The purpose of this program, Pastoral Excellence Program (PEP), is to transform the ministry visions and magnify the pastoral impacts of African American pastors through executing multiple ministry immersions in African and African Diaspora contexts with consistent peer groups for mentoring and networking. The positive relationship between breadth of vision and depth of impact is affirmed time and again by pastors and churches connected with Lott Carey. Pastors who have personally experienced and engaged in ministry alongside international peers in various cultural contexts through Lott Carey travel opportunities testify to transformation and reinvigoration. I was informed that the immersion ministry is not a vacation trip but that it promises the following:
- Participation in the missions helps us to embrace the oneness of humanity.
- Mission is our response to our covenant relationship with God.
- Through mission service we carry out our roles as servants of Jesus the Christ.
- Through mission we embrace our commission to transform the world.
Mission is at the heart of the Church and the Christian life. In fact, a church without mission isn’t a church at all. The question for every Christian is not whether missions is for me, but, “Where is my place in missions?” – Missions the Heart of the Church (PEP Orientation Manual Guyana Immersion 2006)