Church Plants and Missions: A Framework: Short-term Missions; Support; Heart

All short-term mission activity will be all-church activities. That is, there will be no teen-only or campus-only mission trips. Rather, teen and campus mission works will be in support of congregational mission efforts.

We will always support at least one mission that can be supported with short-term mission trips that include teens and college students along with adults.

We will encourage some short-term mission trips each year to be adult led with teens and college students participating

I mentioned in the preceding post the relative ineffectiveness of short-term missions compared to long-term missions. It’s true. But it’s also true that we can do short-term missions better so that they are more effective (although they still won’t be as effective as long-term missions).

I did a series on this not too long ago.

A Different Way to Do Teen Ministry Campus Ministry Church, Prologue and Introduction

A Different Way to Do Teen Ministry Campus Ministry Church, Relationships?

A Different Way to Do Teen Ministry Campus Ministry Church, Mentors?

A Different Way to Do Teen Ministry Campus Ministry Church, Short-term missions?

A Different Way to Do Teen Ministry Campus Ministry Church, Putting Theory into Practice

A Different Way to Do Teen Ministry Campus Ministry Church, What This is Not

A Different Way to Do Teen Ministry Campus Ministry Church, Wrapping Up

The gist of the idea is that teens learn best when they are modeling adult behavior. Therefore, rather than having a teen mission trip, we should have adult mission trips that teens participate in. They’ll then see adults doing mission out of passion for the mission, rather than chaperoning kids. The teens need to see that the adults go to Honduras out of concern for the Hondurans — not merely to host devos and help with the kids.

All short-term mission trips will be preceded with training about the mission, the local culture, and the story of this mission effort. We will not show up unprepared or uncommitted. We will arrive ready to go to work.

If the short-term trip is worth spending God’s money, it’s worth doing right. And that means the volunteers need to spend some time getting ready, to learn the culture of the nation they are visiting and how to act in a foreign land, how to talk to people about Jesus, and why we are doing this.

Teens will generally rise to the level of our expectations — and not much higher. We need to be serious about the mission, and the teens (and adults!) need to show up ready to serve. That means the teens need to be involved in the preparation.

Support

• We will work with the entire congregation to take ownership and participate in our mission efforts, not only through short-term missions but through prayer, fund raising, letters of support, and visits.
• We will assure regular visits from missionaries with the congregation, planned to help as many members as possible get to know the missionaries and their families.
• We will stay in regular contact with MRN, Kairos, Stadia or other supporting organization to coordinate our efforts and solicit advice.

One of the most important functions of the missions team is to develop a network of support for the missionaries we support. We need the entire congregation to take ownership of the mission. This is not a program of the missions team — it’s a congregational program.

We certainly want to budget to allow the missionaries to come home — typically every other year — to visit their families and their sponsoring church. They need to spend enough time with the sponsoring church that members feel they know them personally.

The missions team must also work to maintain contact with the missions organization they are working with — so that there is a steady three-way communication.

Heart

• We will work to develop a heart for missions and church plants in the University Church at all ages.
• We will encourage teaching regarding missions for children, teens, college students, and adults
• We will encourage awareness and prayer for persecuted Christians throughout the world
• Visiting missionaries will be asked to visit with children, teens, and college students as well as adults, because true support for missions involves not only the contributions and prayers of adults but also raising up missionaries and church planters from our own children, students, and adults

Many churches struggle to develop a heart for missions. We are fortunate that our membership is excited about missions. I suspect that most churches would feel the same way if their leadership was also excited about missions.

But one of the problems all churches struggle with is keeping the missionaries in front of the church — so they’ll be faithful in prayer and encouragement. But the internet has made this much easier. Our church office is very good to forward emailed newsletters from the missionaries to the congregation.

Every once in a while, our missions team has a foreign missionary lead communion for the congregation over Skype. The foreign congregation gathers around a camera and leads the service, projected on a big screen before our church. It can be very moving.

I think visiting missionaries should spend time with the teens and college students. They are spiritual heroes, in my book, and we should hold them up as such before our children. They should be considered role models.