What would you guess an organization like Global Mapping
International (GMI) is mostly involved with?
If your answer is “mapping,” guess again!
I have just returned from my first experience of acting as
chairman for a GMI board meeting and I’m amazed and
impressed at some of the new ventures the dedicated staff of GMI have produced
in the past six months. With Jon Hirst completing his first full year as CEO,
it is obvious his vision that GMI become a strategic source of information
that helps mission leaders make informed decisions is really starting to take
off. That’s why Jon has been steering
GMI beyond mapping to do things like mission research and
then present results in creative digital and print publications. Here are three recent examples we were shown
during our meetings:
- 1. Mission CEO Survey 2013: Navigating Global Currents – a research project commissioned by Missio Nexus that involved interviewing CEOs from 150 different organizations to understand the trends they are facing as global mission leaders.
- 2. Agency Web Review 2013 – A comprehensive study of how well US mission websites are being used to attract and accommodate new missionary staff candidates.
- 3. India Decision Makers Research – A special study to learn how decision-making is done among leaders of key Indian mission organizations. Already this report is reshaping how GMI is preparing resources to equip Indian mission leaders of tomorrow.
The GMI website will soon have information on where and how
to download all these reports. (www.GMI.org)
If that isn’t impressive enough, another very cool venture
of GMI is launching Missiographics: eye-openning infographics telling the story of global
mission. Using its own team of experienced mission/mapping technicians along
with a cadre of young local graphic designers, GMI is attempting to crunch
complex mission data into powerful one-page presentations that tell the story
in a glance. You can actually sign-up to receive two of these missiographics
each month—free! (Learn more at http://www.gmi.org/missiographics.htm)
On top of that, GMI is now offering to
produce custom-designed missiographics specifically for mission organizations
to tell their story to friends and donors.
Besides board members with impressive credentials like Scott
Moreau, professor of Intercultural Studies at Wheaton Grad School and Editor of
the Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Greg Jensen – Microsoft Division Director
for MS Office Applications on the Apple Mac, Joseph Vijayam – Founder of the
multinational software company, Olive Technology, we were happy to welcome new board
member, Timothy Beals. Tim is the president of CREDO Communications, a company
that offers both publicist and publishing services to Christian authors. We’re
all expecting that Tim will be able to help GMI significantly expand its own
goals to publish and offer eBooks for the global mission community.
Who knows? With all these new resources, maybe GMI will
finally inspire me to sit down and write that book on mission strategy I keep thinking
about!
Jon, thanks for this great shout out about GMI's ministry. It is exciting to see what God is doing. We really appreciate your leadership and input to help move GMI forward.
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