The people have a heart for world evangelism; the church has a large number of supplies in books and Bibles; the congregation is faithful to tithe; now, how can these resources be used to contribute to a powerful missions ministry?

That's where ACMC Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment gets involved. This ministry, comprised of over 900 churches, Christian agencies and organizations, prepares churches to send and support missionaries into the world to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They help the church get motivated, mobilized and supportive of the cause of the Great Commission.

ACMC allows churches from all over the country to network together, mentor one another and build relationships. They provide materials from books and tapes to conferences, workshops and seminars to give training to church and missions leaders.

ACMC strives to give guidance and information on "almost every conceivable subject related to churches and their involvement in missions."

Now readying to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the organization's goal is to "continue to challenge and equip the church to take its rightful place in missions," though their primary goal is always to bring glory to God.

According to ACMC, "We teach churches how and where they can strategically mobilize its spiritual, human, and material resources toward fulfillment of the Great Commission."

ACMC affirms The Lausanne Covenant of 1974.

And this ministry, a resource in itself, is located right on the line of Peachtree City and Fayetteville, after relocating its national headquarters from Wheaton, Ill., just a year and a half ago. This location "provides major services to both the constituency and the field staff: finances, database management, national conferences support, materials sales, production of publications and new resources, promotion and marketing."

It originated in June 1974 at a four-day conference in California through several Christian leaders including Ralph Winter, Ed Dayton, Peter Wagner and Charles Kraft. The newly formed organization, known as "Association of Church Missions Committees," held the motto, "Churches helping churches in missions."

The vision of ACMC is to "have at least 6,000 missions-active churches networking together to mobilize their resources for world evangelization by the year 2000."

Of course the membership has grown dramatically over the years, but so has the staff. There are 10 regional directors in place in North America from the west coast to the east. This staff serves as consultants to developing missions ministries and serves to "maximize" the resources of already established ministries.

"Maximizing resources" encompasses several things: establishing relationships and partnerships between churches and ministries; providing training and pre-field orientation for short-term missions; structuring, recruiting and goal setting with missionary teams; developing and using missions policies; setting up a support raising system and budget; and more.

Plus, resources also include the people of the church. Prayer by the congregation, as much as financial support, is needed. Also, getting motivation by the church, requires them to be educated about ongoing missions projects, to be creative with ideas on how to help those in the field.

Missionaries themselves also require guidance from their church and supporters for aid and direction. Churches are taught how to deal with special needs of field workers through persecution to child care. Furthermore, they learn how to prepare missionary candidates with biblical training.

Another large function of the ACMC is to provide literature and materials to churches, keeping them abreast of current topics and issues in missions. Besides a huge range of books on all topics, videos and tapes, the ministry publishes a quarterly magazine called the "Mobilizer" and a newsletter called the "Networker."