Dan Bouchelle: Walking in the Reign

Not too long ago, I asked my readers at OneInJesus to recommend other Restoration Movement bloggers.

Dan Bouchelle appeared near the top of the list and yet I didn’t know he’d begun blogging. I have since become a dedicated reader.

I was already very familiar with Mission Resource Network, which Dan is president of. MRN is a ministry that helps send missionaries and plant churches across the world. My own congregation has frequently sought their advice on missions oversight questions.

(Every church should. These guys are just incredibly knowledgeable, wise, and helpful when it comes to missions.)

Dan used to blog at Confessions of a Former Preacher, where he’d built up a loyal audience with excellent articles. But in June 2013, he relocated to Walking in the Reign, which has a more boring sedate title. Nonetheless, the excellence has continued.

To give you a sense of his work, I need to introduce you to a series of his posts —

Short Term Missions: Triumph or Tragedy

Doing Short Term Missions Well, Part 1

Doing Short Term Missions Well, Part 2

This is from the first of the three posts —

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• “American churches look incredibly wasteful to believers in other countries. We spend thousands of dollars to fly large groups of people to poor countries to do manual labor projects in a place were people with the required skills are begging for work. With a fraction of the money we spend on trips, the local churches could hire the work they need done with better quality, build the local economy, and establish relationships with prospective converts. I heard recently of one church in Mexico that was repainted six times in one summer by different youth groups from different American churches.”
• …
• “Please tell the American church to stop sending us their children. We want partnership with American churches, but we need dialogue with mature leaders who can provide us with perspective and coaching to solve our own problems. Baby sitting youth groups may help them, but they create a burden on us. When they are here, we have to shut down everything to get them around and keep them busy with projects they can do without speaking the language. We can’t turn them down when they ask to come because we need the financial support that comes from their churches, but we don’t get much benefit from them being here and they cost us a great deal.”
• …
• “For the first time in history, missions is being done primarily for the benefit it provides for those who go instead of those to whom they are sent.”

There are few issues more complex and more frustrating for the global church than short term missions. They have become a $2 billion annual industry for the American church and the results are mixed. How should we view short term missions? How can we do STM in a way that maximizes their benefit and avoids creating self-serving problems?

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I confess that I edited out Dan’s positive comments re short term missions. You’ll have to go to the original posts for those. Besides, it was the final bullet that hit me in the gut.

Good, real, practical advice that every church leader needs to read.