On June 23, 2016, Lloyd Kim, having completed his first full year as coordinator of Mission to the World, stood before the 44th General Assembly and presented a simple challenge: Pray that God would raise up 1% of PCA church members to send into full-time missions over the next decade.
Ten years later, MTW conducted a survey asking churches, “How many new missionaries 18 years or older, serving one year or longer, has your church sent with any sending organization from 2016 to 2026?” The 118 PCA churches that responded reported sending 1.9% of their congregations as missionaries over the past decade.
Kim said the challenge cascaded in ways he never expected, all from a very simple idea. A pastor could look at his congregation of 100 people and easily determine that 1% was just one person.
“And then, I think what was also helpful is how I tried to frame it from the beginning not only that it was a prayer — we’re just asking God to do this for us — but also really trying to frame it as a tithe,” Kim says. “And that really just turns the whole mobilization process around.”
Randy Nabors, pastor of missions at First Presbyterian Chattanooga, agrees: “If you don’t create a target, you’re never going to hit anything.”
Nabors, first ordained in 1976, has spent years serving in the field with MTW and Mission to North America. He joined the First Pres staff in 2022 and immediately embraced the spirit of the 1% Challenge that this missions-focused church had already accepted.
First Pres has a long, rich history mobilizing foreign missionaries, including sending some of the first missionaries to Korea in 1908. The church will host its 75th missions conference in October 2026. Still, Nabors explains, “It’s not a question of how many we sent in the past. It’s a question of ‘What are we doing now?’”
The church currently has 34 missionary couples in the field, Nabors says, but the 1% Challenge helped First Pres approach missions with increased focus.
“I think intentionality is a great thing when it comes to missions, and it gives a chance to kind of take an introspective look about how are we doing.”
Likewise, Andrew Park, lead pastor of Living Faith Presbyterian in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, welcomed the emphasis on world missions the 1% Challenge facilitated. Living Faith particularized in 2015 with around 60 members as the English-speaking church plant of the Korean-speaking The Way Church.
When Kim issued his challenge in 2016, Living Faith had already deployed two members to East Asia with MTW. Since then, the congregation has more than doubled in size, and they have seen God raise up two more full-time missionaries to that region. More than focusing on sending long-term missionaries, however, Park approached the 1% Challenge as an opportunity to turn the congregation’s hearts to the spiritual needs of the world, both near and far.
“I took it even at a more general level of just raising missions awareness because that’s the first step of raising up missionaries. Let’s really embrace this to raise awareness about missions. Let’s go on vision trips. Let’s go on mission trips, and let’s go through that process. We hope that God continues to send people out.”
That missions-mindedness, Park says, has facilitated the growth of the church in other ways. As Living Faith placed a greater emphasis on missions and mission-mindedness, the congregation also became more prayerful and generous.
“It’s very unifying among the leadership when everybody is all about missions. There’s also just a wonderful, deeper fellowship amongst our members,” Park says. “Because when you go out on the mission field together, and you experience those things together, it’s very meaningful.”
The unifying effect of the 1% Challenge spread not just among congregations but also to those in the mission field around the world. Rich Wolfe, adult discipleship pastor at Village Seven Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, was transitioning from his role with MTW as regional director of Central America and the Caribbean to his current pastoral position when the 1% Challenge first launched.
“That was invigorating to the field as well as to the churches,” Wolfe says. “When the 1% thing came out, a lot of my team leaders said, ‘Wow! Just this push could make that whole [recruiting] part a little bit easier.’”
Even as Village Seven saw decreasing numbers in their own congregation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, they still were able to send six members, equaling about 1% of their congregation, into the mission field. One couple went to England, one to Thailand, and one to Puerto Rico, all through different sending organizations. Wolfe explains that the church’s missions team has always had a strong focus on world missions, and with the 1% Challenge, “it was like we had our antennas up. . . . And we are looking for those who are showing interest. It helped us to be more intentional to follow up with them.”
With the 10-year window having closed in June, neither MTW nor the churches have any intention of letting up.
“We’re always thinking about, ‘Let’s keep going. Let’s keep praying for God to raise people up,’” Wolfe says.
Kim agrees: “We don’t ever want people to stop praying for the 1% …. We like thinking long-term, and if this has helped move the needle just a little bit in helping to shape the culture of mobilization, then praise God, we want it to continue.”