CMS Australia

The Church Missionary Society of Australia (CMS) is a fellowship of Christian people and churches committed to global mission. We work with churches to set apart long-term workers who cross cultures to share the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The CMS fellowship is made up of six state branches and the federal office, CMS Australia (CMS-A). The branches raise up missionaries and support, while CMS-A works for and on behalf of the branches to train cross-cultural workers, place them with international partners and provide pastoral care for them while on location. CMS-A supports over 200 missionaries in over 40 locations around the world. It also provides some services for the branch offices, including finance and communications.

CMS-A operates from two locations: its training centre, St Andrew’s Hall, in Parkville, Victoria and an office adjacent to the CMS NSW & ACT Branch in the Sydney CBD.

Our vision

Our vision is for a world that knows Jesus.

We work with churches to set apart, equip and support long-term workers who cross cultures to share the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world is growing and changing rapidly, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

As we seek to see a world that knows Jesus, and conscious of our responsibility to peoples in our near-neighbour region, the mission of CMS is:

• to reach gospel-poor peoples for Christ
• to equip Christian leaders for church and society
• to engage churches in cross-cultural mission

The distinctives of CMS are:

• Bible-based
• Gospel priority
• Long-term focus
• In-depth training

Our mission

Reach gospel-poor peoples for Christ

‘Gospel-poor peoples’ are people groups who have limited or no opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ in their own language and cultural context without outside help. Typically, they will be people groups with less than 2% evangelical Christians.

In these parts of the world, CMS missionaries engage in evangelism and church planting, partnering with local churches wherever possible. We also send people with specialist skills to witness in word and deed, and through ministries of compassion. In our increasingly mobile world, there are many opportunities to reach gospel-poor peoples in diaspora communities, including refugees.

We are open to going wherever the Spirit of God leads, but focus on gospel-poor people groups among Muslim and Buddhist peoples, and historically Catholic Europe.

Equip Christian leaders for church and society

We praise God for the extraordinary numerical growth of his Church around the world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This growth has created great needs in discipleship, Bible training and leadership development.

In these parts of the world, we partner with churches and Christian organisations to train and mentor Christian leaders, prioritising those places where the need is most urgent and local resources are lacking. CMS missionaries encourage, support and develop culturally appropriate and sustainable leadership, literature, resources and ministries to build the local Church.

Engage churches in cross-cultural mission

We believe that God has sent his Church into the world to share the gospel. We long for local churches to be committed to global mission through fervent prayer, active engagement, generous support and readiness to set apart cross-cultural gospel workers.

Therefore, we teach, train, encourage and challenge churches in cross-cultural mission, both in Australia and overseas, and offer churches our expertise in selecting, training, deploying and caring for long-term, cross-cultural gospel workers.

Our CMS branches work with churches across Australia to promote cross-cultural mission locally and globally. Through our global networks and relationships, we serve partner churches around the world in their cross-cultural mission engagement.

Our distinctives

Bible-based

Our understanding and practice of mission is grounded in God’s word, the Bible.

Gospel priority

In all our ministries, we strive to see people turn to Christ and become mature disciples of him.

Long-term focus

We value long-term mission in partnership with and under the authority of local ministries. We emphasise careful selection, on-going language learning, deep cultural insight, strong pastoral care and committed prayer.

In-depth training

Serving long-term in mission requires in-depth training, so we value Bible-based theological education, followed by specialised mission preparation.