By Peter Mihaere General Director, New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society.

In November 2010 The New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society (NZBMS) announced a series of changes relating to who we are and what we're about. A lot has happened since then and, being over halfway through the year, it's timely to reflect on how we're doing.

The 2010 Baptist Assembly in Tauranga saw the launch of MISSION WORLD. A new entity within NZBMS, MISSION WORLD links NZBMS with other mission agencies in such a way that any New Zealand Baptist who serves God in His mission to the world can feel a part of the Baptist missions' family.

Since then, MISSION WORLD leader, Rachel Murray, has spent much of her time engaging with churches, strategic mission partners, and training institutions. Even more importantly, she's had conversations with people sensing a call to serve God overseas. Some of these will eventuate in a person, couple, or family being introduced to one of our strategic mission partners so that they can serve in cross cultural mission somewhere in the world.

We measure our success in this entity in a couple of ways; First, through the engagement of individuals who want us to track with them as they seek to serve God. We know we're succeeding here when we're invited to the commissioning services of new missionaries. Some of these people simply recognise the place of MISSION WORLD in standing with them as they go irrespective of their chosen agency. Others testify that, having sensed God's call, they spoke to MISSION WORLD and were given help and encouragement in finding a mission partner to join with. The rest of the commissioning service may focus on the agency they have partnered with but we have been a critical part of the process. Rachel has been to a number of such services and even invited to participate at a few.

Second, we measure success through the engagement of our churches. In a recent conversation with a pastor of a very mission-minded church that has significant ministry involvement overseas, though not through NZBMS or tranzsend, the pastor said that the church normally focus their giving on the work they do overseas. This has meant they have not been able to include NZBMS – their denominational mission. This year they made a decision – if tranzsend (i.e. NZBMS) are being more inclusive of world mission in the world, then they would give half their fundraising for world mission to NZBMS.

In a different form of church engagement, Hawkes Bay's Village Baptist Church have asked MISSION WORLD to facilitate a mission expo event for the body of Christ in Hawkes Bay on September 3rd this year. In saying 'yes,' NZBMS has not only involved our strategic mission partners, we have also partnered with the Anglican and Brethren mission movements. This will give a broader spectrum of world mission offerings so that the wider church can be involved in the day. Church groups as far away as Bay of Plenty have expressed interest in attending.

This same programme has been offered to a South Island region and there have been positive discussions about holding a similar event in September 2012. It's great to see the Baptist churches of Aotearoa New Zealand engaging MISSION WORLD. Please join with us in praying that God will bless this work.

In January this year we launched a new overall brand for NZBMS. The key brand statement is, "New Zealand Baptists Reaching the World". This has enabled us to clarify the overall structure of NZBMS and see how the various aspects of our denominational mission agency fit together.

In the June edition of this newspaper I described this overarching brand using four virtual boxes – tranzsend, BANZAid, MPIL, and MISSION WORLD – to represent the four arms of NZBMS. As I've shared this around the country, people have been able to see and understand how the various arms of NZBMS fit together. A measure of its success is seen by the number of people who have responded with the simple statement "I get it now. It really makes sense!"

In February we launched World Reach, the new look Baptist Magazine mission pages – you're reading the August edition now. This has brought a consistency with our brand messaging and enabled us to highlight our strategic mission partners. Even more importantly, it has given an outlet for a rich monthly dose of mission stories from New Zealand Baptists working around the world with a number of different agencies.

In December last year, as part of the New Zealand Team's planning cycle, I envisioned that this year, 2011, would be a year to gain clarity of purpose and message. Eight months on I really feel that we have made significant progress in that direction.

If you have not heard about us or want more information I invite you to make contact, either through our websites, email or phone. Ask for Neil, Rachel or myself... we would love to chat.