A Free Church congregation in Tampere has released its own lead pastor from his normal duties for the rest of the year so that he can travel among the missionaries the congregation supports. Antti Hietamäki began the arrangement on 1 August and serves as the congregation's project missionary until the end of 2026 — an unusual step in which a sending church gives its pastor's time, rather than only its money, to the workers it has sent out.
Hietamäki traces the idea to the beginning of 2022, when he says he experienced God speaking to him about the need to support missionaries. That spring he telephoned Hanna and Markus Rokosa and Heli Jaakkola to arrange visits, and during those visits the conviction was confirmed. He recalls being struck by a visiting speaker from the United States, who had grown up in Africa, describing how the pastor of the church that sent his family had never once come to see them. "Wouldn't it be wonderful," Hietamäki remembers thinking, "if one could spend one autumn just visiting missionaries."
The arrangement was deliberately built so that it does not consume mission funds. Hietamäki remains on the congregation's payroll and small grants from other congregations cover his travel costs. The elders began preparing the change early and at his own initiative, and chose Juhani Huuskonen as the natural person to deputise for him. Tommi Karjalainen, who chairs the elders, said the temporary solution allows the congregation to take part creatively in mission work that matters to it, and at the same time opens up space to rethink its leadership and structures.
For a free church congregation, the sending of workers and the keeping of contact with them are usually the work of a mission committee rather than of the pastor personally. Tampere's experiment inverts that division of labour for one autumn, and the congregation plans to return to its normal arrangement at the turn of the year.
(Originally published in Finnish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Suomen Vapaakirkko / Suomen Viikkolehti — https://svl.fi/antti-hietamaki-aloitti-loppuvuoden-kestavan-lahetysprojektin/
