The Wisdom of Short-Term Missions

The first missionary journey was not a matter of getting up and going. There was a sending at the start: the church at Antioch fasted and prayed, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate Barnabas and Saul for me," and they laid hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:2-3) — the team was sent out by a church, not assembled by itself. There was strengthening on the field: on the way back they turned around into Lystra and Iconium, where Paul had just been stoned (14:19), and went anyway, "strengthening the souls of the disciples," and appointed elders (14:22-23). They did not light a fire and leave; they left people behind who could keep on shepherding. And there was a report at the end: they gathered the assembly and "reported all the things that God had done with them" (14:27). Sending, strengthening, reporting — and the two most commonly dropped from short-term trips today are the two ends: the departure is run like a tour booking, and the return is a grid of photos.

First, serve the local church's agenda. Before you go, ask: what do you need? The answer is usually plain — the camp is short of helpers, the elderly need visiting, the roof needs fixing. Put down the itinerary you designed and cook what they ordered. Second, do things that continue. Work with the long-term workers: they were tilling this soil for years before you arrived and will still be there after you leave. Do not be a one-night firework, bright for an evening and leaving somebody else to clear up the expectations. Leave the teaching materials, hand over the contacts, make sure follow-up has someone to carry it. Third, it is not finished until you are home. Report to your church, put the field into long-term intercession, and examine yourself: is God using these ten days to move your own calling?

Short-term missions have taken a fair amount of criticism, and most of it is deserved: the price of one plane ticket could fund a local worker's ministry for half a year; guests who stay two weeks need collecting, translating, feeding and housing, and are often more disruption than help; and the posture of "we're going to help them" carries an unexamined superiority in it. Take these words in. But the conclusion is not "don't go." It is "go more like a guest": the money goes to what they decide, the timetable is set by them, and the local church's name goes on the credit. A short-term trip done right is still precious — a great many long-term workers had their eyes opened by one. And these three principles apply just as well to serving a small church in the next city over.