This past summer, from evangelical churches nationwide, more than one million of the faithful departed for the mission field, taking up Jesus’ “Great Commission” to “go and make disciples of all nations.” The churchgoers hoped to convert souls, establish churches and meet other human needs. But they did not intend to serve for years or whole lifetimes, like such pioneers as Jim Elliott, who was killed in Ecuador in 1956 evangelizing to native people; or Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission; or even the awful fictional caricatures of African missionaries in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “The Poisonwood Bible.” These new missionaries came home after only a week or two.
Short-term mission trips to Africa, South America and Southeast Asia have become very popular in the past few years. They are a keystone strategy of evangelical pastor Rick Warren’s plans to help Rwanda. These trips, like Christian missionary endeavors overall, encompass a wide variety of activities, from evangelization and “church planting” to health care and economic development. The billion-dollar question, however, is whether they’re worth the cost. Are short-term missions the best way to achieve the goals of Christians? Critics argue that sightseeing often takes up too much of the itinerary, leading some to call short-termers “vacationaries.”
It’s hard to judge the fairness of this characterization, since almost no one runs the numbers. Estimates of how much churches spend on short-term missions go as high as $4 billion a year, according to the Capital Research Center. The literature is sparse, most of it focusing on the spiritual aspects, for the missionaries themselves. And these aspects are sometimes oversold.
Being in the area of youth ministry, I struggle with this. I know that we are not going to make a major impact on a village or neighborhood. I know that local labor can be better (if it isn’t corrupt). But I wonder if it matters to the impoverished in the Dominican or New Orleans or ‘you name it’ that someone cares enough to actually be present in their circumstances? There is a reality to the ministry of presence that should not be so easily cast off in economic terms. Some of the criticism here, and elsewhere, can be addressed be churches and sponsors having a better, fuller understanding of the reason for going and the real impact that can be had.
In Him,
Mark
Put me down as someone who strongly supports the value of short-term mission trips. “Vacations with a purpose,” is how it’s often described, and I think that’s OK. People are going to take vacations anyway, and MANY, many people have come back from those short mission trips with a whole new view of the world, and of the universal Church of Jesus Christ, and the urgency of helping our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world where the problems of daily life are so much greater than we Americans (with our affluence and advantages) can usually even begin to imagine.
So yes, it’s true that 5 or even 10 short term “missionaries” or visitors don’t do a whole lot of good for the real missionaries on the field, or the people they serve. But it DOES help create “World Christians,” with a heart for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. It does lead some to go on to become missionaries eventually. And it creates MANY people who pray and give to missions with a devotion they never had before, and with an informed passion that they probably wouldn’t gain any other way. And I’d have to say, that is PRICELESS.
David Handy+
That was also Miranda Hassett’s conclusion. On their first trip to Rwanda, members of the AMIA congregation that she studied expected merely to make a shopping list of worthy projects for which their community could provide funding. It came as a shock to discover that the Christians they visited were more concerned that the Americans simply come to a better understanding of the way in which their African brothers and sisters in Christ lived, moved and had their being.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com/2008/01/accountability-globalism-wave-of-future.html]Hassett review[/url]
One of the biggest single issues with American Christians today is convincing them that they should be grateful for what God’s blessings. Many people, Christians included, have a skewed vision of what real problems are because they have nothing to compare it to other than other similarly “blessed” Christians or their secular friends. In our relentless pursuit of comfort and privilege we cannot often see the forest for the trees. Spiritual “tourism” is not a bad thing if we can only learn that one thing from the experience. I would suspect that there are longer term benefits to these experiences, especially for our younger Christians, than meets the eye. The Body of Christ is exactly that, a body. We cannot all be missionaries. Some of us are called to our careers to be a blessing to others, including missionaries, in a very different way.
As one who has been promoting Short-Term Missions within the emerging Anglican church in North America, and one who has been involved in leadership within the “Short-Term Missions Industry” for almost 30 years, I feel compelled to comment. Many of the concerns expressed are certainly valid. If lives are not truly changed it would be best to just send money. And much money that is sent just creates dependency (cultural slavery). Also, unfortunately, most of the money donated for Short-Term Mission trips would never be sent otherwise.
If the author had done additional research, he would have found a statistical study entitled ‘Is Short-Term Mission Really Worth the Time and Money?’ from http://www.STEMMinistries.org. This demonstrates in rather dramatic fashion the deep, long-term impact of a well-run STM program – on the ‘go-ers’ and on those they serve elsewhere. He would have also found that the Short-Term Missions movement has an excellent set of ‘Best Practice’ Standards that clearly describe what a ‘well-run’ STM program looks like. [See http://www.stmstandards.org] And the Anglican Global Mission Partners as well as many of the Anglican Missions Organizations have adopted these standards.
As you evaluate the impact of this, the prime way that many parishes get involved in Global Mission, look for ways that the significant investment of people and money can have optimal impact, both spiritually and financially, and do not judge it based on extremely limited information.
ServantPrep,
I think the operative word is “well-run.” This seems to me to be the rub. The onus is on the church/group leader to make sure that the objective(s) are clear and attainable and go beyond sight-seeing and into soul-seeing.
Mark
I agree entirely. The resources and training opportunities have been in place and available for many years. The problem is, as usual, the unwillingness of people to avail themselves of them and, could I say, the ‘arrogance’ of those who believe that just because we’re rich Americans that we know better than anyone else how to best connect with those from other cultures and what they need most.
Short-Term Missions has been described as ‘a dance between an elephant and a mouse’. We, because of our relative affluence, assume that we are the elephant. If we look at it in Spiritual terms (obedience to the Scriptures, dependence on God, seeing Him meet overwhelming need, dealing with persecution, etc.) rather than in financial terms, we quickly realize that we North Americans are really the mouse. And this happens most dramatically as we walk and worship and weep with those of radically different circumstances from ours. This results in, quoting Bob Pierce founder of World Vision, ‘getting our hearts broken by the things that break the heart of God.’ A PERSONAL PARADIGM SHIFT. And well-planned STM trips with well-trained leaders and well-prepared teams greatly increases the probability of this happening.
ServantPrep (#5 & 7),
Thanks for your well-informed and balanced comments. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I’ve seen well-run Short Term Mission trips have a very powerful impact on some friends I know. And the vast majority of mission boards support such “vacations with a purpose.” And that’s strong evidence that they find such STM’s generally useful and worthwhile.
Thanks for the links.
David Handy+
Married to an “MK” (Missionary Kid)
A group from a local Anglican mission church recently came back from Uganda. The one thing that struck one of the members was that the Ugandans repeatedly said that THEY would pray for US in America, the reason being:
‘Because you have so much meterialism in your lives and lifestyles to draw you away from God, that you need our prayers so that you can focus on things of Him”.
Amen.
In His Peace
Jim Elliott <><
meterialism = materialism 🙄
My parish sponsors annual STM’s to Honduras and semi-annual STM’s to New Orleans. I have been to Honduras with them three times. I agree with most of the commenters here about the potential benefits, the potential pitfalls, as well as the need for good, God-centered leadership. I can add a few observations.
First, these STM’s, and a few other activities, such as Kairos prison ministry and a tutoring program in a nearby housing project, are a wonderful opportunity for our medium-sized parish ((about 400 ASA) to invite its members into the work of spreading the good news of God’s love. For everyone involved in actual hands on mission work, there is a need for five to ten supporters who help financially or by providing supplies (reading glasses or big bottles of aspirin or coats or shoes, for example) or helping to pack or helping with a variety of other tasks. The teams may be small, but the parish as a community comes to feel a real ownership and participation in the effort.
Second, it is hard to underestimate the impact these trips have on teenagers, who find themselves suddenly yanked out of their comfortable, air-conditioned lives that are filled with cars and malls and movies and placed for a week or two among people who are materially impoverished. It’s one thing to know intellectually that this is how most of the world lives, but to actually see it first hand and meet people who live that way is another thing entirely. And watching a ten-year-old hold a crayon as if it were gold has a way of putting things in a new perspective for teens and adults alike.
Third, the warmth and friendliness and love of people living in third world countries is quite convicting. Theirs is a world in which the important things are God, family, and friends. They are richer than we are in so many ways, and most of us don’t even understand that. I personally had an epiphany on my first trip to Honduras when I finally “got” spiritual poverty. I realized that it doesn’t take much to convince a Honduran mother that she is totally dependent on God to feed herself and her kids. But for us Western first worlders, who worship self-sufficiency, an understanding of our dependence on God is much harder to acquire.
Finally, it is hard to measure the benefits of annual trips from one American parish to a sister parish in a third world country. Friendships develop. Letters and emails are exchanged throughout the year. It becomes a real exchange: what can we bring you this year? How is elderly dona Ruiz doing? What Bible stories do we want to use in VBS next summer? To which nearby communities should we take our medical clinic?
In short, most of the benefits of these STM’s seem to accrue to those who go on the missions. It is incredibly generous of our third world partners to invite us into their lives, and ultimately humbling to realize we are accepting gifts from them.
Rick (#11),
Thanks for sharing your testimony about the powerful impoact of STM’s, especially on young people, but not only on them, as your own case shows so well. Your story rings true to all that I’ve heard from other people blessed to be part of churches that regularly send people on such short international trips.
However, I hope you won’t mind if I point out that I think it’s clear that you used the wrong word in making your second point above. The context makes it clear that what you meant was this, we can’t OVERESTIMATE (not underestimate) the impact of such trips on teenagers.
BTW, I’ve always wondered about the “O.P.” after the Rick in your chosen identity here. I’d be delighted to find that you are that rarity of rarities, an Anglican Dominican (Order of Preachers), like Thomas Aquinas or Catherine of Sienna etc., but alas, I suspect it means something else. Would you be willing to clarify what the O.P. stands for in your case? Just curious.
FWIW, I’ve always thought it was very telling (and sad) that while we have Anglican Benedictines and Franciscans (and we could sure use more of those), that it’s very unfortunate but revealing that so few Anglicans seem drawn to the Dominican style of spriituality. I’m not sure why, but the numbers speak for themselves.
Anyway, thanks again for sharing your experience about STM’s.
David Handy+
Thank you for your comments and support, David (#12). and thank you for your appropriate correction to my comment.
I am in fact a life-professed member of the Anglican Order of Preachers. We are slowly growing. If you would like more info about our order, feel free to email me: harrick at bellsouth dot net.