Some of the objections and criticism surrounding the idea of
short-term mission trips are valid. Some of the trips seen advertised on
various websites appear to be nothing more than glorified vacations.
Short-term missions get a bad rap for three reasons:
1) Missionaries
allow their needs and agenda to supersede the local needs.
2) Missionaries are poorly equipped to do what needs to be
done.
3) What they're doing has no lasting impact.
There is some validity to these reasons. The typical
short-term mission trip involves construction or work that could be done by
locals, which raises the question, "Why not just send them the
money?"
Another perspective is that short-term missions can impact
participants enough to justify the cost of the project, but to what end?
What's the point of it all? If the purpose is to rally
participants to build the kingdom
of God, then it is a good
reason to justify the high costs of a short-term trip. However, many do not.
As someone who has been traveling overseas for many years,
it breaks my heart to see this tremendous waste of time, money, and energy.
So what do we do with this information? Give up? No. We find
ways to be better. One good place to start would be for church youth groups to
track those who have been mobilized for ministry by their short-term mission
trips.
Did someone go on a trip to India
or China
and then decide to move there? Is there someone in your church who is retired from
ministry? Talk to them. Learn from their experiences, and try to replicate
them.
Let me suggest to youth pastors that if the goal of
short-term trips is to ultimately send people overseas, please measure your
results. So, do we scrap the concept of short-term missions? No, of course not.
We need to find a biblical way to do short-term missions.
Fortunately, Jesus showed us how to do them in Matthew 10,
in which he sent out the disciples on radical faith adventures in pairs. It's a
model we're not always comfortable with, but it does the trick like little else
can.
Yes, short-term trips can work if you do them right. They
can still change lives. But we need to look much more closely at the various
models of missions and hold many to a more rigorous standard of evaluation.
What do you think?
Can short-term missions work these days? Share your answer in
the comments section below.
********************
********************
Prayer Requests
Pray for the safety and good health of next week's mission team.
Pray for those under the influence of Hinduism—that they will hunger for the living God.
Pray for Christians in Hindu regions—that Christ will be revealed through them and that they will
communicate the gospel in ways Hindus can understand.
Asia International Mission is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) non-profit ministry.
All gifts are tax-deductible and 100% of donations are used as designated
