” she said.
“We as a church are rediscovering the importance and value of and recommitting to expanding partnership in God’s mission. As we do, we are able to expand our witness to Christ in this country and around the world in ever more profound and impactful ways.”