What If We View Missions as a Team Evangelism Strategy? Part 1
- Blog What If We View Missions as a Team Evangelism Strategy? Part 1
“Short Term missions are a waste of time and money.”
Recently, I heard of a college professor saying this to students as they were about to depart for a mission trip.
I’ve also spoken to a friend who recently returned from a trip to Africa where she was profoundly used by God and came back deeply impacted by what He did in her life while she was there. Yet, the experience was tainted, or at least diminished, by some of the “toxic tourist” type of people that traveled with her group.
In my role, I am honored to hear stories across a wide spectrum of organizations, churches, and educational institutions about how mission endeavors changed lives, but I also hear the challenges – and doubts – of people in the trenches of ministry too.
Whether you are dealing with discouraged students or jaded adults, if you’ve been in the missions arena long enough, you’re likely familiar with these experiences. While the negative experiences are true for some teams, I believe they should be held loosely. Not as a rule for the majority but an opportunity to reflect and diagnose the factors that inhibited the mission.
Because I’ve heard far too many stories of hearts, lives, and communities changed by those trips!
I see so many organizations training their teams well and running trips (both short and long) with integrity and purpose, truly supporting their in-field partners in life-changing ways. It does not discount the distasteful experiences, but should bring perspective to a larger reality.
The challenge with our thinking is that we often have these two perspectives as either/or. We think one is right and the other wrong without considering different approaches.
My Perspective on the Complexity of Short-Term
When I look across the landscape of short term missions, I see how far we’ve come in the past 10-20 years. Things have changed as we implemented valuable lessons we’ve learned from leaders and books like When Helping Hurts and Toxic Charity, etc. We stepped back from trips for a time during Covid and now encourage local leaders all the more to shepherd their communities as we adapt to business centric models. Even with these changes, God is at work in more ways than we can even see. The vast majority of organizations are trying to shift to adapt to where He is leading their own community.
From my perspective, I see a lot of teams well-prepared for what might come in the missional landscape (physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc.). They are humble, always learning, adaptable, and keeping the most important values at the forefront.
Still I have a question lingering in my mind… What if the preparation, on-field experiences, and post-trip processes were leveraged as an evangelism or discipleship tool in addition to the “field survival and mission?”
What if Short Term Missions Were Viewed Differently
Very commonly during debriefs or stories after trips, you’ll hear at least a few participants mention something about how they went to serve and thought they would be impacting lives, only to realize that their life was seemingly more impacted than anyone at the destination.
Even team members who may not walk as closely with Christ as others often experience that “something” tugging at their hearts through the trip experience, even if they downplay it as just “it was cool.”
Although we have all been there, I think the commonality of that experience reveals something in our approach that bears consideration.
What if our primary ministry target was actually the participants?
What if their experience with God was one of our most successful “outcomes” of a trip?
What if the impact of folks returning and seeing God at work, gaining new perspective, and feeling something they’ve never encountered before that they can carry into the everyday lives and communities was a primary discipleship strategy of our churches and communities?
What if we are overlooking something deeply profound in how God is using moments and special experiences to set that person on a new trajectory in life?
What if… we used some trips as an outreach tool to our neighbors, community, and friends who’ve never seen God at work as vividly as they would pulled away from their normal lives through an opportunity to serve? Or as Jesus said at the beginning with his soon-to-be disciples: “Come and see!”
Now, let me pause for a moment because I know some of you are ready to object – and I love you for it! If you know me well enough, I’m not saying that “all” trips need to be run with this as the primary purpose. After all, if you are going into any spiritually contested arena, small cracks become big quickly, so wisdom needs to be applied.
I also realize that there are other challenges to short-term missions (e.g. most short-term trips reach population groups that already have access to the gospel, etc). I understand that going into very different cultures from our own requires sensitivity and a level of focus on the time spent in that culture and with those people.
Rest assured, I will have additional posts outlining some of these challenges and suggesting potential implementation guidelines for trips. However, don’t discount this concept entirely. Let me challenge you to wrestle with this idea for a bit.
For today, consider this. What if you took 20-30% of your teams and intentionally leveraged them to engage those in your community that didn’t know Christ?
We spend a lot of time intentionally preparing our team. In many cases, there are theological components already included in that training. Could we leverage someone’s God-given desire or skills to serve those less fortunate to have conversations and experiences that might open their eyes to His heart for the world?
I heard of a college volleyball team that recently assisted an organization running a sports camp for kids. Four of the team members were baptized while they were abroad.
When teams come back, are we actively following up with participants and finding ways to continue their discipleship journey? Or for some of you… are you following up with your team leaders to make sure that those conversations are happening?)
The average person lives around 4,000 weeks… so we know that the 1 to 2 weeks that a participant just experienced will quickly fade without intentionality and the “rubber band” will snap back into place within a few months.
From my perspective, I see an enormous potential for actively investing in these participants for a long time. Too often, we think the impact is “just” 1 person for 2 weeks. Most participants will receive donations and talk about the trip with dozens (if not hundreds) of friends, family members, and neighbors. When you consider a team of 10 or 20, the potential reach quickly increases to several hundred just within their own communities… and the story in the participant’s life can extend forever.
Therefore, I believe we need to start with that end in mind. If we have a clear picture of what we want to see, not just for the partner and people groups in the field, but for our participant… then that will naturally start to change our approach and our Team Leaders’ approach for this journey.
Here are Tips on this Perspective on Mission Trips
Since this blog post is too long already, check out these examples:
If we believe that our primary goal for participant engagement is to see the participant’s life transformed… we start to look at:
- Who are we prayerfully considering for that trip?
- How essential will a deep relationship with Jesus be on this particular trip?
- What if God is nudging you to say yes to “that” person (whoever your “person” may be)?
- What if we get someone on our trip who is more interested in taking selfies? (and this isn’t just students… adults just hide it better!) Could we perhaps give some grace or draw alongside them to lovingly disciple them without inwardly/externally shaming their behavior?
- How can we actively be praying for our teammates while in-field for that individual to encounter God?
- What stories come up that can be shared with donors, relatives, and friends that expand the possibility of someone hearing about what God is up to in that participant’s life? (Stories, especially while on-field, can be meaningful seeds for spiritual conversations.)
We know that there will always be struggles as a team, with personalities, travel, stress, warfare, etc. We sign up for it when we apply and try to prepare ourselves and each other as best as we can… and extend grace as much as we’re able.
What if the healthy interactions and grace we extend to others in the field opens up possibilities of relationships at home to continue conversations about how God might be working in that person’s life?
Maybe, just maybe, God could use that in our own communities to light a fire in people’s lives.
Consider this:
- Are there any examples you can think of where someone on a trip came closer to Christ?
- What might that look like if we used some intentional trips as a means of evangelism, not just to the destination, but to the trip participants themselves?
Please tune next week! We’ll talk about cultural and theological considerations behind shifting to a mission-centric engagement strategy.
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