WMU Churchwide
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Woman’s Missionary Union is a missions program, specifically defined by your church, that has one purpose: to help the church fulfill its mission by involving all its members in missions.

The Focus of WMU:

• Pray for and Give to Missions
• Do Missions
• Learn about Missions
• Develop Spiritually Toward a Missions Lifestyle
• Participate in the Work of the Church and the Denomination

WMU helps involve church members in missions by providing age-level missions organizations that lead people to:

-- support missions work being done by missionaries, nationals, and volunteer;
-- experience missions personally through ministry and witness;
-- develop missions awareness;
-- nurture lifestyles which reflect commitment and obedience to the Great Commission.

The age-level organizations of Women’s Missionary Union (including co-ed) are:

• Woman on Mission (women aged 18 and above)
• Acteens (girls in grades 7-12 or aged 12-17)
• Girls in Action (girls in grades 1-6 or aged 6-12)
• Mission Friends (girls and boys birth - pre-first)
• Adults on Mission (women and men aged 18 and above)
• Youth on Mission (girls and boys in grades 7-12 or aged 12-17)
• Children in Action (girls and boys in grades 1-6 or aged 6-12)

WMU also has a responsibility to provide opportunities for all church members to be aware of and involved in missions. The entire church family, or churchwide audience, includes:

-- the congregation as a whole;
-- targeted audiences with the church
-- small groups of people in the church with similar
interests and needs.

Woman’s Missionary Union enables the church to make its members aware of and involved in missions.

WMU offers opportunities for the broader churchwide audience to become aware of and involved in missions. The congregation, targeted audiences, and small groups within cultures can experience missions through awareness opportunities, onetime events short-term activities, and ongoing missions projects. Below are just a few examples.

Awareness Opportunities
Using place mats with missions information or games at midweek dinner can help the congregation learn about missions.

Including missions activities from Missions Alive in Youth Bible study can help this targeted audience learn about missions.

Subscribing to Global Prayergram, enabling people to pray for specific missions needs, can help certain small groups pray for missions.

Onetime Events
Have a commissioning service for those in your congregation who do missions by being involved in volunteer ministries.

Invite college students, a targeted audience, to learn about and pray for missions at a foreign missions progressive dinner.

A witness training event, followed by a free hot cocoa booth at a winter community parade, can involve an interested small group as they do missions.

Short-term Activities
Collecting school supplies for children.

Creating a working women’s Season of Prayer Kit with ideas for use during in a in a community shelter or with recognized financial needs can involve an interested small group as they do missions.

Creating a working women’s Season of Prayer Kit with ideas for use during their coffee breaks can involve that targeted audience in praying for missions.

A family centered missions books reading competition held during the summer months can help this taregeted audience learn about missions.

Ongoing Missions Projects
As the congregation adopts a home missionary family, they become involved in praying for missions as well as ministering to the missionary family throughout the year.

Using Girls in Action or Children in Action materials in weekly children’s activities, such as children’s church, can help this targeted audience learn about missions.

Assuming responsibility for the children’s room at a community shelter can invovle those interested in ministering to the homeless, a small group, as they do missions.

These resources, available through WMU, SBC and the LifeWay Christian Resources, will help you plan for WMU in your church:

-- Woman’s Missionary Union Guide
-- Age-level guides (Women on Mission, Acteens Advisor, Girls in Action, and Mission Friends) annual WMU Year Book, including the WMU Materials catalog which contains a description of useful resources to help you plan for missions in your church

-- Materials available by subscription through WMU, SBC are:

-Mission Leader magazine for all WMU leadership and church staff (quarterly)
-WMU Leadership Team Resource Kit (annual)
-Age-level magazines for age-level leaders and members

-- Resources available at no cost from your state WMU office include:

-WMU interpretation leaflets
-WMU magazine order forms