I used to be a RADAR technician for F-4 fighter aircraft. Doing that job, I learned that there are times when ground clutter returns so much energy that real targets disappear from the scope. We at MNA seem to have been in one of those periods since the last MNA update. Given the weighty matters addressed in our report to the General Assembly, it seems likely the clutter will not clear just yet. Even assuming that, it would be a shame to miss some of the amazing things the Lord has done over the past six months in MNA.
With this update, I’d like to briefly do two things: first, tell the PCA specifically what has been done so far, and second, highlight just a few of the ways the Lord has worked powerfully in some of MNA’s ministries.
New Funding Model
The way MNA pays its people and funds its work may be common, but it’s been quietly broken for a long time. Fixing it is the single most important institutional change we’ve begun to make. We’re being deliberate in the pace of our adoption to avoid unintended consequences or outrunning our resources, but we are committed to the new direction and have already moved African American Ministries and Mercy Ministries into the new model.
Most know that under the previous (outgoing) model, almost everyone in ministry is responsible for raising their own personal support. In practice, this has meant that people called to ministry spend significant time and energy as individual fundraisers, and the time devoted to financial survival can compete with the time needed to fully focus on ministry. It also means that donor relationships become individual assets that ministry leaders guard carefully because their personal livelihoods depend on them.
This approach has significant downstream effects. In the last update, I explained that we had an unhealthy net asset mix in MNA because nearly all funds were restricted and designated to specific ministries. The result was an imbalance between restricted and unrestricted funds that constrained MNA’s ability to operate as a unified mission organization. The new model changes that. Ministry leaders now submit outcome-based budgets that explain what they intend to accomplish and the cost to do so. MNA then provides that funding, drawing first from each ministry’s designated support accounts, then from specific ministry general funds, and finally from the MNA general fund as needed. Fundraising remains important, but achieving the ministry’s objectives becomes primary.
The shift does two things for us. First, it frees our leaders to focus on the outcomes they were called to produce. Second, it creates real accountability — when MNA underwrites and participates directly in a ministry’s work, it has standing to ask whether the work is being done.
Cost Discipline and Structural Reform
Beyond the funding model, we’ve implemented a series of operational changes. Discretionary spending was frozen. Most salary increases were reduced or suspended. Our footprint at General Assembly has been scaled back significantly, including the elimination of the hosted luncheon, which, however great its relational value, could not be justified with MNA’s current financial posture. We similarly scaled back the number of funded GA attendees.
We also made structural changes with a longer-term impact. One of those was the conversion from a traditional PTO model to Flex Time, which eliminated a growing earned-leave liability. We are also launching a common platforms initiative to consolidate digital tools and websites into lower-cost, enterprise-class subscriptions, delivering immediate savings that compound over time.
Governance and Transparency
Over the past six months MNA leadership has put a lot of effort into governance. A review of our restricted fund practices identified gaps in both our public-facing website language and our internal money-handling policies. Both have been corrected. We also adopted and published a formal communications policy to protect the integrity of the MNA brand and ensure that what we say publicly reflects who we are and what we believe. These are included in the GA report and will be presented to the Assembly for ratification. Critically, we have also established a rotation for auditors moving forward.
There is more work ahead, particularly around expense management and organizational efficiency, but our governance foundation is now solid.
MNA Ministries Kept Serving
I’m grateful for the institutional changes we’ve been able to make in MNA, but the best thing that’s happened since the last update has nothing to do with creating order. Instead, it has to do with creating outcomes, and the PCA can rejoice with us as we see how the Lord has worked powerfully in and among the people serving as staff, volunteers, and partners in the ministries of MNA.
The ESL Ministry, for example, had a year of new records. In 2025, 56 new ESL ministries were started. ESL Ministry conducted 78 training sessions and 16 ESL Enrichment Seminars held via Zoom. Sales of the ESL curriculum doubled in 2025, making it the CDM bookstore’s top seller.
The ESL team now has 28 active trainers, and its newsletter has more than 1,000 subscribers. All of these indicators tell us one terrific story: the PCA is having an impact on the practical and spiritual lives of people across the continent through its ESL and Refugee and Immigrant ministries.
Other ministries have also seen positive growth, like church-planting support. It may not be widely known just yet, but 54 new works were started in the U.S. and Canada in 2025, the largest number in 20 years.
On top of that, MNA conducted five Church Planter Assessments and evaluated 36 candidates, collaborated with McLean Presbyterian Church to provide education and support to 78 potential planters at the Multiply event, and hosted the Looking Forward Together Summit at Deer Creek Church in Littleton, Colorado, bringing together 80 young leaders from across the PCA.
The church vitality ministry thrived in 2025. We participated with Covenant Seminary and other committees and agencies in a comprehensive Lilly Grant, and our part of that focuses on creating and leveraging ministry ecosystems to reach, prepare, and support pastors, along with a program aimed at young people called “Pathways to Vocational Ministry.” We launched the Rural Church Planting Ministry to catalyze increased rural presence across the U.S. and Canada, and we distributed regular scholarships out of the PCA Unity Fund.
This year (thankfully) brought no major natural disasters, but MNA Disaster Response doubled down on developing strategy and people, winning a grant that enables it to expand its coverage, build deeper relationships with other response organizations, and fund an expanded response strategy.
Metanoia Prison Ministry added 135 volunteers to its Mentoring and Discipleship Ministry, serving 405 new prisoners in addition to its already incredible footprint in prisons and in its correspondence ministry. The Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel endorsed 330 Chaplains, and 245 of them were PCA teaching elders!
Ministry to State added teaching elders to both the Florida and Georgia state capitols and embarked on an expansion to serve the diplomatic corps at home and abroad.
African American Ministries provided direct support and encouragement to more than 200 African American leaders and congregants across the PCA through leadership development, pastoral care, and ministry initiatives aimed at strengthening long-term ministry health and sustainability. Through the blessing of God, our City Lights Chinese Church Planting Network has planted three mission churches (in Fairfax, Virginia; Vancouver, Canada; and Orlando, Florida) while launching two Chinese ministries within PCA churches in St. Louis and Pittsburgh. We added six Hispanic teaching elders in 2025, and the number of Hispanic TEs is now 76 — praise God.
Finally, Korean American Ministries has had an impact far greater than its two-man staff, working tirelessly to produce a pipeline of teaching elders for our Korean language churches. A highlight for that ministry was TE Bill Sim’s trip to Korea, during which he led a series of seminars in major cities across the country in collaboration with the Kosin denomination. More than 600 Kosin leaders attended these seminars, including the moderator, general secretary, permanent committee members, and presbytery leaders. The central message linking the effort was that healthy churches plant churches, and church planting strengthens the health of the church. Through this powerful collaboration, we hope to strengthen and expand the leadership pipeline for Korean American PCA churches.
Gratitude
This update has been a bare gloss of MNA’s work this year, but I hope it shows that God is doing real things through his people.
The institutional repairs we’ve described had to be done, and we’ll keep doing them. But none of that is the real point. The point is the ministry itself, and the people carrying it out deserve the prayers and the gratitude of the church. I hope you’ll pray for them specifically as we head to the General Assembly.
Steve Dowling serves as the interim coordinator of Mission to North America