Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner Program
Greetings from the Deaconess and Home Missioner Program Office. We hope that you find this information of benefit as you may be discerning your own calling, seeking to support others in mission and ministry or exploring the rich history of lay ministry and women in The United Methodist Church.
Greetings from the Program Office of the Office Deaconess and Home Missioner. We hope that you find this information of benefit as you may be discerning your own calling, seeking to support others in mission and ministry or exploring the rich history of lay ministries of love, justice and service in The United Methodist Church.
While tracing our roots to Phoebe in Romans 16:1, in the Methodist tradition the Office of Deaconess was officially recognized as an office in 1888, the Office of Home Missioner providing lay men with an equal opportunity to serve in a life-time relationship in The United Methodist Church was established at the 2004 General Conference. The Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner is currently the only active office in The United Methodist Church for laity called to full time vocations in servant ministries in a lifetime relationship.
It is important to understand that the Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner is a unique relationship to the Church and is not an employment opportunity. Deaconesses and home missioners identify their own positions in a helping profession or church-related vocation that may or may not be compensated.
Together, deaconesses, who are lay women, and home missioners, who are lay men, form a covenant community that is rooted in scripture, informed by history, driven by mission, ecumenical in scope and global in outreach. We are a community of laity who have responded to the call of God in our lives and have been commissioned by The United Methodist Church to full-time ministries of love, justice and service.
If you are discerning a call and are interested in learning more about this ministry for lay women and lay men in The United Methodist Church, do not hesitate to write, call, or email us for more information, qualifications, and an application.
Sincerely,
Becky Dodson Louter
Executive Secretary, Office of Deaconess and Home Missioner Program
deaconess@gbgm-umc.org
