The following set of commitments are known within the Mission Commission as The Grenada Covenant, agreed in leadership meetings held in Granada Spain, November 2006. These commitments are a reiteration and adaptation of the “The Singapore Covenant” established in 1994 by the World Evangelical Alliance. The Grenada Commitments were first published in Mission Commission’s Connections Journal, Vol 06 No. 2, August 2007, which explored the issues of Good Practice in missions.
In dependence upon the Holy Spirit, fully identified with the vision, purpose and values of the Mission Commission; in sincere interdependent partnership with each other as vital members of the global missional family; we, the worldwide community known as Mission Commission Associates, affirm these commitments before the Triune God:
We commit ourselves to personal purity. We affirm the need for vital personal growth in Christ, of transparency before God and our colleagues. Integrity and holiness must mark our personal walk with God. These are intimate matters, but at the same time we can and must submit them to scrutiny by loving and honest colleagues. We will establish a personal team of 3-5 fellow servants who are authorized to call us to authentic accountability in our private, family and public worlds. When necessary, we will submit to and support transforming repentance, forgiveness, discipline and restoration.
We commit ourselves to the spiritual disciplines of transformational discipleship. We confess that as Christian leaders we have given too little time to prayer, the Word, to fasting and meditation, to worship and deeper reflection. We ask God’s forgiveness for this inconsistency. We in Mission Commission leadership desire that our ministry be marked by personal integrity and godliness, and not only by competency, strategic thinking, quality research and effective programs. We pledge to help, encourage and challenge each other by sharing valuable sources, counsel, articles and books that have impacted us directly, by praying for each other and by informing each other that we do so pray. We commit to read some of the challenging and even difficult books on spiritual formation that have been produced by women and men of God over the centuries who know what they speak of.
We commit ourselves to our family. We affirm that parents and/or spouse and children are our priority ministry responsibility. May our ministry, especially if it requires extensive travel, not be carried out at their expense, producing bitterness and alienation from family and/or faith, but rather resulting in love and respect. We will seek to maintain a balance between family and outside ministry.
We commit to invite the intervening and convicting Spirit of God into our interior landscape. He must examine us, our weaknesses and addictions in ministry, some of which we list: abuse of our position and authority, unjust treatment of fellow-workers, excessive travel, weakness in personal morality and temptation, attraction to internet pornography, gender confusion, struggles with faithfulness to the spirit as well as the law of our marriage vows.
We shall submit our travel schedules to our spouses as well as our accountability team. We will not accept any invitation unless at least 48 hours have gone by. We are fully aware of the subtle craving for extended ministry travel. The price already paid by some of our friends and colleagues is all too clear. When needed, we ask the Spirit of God, and our sisters and brothers, to expose this addiction and help us recover from it.
We commit ourselves to a local church. We will seek opportunities for witness and service according to our gifts and time. We will model in our local churches what we in the broader World Evangelical Alliance community desire to see built in the worldwide Body of Christ. We desire to see vital missional churches who truly impact their community and from that base spiral out to the world.
We commit ourselves to financial integrity. We accept our responsibility as stewards of God’s resources. We will reveal our funding proposals and open our personal financial records to trusted colleagues for their critique. Our corporate financial books will be evaluated by competent accounting firms who can examine our finances and by courageous colleagues who can evaluate our motives and processes as we raise, account for and utilize funds.
We commit ourselves to respect Christian organizations and leaders and honest communication. We seek to build up the Body of Christ! We confess that too easily we fall to the temptation to belittle other colleagues and ministries. We wish to be characterized as a movement that genuinely affirms other leaders and the ministries they serve. Where there is error, however, we will speak the truth in love. We will report stories and statistics accurately, without embellishment. We shall give credit to sources as well as individuals and organizations involved and not take credit for that which we have not accomplished.
We affirm these seven commitments as a personal and corporate covenant of best ministry practice, exemplifying the Apostle’s charge: “You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were pure and honest and faultless toward all of you believers,” 1 Thessalonians 2:10.