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MISSION
To follow the example of the teachings
and life of Jesus Christ, to accompany and support people of faith and
conscience around the world in the struggle to end poverty and injustice
that affect rural communities, and work toward creation of a sustainable
society.
VISION
To become a leading ecumenical organization recognized for
prophetically standing with and connecting rural
networks and faith communities, in challenging the injustices of
globalization.
 ACCOMPANIMENT HISTORY
FROM WHERE WE CAME
by J. Benton Rhoades
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT OF AGRICULTURAL MISSIONS
“The rural masses of the world are rising up. Whoever helps them
attain their rightful request for land to plant and to educate their
children may help to shape the future of the world and of peace. The
church should be there.”
Those were the words of
Dr. John R. Mott, founder of Agricultural Missions, to a select group of
mission executives and deans of land grant colleges at a meeting he called
in 1930. As a result of this gathering, Agricultural Missions was
formed in that same year with the stated purpose of
“fostering coordination of thought and action among agencies engaged in the
rural missionary enterprise.”
To fulfill it’s purpose,
the main task of Agricultural Missions during the first decades was to help
recruit, train and provide field support to missionaries in their work in
foreign lands. Through the efforts of Agricultural Missions, church
leaders began to proclaim
“the
Gospel for all of life,”
which emphasized providing for both the physical and spiritual needs of
people. This early work of Agricultural Missions was very successful
but the staff gradually became aware of the power of peoples movements as
vehicles of change. This realization led to the 1979 Jayuya
consultation, a watershed event in the history of the organization.
Held in Jayuya, Puerto
Rico, the Consultation brought together leaders of church mission societies
and representatives of peoples movements from around the world in an attempt
to redefine the role of Agricultural Missions and the relationship between
the churches and the movements. There were intense conflicts between
these two constituencies, but eventually, the yelling evolved into dialogue.
After a week, Agricultural Missions had as its new mandate
“to
deepen its commitment to peoples movements at home and abroad and to help
churches educate themselves by bringing critical information from Third
World Peoples—for purposes of consciousness raising and action.”
Rural Mission was
coming to be seen as a matter of accompaniment than of religious
instruction.
This mandate was
reaffirmed at the Annual Board Meeting in 1991 and continues to guide the
work of the organization. Over the decades, Agricultural Missions has made
deliberate choices to be in solidarity with those we accompany. We
have made changes in response to the changing contexts in which our church
and community based partners struggle. But through all these changes
one thing remains constant and central to the organization:
ITS COMMITMENT TO JUSTICE
FOR THE RURAL PEOPLES
Update: by Joe Keesecker
Benton’s leadership, and even more his openness to be led by the organized
rural poor placed Agricultural Missions on the road of accompaniment and
solidarity with a growing network of rural peoples’ organizations. The
mandate from the epochal gathering in Jayuya, reinforced and refashioned to
meet new demands, continues to shape the vision and mission of AMI and the
programs and policies of several of our supporting denominational programs.
As many of the rural organizations have matured and connected with others,
broader social movements for justice are being formed, and Agricultural
Missions continues to walk with our partners as part of several of those
movements, helping to link and involve the churches and people of faith with
the ever-changing face of the struggles to gain and retain for rural peoples
the right and power to make meaningful choices for their lives, their
families and their communities. We stubbornly believe with founder John R.
Mott that the “church should be there” to “help to shape the future of
the world and of peace.”
Click Here for brief description
of current programs.
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