Training

Why New Zealand?

The Residency in Mission (RIM) is an immersive mission and evangelism experience designed for young adults who are called to serve beyond their home country in partnership with ministries in the Methodist Wesleyan family. RIM is a 9-12 month commitment that includes guided mentorship from mission and evangelism leadership experts. RIM also provides opportunities for host ministries to strengthen the work in their local contexts, while offering Residents an environment in which to grow in their ministry service. Each ministry context has been carefully vetted to provide safe surroundings with well-established support systems.

Despite New Zealand’s famous scenery, known internationally through movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and its first-world economic status, New Zealand has always had a secular cultural component. In more recent years there has been a marked increase of this secularism with nearly 40% of the population indicating they have no religion. According to one analysis New Zealand is the most secular English-speaking country in the world!  Against this secularism backdrop and with its accompanied mental health and addiction issues there are many opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Such work needs always needs to be done intelligibly and with grace and truth (John 1:14). Rev. Dr. Richard Waugh, WME Regional Secretary for the Pacific Region and National Superintendent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand says, “It is vital that young people have opportunity to understand the gospel and why the church is such a life-giving part of society.  Young committed Christians can have a prominent role in such missional work, and we are excited by the potential of ‘Residency in Mission’ (RIM) through World Methodist Evangelism.”