United States

One of United World Missions core values is the local church. We believe that God has entrusted His church with the primary responsibility of making disciples of all nations. Part of the mobilization task is to help churches get out into the world to be involved in the work of the ministry. With mutual respect, each entity brings strengths, visions, resources and capacities together as we partner for a higher cause, His cause. To see the nations worship a great God!

Our mobilization staff has decades of experience as Senior Pastors, Mission Pastors, Missions Chairpersons, and full time Mission Consultants and Mobilizers. Our desire is to work together to see your church reach the cross-cultural world whether it's on the other side of the planet or within your own neighborhood. Through our partnership with Serving in Mission (SIM) we seek qualified and passionate staff to assist and mobilize churches in cities such as Atlanta, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, Omaha and Seattle.

John & Melinda

Kids: Geoffrey, Daniel & Emily

John and Melinda Bernard have been missionaries with United World Mission (UWM) since 1989. John currently serves as UWM's Executive Director, providing overall organizational leadership. John also serves as International Ministry Director, overseeing UWM's Area Directors that lead UWM missionary teams in over thirty nations around the world. In addition, John is a trainer at the Center of Intercultural Training which prepares missionaries from UWM and a number of other agencies and churches for cross-cultural ministry.

John earned a Doctor of Ministry in Missions from Columbia International University in 2005 with his dissertation focused on training church planters in Vietnam. John earned the Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1987, and is ordained by the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. In August 1994, John and Melinda completed a four-year term of service in Spain. John taught at a seminary in Madrid and served two local churches, ministering in the areas of evangelism, discipleship and leadership training aimed at preparing Spaniards for church planting ministry. Prior to joining UWM, John served as pastor of the Rand Memorial Church of Seabrook, New Hampshire, from 1987 to 1989.

John's warm and caring style of leadership is greatly appreciated by UWM's field missionaries and serves him well as a communicator. He and his wife, Melinda, have been married for twenty years and make their home in Fort Mill, South Carolina , with their two sons, Geoffrey and Daniel, and daughter, Emily Anne.

United World Mission is an inter-denominational church-planting mission agency, with an overall staff of two hundred, working in thirty countries around the world. United World Mission is committed to a philosophy of missionary ministry known as Saturation Church Planting (SCP) with an end goal of seeing "a church in every town, village, and neighborhood." United World Mission missionary teams seek to advance church planting movements by envisioning and equipping national churches and church planters in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Central Asia, and Asia . United World Mission's International Office is located in Charlotte, North Carolina .

Mark & Cathy

Mark has been actively involved in various aspects of ministry since 1974. Throughout the years he has assisted churches and para-church ministries in developing their staff and volunteers in strategic outreach leading to transformational impact and churches planted. He served as a Mission/Executive Pastor from 1994 to 1998 in Pennsylvania as well as the Executive Director of The Doorway Inc.

Mark has developed and guided cross-cultural church planting and other ministry in several countries, traveled in more than 60 countries, and led more than 35 short-term trips. In 1998 he joined United World Mission as Assistant to the President where he was excited to become involved in a movement, which was planting churches across the world. Today Mark's role at United World Mission has expanded to include mobilization, field development, church partnerships, and leadership development.

Mark and his wife, Cathy, have been married for almost 29 years. They have three adult children, four grandchildren, and reside in Matthews, NC.

Stephen

Wife: Shelley

Kids: Rebecca, Kathryn & Jonathan

Stephen Hood serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for United World Mission.  He joined the UWM team in September of 2007 after serving as the

Co-Executive Director for Community Bible Study International.

Stephen graduated from Houghton College in 1990 earning a BS in Business Administration. In 1995 Stephen, and his wife Shelley, graduated from The Salvation Army’s College for Officers’ Training where they received their ordination and commission as officers (ministers) in The Salvation Army. The Hoods served as the Commanding Officers for both Danville and Frankfort, Kentucky directing The Salvation Army’s services for central Kentucky.  Stephen has assisted several ministries in designing and building their fund development programs and is currently pursuing his M.B.A. in Strategic Management. 

Stephen is called by God to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Above all, to live to win souls and make their salvation the first purpose of his life.  With experience in organizational development and community relations, Stephen joins United World Mission with a heart for sharing the Word of God and building others in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Keith & Rachel

Kids: Luke, Ezekiel & Elijah

Personal Website

Rachel and Keith both had a strong desire to be involved in missions, yet neither of them had ever been out of the country. They decided after they were married in October '92 that the best way to find out more about missions was to go on a two-year trip.

In May of '94 they moved to Kiev , Ukraine with United World Mission and Youth Ministry International. While in Ukraine they worked with local, national churches to provide training and recourses for youth ministries.

They were able to take that two year experience with them into their church ministry as youth pastors. They have been at their current church for over 9 years where they've constantly placed before the students the challenge of considering doing a two year cross-cultural ministry so that God could grow their faith and infuse them with a heart for the nations.

They are very excited about Expedition 237 because they now have a practical way to help this next generation of believers become directly involved in what God is doing in the world. Expedition 237 will not only challenge believers to go, but will also provide the much needed pre-field training, and on the field coaching that will ensure that each participant is serving in the way God has prepared in advance for them to do. Keith and Rachel like to say that Expedition 237 is the ultimate test drive. They believe that it is also a great step in the direction of a life lived in ultimate faith. Their prayer and dream is huge - they want it to become the norm within the Christian community for 20's and 30's to have had at least 2 years of cross-cultural experience.

Tom & Nancy

Tom was born and raised in the family of a pastor and well-known evangelist. Becoming a Christian later in life, Tom was constrained by the biblical mandate to take the Gospel to the whole world. Tom is self-educated in missions and has invested his adult life in helping churches maximize their potential for world evangelization.

Tom was missions chairman for 10 years at Berachah Church in Cheltenham,Pennsylvania, and missions director for five more years at Chelten Baptist Church in Dresher Pennsylvania.

Tom is currently the Director of Church Mobilization for United World Mission. Prior to that he served 15 years with ACMC (Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment) as Northeast Regional Director and Supervisor of Regional Ministries. With ACMC Tom inspired, challenged

and trained hundreds of churches in strengthening their commitment and approach to missions. And essentially, that is what he continues to do through United World Mission.

Tom is a sought after missions speaker and consultant for churches throughout the eastern United States. He has lectured on world missions and the local church at Seminary of the East, Philadelphia College of the Bible, Westminster Seminary and Columbia International University.

He is a regular lecturer in the course "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement".

Tom has co-authored a book with Lois Shaw entitled "Missions in the 21 st Century". Shaw publishing company in Wheaton Il publishes it. His second book " Today's All-Star Missions Churches" is published by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids MI.

Tom is married to Nancy and they have two grown children and five grandchildren. Tom & Nancy now reside in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Gene & Cheryl

Gene and Cheryl have served with United World Mission for 33 years. Twenty-three years they were spent in Dakar, Senegal where Gene ministered as a teacher and director of Dakar Academy. Cheryl served as field hostess and treasurer and worked with women and children's evangelism. Presently, they are serving with Ethnic Focus Ministry (EFM). United World Mission is partnering with EFM in this unique outreach ministry to the ethnics living in the United States.

Ethnic Focus Ministry's purpose is to glorify God by equipping and mobilizing churches for evangelism and discipleship in ministering to ethnic America. EFM is comprised of team members across the United States. Its offices are located at the SIM-USA facility in Charlotte, NC. EFM is prepared to help churches answer the vital question, "How do we reach the various ethnics in our community?"

Rilla

Rilla comes to the Charlotte Office in the position of Executive Assistant to both John and Paul. Rilla grew up in Oregon and Wyoming and later received a BA in Bible at a Bible College in Montana. After a summer missionary trip to Italy and a 3-year term in Alaska, God placed a desire on her to help long-term overseas. In 1991 she went to Europe, serving for 13 years in the countries of Austria, Serbia, Hungary and Germany. Rilla was seconded to United World Mission two years ago and arrived in Charlotte in late August 2004.

George & Kathy

George graduated in 1975 from Columbia Bible College with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Biblical Studies and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree in l979 from Denver Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary. George completed his Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) at Columbia International University in 2001. His dissertation was entitled Models of Missionary Training: An Assessment of Alternative Approaches to Training for Cross-Cultural Ministry .

George and his family served on the field in missions from 1980 to 1994 in Canada, Alaska, and Russia doing demographic and receptivity survey work in Minnesota, Ontario and Manitoba, teacher and director of the Arctic Bible Institute, church planting in an Athabascan village in Alaska, Director of Missionary Training Outreach (summer missionary program), Alaska Field Director, Director of Siberian Ministries and Russian Field Director.

Since1995 George has served as the director of the Center for Intercultural Training (CIT), a pre-field missionary training program in North Carolina. The CIT program now services a partnership for the training of missionaries from a variety of mission agencies and churches.

George and Kathy have three grown children.

John & Bonnie

John & Bonnie attended L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angeles . They joined United World Mission in 1989 after making several trips abroad to participate in short term mission projects in Africa and Central America . John worked as a Civil Engineer for 22 years in California.

They have served 2 years among the Hispanic community in Santa Cruz , Bolivia , 3 years among the Quechua in the Andes of Bolivia, 1 year in Peru , 2 years in Mexico and 3 years in Chile. Their current assignment is to train church leaders in evangelizing children both in and outside the U.S.  and prepare and translate teaching materials into Spanish.

Jim & Diana

They both hail from the State of Texas. The couple met through the services of First Baptist Church, Greenville, where Diana was a member and Jim was a new member.  The immediate attraction led to marriage two years later, the month after Jim received his commission in the United States Air Force.

After 14 years service in the military, Jim resigned his commission to pursue pastoral ministry.  The couple subsequently planted two churches over the years and worked in full-time and vocational ministry as the circumstances warranted.

Both have received Master of Divinity degrees from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC.   

Although always involved in church activities, Jim was not born again until April, 1972, when attending a Bill Gothard Seminar.  Within two years, he and Diana, who had been a Christian since age nine and called to ministry at 16, began to explore the possibility of foreign mission service.  After many years of waiting and preparing, the door finally opened through United World Mission in 2005 within the context of mentoring national pastors in Eastern Europe.  It proved to fit them like a hand in a glove.  As spiritual parents to isolated evangelical pastors in a bleak spiritual climate, the Masons have fully embraced the privilege of giving generously from the fullness of their life’s experience to others whose hearts are submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ.