Vision New England Funded by Trust Set up Over 100 Years Ago
Vision New England revamped its mission and is as committed as ever to evangelism.
In 1887, A.J. Gordon and Alpine McLean founded the Evangelistic Association of New England to help bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people there.
At his death, McLean gave half of his estate in trust to keep the ministry running. Now known as Vision New England, the ministry still benefits from the $5.13 million trust from which it receives about 40% of its annual $700,000 in revenue.
“One hundred years later, he is still affecting evangelism in New England,” Vision New England President Charles Galda told MinistryWatch.
Galda said that even though it has a long history, the work is far from over, adding that only about 2% of the population of New England is theologically Evangelical.
A few years ago, its leaders were re-evaluating its purpose and even questioning its continued existence. Vision New England had been known in the 1980s through the 2000s for its large conferences attracting thousands to hear featured speakers such as Rick Warren and John Stott. However, as free content became available over the internet, the economics of those large conferences didn’t work anymore, Galda said.
Around 2017, Vision New England’s leaders approached Clive Calver, who had led the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom and helped substantially increase the number of evangelical Christians in the UK. Calver was preparing to retire from a pastorate in Connecticut at the time.
At the same time, Charles Galda felt a “very strong compulsion to leave the corporate world.” He joined Calver, then his pastor, on a tour of New England to investigate how Vision New England could alter its vision from offering large conferences to serving the area’s churches more effectively, Galda told MinistryWatch. Through that process, he became the president of Vision New England.
The ministry rewrote its bylaws, revised its mission and vision based on the feedback, and created an association of directors — a diverse group of 130 members who elect the board and help determine the direction of Vision New England each year.
Galda described the transformation as a reversal: it moved from offering a service and asking churches to help to asking the churches how Vision New England could serve their needs.
Each year, Vision New England hosts listening sessions for its association of directors to share what trends they are seeing and then proposes goals for the year.
Vision New England hosts 50 targeted events each year centered on what it calls the three pillars of evangelism — promoting justice, fostering unity, and making disciples. Thrive, one of its largest events, had about 700 attendees at its Cape Cod event in March. Church and ministry leaders came together to worship, collaborate, listen to speakers, and build unity in the work of evangelizing New England.
It hosts the Church in Action podcast featuring leaders who share what God is doing in New England and how they support His work.
To foster unity among the evangelical leaders in New England, it hosts cohorts of Christian leaders to gather and share ideas, build friendships, and work together. Cohorts for women in Christian leadership, discipleship pastors, senior pastors, and missions pastors have all been formed.
As it grows in its re-launch, Galda said they’ve made a lot of progress in fostering unity and promoting justice, but are now focused on helping churches make disciples. It plans to move from pushing the message of discipleship to finding methods for equipping believers through the spiritual disciplines, like prayer and bible study. Ultimately, they’d like to create a two-year discipleship program for churches.
In the MinistryWatch database, Vision New England has a donor confidence score of 77, a two-star financial efficiency rating, and a D transparency grade because it is not a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).
It voluntarily resigned its membership in the ECFA in 2020.
“Our decision to discontinue participating in the ECFA certification is not any reflection on the ECFA as a ministry. We wholly support their work and focus,” Galda told MinistryWatch at the time.
“No one else is focused on serving New England specifically,” Galda said of the very secular area of the country.
“Because New England is farther ahead on the secular curve than the rest of the country, if we don’t figure it out, it could be a problem for the rest of the country,” Galda said. He believes supporting Vision New England could be very strategic for the renewal of the church, and God might bring another awakening to the country like He did starting in New England in the 18th and 19th centuries.
