Continuing a mission calling

Presbyterian News Service: Continuing a mission calling

Farrell brings passion and experience to World Mission leadership.

LOUISVILLE — Hunter Farrell left for his first mission assignment in Zaire with a sense of call and a load of doubt.

He was 23 and living in Washington, DC., when he heard God’s call to mission service in 1981.  But Farrell, who became director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s World Mission program area on Aug. 1, had serious misgivings about the relevance of the institutional church.

“At age 16 I left the church for six years,” Farrell says. “I was frustrated with the church in general and the Presbyterian Church in particular. I thought we were functioning as a social club and not living out what God is calling us to do in the world.”…

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“My experience in Africa and Latin America have shaped how I understand myself and the mission of the church,” Farrell says. “I am an evangelical Presbyterian—that is one of the languages I speak. I am a Reformed Christian—that is one of the languages I speak. Another language I speak is that of millions and millions of people living in poverty in the Two-Thirds World. Those issues will always be present with me.”

Poverty and oppression in the developing world are deeply rooted in structures that Christians must work to change, he says. “That draws us into the cultural realm, the political realm and the social realm, but I am convinced that Christ came to be Lord of all our lives.”

Farrell has been impressed with Linda Valentine, the General Assembly Council’s executive director and Tom Taylor, deputy executive director for mission. He says their leadership makes him optimistic that World Mission “will become relevant to an even greater part of our church.”