by Bill Lottis

(To hear Bill Lottis describe how IMCO began, click here.)

A number of years ago I drove all night from Los Angeles to Portland, and I began to ask myself questions.

Was it possible to think that the job we had started—of reaching Native peoples for Jesus Christ—could ever be completed? What would it take to finish the job? This is what I was asking myself.

The conclusion I reached was—first of all—it would never be done by our little mission. Our mission was just one of several. I thought to myself, I wonder if it would be possible for us to collectively put our efforts to this task, so we could pray together, plan together, train together, and coordinate our efforts so that we could maximize the total skills, talent and capabilities of all of the ministries that I knew of that were working among Native peoples?

Upon arriving at home I got on the telephone and I began phoning the directors of a number of the missions that now make up IMCO. One of the exciting things about a vision is that it goes no where until people agree with it and start to make it happen.

Each of the men I called representing the various mission agencies working among Native peoples responded positively and with excitement about the idea. The response was, “Let’s do something together—let’s see if we can band ourselves and start working shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, instead of at a distance, a little fearful. Am I stepping on his toes? Will he step on my toes? . . . a bit of suspicion and unease.”

We started meeting together and we chose the name, Inter-Mission Cooperative Outreach, to represent the idea that, maybe, if we can cooperatively and strategically partner in Native ministry, perhaps it will facilitate our actual completing the job, to finish the task that God had given us to do among Native peoples. This vision has grown little by little through meetings and gatherings.

We had our first joint staff conference at Prairie Bible Institute around 1970. We agreed that every five years we would do this so we would become more personally acquainted at the grass-root level, so everyone knew that the other guy out there, working just as hard as you’re working, praying just as hard, needs our support and encouragement, so that we can collectively build momentum towards a completed task.

Each of the directors became a part of this vision and owned it as much or more than even I did. The directors have changed over the years, but today’s directors carry forward the same vision of strategically working together so that someday we’ll be able to say, “We’ve completed the task! Where will we go next?”

May God be glorified for what He’s accomplishing through a group of men who believe that we can be more effective by working together to complete the task!

August, 2002