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| The Short-Term Team From First Baptist Salinas with Adventures in Life Ministry in Ensenada, Mexico |
I need short-term missionaries!
Yep, you read that right.
I am an on field missionary serving in Mexico and there
is no way I could imagine doing ministry without a regular contingent of
short-term missionaries coming to serve alongside me and my partners.
I say this because for years short-term mission work in
general and Mexico in particular has been vilified by long-term in country
missionaries, seminary and bible college professors, pastors, leaders, and
even, in an effort to seem hip and knowledgeable about missions, youth pastors
and seminary students.
It is a view rooted in ignorance and one that stubbornly
clings to the idea that short-term work is still interested in being
imperialistic conquering heroes as opposed to the learner servant models many
short-term mission organizations are now advocating.
Gone are the days of “Here’s what we are going to do for
you.” That viewpoint has been
largely replaced with “How can we support and encourage you in the work of God
where you are serving?”
In short, short-term mission is growing into maturity and
improving with age. Like a fine
wine.
In its infancy, the STM movement, arguably started under
the direction of Carolyn Koons of Azusa Pacific University, was primarily about
those people who got on the bus and headed south to Mexico across the
border. It was about giving US
based Christians an opportunity to serve the less fortunate and hopefully,
through that process, return as changed people ready to influence the Kingdom
in their local area.
As the movement grew, Mexico, with its proximity to the
US, became almost a right of passage for youth groups and college students
trying to mark off a mythical check list of the prerequisites of Christianity.
Each year thousands of students served across the border
not just in the program Koons founded, but through many other ministries like
Amor, Spectrum, Yugo, Adventures in Missions, YWAM, and yes, my organization,
Adventures in Life Ministry.
With that almost explosive growth came a host of problems
along the US/Mexico border, that well meaning STM people then exported to other
countries around the globe as the movement grew.
We can spend hours debating that statement, but suffice
to say, any missiologist worth his or her salt can expound for hours on the
failures of STM through the years.
Sadly, as the movement has grown into maturity, many critics are
choosing to see the bad and ugly of the past without considering the good that
is happening around the globe today.
I am under no illusion, nor are my ministry partners in
southern Mexico, that many gringos from El Norte are going to have a net
positive effect on our efforts to share the Gospel of Jesus where we work in
Oaxaca. It is an area dominated by
tribal and indigenous cultures, many of which still have no bible, or church in
their heart language.
Given this reality we should not expect Americans to be
any more productive directly evangelizing the Mexican people than we would the
people of say, Vietnam.
But our work, and by extension, the Gospel of Jesus,
would be severely hampered, if not halted completely were it not for the work
and efforts of dedicated bands of missionaries that come to serve alongside us
for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
Here’s what effective short-term mission can bring to the table.
Encouragement for the local body of Christ... Nothing
soothes the soul of loneliness like a Kingdom visit from God’s angels. Work on the field is hard, tiresome,
and most of the time, lonely.
Short-termers break up the monotony, come prepared to help, and are
generally willing to do whatever you ask.
What could be more encouraging?
Recently I was at a church with whom I had worked many
years ago. At the end of the day
one of the hermanas pulled me aside to let me know we could come back anytime. I said thanks and started to walk away
but then she grabbed me. She
wanted me to hear something.
Hermana Maria wanted me to know that even if we came and did no physical
work project on their church, we should still come back. Because our presence was a tangible
reminder to them that they were not alone in the body of Christ.
It is amazing that even Jesus understood the ministry of
presence when he went to heal Lazarus, but many in the church today have no use
for the powerful ministry of just being there.
Financial resources... Let’s be honest here, after
salaries, a lot of long-term mission work is chronically underfunded. You want to build a school, house or
church for your village? I’ll bet
I can find a short-term team to help make that happen.
The ability of short-term mission to respond to
legitimate financial needs “over there” cannot be overstated and our failure to
connect these dots is, in my opinion, poor stewardship of the resources that
God has entrusted to us.
Now, many will ask if it is not a better use of our funds
to keep the team at home and just send the money. There are two problems with this line of reasoning. First and I am going to speak bluntly
here, is that no church, faced with a potential $20,000 cost to do a short-term
mission trip, will raise that kind of money and just send it. Believe me, most of us on the field
would welcome even 50% of that amount in a lump sum, but I have yet to
encounter a church leader who when asked to pony up without sending a team sends
the check.
Second, we want people to see and experience our
ministries. First hand knowledge
is what informs prayer and break hearts for ministry. I can tell you all about my ministry, and so can any other
missionary for that matter, but you will have a greater connection to, pray
more effectively, and financially support the field if your eyes have
personally seen what God is doing “over there.”
People resources... As an American serving “over there” I
hear the admonition to use local labor.
But what those that advocate this approach fail to recognize is that
frequently, Christian pastors and leaders do not know qualified, or trust the
local labor many expect them to hire.
There is no Angie’s List or Better Business Bureau that you can use in Mexico,
China, or most other countries to help you find quality honest labor for the
work you need done around your ministry centers.
Let me give a very practical example. I have a gentleman who has served with
me on many of my mission sites. He
is an auto mechanic and I would trust him with my life. On more than one occasion Rod has been
able to find and fix problems with pastors’ cars that the local trusted
mechanics simply were unable to identify or repair.
My pastors were 100% willing to pay local mechanics, and
frequently, they already had.
Sadly, that money was wasted as the problem persisted until Rod, as part
of a short-term team from the US arrived, correctly identified and fixed the
problem.
Simply put, there are times when short-term teams are
able to bring people resources and a level of expertise that the local area or
church body simply does have.
Finally, short-term mission allows participants to
explore whether God might be calling them into full-time mission service... In
today’s world of short attention spans and instant gratification, the value of
a short-term mission in the life of a believer cannot be overstated.
As missionaries and church leaders, we can argue
existentially that Christians should not “use” STM as a way to explore and
develop their faith. We can argue,
as I have, that we should be sending only the best we can on short-term
mission. And we can try and
maintain that stance as thousands of young people leave our shores every year
to serve around the globe.
But let’s get real.
We need to accept reality, work with it, and start developing a new
generation of missionaries, using short-term mission as a spring board towards
full-time Christian service either here in the US, or abroad as part of the
mission of God to reconcile the people of the world to Him.
Short-term mission is here to stay and is an
irreplaceable part of the mission of God around the world. Whether those missionaries are going
from our churches in the United States, Mexico, South Korea, or Brazil, the
fact is that STM is continuing to play a vital part in sharing the Good News of
Jesus.
I need short-term missionaries to help me and my partners
in Mexico continue the work that we believe God has called us to do. And frankly, we would be lost without the
help of those dedicated servants of God who give of their time, treasure, and
talents on short-term mission.
I suspect there are many others like me around the world
too.
Does short-term mission have all the answers? Not at all. Has short-term mission been guilty of some pretty terrible
missiology over the years? Yes it
has.
But there is much good to say about short-term mission
too.
Let’s not forget that.
