Partnerships and Accountability

Accountability is essential in Christian mission. We are accountable to the individuals, churches, trusts, and organisations we partner with. We are held accountable through Australian Presbyterian World Mission and Three Crosses Church.

Ordinarily, missionaries have a sending church, a sending organisation (or mission agency) and a partner church or organisation that receives them in their host country. In our case, this works a little differently. Since we are in Australia, but our ministry is in Vanuatu, there is no receiving church or organisation to oversee our work. We are also slightly different because our mission agency does not collect the money given by sponsors.

To create good accountability, we are partnered with Australia Presbyterian World Mission (APWM) as our mission agency, and Three Crosses Church to oversee us more intimately and provide fellowship and pastoral care. Three Crosses also provides an employment contract that details my responsibilities, performance indicators, and other aspects of employment. We have formalised this arrangement under a Memorandum of Understanding.

Areas of Responsibility

APWM is responsible for liaising with Talua Theological Training Institute to ensure our work is valuable, giving assurance to all partners that this is legitimate ministry, done in partnership with and meeting the needs of Talua. APWM, in turn, is accountable to the Presbyterian Church of Australia.

Three Crosses Church acts as my local employer. They collect funding from financial partners and distribute it to me fortnightly as income. They also track my progress and provide pastoral care.

Tom reports to:

• Three Crosses Church (monthly through the elders)
• APWM (annually through the director)
• Westminster Presbyterian Church Western Australia (quarterly through the WA mission committee)
• Westminster Presbyterian Church National Assembly (annually through the national mission committee)

Letters of Recommendation

Ps Christopher Iawak, Principal of Talua Theological Training Institute

Kevin Murray, Director of Australian Presbyterian World Mission

Stuart Brooking, Executive Director of the Overseas Council of Australia

(The Overseas Council of Australia supports evangelical theological education in 25 countries. They share a lot of our ideas about theological education in the majority world.)

More information

Read the Memorandum of Understanding

Read the Employment Contract

You can also see my weekly timesheet