God's Mission Our Gifts - Your November Mission and Service Stories and more!

NOVEMBER 2026 General Council Annual Meeting On October 17, 2026, 176 commissioners, plus corresponding members and guests, participated online in the annual meeting of the 45th General Council. Check out the summary and notes here. Your November Mission and Service Stories PowerPoint slides for each story are available on the Mission and Service Resources page. November 1 | Youth Leadership Animators What happens when young people are given the chance to lead, grow in faith, and shape the future of the church? Through the Leadership Animator program, youth across Canada are discovering their gifts, building confidence, and finding meaningful ways to make a difference in their communities and the wider church. November 8 | A Stable Start No young person should have to worry about where they’ll sleep tonight. Wesley Youth Housing in Hamilton provides more than a safe place to stay, it offers young people experiencing homelessness the practical support, life skills, and encouragement they need to build independence and imagine a brighter future. November 15 | Living Language When a language disappears, generations of stories, knowledge, and culture are at risk of being lost with it. In Nunavut, the Kitikmeot Heritage Society is helping bring Inuinnaqtun to life through language mentoring, learning resources, and innovative tools that empower the Inuinnait people to reclaim their language and pass it on to future generations. November 22 | A Place to Turn Sometimes, the smallest act of kindness can open the door to a new beginning. In eastern Ontario, House of Lazarus offers warmth, food, financial assistance, and a welcoming community to people facing hardship. Whether helping someone find housing or ensuring a child has food for the weekend, its work reminds people that they are not alone. November 29 | Summertime Memories Every child deserves the chance to make summer memories, discover new talents, and find a place to belong. At Rideau Hill Camp in Kemptville, Ontario, children and youth build friendships, grow in confidence, explore Indigenous teachings, and develop leadership skills. Financial assistance tries to ensure that cost doesn’t stand in the way of an unforgettable summer. Gifts with Vision News Keep an eye out for the release of the physical 2026 Gifts with Vision catalogue, landing in mailboxes early November! To order your copy, call us or email info@giftswithvision.ca. Looking to get a head start on Christmas gift planning? Our online catalogue is always available for you to peruse. Go ahead and take a look! Questions? Email Gifts with Vision. You can also call us at 1-844-715-7969. Why be a Mission and Service Volunteer? You might give to Mission and Service, but you’re thinking about taking an extra step and contributing something more. We can help you learn more about what Mission and Service does in Canada and the wider world, so your giving is more informed – and so you can share the story of Mission and Service with your community of faith and anywhere else you like.   As a volunteer, you’ll receive Mission and Service stories for each month in advance, so you’ll have talking points to share. You’ll also receive a chatty email every week with helpful ideas and resources. You can also virtually meet other volunteers and learn about other ways to support Mission and Service! Contact us today to learn more!    Mission and Service Volunteer Program   The United Church of Canada   ms@united-church.ca   1-800-465-3771 Attention Treasurers! Keep an eye on your email inboxes. Mission and Service goal setting information will be arriving soon from the United Church of Canada Foundation. GOD’S MISSION, OUR GIFTS is your newsletter. We want to provide news and information that you can use in your community of faith, whether you’re a minister, a board member, an administrator, a treasurer, or anyone else who wants to make a difference. What else would you like to see? What can we do to help your community of faith get where it needs to go? Send us your thoughts!

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Mission Yearbook: Office of Innovation holds online gathering to share ideas

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First Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, is a willing partner in ministry innovation. (Photos by Rich Copley)

“Innovation Network,” a new online gathering designed for innovators offered by the Office of Innovation, launched its initial installment  with the Rev. Trey Hegar, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, sharing that congregation’s innovative approach to ministry.

The Rev. DeEtte Decker of the Office of Innovation hosted the gathering. She said it's designed to “help mid council and congregational leaders think differently about the challenges you’re facing and develop the skills and capacity to lead faithful innovation.”

Hegar, who was called to First Presbyterian Church 11 years ago, called Mount Pleasant, a community in southeastern Iowa, “Norman Rockwell-ish.”

“It is family centered, and the church has a place of primacy for about half the country residents,” he said. “We attend each other’s chili cookoffs and rummage sales and fall festivals.”

It’s also typical “of a lot of middle America towns, where the young people graduate and then move away,” Hegar said.

“I have learned to ask, ‘What are the greatest needs in the community and how can churches partner to meet those needs?’” he said. “Can the church become a job creator? How can we help create jobs that have meaning and are flexible and empowering?”

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The Rev. Trey Hegar is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

Hegar said he began developing skills for innovation while serving a church in South Carolina, which after a study opened a farmer’s market co-op in an old stable. Folks in the community would market their wares, food was available and a band played on Saturday mornings.

Organizers planted community gardens and gave away what grew there. “It was God’s abundance, like in the Garden of Eden,” Hegar said. “People would ask, ‘How is that benefiting the church?’ and I would say, ‘That’s not the point. We are making a proclamation about the kingdom of God, that their work has value and worth.’”

They’d talk about “the economy of grace vs. the economy of scarcity,” he recalled. “But you’ve got to monetize it. You can’t have a failure of nerve to say, ‘The church gets 10%.”

If a church’s attendance is in decline, it won’t have “the volunteer power and the financial power” to grow the food pantry and offer other services, such as childcare, Hegar noted.

“But we think those are necessary and good” ministries to offer the community, he said. “When we dream up a ministry, I tell people we have to incentivize it.”

One example is IowaWINS, a ministry established at the church with the help of community partners to aid Syrian immigrants. IowaWINS grew in 2018 to serve 32 factory workers working in Mount Pleasant who’d been detained following a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As Iowa WINS grew, Hegar and others pushed for the church’s administrative costs to be covered by part of the $1.8 million raised for the local immigrant ministry.

“We have to stand our ground so we will have the resources to do the next big thing,” he said. “You have to have contracts and you need them included in your bylaws … so you can keep doing ministry. It’s an investment in the next helping ministry.”

First Presbyterian also played a leading role in founding the All God’s Creatures animal shelter and its partnership with incarcerated individuals at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility.

“We called the warden, and she was so happy we’d even thought of them,” Hegar said. “We started small, but the biggest thing was, we started. That sets a successful ministry apart.”

The volunteer base is now around 100 people, “and most of them are not members of this church,” Hegar said. “The lesson is the dogs don’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican, white or Black, young or old, rich or poor. They only care how you treat them. It’s taken on a life of its own because of the spirit behind it.”

For those practicing adaptive challenge ministry, Hegar recommends MaryAnn McKibben Dana’s book “God, Improv and the Art of Living,” “even just the first chapter,” he said. As with improvisation, the answer in ministering in adaptive ways is “yes, and,” he said.

“What kind of imagination do we need to bring to this?” Hegar asked. Challenges “aren’t roadblocks — they are avenues to more partnerships.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Jenny Barr, Reference and Outreach Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Andrew Kang Bartlett, Associate, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Gracious and loving God, help us to rally ourselves and others to serve as you served. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Legacy planning is focus of workshop

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The Rev. Erin Skinner and the Rev. Ellie Johns-Kelley were among the presenters at the Luminosity Conference. (Photos by Gregg Brekke)

Pastors attending the 2026 Luminosity Conference in Orlando, Florida, were invited to reflect deeply on faith, family and the lasting impact of their ministries during a workshop titled “Legacy is not Just for Laity.”

While churches often emphasize the importance of creating a will and consider leaving a gift to a church or ministry as part of their estate, pastors don’t always consider their own legacy. The session invited pastors to think through what they want to pass on to those who know them. 

The workshop was presented as a break-out session at Luminosity, a conference organized and sponsored by the Presbyterian Foundation and held during the spring conference. The Rev. Ellie Johns-Kelley and the Rev. Erin Skinner, both Ministry Relations Officers for the Foundation, presented the workshop. Designed specifically for pastors in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the workshop encouraged participants to think about legacy not simply in financial terms, but as the stories, relationships and faith traditions that shape generations.

Johns-Kelley opened the workshop by sharing the history and mission of the Presbyterian Foundation, reminding participants of the denomination’s longstanding commitment to stewardship and generosity.

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The Rev. Erin Skinner, a Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation, leads a workshop about legacy planning for pastors.

She noted that the Foundation traces its roots to 1799, when it was created as the original trustees of the denomination to receive gifts and bequests from Presbyterians. Today, she said, the organization stewards billions of dollars in assets on behalf of congregations and ministries.

Throughout the session, Johns-Kelley and Skinner emphasized that legacy is not only about financial planning but also about the stories people share and the values they pass down.

As part of the workshop, Johns-Kelley led participants through a reflective exercise, encouraging pastors to write continuously in response to questions about their faith, family influences and hopes for the future.

“What’s your hope for this conference?” she asked participants. “What brought you to this workshop? I want you to think about your parents and your grandparents. Were they active in church? How did that shape you?”

The exercise, she explained, was originally shared by the late musician David M. Bailey, whose life and work continue to inspire conversations about vocation and faith. His legacy lives on through the music he created and the ways in which he prompted youth to think through their own lives and their callings. 

Johns-Kelley also reflected on her own experience of thinking about legacy after the death of her father, a longtime Presbyterian minister. She recalls that it was difficult to get her own father to discuss what gifts he wanted to leave to ministries and churches that he loved. Making those decisions ahead of time is a wonderful gift to your family. 

“Thinking about what we love, what it would be a good expression of our faith, what might be a helpful gift to our family members, all of those are so helpful for those who love you,” she said.

Skinner expanded the conversation, encouraging pastors to consider how storytelling can shape both family relationships and congregational life.

“The power of story is the power of relationships,” Skinner said, quoting writer and Luminosity conference plenary speaker Mark Yaconelli. “In other words, giving testament to our experience generates meaning when it connects us to people, the Earth, the sacred, our pasts, our owner gifts and wounds.”

She also introduced practical tools for legacy planning, including ethical wills, story journals, estate planning guides and charitable giving strategies.

“These tools don't mean very much when they don't have your story,” Skinner said. “We need your story to color in the lines.”

Skinner concluded by reminding pastors that legacy is already unfolding through their ministries.

“You all are making an impact on those that you serve,” she said. “You are leaving legacy, whether you’re doing that intentionally or not.”

As Luminosity’s inaugural gathering brought together pastors and church leaders from across the denomination, the workshop offered both practical tools and spiritual encouragement, inviting participants to reflect not only on the legacy they hope to leave, but also on the one they have already begun to shape.

Robyn Davis Sekula, Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Cheryl Barnes, Manager, US Global Ecumenical Liaisons, Presbyterian Life & Witness
David Barnhart, Associate, Story Ministry, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Interim United Agency

Let us pray:

Eternal God, in the midst of a world that simply won’t stop, or even slow, its relentless changing, grant us a deep and abiding sense of your sovereign power and steadfast presence in our lives. May we walk the way that is set before us in faithfulness to our calling in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

WCC news: WCC general secretary reflects on “Decolonizing mission: from mission to mutuality”

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay delivered an address on 15 October during a gathering of the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany. He focused on “Decolonizing mission: from mission to mutuality.”  Photo: Corinna Waltz/EMW 15 October 2026 Pillay began by asking what it means to decolonize mission. “It is about freeing mission from those patterns of power, domination, and cultural superiority that have sometimes accompanied Christian witness,” he said. “It is about recovering mission as participation in the mission of God.” Pillay emphasized that the starting point must be theological. “Mission is not ours,” he said. “Mission is God’s.” Decolonising mission requires honesty, Pillay added. “Christian mission has a complex history,” he said. “Christianity was sometimes presented as though European culture and Christianity were inseparable.” We must acknowledge this history, not to condemn previous generations, but to ensure that we do not reproduce their assumptions, Pillay urged. “The question today is: Can we proclaim Christ without reproducing cultural domination?” he asked. “I believe we can. Indeed, we must.” Plllay also reflected on how the demographic centre of Christianity has shifted. “The churches of the Global South are not junior partners in Christianity,” he said. “They are not simply recipients of theology developed elsewhere. They are theologians, missionaries, teachers, evangelists and agents of God's mission.” The issue is ultimately about power, Pillay noted. “And Christian power must always be understood through Christ. Jesus does not exercise power by domination. He kneels and washes feet,” said Pillay. “Therefore, Christian mission must be characterised by servant leadership.” Read the full presentation "Decolonizing Mission: From Mission to Mutuality" Photo gallery See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland