Resource for the pre-trip phase:
Before You Go by Jack Hempfling, a
devotional book for short-term mission trip participantsTL;DR:
Short-term mission trips involve far more than the days spent on location. Each trip has three phases: pre-field preparation, on-field ministry and cultural learning, and post-field debriefing, reentry, and ongoing engagement. Healthy relationships and alignment with local ministry strategies help make every phase worthwhile. Four real-life stories illustrate the value of these experiences.
Many North Americans participate in short-term mission trips each year. A 10-day short-term mission trip experience is more than just the ten days spent on a mission field. There are important things that need to happen before the trip occurs, and there are important things that should occur after the ten days are over. As you set up your mission trip calendar, many things need to be on it in addition to the dates of departure and return.
Here are the three phases of every short-term mission trip. Each phase includes activities that help make the trip effective.
| pre-field |
| Preparing |
|
| ↓ |
| on-field |
| Giving/Receiving |
|
| ↓ |
| post-field |
| Back to Earth |
|
This chart reflects Roger Petersen's presentations at fall conferences of the Fellowship of Short-Term Missions Leaders and the follow-up discussions among conference participants.
It's been said that the interactions within a group of participants on short-term mission trips often go through a progression of:
Over the past few decades, short-term mission trips have become very visible parts of the church's attempt to carry out Christ's Great Commission. While those trips are a key component, they are not the one-and-only way the Great Commission is being fulfilled. Today, they are one component of the world evangelism enterprise.
Mission trips reflect God's giving nature. Some teams work on construction projects; others focus on evangelism. Participants may contribute skills in information technology, medical care, sports outreach, teaching, or sewing. The trips can profoundly affect participants as well as host communities.
Some time ago, a Haitian pastor reminded me that a chief benefit of mission trips was the sense they give to both receivers and goers that they are part of a global Church.
An excellent short-term mission creates healthy, ongoing relationships between sending and receiving partners, who collaboratively plan on-field activities in line with the partnership's long-term strategies.
A good mission trip is honest in its promotion, financial practices, and reporting of results. It will have well-planned ministry activities and reliable logistical support. Good short-term mission trips are led by spiritually mature servant leaders who are prepared, competent, and accountable and who seek to equip and empower others.
A good short-term mission trip has ongoing training and equipping (pre-field, on-field, post-field) that is biblical, appropriate, and timely. Preparation and reflection continue throughout the trip, followed by thorough debriefing of all participants and ongoing follow-up afterward. In short-term mission trips that are done well, participants are, above all else, seeking God's way of doing and being. Most importantly, they have their hearts set on the Kingdom of God.
Resource for the pre-trip phase:
Before You Go by Jack Hempfling, a
devotional book for short-term mission trip participants
Acrostic using the letters of "Mission Trip"
Experiences on every mission trip turn into stories worth telling over and over again. Here are four such experiences in which I was privileged to participate.
I am sometimes asked, "Rather than spending so much money on travel, lodging, and meals to go somewhere and help on a construction project, wouldn't it be better for us to just send that money to hire local workers to get the job done?"
One day during our five years as missionaries to Haiti, I posed that question to four or five key Haitian pastors. One of them got a pained, sad look on his face. An awkward moment passed, and then, in a quiet, plaintive voice, he said, "It's not about the money. They help our church members know that we're not alone. They help us know that we're part of something global. Having a mission trip team here is an uplifting time for them regardless of what gets done in terms of construction."
I went on my first short-term mission trip as a college student. We went to a town in northern Mexico called Muzquiz. Forty years after that trip, I was back in Muzquiz over a Christmas break, this time as the university's coordinator of a large short-term mission group.
On New Year's Day during that trip, people from five other churches in towns nearby gathered in the yard of the Muzquiz church for a combined celebration service. I stood in the back, leaning up against a palm tree. A young man from the Muzquiz church stood nearby. At one point, he leaned over and asked me, "Aren't you one of those they said came here a long time ago and helped build this first building?"
"Yes," I said.
"Thank you," he said. "Because of what you did, today I know Jesus."
The man had not yet been born when we visited 40 years earlier. However, because of the help our team gave a tiny house church, the gospel reached the heart of a young man who came along later.
Many short-term mission teams have a "no romancing" rule. No romances between team members. No romances between team members and those of the receiving church.
However, on one trip I helped organize and send a team on, a college student in Oklahoma named Joel and a college student in Ohio named Sara wound up on the same short-term mission trip team in Papua New Guinea one summer. They obeyed the "no pairing off" team rule. However, they exchanged phone numbers and email addresses at the end of the trip.
A long-distance romance did develop, and after graduation ceremonies at their respective universities, they were married. They then spent two years as short-term volunteers in Italy. After seminary, they were appointed as career Nazarene missionaries. They have served in Europe and in Southeast Asia.
One year, I was in a Louisiana church recruiting people for a short-term mission trip to do church construction in Monterrey, Mexico. An elderly lady approached me and said, "I'd sure love to go. I've always supported missionaries. I would love to visit Kingdom work in another country. But what good would I be? I cannot do anything to help with the construction project."
I told her if she came on the trip, we would put a chair under a tree, and she could dispense lemonade to the workers (local people as well as the Americans on the team). She could also interact with the inevitable crowd of neighborhood children who would show up to watch the activity on the project.
She did sign up for the team, sat in a chair under a tree, dispensed lemonade, and interacted daily with all the children who showed up. She became their English-speaking grandma for that week! She was a key part of that mission team's impact on that local congregation's ministry.
More mission trip stories
"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." -- Romans 15:5-6 (NIV 2011)
| Solving problems in each phase of every cross-cultural exposure experience |
1. pre-field preparation |
| Problem: Time pressure, distractions, busy culture, work
schedules, tourist or consumer mentality, "adventure" attitude, lack of understanding Solution: Provide pre-field Bible studies. Insist that every team member prepare their heart for ministry by completing these devotional Bible studies before leaving for the field. (Pre-trip Bible study devotions) |
2. on-field experience |
| Problem: Leaders guided by "tyranny of the urgent," lack of time to
prepare, and unexpected schedule changes. Good intentions with no follow-through Solution: Schedule 20-30 minutes before breakfast (or another set time) for team members to be alone with God. Provide on-field devotional Bible studies to help participants grow in their spiritual walk. |
3. Purposeful reentry |
| Problem: Time and schedule demands on returning students,
workers, and professionals. Failure to understand or feel the need to readjust to a person's own
culture can later cause serious problems for returnees. Solution: Frequently, people underestimate reentry stresses. Maximize your short-term mission trip investment with follow-up and debriefing. Provide reentry devotional Bible studies that include helpful reentry questions. |
-- Based on material by Howard and Bonnie Liesch "As leaders, we can do a great job of managing team logistics while at the same time becoming so busy with those details that we fail to help our team members grow spiritually." —Howard and Bonnie Liesch |
"Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you." -- 2 Corinthians 13:11 (excerpt, NIV 2011)
-- Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
 | How do you get started raising finances for a mission trip? There are some strategies you can use to create a network of supporters. [ more ] |
Short-term mission trips are intensive and purpose-driven experiences that typically last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Some last two or three months. Participants -- usually volunteers from a variety of backgrounds and age groups -- do a wide range of things while working with church congregations at home and abroad. These activities often include construction projects, healthcare, educational programs such as teaching English, or community development initiatives. The focus is not only on providing aid but also on building relationships and encouraging cultural exchange. Participants encounter the local culture and learn from local people while offering their skills and resources. Well-planned trips can benefit host communities and have a lasting influence on participants.
