VIM/DR Missions Reporting
Why submit missions data?
Data on Mission Teams and Journeys, Activities and Events, help us to:
- Celebrate the mission work and journeys of your church.
- Provide new insights into what God is doing through the work of missions.
- Inspire others by the work you do.
- Identify and share fruitful practices.
- Find out something about what we are, who we are, where we are, how we have changed and are changing, and, to a certain extent, what we are doing in and through missions.
- Plan strategies for mission programing to enhance impacts at home and around the world.
- Identify strengths and weaknesses in conference, jurisdictional, and church agency programs.
- Evaluate what is offered by mission programs so that what we learn and verify improves our understanding of reality, makes more certain our actions, and more fully measures our overall performance as a denomination.
- Inform our participation in the mission of the church. The mission is not an option—we are commissioned to make disciples of Jesus Christ, who make disciples equipped and sent to transform lives, communities and the world.
- Determine how well we are reaching the world. It is important for us to make that determination and to gauge our progress in fulfilling God’s Great Commission. Statistics can help us to do that.
The hope of those who provide statistics is simply this—that we seek to glorify God among the nations. We are accountable to God to continually sharpen our understanding of his world and the progress of the gospel among the nations. There is so much more to be done and so much more we can do. Statistics can help move us to do more and to follow through on the great work Jesus has left for us.
New Tools for collecting and submitting reports of Mission Teams, Activities and Events (beginning in 2021 for Local Church Mission Teams/Activities):
- Mission Team Roster/Report (first tab of the spreadsheet) – intended to serve as record of a single mission team/journey or work site for the purpose of having easy access to data for reporting purposes. Keep this report on file as a back up to data submitted on the “Quarterly Mission Team Statistics” form. Do not submit this spreadsheet as your report, please keep it for your records in filling out the Quarterly Mission Team Statistics. Items that may need clarification on this form:
- This form may be used for the entire team for the duration of the journey if only one work site is involved. If there are multiple work sites, please complete a form for each work site.
- If an address is unknown, please note a street or area location under “Address”.
- Residential refers to the home and anything within a 60ft radius of the home. Non- residential refers to anything outside 60ft radius of the home (farmland, outbuildings, etc) and anything other than residential.
- Disaster work type “Other” includes Gathering Information, Managing Donated Materials, Mold Treatment, Sifting Debris, Site Evaluation, Sorting Possessions, Etc.
- ERT – Was this team member Early Response Team certified?
- Number of days worked – the number of days that team member worked.
- Total hours worked – the total number of hours that team member worked.
- Total Days Team Worked – the total number of days the team as a whole worked (with or without certain individual team members – if someone laid out a day or left before the end of the journey). Not a total of the column “Number of days worked” by each team member.
- Total Hours Worked – add together all the hours that each team member worked on each
day of the journey.
- Missions Data Summary (second tab of the spreadsheet) – intended to serve as a one- year summary of all mission journeys, activities and events. Cumulative/quick reference to data collected on the “Mission Team Roster/Report” form. Also documents other mission activities and events. This form is optional and was developed for use by the person keeping and reporting the data. It provides easy access to the data to be submitted on the electronic Quarterly Mission Team Statistics report. Do not submit this spreadsheet as your report, please keep it for your records in filling out the Quarterly Mission Team Statistics. Items that may need clarification on this form:
- “Other Disaster Assistance” on this form refers to other assistance your church offered after a disaster – the number of households affected by disaster that received assistance from your church other than that listed under Early Response Team work. Examples: food, water, supplies, materials, shelter, etc.
- “Other Events” refers to any mission or outreach related activity or event not already documented in the report. Example: mission fair, presentations, education, fundraisers, etc. Note the event and how many attended.
- Quarterly Mission Team Statistics – An electronic form for easy and convenient reporting of Mission Activities. Submits data to Conference VIM/DR Coordinators who in turn compile all data from all local churches into one report to submit to the South Central Jurisdiction and UMCOR each quarter of the year. Quarterly reporting is requested and preferred.
Please direct any questions or issues with any form to Sheri Mathews at disaster@arumc.org.