For some time we at Evangelical Friends Mission (EFM) have been asking a crucial question: How can EFM be better structured to mobilize Evangelical Friends worldwide to carry out the Great Commission of Jesus Christ? At its meetings last November the Board gave Dan Cammack, Executive Director of EFM, and Matt Macy, Associate Director, permission to develop a restructuring plan and to begin implementing it. They have been doing so with the help of several board members, the executive committee of the Board, and a consultant.
The restructuring plan has the following goals:
- To become more integrated with the yearly meetings/regions of Evangelical Friends Church – North America (EFC-NA)
- To build our capacity as Evangelical Friends to sustain the mission work we already have as well as to plant new fields and partner with yearly meetings around the world that are or will be planting new fields
- To enable EFM to be more efficient and effective in its work as well as a better steward of its resources
- To engage the younger generations in Great Commission work
- To see if we can finally put to rest the organizational confusion that has plagued EFM for most of its existence by developing closer working relationships with our yearly meetings/regions.
The more we thought and prayed about how to accomplish these goals the clearer it became to us that we need to regionalize our office staff and tasks; in other words, we foresee the likelihood that future EFM office staff will be scattered across EFC-NA’s yearly meetings/regions with no central physical office.
On February 16 and 17 we began implementing the restructuring plan by taking a very painful step: We closed down our office in Arvada, Colorado and laid off John and Vicki Hinshaw, David Cordova, and Laurie Mortimore who live in Colorado and Sue Jones who lives in Southern California. This was painful because they are not only our co-workers but also our friends, and some of them have served with EFM for a long time. David has been with EFM for nearly 28 years, Vicki for 22, and Laurie for 15. They will always have a special place in our hearts and in the history of EFM.
We are now entering into an interim period of about four months with an interim staff that will be based mostly in Wichita, Kansas. This interim period gives us time to bring our current system to an end and to grieve the many good things we are losing from this change, which is first and foremost our office staff. This interim period also gives us time to answer many questions like: Who will the new staff be? Where will they work? How will the yearly meetings/regions and EFM work more closely together? And many more questions. The consultants we are working with are taking the directors, Board, and others connected to EFM through an assessment process in the coming weeks and months that will help us answer many of these questions.
We are doing what we can to minimize the effects of these changes on the lives and ministries of our missionaries. Please pray for them as they make adjustments along with the rest of us.
Throughout this restructuring process we continue to depend on you for your prayers and financial support. We also ask for your patience. It’s going to take a little while to get the interim staff up and running, so for a time we may not be able to respond to your questions or requests as quickly as we have in the past. Please hang in there with us and don’t be afraid to follow up with us if you’re not getting a response.
The contact information for EFM during the interim period is:
Email: efm@friendsmission.com
Phone: (303) 421-8100
Fax: (316) 267-0681
Mailing address: PO Box 771139, Wichita, KS 67277
Thank you for your attention to this announcement and for your prayers. May the Lord use this time of change to further his mission to the world.
– Dan Cammack, Executive Director of EFM
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