by Sandy » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:42 am
I've seen both good and bad experiences with short term mission trips. Much of the perception in a specific church is created by the team when they return and give a presentation about their experience. I've been through three such presentations, all in the same church, led by the same staff member, that appeared to be nothing more than expensive vacations. Two of the trips involved serving a church plant by providing training to volunteers. Both the sponsoring church, and the plant, were made up of expatriate, English-speaking Americans and Canadians living in Central America to avoid taxes, and because it was cheap. Not to say that those people don't need the gospel, too, but the beach scenes and hikes through the jungle that dominated both video presentations didn't sit well with the church. A third trip, to Germany, to another expatriate church, included only two church members other than the pastor and his family, the youth pastor, and his wife. After that, you can see how difficult it was to convince the church to do another similar trip.
I think short term missions are great if there is a specific purpose which the participants can meet, if it is well planned, and if there are requirements that are placed on those participating, specifically those gifts or skills necessary to do the kind of work that is needed, whether it is physical labor, or spiritual gifts. I also think Christians need to look around and see if there are needs they can meet which will have an impact both locally and globally. In our area, there are several ministries made up of local volunteers, who regularly participate in English tutoring for students at several of the local universities who are here from China. Every student they lead to Christ is a potential "missionary" when they return home. And the difficulties involved in foreign travel are eliminated by that kind of ministry, and so is the question about whether the motivation to go is just to be a tourist, or if your heart is really in the ministry.