notes from dave

Hudson Taylor and Entering into Another Culture...

2012-02-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

Here’s a couple of great questions for all my friends who serve in other countries, with other people groups, or work cross culturally.

Why don’t Americans like to live with the people they are serving? Don’t they like us?

I’ve heard a variation of this question a number of times over my years serving here in Mexico. This week I was asked again right after I saw the school where American missionaries send their kids to learn.

I know a fair amount of folks serving in other countries and almost all of them live in secure compounds, send their kids to private schools and generally keep to themselves in their private lives.

I often wonder what Hudson Taylor would think of this phenomena?

Hudson Taylor was the 19th Century British missionary to China who revolutionized cross cultural missions work. He believed it was important to be part of the society that he was serving. In his time in China, he decided to dress like the Chinese, live with them, and learn their languages, becoming proficient enough to even translate the bible into some of the Chinese dialects.

Sadly, his example has been abandoned by a great majority of missionaries serving around the world.

Instead of taking the chance to have coffee with locals, learn their customs, and experience life and the Gospel from a different perspective, many missionaries, both long and short-term have determined that the security of what they know is the better path.

It is amazing to me that many have seemingly forgotten the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9... “...I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”

I know that what I am proposing is not easy, but who ever said this was easy? I have never done anything harder in my life than try to understand the Mexican situation, learn from some wonderful people, live as Paul called me to live, and share the love of Jesus.

Perhaps those of us who are leaders in the church, in our zeal to give as many people as possible the opportunity to serve the ends of the earth, have compromised our values.

Tim Dearborn quotes a Haitian pastor in his book beyond duty who was asked what makes someone a good missionary in Haiti. His simple response will surprise you... he said a good missionary in Haiti will “Love Haitians.”

Is the reality that many live apart from the very people they believe they are called to serve, evidence that they are not loving the very people God gave to them and involved in their lives?

How do you think Hudson Taylor would answer that question?

Stories from the Field... Joe Ramirez of Mission Focused Sounds Off...

2012-01-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

Dave Miller, Co-Founder of Adventures in Life Ministry

Occasionally I get a chance to write for someone else's blog, magazine, or online journal. My good friend Joe Ramirez of Mission Focused, who has served alongside me in Oaxaca for years saw something that caught his eye.

And it is more than my ugly mug from the picture above.

I was touched by what he had to say about ministry, short-term mission, and trying to follow Jesus. I think you will be too!

Angelina, Louis, and Dave... Some Thoughts on Short-Term Mission

I’m new to the whole Short Term Missions (STM’s) thang…and much of what I’ve learned has been with Dave Miller and Adventures in Life (AIL) in Oaxaca, Mexico. A simple definition of short term missons: a group of volunteers coming for limited time period, anywhere from 1 week to 1 month, to “minister” and share the Good News of Christ. For example it could be men doing construction work, a youth group leading Vacation Bible Schools in orphanages or folks doing street evangelism.

It’s been my pleasure to witness first hand the work AIL is doing in Oaxaca, as they work in partnership with local pastors and missionaries to help them reach the native Zapotec’s with the Good News of Christ.

I was flipping through an old issue of Time magazine today when I came across this photo of Angelina Jolie, in Cambodia. It was part of a full page ad for Louis Vuitton. The tag line for the ad was “A single journey can change the course of a life.”

From a photographic point of view, it’s a nice photograph. Let’s be real! Angelina Jolie plus an exotic locale…not hard to get a great photo.

I know that she represents the United Nations globally so it’s probably safe to say the image is not photo-shopped and I am sure she doesn’t roll with a $1500 tote while visiting third-world countries.

What does this have to do with missions…everything!

Dave shares stories from the missions field of good intentions gone wrong. A big part of the problem stems from a viewpoint that the church in the United States knows best when it comes to “doing” missions cross-culturally. From Dave’s experiences in Mexico he has seen short term missionaries from the states come into Mexico with big plans of evangelizing the “lost” for a week or two, only to leave and never return. Leaving in their wake long term missionaries and the local church to clean up the mess that these short term folks left behind.

One of the things he sees frequently, and he tries to advise those coming on trips with him, is groups who come to work and minister that bring a change of clothes for every day they are there. On the surface it might not seem like a big deal. Work hard, get your clothes dirty and stinky, change into clean clothes…start all over again. Often these short term folks are working alongside fellow Christians who live there and want to serve with them. They will more often than not, where the same work clothes every day. For some its because they have no choice, and others out of practicality…you have work clothes and you have non work clothes.

It is an issue of cultural sensitivity. Like not bringing a $1500 Louis Vuitton tote on your missions trip…not that that has happened. At least I hope not. In my experiences, I have seen folks serving meals at the San Diego Rescue Mission in their $150 true religion jeans and $300 Burberry scarves. I’m not judging them, it is just a question of choice.

I know I’m just scratching the surface here when it come to cultural sensitivity and short term missions, but i felt like I needed to share what out there and what I have see first hand.

Honestly, photographing in Oaxaca and Guatemala, in some areas where folks are truly in need, with some really expensive camera equipment, has made me pause and think. It does get embarrassing to a certain extent when some of the local Christians I’m serving with ask me how much my cameras cost…knowing that my camera can feed a lot of folks or buy grain to feed the animals they raise for food.

Pastor Norma & Brian Douglas

But this is why I shoot. I am a short term missions photographer. Wanting to show the world what’s going on in areas like Oaxaca and to publicize the work of local missionaries and pastors like Americo & Norma.

Pastor Americo, Paul & Jim

Joe's Blog

Mission and Presence... the power of being there...

2012-01-27T09:23:00.000-08:00

This came across my electronic desk in Oaxaca today and I felt it was well worth sharing. If you can get past the drama, there are some good points in here.

As one of those guys he talks about who serves in the field, I certainly share his concern for funding the work we are trying to do. I also like his idea of raising money for the field and have written on that before here.

But in spite of all that he says that can be considered good, he misses a central point.

Jesus himself believed in the power of presence.

If our mission work, both long and short-term, settled for just sending money, how would the body practice the presence of Christ.

Certainly Jesus could have healed Lazarus from afar, yet for some reason he felt there was value in going. He felt there was value in his being among the people to do His work.

I am reminded of a conversation I had years ago with a woman named Maria in the village of Camalu, south of Ensenada, Mexico. She told me to remember that I could come any time I wanted to their church. Thinking I understood, I nodded my head in agreement and said thank you.

As I got up to leave, she grabbed me and explained what she was trying to say.

Maria wanted to make sure that I knew we didn't have to come and do anything. Our simple act of being there reminded them that the God of mission was God everywhere and that was a huge encouragement for this small local church.

Our presence reinforced to them the truth that the God they worshipped in Camalu, was the same God people worshipped in Los Angeles, China, France, or Australia.

Just as when Jesus could have stayed where he was and healed his friend, many times we can stay where we are and enable mission. And we should!

But there are also times when we must go... for the body there, and for the body here.

Remember, while money is important, and us in field folks can always use more regular support, your presence is invaluable to both us, and those we serve on the field.

Church Missions... Is It Time to Rethink Our Approach?

2012-01-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

Maybe it is time for us to reroute our global mission GPS. Like a car stuck in midday traffic in Los Angeles, there has got to be a better route to where we want to go.

For years the Christian Mission Movement has been focused on sending people abroad to preach the Good News of Jesus. Those missionaries, in the spirit of earlier times when funerals were held prior to departure, dedicated their lives to one place, one people, and one mission...sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are still a few of us out there, but more and more people are sensing God’s call to worldwide mission are choosing to give only part of their lives instead of the whole enchilada. This is the short-term mission movement.

This is presenting the church with a profound opportunity to rethink and reframe its philosophy of sharing the Gospel, both here and abroad.

Failure to do so will surely result in lost prestige, influence, and a weakening of our message that we could have prevented if only we had seen the coming storm and decided to make the changes necessary to stay engaged in our rapidly evolving cultural world.

Here are my suggestions, gleaned from years of on field experience and conversations with long and short-term missionaries from around the globe.

Accept the reality of short-term mission [STM]. Many churches and long-term missionaries still look at short-term mission with a jaded eye. Short-term mission is still being judged by the mistakes of its youth and this is unfair. While not perfect, many organizations and people connected with short-term mission have worked hard to improve, and are making real substantive changes in the way they carry out their ministry.

A great example of this are the US Standards of Excellence for Short-Term Mission. The standards call us to understand that STM is not about us as goers, but those we are trying to serve. Isn’t the view that STM is primarily concerned with their own participants one of the main criticisms of the long-term in field missionaries?

The STM community is not going away. Rather than engage this community in a critical way, wouldn’t a more effective approach be to encourage and join in the process of improving the largest group of cross cultural missionaries in the world? I believe the answer is a resounding yes!

Recruit and develop a new breed of long-term missionaries who understand the realities of, and can embrace the improving short-term mission community for the good of the Kingdom.

Let me explain. With the current global networking environment, long-term mission will never again happen in a vacuum. We need people in the field who understand this and are committed to working together for the success of the local church.

Here is what that might look like. Instead of working to develop his or her own personal ministry in another country, the new long-term missionary will see their mission as one of supporting and standing behind local leaders to help them become more effective for Christ.

It is the approach Henry Blackaby championed 15 years ago. Sadly missionaries today, both long and short-term do not value partnership with others and prefer to work independently, continuing to pursue their own agendas.

We should expect long-term missionaries to be a encouragers like Barnabas. Someone who can encourage the local leaders and also sees it as his mission to help mentor and facilitate the hundreds of thousands of short-term missionaries who for whatever reason, are only going to give 2 or 3 weeks of their lives each year for global mission.

Everywhere I go in Mexico, pastors and leaders tell me they can do the majority of reaching their people for Christ, they just need a little help and encouragement for some of the heavy lifting involved in their Herculean task.

Finally, use short-term ministry to fund long-term mission work that supports the STM movement.

Imagine the impact we could have if we developed a more effective way for these STM participants to support in country churches and missionaries. The empowering effect that this would have on in field ministry, through encouragement, targeted resources, and enthusiasm cannot be overestimated.

I written on this before and am convinced that short-term mission holds the key to financing long-term global mission. Research shows STM participants are more connected to the field, more enthusiastic givers and more likely to grow into long-term missionaries themselves.

Father Knows Best went off the air long ago. It is now way past time for the Christian Church to rethink and re-imagine our global mission and leave Jim and his family behind. The days of missionary Bill and the kids waving goodbye from the deck of the good ship Endeavor as the congregation weeps will never return.

Isn’t it about time we adjusted our mission strategy for dealing with this reality?

The Faces of Oaxaca...

2011-12-08T10:39:00.001-08:00

As I have served over the years in Oaxaca, one of the things I have seen in a people with little to celebrate in life is an indomitable spirit, proud of their Oaxacan heritage.

I put this little picture book together last year and would like to offer it up to you. It makes a great gift to someone who has served with us, or would just appreciate the art of photography shown in the faces.

The photography was primarily done my friends at Mission Focused, a great group of people trying to document in pictures what God is doing around the world in mission.

Click here to see the book and to order it. It's not expensive and every book sold helps fund a little bit of what Adventures in Life Ministry is trying to do in Oaxaca, Mexico.

If you want a copy in Spanish, let me know. Those will be available soon too!

A Texas Sized Love Affair

2011-11-29T15:54:00.001-08:00

I spent the last week in Texas. Like the popular jokes say, everything really is bigger in Texas.

Especially churches.

Everywhere I looked there were gigantic church buildings, almost all of which had mega-sized electronic billboard signs. No matter where you went, one of those larger than life signs would be giving you a bible study schedule, a bible verse, or telling you that God wanted to have a little talk.

Now as most of you know, I travel, serve, and live a significant amount of my life in Mexico. As we look at the people of Mexico, we are able to see that although a significant number of people identify with the Catholic Church, many are what we would call “Cultural Catholics.”

As Protestants, there are times when we speak almost derisively about the average Catholic and his or her faith. We argue that even though they are connected to their church, the reality of Jesus is not making a real difference in their lives. To put it another way, there seems to be a disconnect between Sunday and Wednesday.

Every Sunday millions of Mexicans flow into cathedrals and chapels all across the country, yet on Wednesday, that Sunday experience seems to auger no real transformation.

Driving through Texas, looking at the millions of dollars that have been spent on these massive churches, I was confronted with the same questions.

Are our churches making a difference in the daily life of people here in the United States? Or, as we say about our neighbors to the south, has the US church experience become just part of the culture for a majority of our people?

Has church here become what my friend Camilo would call just a show, much like it would be described in Mexico for the Catholics?

I’ve been asking pastors here recently a very simple question... “Who in your church is in love with Jesus?” Not the concept of Jesus, mind you, but Jesus himself.

I wish I could say these pastors were rattling off lots of names, but I can’t. The last pastor I asked got a little contorted and told me that was a very hard question.

Really?

Let me just say that if in our ministries, whether they be here in the United States, or around the globe in countries like Mexico, China, or perhaps Uganda, we are not seeing people come into a loving relationship with Jesus, something is wrong.

If we are not seeing lives radically transformed by the reality of the Gospel, something is wrong.

If all we are seeing is people who know a lot about Jesus, but are not passionately committed to loving and living for Him day by day, something is wrong.

I fear that many people here in the US have become little more than culturally Christian, much like the great majority of Catholics in Mexico.

What say you?

Is it all as my friend Camilo calls it, a show? Or can you say that the great majority of people in your church are passionately in love with Jesus? How about you?

I hope and pray you are able to say you have a Texas sized love relationship with Jesus!

A Word Cloud

2011-10-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun little gizmo I found over at a friends site. You plug your web address in and it analyzes your blog and gives you a word cloud.

This is what I got from mine...

You can see what's important here!

Supporting the Mission... a radical approach to a growing problem

2011-10-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

I have often felt that short-term missions held the key to funding long-term missionary work around the globe.

Thinking about this, I struggled to discover a way to connect the dots.

No more!

Dr. Larry Hovis of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina gives us a clear path to exactly what I believe can be the key to our ongoing missionary witness across the globe. But only if our churches and both career and short-term missionaries are willing to see themselves as interconnected as part of the global mission of the church.

The Challenge

We are seeing a decline in long-term mission giving that predates the worldwide financial crisis. In the early 2000’s, both the American Baptists and the Southern Baptists were experiencing significant declines in their ability to sustain missionaries in the field.

Both of these historically robust missionary minded denominations were bringing more people off the field than they were deploying, primarily due to a lack in funding.

Yet as that was happening, the short-term mission movement continued to grow, both in participants, and its ability to get funded.

Little Johnny was showing an ability to reach out and into the wallets of his friends and family for his short-term journey to Uganda in a way the career missionary can only imagine.

The simple fact that someone spends his or her life on the field, halfway around the world, means that they do not have the personal relationships here in the United States to leverage into real support.

And they should not be expected to! Yet that was quickly becoming the new model for funding long-term missionary support.

If our career missionaries are doing their jobs properly, the majority of their closest relationships should be in the countries where they are serving, not the United States.

To ask these dedicated men and women of God to return to the US and drive around begging for support from thousands of people they only see once every four years is almost unconscionable.

What Should We Do?

This is where Dr. Hovis’ idea comes into focus.

He suggests that every short-term mission team that visits another country should raise double their cost, and give that extra money directly to the in-field host receiver or career missionary as part of his support.

WOW!

Imagine the impact of an idea like this on our global missions movement.

On-field host receivers and career missionaries, serving the constantly growing short-term mission movement would see an immediate increase in support. This, I am sure, would lead to better relationship between these two divergent styles of ministry, and would finally cement what has been an uneasy, though necessary partnership.

Over the years, we have seen a hostility towards short-term mission, often from on-field career missionaries. There has been this belief that the STM people not only are engaging in useless feel good project ministries, but that they are also sucking needed financial resources from “truly important missionary efforts” done by the long-term missionary.

I refuse to see short-term mission in competition with our longer term global missionary efforts. I have always believed the Kingdom would be better served if we merged the two sides of this coin for a greater good.

A Radical Idea

What if career missionaries acknowledged the real accomplishments of short-term missions and changed their methodology to one of acceptance and even joy at the prospect of working together for His Kingdom?

What if the short-term mission teams acknowledged that without the career missionary preparing the way for their week long journeys, short-term mission could not exist and that as such, they have a calling to support that ministry, not only with their presence, but financially?

Perhaps Dr. Hovis is onto something. Using the incredible ability of little Johnny to raise funds not only for his personal journey, but for the larger missionary calling of the church.

It’s a radical idea and one that I believe the church ignores at her peril.

Will we continue to place unrealistic financial burdens on our missionaries in the field, or will we empower and expect the short-term mission movement to become part of the solution to our current missionary retreat?

God Hates Short-Term Mission Trips... and these things too!

2011-09-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

You read that right.

Put simply, the term short-term mission trip has led to an environment where people, by packing their bags and getting on an airplane, can check off one of their Christian bucket list items.

This short-term mission trip thinking has led to a belief that excuses us from living a missional life the other 51 weeks of the year.

A few years ago Adventures in Life Ministry saw our mission as “Giving participants from around the world the opportunity to grow in their relationship with Jesus by serving on mission in Mexico.” As that statement was being proofread for a brochure, one of my good friends mentioned that we were missing the letter “a” before mission.

Notice how much differently that statement would read if we included the “a”. With just one small change, mission becomes “a mission”, or something with a beginning, middle, and end. An event, not a lifestyle.

The Pilgrimage Concept... Courtesy of DELTA Ministries and The Next Mile

Wouldn’t God be more pleased if we adopted the view that we are always on mission for Him, all year, no matter where we are, as opposed to our one-week mission trip? I believe He would.

But let me share three other STM sacred cows that I believe also anger God when we serve on mission.

When our mission is all about us.

You’ve arrived on site and are ready for the specific task for which you and your team spent weeks preparing. Within minutes of arriving, your host receiver informs you that circumstances and your mission have changed.

A challenge now exists. Will you set aside your agenda and joyfully serve in the way your host receiver now needs, or will your group stubbornly hold on to their goals and what they hoped to achieve?

A couple of years ago I had a team serving with us in Oaxaca, Mexico. We had planned to stay in one village and work on a specific project. Unfortunately, days before the groups’ arrival, the leaders of the local village passed a law banning outsiders from staying overnight. The new law was clearly aimed at our planned evangelical work.

As I explained this to the team leader, he looked me and said, “Dave, we are here to serve. Use us as you need, it’s not about us.”

What a blessing it was for me to know that this leader, and his group were willing to set aside their agenda for the needs of the field.

I believe if we saw more of that attitude from short-term participants, we would see a real desire by more long-term missionaries to work together for His Kingdom.

Zeal without knowledge.

Easy, relatively cheap air travel has made it possible for those with means to get on a plane in the morning and land later that afternoon half way around the world. This reality has led to countless problems in overseas mission work.

What we are seeing on the field are groups combining their passion to serve with their abilities and resources, and getting on a plane without a plan and very little training.

It is as if many teams have adopted a strategy that since God can use cracked pots, there is no need to try to make those pots water tight.

I do not believe God is blessed when we arrive on field devoid of any real preparation and training, even though our intentions are good.

When teams and individuals receive training that goes beyond just receiving the details of their upcoming mission, they are better able to serve and thrive in the rigors of cross-cultural mission work.

A focus on what, as opposed to who.

Americans can be very project oriented. While this is a great asset to have on mission, it can quickly become a liability if it gets in the way of building Kingdom based relationships.

Remember that all mission needs to be about sharing a relationship with Jesus. It does not really matter if the building gets finished or the cement floor poured on our schedule.

We must never lose sight of the fact that while the projects we complete might look great, only relationships built on a foundation of Jesus Christ are eternal.

So there you have it. Four things I believe God hates about short-term mission.

The good news is that while each of these can deal a destructive blow to successful mission, with just a little work, we can turn each of these liabilities into some real victories for God!

This article was originally published by Delta Ministries in The Hub, a gathering for STM articles, resources and opportunities. Check them out, your mission will be better for it!

©dave miller... adventures in life ministry

Cultural Preparedness... One of the Keys to Successful Mission

2011-09-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Few things make mission more work than a lack of cultural preparation.

That is even truer in short-term mission where you do not have the benefit of time to repair the damage that you may do by being culturally unaware.

Oftentimes what we as visitors see as a harmless activity can be seen by locals as offensive. Let me give you an example.

Years ago I was serving in the small village of Santa Rosa, just north of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

Our project during the visit was to get the first coat of stucco on a church that we had finished a few weeks earlier.

Our group worked hard to get the paper and then the wire all nailed, stapled, and ready for the mezcla. Soon students were busy putting the cement on the walls to make sure this church was going to be safe from the elements.

Now one of the things you have to know is that you always need at least two coats of stucco. And after each coat, you need to make sure that you “scratch” it so that the next coat can adhere better.

Normally, you will use a special tool like the one pictured here and afterwards your building will look something like this one is starting to look like between coats.

When we got done, the entire building was ready for the next coat but it was also completely covered with verses from the bible in both Spanish and English. Sometimes that happens when you are working with a group of 20 high school students.

It took the locals almost two years to tell me that we had made a big mistake during that trip. Our drawings and verses, which we had thought were just innocent fun, had been seen as mocking not only to the people of Santa Rosa, but also to God and His house!

If I had been a little more culturally prepared beforehand, we probably would not have made that error.

So with that in mind, I’d like to share a few resources that I believe will help you, your team, and your church be better prepared when you serve cross culturally, whether that is overseas, or even right in your own neighborhood in our increasingly multicultural and diverse country.

“From Foreign to Familiar” by Sarah Lanier – This little book will be a God send. Ever wondered why some cultures do things differently than you? Read this book and learn why. Often times, just knowing why things are the way they are, is half the battle!

“Culture Shock” – I have the Mexico edition, [pictured above] but this book exists for almost every country. If you want to understand the cultural clues and know why people where you are headed refuse to shake your hand, or do not cross their legs in meetings, this book is indispensable.

“Short-Term Mission Workbook” by Tim Dearborn – I have used this book for years and if you have served with me, you have been the recipient of some of the lessons it contains. The “Eight Great Questions” for effective debriefing come from this book.

“Serving With Eyes Wide Open” by Dr. David Livermore – Livermore is tough on the STM crowd with this book, but fair and his examples ring true. This is one of the most important books I have ever read on STM.

Finally, let me recommend one other resource to make sure is in your bag when you go… a Culture Gram. These little five page missives give an incredibly concise picture of where ever you are headed. At a cost of only $4.00, anyone serving without having read one of these is almost guilty of malpractice.

So there you have it. Five great resources that will help you avoid some of the cultural gaffes that are possible when you serve overseas, or in other cultures!

Want To Improve Short-Term Mission? Join Me At The Forum 2011

2011-08-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

“Don’t worry, I’ll show you everything you need to know.” Those were the words of my pastor when I was told I would be leading the youth group on their annual short-term mission trip in 1990.

My training consisted of a shopping list for supplies and a map of where we were going. Once there, I learned how to keep locals from getting in the way of our mission, the subtleties of buying clean drinking water, and what to do when your group scares the local chickens so much they cannot lay eggs.

That was over 20 years ago and certainly many things have changed. However, too much of our short-term training is still based on a model of pray, trust God, and go!

Thankfully, through the vision of a dedicated group of leaders that included people like Roger Peterson, Wayne Sneed, and Gordy Grover, things are a lot different than they were in those early days.

In the mid 1980’s, a small group of leaders began meeting annually to try and bring a little professionalism to a then young movement called short-term mission. Over the years the group of people attending those annual gatherings became known as the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders.

I became part of the Fellowship in 2004. It has changed my life, my perspective, and my mission. There is no single event in which I participate that I find to be more important to the continued success of Adventures in Life Ministry and my mission than the annual conference held by this group.

As a leader I get a chance to interact with and fellowship with peers in my field. I can seek counsel, test ideas, and see where short-term mission is headed in the coming years. It also gives me a great chance to slow down and consider where I believe God is leading AIL Ministry in future years.

This year’s conference, The Forum 2011, will be held at Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake, Wisconsin, October 12 – 15.

Our Keynote Speaker will be Robert Guerrero. Robert, the founder of Del Camino Network and an on field host receiver, is going to tell it like it is from someone who has received thousands of STM teams.

If you, your church, or your organization wants to improve your short-term mission, there is no better place to be. If you are a pastor, and your church is sending out short-term teams, you need to be here. If you have been wondering whether God is calling to the foreign mission field, a few days at The Forum can help you better understand that call.

Adventures in Life is better because of this conference. Please consider joining me and the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders this year at The Forum 2011.

For full details, and to register for The Forum 2011, click here!

Mission and Ministry... Is Our Approach Balanced?

2011-07-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

You were walking through the furniture mart looking for the perfect stool. In the distance you saw one that would look great with your décor. It was the right color, the exact height you needed, and, because it was one of those do it yourself gizmos, even the price was right.

So you took the box to the cashier, paid your $39.99 and put it in the car for the drive home.

After lunch you went to work putting it together. And that’s when it hit you. No matter what you did, that stool wobbled. Because the three legs on that new stool you had just purchased were not of equal length.

This is the same problem that faces many internationally missions minded people in the field today. We are trying to make our ministry stools sit level, but the legs which support our ministry are uneven.

While in today’s world we would just return that stool and get a new one, in ministry, we need to figure out a way to make things work.

Let me explain where I am coming from.

I believe our missionary work needs to be multifaceted and balanced. Like our stool, it must have three legs that are equal, or it will not function properly.

It has become my firm conviction that as much as possible, our ministry needs to take into account not only the spiritual health of people, but their physical and economic health as well.

These are the three legs upon which our ministry stool must stand and be balanced.

It is this type of holistic ministry, that I believe holds the most promise for seeing radical transformation of peoples lives and real, faithful, sustained reconciliation with God.

Unfortunately, the church, and by extension, her missionary outreach, has been guilty of putting too much emphasis on the God leg of our stool, to the detriment of a balanced lifestyle rooted holistically in Christ.

Now, I am not arguing that we need less emphasis on the spiritual health of people with whom we have contact. I am arguing that instead of cutting that leg of our stool to match the others, we need to spend some time developing the other two legs.

We need to improve our mission and ministry so that we are able to see transformation in people's physical and economic lives, as well as, their spiritual lives.

Unfortunately, far too often this style of ministry, of seeing all areas of life as interconnected and needing God’s healing touch, is not seen as valid by many in the church today.

I serve with a pastor in Oaxaca, Mexico who had a girl die in his arms of malnutrition. When he asked his pastor friends why this happened, he was told that the work of caring for the poor was not the work of the church. We are to “Preach the Gospel. Besides, the girl was in heaven, a better place.”

I wish I could say that was an isolated response. But it is not. Today the response of many in the evangelical church is to dismiss the types of ministry and mission work that also put an emphasis on physical and economic healing in addition to spiritual healing as somehow not related to the Gospel of Christ.

We see all through the Gospel accounts that Jesus healed, and that he empowered the disciples to do so, also. We see in Acts that the early church felt it was part of their ministry to care for the poor in their communities. We also see in the prophetic call of the Old Testament that God expected His people to work and stand for economic justice.

Yet somehow, many in today’s evangelical church have decided that work on those legs of our stool is not part of our mission or ministry calling.

By neglecting these two vital parts of an effective holistic ministry model, we are effectively telling millions of people around the world that the Kingdom has not arrived for them today.

Unless and until we figure out a way to practically integrate all three areas of health, the spiritual, the economic, and the physical when we are working with people, our ministry stool will forever be like that wobbly one I mentioned earlier.

A wobbly stool is not very useful and unable to really support the fully transformed lives God desires for His people today.

Justice, Oppression, Poverty and Mission... Where Do We Stand?

2011-06-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

What do you do when what you believe no longer seems to be orthodox?

What do you do when you have arrived at a place where it seems that if you share where you are at, you’ll be exposed, sort of like the Emperor with no clothes?

In Isaiah 58 we read... “If you do away with the yoke of oppression… and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

Years ago I was at a training event for youth pastors. The speaker, a well known Christian leader opened his presentation by saying he did not care if another kid ever came to Christ through his ministry.

You can imagine the uproar that came from the room. Here was this respected leader telling everyone there that what they thought was important, was not very important.

As the crowd readied their pitchforks, he explained.

He was saying he was not interested in getting people to pray the prayer; he was looking for people to develop deep seated long lasting relationships with Jesus. And he wanted the people who he was serving to have food on their table at night, be able to walk the streets of their neighborhood without fear of gunfire and live a life filled with hope and expectation not just for that eternal future, but for the present too.

They weren’t buying it. The Gospel is the Gospel is the Gospel. Period. And let’s not mix it up with all this social justice stuff.

Working in Oaxaca, Mexico has changed me. It has brought me face to face with such systemic evil that at times it is hard for me to even share.

Things like oppression, hunger, injustice and poverty are not just concepts I read about, they are facts of life in the corner of the world I believe God has called me. But here’s the rub, a significant number of people that support Christian missionary work do not believe working to alleviate these horrible realities is part of our Gospel calling.

I believe that justice and everything connected to it needs to be a central part of our holistic Gospel witness. But that belief puts me dangerously close to heresy in the eyes of many in the church. It also negatively impacts the finances that are needed for His work, not just in Mexico, but around the world as people look to ensure their gifts and donations are being used for "pure Gospel work."

As I have lived and served in Mexico, I have come to see the human existence as a stool supported by three legs of health. One of those legs is spiritual, one economic, and one physical. If you take out any one of these legs, the stool will collapse. If any one of those legs is over, or under developed, the stool will not function properly.

For too long, the church has only focused on developing one of these critical legs, which makes for a pretty unstable stool upon which to depend.

As I look across the landscape of ministry in Mexico generally, and in Oaxaca specifically, I see a church that has grown into maturity and is doing a good job in the spiritual health department. Sure, there are areas that need improvement, but overall, the Christian church in Mexico has arrived.

So why am I there? Because I believe that we need to strengthen the other two legs of people’s stools. Because I believe we need to spend our lives on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed!

Then our light will shine in the darkness.

Next up... Connecting economic and physical health to the Gospel.

Striving For Your Kodak Moment: Missing the Point of Short-Term Mission

2011-05-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

I was watching as the group leader and his team worked on a project for a church in Mexico.

Having the benefit of many years serving in this type of ministry in Mexico, I have become accustomed to seeing the glitches that lay ahead for inexperienced people in my adopted country. I may not catch all the potential mistakes, but having made many of them myself along the way, I catch a lot.

Knowing the cost of materials, and how long it takes to get things done over there, I was concerned that they would not be able to get the project to point where the next group could easily continue.

I went over to talk to the leader and ask him a question.

Would he be willing to change what they were doing, for the good of the local church, so that the next few groups would be able to really move forward?

I was pretty nervous. It isn’t everyday you ask someone to set aside their goals for a larger goal, but I was amazed when he graciously agreed to my request.

I left that day feeling encouraged, and excited about the next few weeks of ministry on this particular site.

Until late the next day when I returned. Not only had they gone ahead with their previous plans, they had also decided to use the remaining funds they had brought for the church in Mexico as they saw fit, rather than how us “in country” folks felt would be best for the overall ministry.

When I asked him how they came to that decision, he sheepishly told me that the team felt they had to honor a decision that had been made at their home church in California about what to do. He then added that the people back home were “expecting pictures of a specific project” and he did not feel he should disappoint them.

Recently I was reading an article by Dr. Dennis J. Horton, Associate Director of Ministry Guidance at Baylor University. His article, Short-Term Mission Trips: Are They Worth It? raises the very question missiologists have been struggling with for years.

What struck me as fascinating was not necessarily the article itself, although he did reference Dr. Robert Priest, who spoke last year at The Forum, a conference I help organize, and who has done some great research on short-term mission, but the comments.

As I read those comments, a very important point began to emerge. Horton wrote about the value of STM on the goer-guest.

The people commenting were asking why the focus was not on those being served.

Dr. Horton had done what so many others before him had done. His initial look into the value of STM was from the lens of those serving, rather than the lens of those being served.

While not denying that those going may get some sort of benefit from serving cross-culturally in short-term mission, our primary objective should always first be the lives of those we are serving over there.

When we fail to do that and look for the Kodak moment, as the team leader in the story above did, we have failed, and to quote one person who responded to the article:

“[We have taken] advantage of an imbalance of power to enter other people's communities to gain these experiences and further [our] own agenda.”

How is that being like Christ?

Short-Term Mission, Long-Term Impact

2011-04-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been connected to short-term ministry as long as I have, you’ve seen a lot. US built structures sitting empty, the same kids accepting Jesus year after year, tools left in the exact place where we left them the year before, and a seeming inattentiveness to the things in ministry that us outsiders value, and often times, are key to providing.

All of these and more are the types of things that drive well intentioned, but often ill-prepared US Short-Term Mission Leaders nuts.

It doesn’t have to be that way. With a healthy investment of time, talent, and of course resources, short-term mission can be the valuable asset to the ministry of the Kingdom we all want it to be. But only if we are willing to see our ministry as part of the larger long-term ministry of God where we are trying to serve.

Jesus said, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays a foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Luke 14: 28 - 30

If we are really serious about short-term ministry having an impact that lasts long after we’ve returned home, shouldn’t we too, as Jesus implored, look towards the end goal? For too long, US short-term ministry has been guilty of short-term thinking because we have not wanted to truly consider the real costs of our short-term mission.

Let me give you four suggestions on how we can reframe our thinking, and in doing so, give short-term ministry a better chance of long-term success and impact.

1. Understand that there is no such thing as short-term ministry, or mission. There are many people who travel to “ends of the earth” places to participate for a short amount of time, but the mission and ministry where you work a week, is investing long term in the Kingdom.

As we continue to play up the value of short-term mission and ministry in the United States, we are facing the risk of an entire generation of Christians growing to maturity with the idea that the mission of the Gospel can be accomplished with a short-term investment of time.

Projects take years to move from ideas to completion. Translating a bible into an indigenous language can be a lifetime endeavor. Church planting and discipleship are not tasks that can be accomplished in a one-week ministry trip to another country.

Effective ministry that understands the local customs and builds lasting relationships with people takes a long-term investment of your time, not just a one-week, or even a one-month commitment.

2. Do not go it alone. Nothing can impede moving towards a long-term perspective more than trying to go it alone. This approach, while initially providing some short-term successes, can quickly lead to burn out, frustration, and relational challenges as the goer guest struggles to maintain contact and communication from abroad.

A better approach is to connect with a mission organization or missionary that is already on field where you want to serve and is connected with churches and locals in a way that facilitates long-term ministry.

Then, after some time serving together in the same location, you will be better able to assess whether that particular area, or ministry and your group are a good match.

Find yourself a ministry partner and stick with them. Walk with them as Paul walked with Barnabas, as long time mutual encouragers in the work of the Lord.

Recently I had breakfast with a doctor in Oaxaca, Mexico who frequently works with short-term teams from the US. After a while at the table, I asked him to tell me where Americans have erred while working in Mexico. As he started, he caught himself and then looked me in the eye, asking a question.

“Are you sure you want to hear this stuff?”

The people with whom we serve in other countries should feel that they have the freedom to be critical if we screw up, and the security to know that the airing of those shortcomings will not dry up mission support or end the ministry partnership.

That only comes from an intentional effort to work alongside others when you decide to participate in short-term ministry. You will also find that not only can this approach give you valuable insight into the people you are serving, it can also help shield you from being deceived by local ministries that are not always interested in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Let me explain.

I have served in Mexico for over 20 years. In that time one of the Spanish phrases I have learned is “Presta Cristianos,” or “Rented Christians.” Here’s how it works.

One pastor, knowing an American group will be at his church serving for week, “rents” a group of believers from another church so his church will look like it is a growing and vital ministry. Then when that other pastor has a group, he “rents” believers back from the first church.

The result is this. Both churches look like they are growing and vital, for a week. The American church gets a great experience, some feel good time, and a chance to serve the body of Christ. The Mexican church gets some needed financial help, perhaps part of their church built, and a lot of encouragement.

And no one is the wiser and both groups, at least on the surface, get what they want. The chances of this happening are greatly reduced when your ministry partner is looking out for the interests of both the goer guests and the host receivers.

3. Involve your entire church. Most short-term ministry teams are seen as a ministry of the local church here in the US. In reality, these teams are usually a ministry of a church department like the missions or youth department.

This type of compartmentalization can lead a to lack of long-term funding, an inability to truly commit to on-field ministries, and the type of short-term ministry that never makes the leap to a long-term ministry perspective.

I find it interesting that as churches interview people for a position as a Senior or Youth Pastor, programs such as Sunday School and Youth Bible Studies are never seen as something the new hire can choose to end, or even radically change.

Yet that is exactly where short-term ministry finds itself whenever there is pastoral change in the local church. It is one of the biggest frustrations and worries host receivers face. Will the ministry partnership survive a change in church leadership; because that ministry was never really adopted by the entire church! Instead, it was adopted by a department and a few dedicated individuals in the church family.

If we want our church to have a long-term ministry perspective regarding overseas ministry, that ministry must be connected to the entire church body, and not just the youth department or the mission commission.

4. Finally, be prepared to invest! Now I am not just talking about money, I am talking about time, leadership, and people.

Short-term ministry with a long-term view is going to take an investment. From a time perspective, the field is saying we need smaller teams for longer time periods. We also need US churches to make a commitment up front to partner with us for more than just a one-time visit. We need churches to give all of us involved sufficient time to begin forming the types of relationships necessary for effective ministry together.

Perhaps instead of sending a ministry team the first couple of years, a better strategy would be to date. That’s right, think of your time as a date.

One thing I do with most first time groups in Oaxaca is ask the leader to come with just a few leaders the first time. When they arrive, I give them a chance to see a variety of the ministries we have. We can then talk, pray, and dream about how our ministries might work together and where they see their church fitting best in this new relationship.

Then and only then, can we really begin to think about specific ministries.

What are the skill sets their people have, what limitations does their group have that might impact ministry, and how do they see their church, not just their team, being involved.

And yes, money should be on the table. Even a relatively inexpensive short-term ministry these days can cost upwards of $1500.00 per person once you factor in transportation, training, and post field debriefing. Extend that out for a group of ten people over 5 years and we are talking some serious cash.

Short-term ministry with a long-term perspective means a real investment from our churches, our people, and our pocketbooks.

So often we neglect to really consider the real costs of short-term ministry. Are we busy building “ends of the earth” short-term foundations that will be left to wither and die as Jesus warned? Or, are we working towards ministry models that seek to have a long-term ministry impact.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

After 21 Years, A Long View of Short-Term Mission

2011-03-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

Time for a little reflection.

21 years ago this month I participated in my first short-term mission trip to Mexico. I went as the new youth pastor from a church in Santa Monica, CA.

My group at that time was a bunch of interesting guys. Most of them wore black, carried brief cases, had some type of weapon on them, and loved rap music. The violent, thuggish kind. Think Two Live Crew here, most famous for their album “Nasty As They Wanna Be.”

I can still remember coming home from that week and thanking God that I would never have to return to Mexico. Boy, did He have other plans.

Tonight I am sitting in a small cafe in Ensenada where I annually return as faithfully as the swallows return to Capistrano. Every spring, after a few months away, I long for this little slice of heaven on earth and a chance to renew friendships, serve, and be reminded of God’s sense of humor.

Who else but some supreme all powerful being could possibly have imagined a nerd of all nerds white guy, marrying a beautiful black woman, speaking Spanish, and serving in Mexico with a group of Asian students from UCLA?

And so, here I am. Ready to serve again.

This week I will be helping a pastor on his house before I head south in Mexico for Oaxaca. I have known this pastor’s wife since she was a little girl. She has literally grown up around our ministry, first helping in the kitchen, then as part of our ministry team serving in Guadalajara and Oaxaca. Her daughter calls me Abuelo Dr. House.

Tomorrow I will get a chance to see their new son. In the words her husband, my new grandson, Esteban.

There is a lot of talk in mission circles about whether or not short-term missions are effective. I think, like many long-term missions, that some are more effective than others.

But the key is relationship.

If your short-term mission is founded on a belief that before you begin sharing about Jesus, you must build a relationship on mutual respect, you’ll be fine. If your short-term mission is built on a foundational principle of an ongoing partnership for the Gospel, you’ll be fine. If your short-term mission is focused on serving and learning from those whom you are visiting, you’ll be fine.

When the Apostle Paul talked about longing to visit the church in Rome, he spoke of just this type of relationship.

But if your short-term mission is like so many from the US, and is focused on the spiritual development of the participants without a long-term view of ministry together, then you’ll be playing right into the hands of those who are critical of short-term mission service.

Next up, we'll look at how short-term mission really can have the long-term impact we all want to see.

Mangos, Cakes & Bikes, Oh My...

2011-02-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

atauflo mangos, grown in the state of veracruz, mexico

Last month I had a long breakfast with Dr. Alberto Zamacona at Marco Polo Restaurant in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Alberto and his wife Laura head up Project Compassion Oaxaca, an organization that shares the Gospel of Christ through medical outreach clinics to indigenous people groups in Oaxaca.

I listened as Dr. Alberto talked about his ministry and some of the lives that have been changed as a result of it.

At one point I shared with him about our ministry using photographers to give families a portrait and the church a way to connect to people they are not already serving.

That began a time where we talked about ways to really help people in some of the areas where we both work.

Let me first say that we are both engaged in ministry to some of the poorest people in Mexico. Oaxaca is the second poorest state in the country and home to majority of the 50 poorest cities in the nation.

Many people in the state lack access to basic necessities like running water and electricity. Concrete floors in many of the homes outside of the cities are a luxury and few people in the rural areas have a regular job that can provide enough food to feed a family.

Both Alberto and I have seen this first hand, and it is an important part of understanding why we believe in a holistic approach to ministry. Put simply, spiritual health is only part of the equation when you are serving in these areas.

Effective ministry in distressed areas must focus not only on the spiritual health of people, but their physical and economic health as well.

This is why my ministry, Adventures in Life, has been working to increase crop yields, provide basic economic help, and facilitate medical clinics in Oaxaca, alongside kid’s outreach clubs, camps, and pastoral training.

As I listened to Alberto, I was getting excited, because in a sense, he was preaching to the choir. Yet he was sharing from a much deeper understanding of the struggles of rural life in Oaxaca than I had.

He asked me if I had connections to some bicycle mechanics, and then went on to explain that many people in the outlying villages did not have cars so they got around on bikes. And like cars, those bikes would break down.

What if, he asked, we brought down a few bike mechanics, offered to fix bikes in the outlying villages, and then taught the skill to the people there? The result would be a blessing to the community and some folks, as newly minted businessmen, would be better able to feed their families.

What about cakes? Did I know a cake baker? Because every village has celebrations, but few have someone who can bake quality cakes. If we can teach that skill to a few women, not only will the village have cakes for birthday parties, weddings and quinceañeras, but again, some people will be able to make a living that puts food on the table.

And then he started talking about mangos. Mangos, that wonderful tropical fruit that during the summer months is all over Mexico, but in quantities too large to consume in the few months they are available. The result is that thousands of mangos rot on the streets and in the markets each year.

Maybe he suggested, we could use our connections to develop a women’s co-op to can and preserve mangos, or even mango salsa, that could then be marketed to the tourists that visit Oaxaca each year. Imagine of we could empower a large group of women in something like this. We could see real life change in ways that would make a real difference today in the health and well being of potentially hundreds of men, women, and children in Mexico.

Now imagine if all of this came through the Christian witness of the church.

When asked why we were doing this, we would respond that we were trying to radically model Christlike servanthood in a broken and hurting world. And then as the relationship, that started with a very practical living out of the Gospel grew, we might get that opportunity to share about spiritual healing, Jesus, and eternity.

You think that would make a difference for Christ in Mexico? What if all of our missions around the globe took this approach?

Mangos, Cakes & Bikes, Oh My!

Think about it.

Thinking Outside the Box... A Different Portrait of Short-Term Ministry

2011-02-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

[Julia and Santiago in the first portrait they have had since their wedding]

You have probably seen this before if you’ve ever been part of a short-term mission trip.

Some poor guy is hopelessly out of his element simply trying his darnedest to serve God and the people he is visiting. Yet the task he has been given is one that literally is designed to make him a failure.

And then in that failure, his leaders will offer up some verse from the bible, usually 2 Corinthians 12:9 where Paul says “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” The thought being that God has a chance to really work on us when we are in, and acknowledge our weaknesses.

But my question is this. As short-term mission leaders, are we really being good stewards of the resources that God has entrusted to us if we follow this line of logic?

Here’s what I mean.

You are a local church pastor trying to recruit a team for a short-term mission trip. Bill comes to you and says he would like to come. A local contractor, Bill has no language skills for where you are going to serve, and is not really a people person. However, since you know you need a certain number of people, you take him anyways, trusting that God will do something in his heart during the trip.

So Bill takes a week off work, gets on the plane with everyone else, and spends his week learning about God showing him strength in weakness.

While all of that may be good for Bill, perhaps the effectiveness of our short-term mission efforts would be enhanced if we, as leaders, thought a little more outside of the box.

I recently had a conversation with a doctor in Mexico who holds monthly medical clinics in some of the poorest areas of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Listening to him, I was challenged to move beyond the traditional ways of considering short-term mission.

Typically, as outsiders, we tend to focus on evangelism and construction as areas where we can make a difference. But as I listened to Dr. Alberto, I started to hear some affirmation of my own mission philosophy.

While not neglecting the incredible work God can do when people are stretched and forced to live in their weakness, he believes, and I agree, that even more can be done when people use their strengths on the mission field.

While I was in Oaxaca last month, some of the folks serving with me were photographers. Now I could have used those guys to dig ditches, move rock, pour concrete, or even participate in a small local outreach. But would that have been using the gifts and skills that God had given them?

Probably not, so I used them to take pictures. Of Oaxaca, of our work, of the people in the villages where we are working. I saw people cry when they were given some of the family photos Joe and his team photographers took during the week.

Did those guys shovel any cement? Nope. Did they share Jesus through the gifts that God had given them? Yes they did, and in that, their mission was successful.

Returning to Bill, let me pose a couple of questions.

1. Might Bill receive more out of his mission if there was a way that he could use the gifts and talents that God has given him for Kingdom good?

2. Would the field be better off if people were regularly put in situations where they could excel, rather than struggle?

3. What are some of the impediments that keep us as leaders from focusing on the specific gifts and talents of our short-term mission participants?

These will get you started thinking.

Next up I will be sharing more from my conversation with Dr. Alberto and his thoughts and ideas about effective ministry and American missionaries working in Mexico.

To see some of the photos that Joe and his group of photographers took with us in Oaxaca, look up their Facebook page, Mission Focused.

The Punkification of Missions... Blessing or Curse?

2011-01-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

Punkification. Adj. A word to describe what happens when a younger generation takes an established concept and adapts it to their needs and styles. For example, We are currently seeing the punkification of the church and her mission.

Great word isn’t it? Steve Moore of The Mission Exchange shared it with a group of us at The Forum, a gathering of the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders of North America.

Let me explain that term a little more. Punkification happens when the next generation wants to move on something, and the power structure puts up road blocks to that movement.

Here’s an example.

Jordan comes to you and says he wants to serve on the mission field. He tells you that he is sure God is calling him and he “just wants to go and serve!”

But you, being a fairly responsible deacon, elder, pastor, or leader, instead of being an encouragement, start to think of all the stuff he needs to do to successfully go and serve.

Finish college, get some training, sign on with an organization, raise money, etc. Before you know it, Jordan has a list of requirements that will take him years to accomplish. And that’s before we deal with stuff like tattoos, piercings, whacked out hair styles and clothes that don’t fit well. So he walks away dejected.

Or maybe, he decides to punkify the mission and the next thing you know he is somewhere in India where he went to serve the Lord and follow his calling.

As leaders, we are always in a sense gatekeepers. As Bob Priest pointed out at the very same conference, zeal without knowledge, from Proverbs 19, is also not good. So what do we do?

With modern travel means, the short, or even long-term mission trip is no longer just the domain of the established church in North America. Almost anyone can now get on a plane, and in just a few hours time, land anywhere in the world for missions work. The internet has also enabled perspective missionaries to make their own connections to local ministries around the world in a way that just 20 years was unthinkable.

The reality is that if someone feels called to go, they are going to figure out a way to make it happen. How can the church maintain a level of quality control for those missionaries, and at the same time, be an encouragement to those who want to go and serve?

Or, should we just not worry, commission and empower those who want to go, and trust that God will do the rest?

After all, that’s what I did...

Short-Term Mission, Zeal, and a Little Knowledge

2010-10-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

Every year at this time of year, I attend a conference sponsored by the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders. We have just wrapped up our gathering this year, held in Green Lake, Wisconsin.

We had two keynote speakers this year, Steve Moore from The Mission Exchange, and Dr. Bob Priest, of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Both of these men challenged us but perhaps the highlight of the conference for me was when Bob was speaking Saturday morning.

Let me give you a little background. Bob is an anthropologist. He studies people. And he has come to the point where he believes you cannot effectively serve others until you can really understand them, their culture, and their background.

Repeatedly he quoted Proverbs 19:2. let me share it with you.

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.

Stop and think about that for a few moments. Zeal is not bad. But when it is not accompanied by knowledge, God does not consider it good.

Let me put that into a short-term mission context.

It is not good to go on a short-term mission trip without first taking the time to get some training. Your strong desire to do good is not enough.

Yet this is precisely what many short-term teams will do. Filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and with the best of intentions, they head off to China, Italy, Mexico, and every other corner of the globe armed with nothing other than their bibles.

They know little or nothing of the country they are visiting, lack a basic understanding of how the church functions, do not speak the local language, and perhaps worse of all, don't see a need to become informed at all.

God wants us to be a mix of both zeal, and knowledge. Knowledge of the local customs, mores, culture, and people. Because it will make us better ambassadors for Him on the field.

As you reflect back on your time serving short-term earlier this year, or as you prepare to go later this year, ask yourself these four simple questions.

1. How did the first Gospel witness get to the people I served, or am going to serve?

2. What are some of the cultural traditions in the area I will be serving, or served?

3. What is the average salary for an average adult male in my host country?

4. How much education does the average person have in my host country?

These four questions are not very extensive. But knowing the answers to them will begin the process of educating you about the people with whom you serve.

Consider it a start of what should be a lifelong goal to pair knowledge with zeal for the people you desire to serve. Then your zeal will indeed be good!

Ministry and Sustainability

2010-09-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

One of the big catch words in ministry these days is sustainability.

As a missionary, I must think everyday about sustainability. If I start a project, can I sustain enough momentum to get to the finish line. Once a project is complete, will locals be able, or even desire, to take leadership.

After serving with Adventures in Life Ministry earlier this year, a friend of mine from The Rock Church in San Diego asked to me write in sustainability for his blog. He saw what we are trying to do in the southern part of Mexico and noticed that all of our efforts are aimed at sustainable ministry models.

In other words, if we aren’t around, can they continue? This question focuses us not only on financial resources, but people resources as well.

Sustainability is such a critical issue that it is ignored at the risk of developing ministries that have no chance at long term survival. Yet that is a ministry model many in the United States seem intent on perpetuating both here and abroad.

Let me give you an example.

A few years back, a missionary friend of mine was sharing her disappointment about a ministry she and her husband had developed in Mexico. They were preparing to leave the country at the end of their assignment and she was saying that no one had stepped forward to continue the ministry.

She was upset that at the end of 3 years work, there might be no lasting evidence of their time as missionaries. Soon after their leaving, the coffee house closed. In the end, the ministry was not sustainable.

Everyone liked the ministry, everyone valued the ministry, and the work they did there was good. But it was not sustainable.

Why? Because the ministry was conceived, born, and nurtured without much input from those whom they were serving.

This is a critical flaw in a lot of ministries. We have a lot of great ideas, but along the way, we somehow forget to allow others to shape and take ownership of those ministries. This is not only selfish and short sighted; it guarantees an interruption in ministry when you have turnover at the top.

A few years back I started talking with people about a sustainable agricultural co-op in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. It took years before anyone came along side of me and said they’d love to be part of that ministry.

It took a few more years to actually get moving on the project because we had to get local participation on the concept.

In January of 2010, we planted our first crop. After almost 5 years of dreaming we were finally moving albeit at a glacial pace. In May we had our first harvest and in June we planted again. All done with local help.

Throughout the summer, locals tended our crops, weeded the field, and are now waiting for another harvest in mid-October. In February 2011, we will plant again.

Building consensus and the networks necessary for the long term health and sustainability of ministries takes a lot of time. For Adventures in Life Ministry, it has taken years for our project in Oaxaca to get to this point. It has taken years of all the unglamorous stuff like planning, researching, praying, asking for help, and connecting with and listening to people.

So let me leave you with a few practical steps that will help ensure the sustainability of your mission and ministry.

1. Have a plan. Many ministries are started with little more than a dream, partially developed. This method can actually work, but by no means is it preferred. Ministries that have a plan and have thought through the issues have a much better track record of success and sustainability.
2. Involve those whom you plan to serve. It is always better to work alongside people. The only way to get buy in and sustainability is to involve others. Listen to them, people support that which they help create. My missionary friends developed ministry for people, not ministry with people.
3. Know that you don’t have all the answers. This is incredibly hard for us “can do” Americans. Listening to others, particularly those different from us does not come naturally for us. But successful long-term ministry demands it.
4. Develop long-term relationships to facilitate your ministry before you start. This is known as laying the groundwork. You cannot do it alone, so why try? It takes time, often more than we want to commit, but it is worth it.

Four steps to help you ensure long-term sustainability in your ministry. Is this list all inclusive? By no means. But if we are really going to consider the true cost of our ministries, we must at least start here.

Any thoughts?

It's Not Wrong, It's Different

2010-09-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

I was checking Facebook the other day, and someone noted that they always seem to have a bunch of questions, but not a lot of answers to those questions.

That has stuck with me.

When you have served as long as I have as a missionary, people tend to believe, or at least hope, that you have all the answers about where you are serving.

It often does not go well when I have to explain that yes, as a matter of fact, I have been serving in Mexico for over 20 years, but no, I cannot answer your question.

Sometimes the reason is because I simply do not know the answer.

However, most times, there is just no easy answer. For example, when someone asks why we can’t solve the issue of hunger in a specific country, often the answer is just too complicated for us to consider.

But then there may be another reason. Maybe there is no answer within our framework, and we are unable to consider a response outside of our personal box.

To understand this, take a look at the latest blog post by Brian McLaren at “God’s Politics” titled “Post Colonial Theology.” Here, McLaren asks in a world of “modified theology” i.e. black theology, liberation theology, etc., is theology with no modifier just seen as normal?

If the answer to this, as I suspect, is yes, then, applying his concept to other things, how do we interpret God’s ongoing work outside of our own context?

Or to put it another way, when you ask me a question about the church in Mexico, how can I respond when the answer may be so far outside of your normative box, that you are unable, or maybe even unwilling to understand?

Now you may say Dave this is all well and good, but what’s your point?

Well stay with me here and let’s move the discussion away from theology and concentrate on what McLaren is trying to say.

Paul teaches in Corinthians that [we need to become] all things to all people so that by all possible means, I might save some. How can we do that if we are unable to understand those with whom we serve?

This is big within short-term mission because wrapped up in this issue is the question of who drives the bus.

When locals suggest a certain way to do something that may differ from our ideas on how to do it, if we automatically see our way of doing something as normal, then naturally, we would see another way as wrong, or incorrect.

When that happens, we tend to pull back on participation, support, help, and involvement in foreign aid and mission.

And that is sometimes why those of us on the field have no answers. Because we know that the people asking the questions may not like, or understand our answers. Because those answers may come with what McLaren calls modifiers, thus calling into question the normalcy, or orthodoxy of our responses.

Rather than adopt a position of wanting to learn from those that are different, particularly on the short-term mission field, most participants go with the expectation of doing something, and doing it the American way, because we believe our way is best.

It is as if our way is the normative that McLaren speaks of, thereby making any other method, a modified, or wrong way.

So when you ask your missionary about something, understand there is frequently no easy answer. We have to consider a wide range of realities, and often, those can only be seen from a lens of years of experience where we are serving.

Should you avoid asking the questions? By no means. Just understand that the answer you may receive, while different from what you expected or wanted to hear may not be wrong, just different.

Upon Reflection... 10 Questions to Consider After Your Short-Term Mission

2010-08-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

I have finally returned from Mexico. Outside of a few days between travel stops, I have been there since the middle of June.

Now as I return, I get to sit down and begin the process of answering or deleting something like 450 e-mail messages, and responding to a rash of phone messages that have been piling up since my departure.

I also have to reflect on my time in Mexico, and think about what God has been trying to say to me through my sometimes thick skull. For those of us in professional ministry, we call this debriefing.

Many missiologists will tell you that the debriefing process, or that time of reflection after your short-term mission, is more important than your actual mission. While not discounting any of the work one may have done serving in another country, or context, real life change comes as people unpack their baggage after returning home and reflect.

So with that in mind, let me offer a few questions to use if you have recently served on a short-term mission trip.

1. What did I learn about myself on my short-term mission [STM]?

2. What did I learn about God on my STM?

3. What did I learn about the people, the church, and the Christian community in the country where I served?

4. What did I learn about how culture impacts the ways people where I served live and understand the Gospel?

5. What did I learn about justice, economics, poverty, and politics during my STM?

6. As a follower of Christ, what did I learn on my STM that can help me be a more fully devoted disciple of Him?

7. How might my faith be different if I had grown up where I was serving as opposed to my home community?

8. What did I learn or experience that will change the way I live and represent Jesus in my home community and church?

9. What have I learned about my own Christian calling as a result of my STM?

10. How can I continue to support the ongoing missionary work in the country where I served?

There you have it. 10 questions for you to consider as you return to your home culture. Know that for many, the lessons learned from serving cross culturally on short-term mission may take you years to fully grasp. But that’s okay. It’s a journey.

[Special thanks to Tim Dearborn and David Livermore, two great missiologists who are really responsible for these questions.]

Is Short-Term Mission Worth The Investment?

2010-07-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Lately short-term missions [STM] has been taking a beating. As our economy continues to slow, people are rightly asking if STM is worth the continued investment.

Let me share a little story, and you decide.

A little over 15 years ago a skinny little pastor named Alejandro came to me and asked for help in building a worship center. He was newly married, fresh out of seminary, and leading a bible study with his wife out of his childhood home.

I told Alex that I felt we could help and that I would drop by and see him as soon as possible. That turned out to be about a year as we were working in another location at the time.

When I finally got there, Alex showed me the small shack, about 15 x 15, that the new church had built for their Sunday services.

As we talked he asked me to take a walk with him. He had something to show me. About 2 blocks from his home he showed me a vacant piece of land. He told me the cost of the land was about $2500.00 and was wondering if I could help his church purchase the land. I told Alex we could help with about $1500.00 but he would have to raise the other $1000.00.

A few months later Alex called to say his church had their part and asked if we could come and make good on our pledge. It was a fantastic Valentine’s Day for me in 1995 when we made that purchase.

Since that day, hundreds of short-term participants have served with my ministry, Adventures in Life, at Pastor Alejandro’s church. We have poured tons and tons of concrete. We have painted, painted, and then painted again. We have roofed, we have dry-walled, we have plastered, and we have helped in countless other projects, all in partnership with this church in Ensenada.

But this is the easy stuff to see. Anyone can look at a piece of property and see change. Stuff like walls, trusses, roofs, and windows are all quickly evident. But for me, effective STM means changed lives, not just changed landscapes.

Last week I returned to this church for the first time in a couple of years. I was invited by Alex to celebrate his daughter Damaris’ 15th birthday, a big event in Mexico. The church was packed for the celebration.

As I sat there waiting for the service to begin, I was able to look around and see some folks I had not seen in years. Men who had struggled with drug addiction, women who had been prostitutes, and others who, when they showed up at this church years ago had the look of hopelessness etched in their faces.

I remembered a conversation I had a few years ago with a leader of another church we helped build in Guadalajara. This leader, Ignacio, wanted to thank us for helping his church get a place to worship. And he wanted to explain why our help was such a big deal.

Brother Dave he said, many small churches here in Mexico die out before they can ever get a facility, because if they do not have a facility, they can’t grow big enough to survive.

Maybe someone else would have come along and helped Pastor Alejandro and his church get a place to worship 15 years ago. Maybe God would have blessed them in some way to enable their, at that time, small congregation, to be able to afford a facility.

Who knows how it might have worked out had Alejandro never sought me out. But I do know this.

As sure as God used Nehemiah and his team to rebuild the temple using the talents and resources of people from all over the area surrounding Jerusalem, He used young people serving in short-term mission from places like Huntington, West Virginia, Los Angeles, California, and Burns, Oregon to build that church in Ensenada.

Short-term mission is not perfect. Those of us in this type of ministry are constantly trying to improve our serve, but let’s not lose sight of the good that does happen through STM.

Lives have been changed forever by the power of the Gospel preached in that small church in Lazaro Cardenas, Ensenada. For that, I think God is happy and the angels are rejoicing because indeed, the investment was worth it!

What are your thoughts?

Little Billy, Money, and Short-Term Mission

2010-06-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

If you have not read it yet, I recommend you check out what Troy Jackson at God's Politics has to say in his provocatively titled essay, Time to Declare a Mission Trip Moratorium.

In a few short words he challenges the very heart of short-term mission [STM], perhaps without even knowing it.

Cutting through all of the clutter, he questions the entire practice of Americans spending over $2 billion each year on global short-term mission trips.

Wouldn’t it be better he asks, if instead of spending all that money on the travel, meals, and facilitation costs associated with STM, we invested it in economic and community development programs led by indigenous people themselves?

Troy, that is a great question. But there are no easy answers.

As Seth Barnes of Adventures in Missions has argued, without the personal involvement of American people in STM, the amount of money available would be nowhere near the $2 billion annually spent.

Basically it looks like this. Unless little Billy from Kansas sends a letter to his grandmother asking her to give financially and help him go to Mexico, Africa, or some other far flung location, we are not going to be seeing a lot of money from her for missions, no matter how effective, or worthy the cause may be.

I wish that were not true, but I cannot deny the demoralizing and cheapening effect of this on those of us serving in other countries.

Let me give you a concrete example. I am currently working with a group of people to get a sustainable co-op demonstration project up and running in Oaxaca, Mexico. Once we are fully operational, we will be able to work alongside indigenous Zapotec farmers to increase crop yields, conserve precious water resources, and help provide economic stability to some of the poorest people in Mexico.

The biggest impediment we face is the lack of an effective well. It will cost about $20,000 to have the well professionally done. Or, we could buy the necessary rig ourselves and drill it for about half that. We could then also use that rig all around the area to the benefit of thousands of local, indigenous, subsistence farmers.

But I cannot get anyone to help make that happen.

Understand what I am saying here. Because it does not involve personal participation, I cannot get anyone to help purchase a portable well rig that will literally save lives and, as part of a holistic Gospel ministry, give the local indigenous church an incredibly effective method for reaching the people of their own communities.

While it may indeed be time to rethink short-term missions, calling for a STM moratorium will not result in that money currently spent on STM being redirected to those of us serving in the field, and may in fact, lead to a dwindling of the precious resources necessary to sustain an outward focus global outreach.

The Care and Feeding of Your Missionary

2010-05-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

As more and more of our missionaries become agents of specific churches, as opposed to denominations, I see a trend emerging that is troubling.

We are neglecting some basic issues related to the care, health, and encouragement of the very missionaries we are supporting and sending to the ends of the earth.

Let me give you an example.

I work with a missionary couple in Mexico who are supported not by their denomination, but by their local church. For over 7 years, this local church has stood where others would not, and month by month financially supported this couple and their family in their work.

As a result of that work, churches have been built, lives have been changed, and Gods’ Word has been proclaimed. But I am troubled. And here is why.

Nowhere in the budget that was worked out for this couple when they were commissioned was any amount for pastoral care. Nothing for occasional raises, no vacation money, and nothing for regular visits from any members of the congregation to serve as an encouragement.

Sadly, this is more the rule, than the exception.

Luke 14 gives us a great account of Jesus’ words that I believe apply here. Verse 28 says “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and consider the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?”

I want to suggest that if your church is considering supporting a missionary, then you need to be more involved than just sending your money. I want you to consider investing in the total package, with all of your hearts, all of your wallets, and all of the gifts and talents that God has given to your church. I want you to, as Jesus says, count the cost.

Here are some concrete steps you can take that will be an incredible encouragement to your missionaries in the field.

Regularly, the sending or supporting US church should make a vacation happen for their missionaries. Here in the US, many people own time shares. It should not be hard to find a member or friend who could donate a week every so often to give that couple a place to stay away from their home base.

Since the support we offer is generally at a subsistence level, you will need to couple that with a donation to cover travel and meals. This will ensure your missionary gets a break from the frequently draining daily routine and is energized for his or her work.

We would never think of not giving our pastors here in the US a vacation, we should expect no less for our missionaries over there.

Go and visit. But not just once. Send some people from your church a few times a year. Just to hang out, serve your missionaries, and see what life is like where they are serving. Not only will this be an encouragement to them, but the people you send will become the eyes and ears of your congregation into your mission and your continuing work “over there.”

You will be surprised at how much something like this will encourage not only your missionaries, but your church body as well when your visitors return home with their stories from the front.

No missionary wants to feel that they are isolated in ministry. Regular visits by friends from home remind those of us on the field that we are loved and not alone.

Take us to dinner. Often those of us on the field make do with slim financial resources. Why not make it possible for your missionaries to occasionally have a nice meal out and maybe see a movie?

The cost to you would be negligible, but the impact on your missionary will be unbelievable. Just make sure to tell them the extra gift is for them, and not for the ministry. Sometimes we need those words.

Finally, don’t forget, we are part of your body. As missionaries, we are expected to report regularly on what is happening “in the field.” It would be nice for our sponsoring churches to do the same.

How can we as missionaries pray for the needs of our home churches if those needs are never shared or expressed?

Frequently we forget that missionaries from our churches have left friends and family behind. Regular newsletters from home, made easier these days by e-mail, can be a real point of continuing connection between a sending church and their missionaries.

Now I know a lot of this stuff costs money. Thus the passage I cite from Luke on counting the cost. Too often, in the rush and excitement to send someone out, we don’t consider the long term implications of our actions.

That is from the church side. From the mission side, all too often we are not going to speak up on our own behalf. It is as if we have an almost dysfunctional belief that “God will provide.”

Missions work in the field can be incredibly lonely, hard, and depressing, and wonderful, exciting, and life changing, all at the same time.

Are you doing a good job counting the cost and tending to the care and feeding of your missionaries?

Jesus is the Answer Short-Term Missions

2010-04-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

The following is a paid mission advertisement. The views expressed in this advertisement do not necessarily reflect those of the blog owner, however, as a struggling group of missionaries, we are glad they paid us to advertise here.

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How’s that for only $99.00? But there’s even more.

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So what are you waiting for? Call Jesus is the Answer Short-Term Missions today at 634-723-SAVE and plug your group into the spout where the glory comes out. Our operators are standing by!

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We now return this blog to the regular seriousness you have come to expect!

[Hat tip to Michael Beuving and my wife Chelle for the inspiration!]

How Money Can Impact Short-Term Mission

2010-04-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have had two significant conversations with pastors in the last couple of weeks. Both conversations were related generally to short-term missions and specifically concerned finances for this type of ministry.

Let me explain.

In one of those conversations I was talking with a pastor about bringing some of his people to serve alongside our ministries in Oaxaca. He was concerned about the price and before they had even started down the road to discover their support and raise funding for their mission, was asking for us to provide scholarships to his people.

He said the cost was too high.

It reminded me of the time I was speaking at an inner city Los Angeles church and the youth leader said his students couldn’t afford to pay $250.00 for a week of ministry. When I mentioned that most of his students were wearing $100.00 Air Jordans and expensive designer clothes, he admitted that maybe they could afford the cost if they had the right priorities.

The second conversation was completely different. The pastor asked me why I did not charge churches when I visit them to help recruit or train their students. I replied that I would love to do that, but that many churches are reluctant to pay to cover those expenses.

And then he asked me the $64,000 question.

Dave he said, do you really want to serve with people who are trying to low ball you?

I have to admit, those two conversations were a struggle for me, because I want to offer those scholarships, but there is a cost to do ministry. Unfortunately, many do not want to pay that cost.

A few years back, a major US mission organization had a poll on its web site asking people what was the most important factor in choosing a mission location or mission organization. The number one priority was price.

Yes, you read that correctly. More important than relationship, integrity of the organization, or even the people with whom you might serve, was money.

It seems to me that there is something wrong when money becomes the primary determining factor for our ministries.

I understand that money can be a struggle for any church, individual, or group participating in short-term mission, but if that is our primary determinant, where is the faith in that?

What are your thoughts?

Dependence and Missions... A Good Thing?

2010-03-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

If you are involved with short-term missions, one of the issues you will deal with is dependance.

American short-term participants worry that we may be creating a system when we serve “over there” whereby the national, or other church, will come to depend on us.

For some reason we are troubled by that. Frankly, I’ve always thought that was the way it should be. The church over there should depend on us, because that church is part of the body of Christ to which we all belong. Sounds like straight Pauline teaching to me.

I have been reading "Experiences in Theology, Ways and Forms of Christian Theology" by Jürgen Moltmann. Moltmann is one of the great theologians of the 20th Century and worked alongside Hans Küng, also of Germany for many years.

In his chapter on Latin American Liberation Theology, he talks a little economics. He states that “the theory of economic dependance says that between equally strong economic entities, independencies [independence] develop[s], but between entities of unequal strength, dependencies will develop."

Let’s think about that.

What he is saying is that when there is not equality economically, dependence will be the natural result.

But what about in a ministry context? Can we apply the same principle to ministry, and relationships? Maybe we can.

Let me explain, and as I do, know that I will be using my broad brush.

Typically, when US churches go to other countries to serve, someone in the group gets an invitation to preach in the host church. One of the reasons for this is a heartfelt need to be good hosts to those who have travelled many miles to serve.

But it can also be more than that. There is a genuine belief that it is good for God’s people to hear other voices from the pulpit, so getting a chance to learn how someone else comes to a text can be a real blessing. Or it just may be that the local pastor wants a break from preaching.

Whatever the reason, the sight of Americans preaching in foreign lands is a frequent sight.

This reality was brought home to me recently in a conversation I had with Paul Borthwick, noted short-term missiologist. He said that in his travels, he too has seen this many times. Paul however, went one step further. He asked why, when people from the churches “over there” visit our churches, they are not accorded the same honor.

What a great question for us to consider.

I asked a mission pastor at a large Atlanta church if a pastor from one of their partner churches was to visit his church, would he be offered the opportunity to preach. Looking shocked, he said of course not, his pastor was famous and was not going to be opening up his pulpit to just anyone!

This leads to another issue raised by a pastor with whom I work in Mexico. He wanted to know why when an American church invites people from a Mexican church to visit, it is expected that the Senior Pastor will come for that visit. Yet it is very unlikely that the American Senior Pastor will be visiting the mission sites where his church regularly serves.

These examples bring me back to Moltmann’s economic point, which I will now try to relate to ministry.

Do we perceive, when we go to other countries, that those typically small churches are just as valuable to the Kingdom as ours? Do our words and deeds in our dealings with those churches give witness to a belief that their church is on equal footing with ours?

If not, could it be that there is within the relationship a belief, however subtle, that the American church, her pastors, her methods, her theology, and even her money, are just a little better?

If so, then using Moltmann’s point, perhaps the reason we see dependance in short-term mission has less to do with them, and more to do with us. If we see the relationship as unequal, and behave in a way that perpetuates that inequality, even unknowingly, can there be any result other than dependence?

I stated that I want the church “over there” to depend on us. I also want us to depend on them, in a symbiotic interdependent relationship where each of our churches tries to live out Paul’s teachings in Corinthians 12 together, as the body of Christ. One hundred percent dependent on the other.

What are your thoughts?

When Short-Term Mission Gets Messy

2010-03-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

You’ve bought your airline tickets and you’ve been reading up on where you’re going. You have been earnestly praying, and now you’re ready to get on the plane. After a long flight you finally arrive at your destination, only to find that everything is not as you had planned, or expected.

Close, but no cigar.

You were told there would be hot water, and now it is only cold. You were promised a real bed only to find out that all you are getting is a couple of cushions on the floor instead of that the plush platform you were dreaming about.

Perhaps the expected bus for your transportation turned out to be an overcrowded jeepney, or you learned late in the game that your favorite {insert country name here} food was not going to be on the menu.

And now you’re upset. You’re wondering why everything was not as you expected, ready when you got there, or all prepared for your arrival. You sent your money, so what’s the problem?

If there is one area where short-term mission frustrates participants this is it. We expect our hosts, whether they are American, or nationals, to have control of every aspect of our short-term mission experiences.

From the moment many of us are picked up at the airport until we are safely back home in the arms of loved ones, it is as if the primary job of the local missionaries is to be focused on our welfare, often at the expense of the local congregation.

Let me give you an example.

I recently hosted a team of men in the southern Mexico State of Oaxaca. On our last day of scheduled work, the area where we were serving experienced a huge rainstorm. Apart from the rain, our local hosts were late getting back to take care of the men because they were with our other team of doctors serving in another area and were overwhelmed with patients. They wanted to stay as late as possible to care for those who needed help.

As a result of that rainstorm, we lost a day of work, had to change our transportation plan, and got soaked to the bone. We then ended up eating a haphazard dinner late in the evening standing around in a dismayed group. Definitely not a picture of organization

I bring all of this up because when you serve with others, in their churches, in other countries, to be effective, you must cede a share of control. And when you cede that control, things like efficiency and order, at least as we see them, sometimes seem to go out the window.

The problem for many of us from the United States is that we struggle with this. Not being in control, and submitting to the leadership of people from other countries can be incredibly difficult. Especially when decisions are made that differ from the ones we might have made. Yet, if we are to serve with the attitude that Paul calls us to in Philippians, that of humble submission, considering others better than ourselves, what choice do we have?

Are the decisions locals make always the ones we would choose? No. Are they ones that will always be the best at that moment? Again, no. But, they just may be the best decisions for the long term health of the ministry, and the relationship between the local body and the visiting short-term team.

That day in Oaxaca was a frustrating day not only for the American team, but for the locals as well. They knew the day had ended badly. The local pastor, with whom I have worked for almost ten years said this was one of the toughest days he had ever experienced in ministry.

It was a day that was beyond our control. As I believe all short-term mission should be. Because I believe if we are to serve alongside foreign ministries, ultimate control of the mission must rest with locals, not with us.

And sometimes that can be messy.

Chillin' in Oaxaca

2010-02-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

Follow the next week of our ministry in Oaxaca through one of my friends blogs, called The Rock Photographers. He's a big shutterbug guy from The Rock Church in San Diego and is serving here alongside us. His first post is called "Chillin' in Oaxaca."

I think you'll like what you see from Brother Joe Ramirez!

Santa Rosa

2010-02-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

For all of us in short-term ministry, there are defining moments. Here is one of mine.

I made the call early one October morning to some ministry partners in Ensenada, Mexico to see how they were doing. As I was bringing a short-term team in a few weeks, I wanted to make sure everything was still on schedule.

When Eduardo answered the telephone, I asked how he was doing. Now Eduardo was a positive kind of guy so I was unprepared when he told me stuff was not going well. He said that the government was in the process of evicting every resident of Santa Rosa, a small village where the Mexican Baptists had planted a church about three years earlier.

I listened as he told me that apparently there had been a land dispute, and the people of this tiny pueblo were caught in the middle of it. He told me how the government of Mexico, backed by federal troops was in the process of going door to door, telling the people to get what they could carry in five minutes, and get out.

Over the next few days they entered the houses and threw everything that was left into the back of a semi truck. House by house they went until the village was empty of people and belongings. They then drove the truck about 5 miles away, and dumped all the belongings along the side of the road, leaving what for many were a lifetime of memories shattered and broken.

Then the bulldozers moved in. Systematically they demolished every single house there. Then they crushed the school house that had been built by the federal government, toppled the pole that the day before had flown the Mexican flag and turned to the church, which I had helped build over the last year. It was gone in a few minutes.

Once everything was gone, they strung barbed wire around the area and posted armed guards at the former entrance so no one could reenter the area.

As a bit player in this drama that playing out in front of me, I got on the telephone to one of my board members who was well connected with the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. At his urging, they looked into the situation and found that at the very least, the way the federal troops were acting was a clear violation of Mexican law.

They said that if one of the leaders of the village would swear a formal complaint in Ensenada, they could stop the action, save the peoples belongings, and maybe their houses. I relayed this info to both the American missionary and the Mexican pastor serving there and received the same answer.

Their work was concerned with souls. Fighting for the rights of the very people they were serving was not their calling. That was government work.

O Youth Pastor, Where Art Thou

2010-01-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

A while back I had the opportunity to run into Drew Dyck, one of the people responsible for putting together and getting the word out about a new resource from Christianity Today called Round Trip Missions. Round Trip Missions is a web based resource to help short-term team leaders rethink, plan, raise funds, and generally do all the stuff necessary for a successful short-term mission experience.

Drew asked me to consider writing an article for them based on one of my earlier blog posts. After about ten seconds, I of course said yes and am pleased to say they liked it and you can now read it online here.

If you like it, and even if you don't, please take a moment to leave your thoughts over at Round Trip Missions. The truth is there are some problems within the short-term mission industry. We need people to weigh in and let us know how we are doing.

Only by hearing the voices of those we serve, and those who serve with us, will we be able to improve.

Thanks, and enjoy the read!

Mission, Missions, and Missional

2009-12-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

I got a call the other day from a well known national ministry. They found the number for Adventures in Life in the telephone book and assumed we were a church.

As such, they were calling to ask me, as a supposed youth pastor, if I was interested in my students participating in a mission trip in Las Vegas.

A few years back I was working with a denominational group that was putting together a missions conference for their local congregations. One of their goals was to celebrate what God was doing as the members of these local churches served God in their neighborhoods.

As I talk with pastors and leaders about missions, I constantly hear about a renewed focus on local mission opportunities.

These experiences have got me to thinking. Is it possible that the church, in our rush to embrace the term missional, has defined all of what we do as mission so that we feel better about ourselves?

Think about it like this. If youth pastors are missionaries, if sharing Jesus with the barista at Starbucks is mission, if giving socks to homeless people is missions work, then what isn’t mission?

It is as if we have decided to define all that the church does as mission, so that we can look at ourselves and conclude we are doing a good job missionally. We have changed the descriptions enough so that no matter how little, or how much, the church does, we look heroic.

So here is what I am wondering. How much does this new thinking impact the church and her involvement in cross-cultural international mission? Is it possible that we are raising an entire generation of people who see no need to leave our shores and involve themselves in the work of God “over there?”

Could it be that with these new definitions of mission and being missional locally, we are robbing the church of some of the very people who 50 years ago might have gone “to the ends of the earth?”

I am not sure what the answers are to all of this, but I just can’t stop thinking about it.

What are your thoughts?

In Short-Term Mission, Who Serves Who?

2009-12-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

I recently came across an organization with a web site that offers mission-adventure and mission-wilderness trips.

For anyone serious about quality short-term mission work, this should be a real concern. Because the focus of these types of mission adventures is almost always primarily, or first, on the person going.

In a practical sense, let me give you an example. I was recently contacted by a church about serving with us alongside one of our partner ministries in Mexico. In order to make sure that their students were not exposed to anything too different from their home church, they asked me to get the pastor in Mexico to agree to limit the way he and his church worship God.

I don’t know about you, but that kind of self-centered thinking worries me. Unfortunately, many of us in the short-term mission world are as guilty as anyone in perpetuating it.

We regularly talk about, and even promote our ministries as places where you can come and really experience God’s passion, as if that is not possible in your home church.

Short-term ministry advocates call on people to leave their comfort zones and go serve, yet the emphasis is typically on the benefit they will receive as a result of going. You are changed. You are discipled. You will never be the same.

I have used those same phrases myself!

How do we square this with the Gospel account in Matthew 16 that to really seek after Jesus, one “must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me [Him]?” Isn’t a discipleship model focused primarily for our own benefit not what He desires for us?

The church example I cited above is a logical outgrowth of this type of me or my church first thinking.

When our primary concern is about our own growth and discipleship, as opposed to those with whom we serve, we make demands. Demands that we be served or that things be how we want them.

If we truly believe that we are called to emulate Jesus and serve others as part of living a missional life style, then we have some work to do.

Any thoughts?

Youth Ministry, Discipleship and Short-Term Missions

2009-11-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

My last post was about short-term mission and youth ministry. I commented on the lack of training and preparation many youth pastors receive prior to leading short-term mission trips.

As a result of that post, I have been asked to expand my thoughts and submit an article to a major U.S. Christian magazine. It will be published, I hope, in January, so I am now in the process of some final research.

One of the people I have asked for input is Seth Barnes of Adventures in Missions. Seth has been involved in short-term mission at many levels in his more than 20 years AIM.

Here is what Seth had to say. And yes, I am the unnamed guy who is "going to write an article."

I got an email from a guy who is going to write an article about how training for short-term missions is inadequate. I replied,"The problem is not that youth leaders don't have access to training, but that they don't value it, have time for it, or have pastoral support for it."

He wrote back: "How do we break the cycle as it applies to youth ministry?"

Well, that question opens a can of worms.

To see into his can of worms, click here.

And then let me know what you think.

Short-Term Mission and Youth Ministry

2009-10-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from an annual conference sponsored by the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders. We bring together leaders connected to this movement that has become known as short-term mission to learn, dream, and improve what has become a one billion dollar industry.

We had people directing ministries, [like me] practitioners, church pastors, authors, team leaders, host receivers, and service providers. About the only folks missing were youth pastors.

That’s right. The leaders responsible for sending a great percentage of our short-term people around the globe were not represented. Not underrepresented mind you. They were not represented. There was not one youth pastor in attendance.

If you are like me, you wonder about stuff like that. You wonder why not one person who leads and inspires students today in churches across America felt four days of learning and training to be better short-term mission participants was worth their time.

So I started asking questions. I didn’t get a lot of answers at first. Most people seemed to say that youth pastors are a busy group. Or the cost [about $1000.00 once you add travel, lodging, and meals] was too much. Some said that as a group, these people we charge with providing religious leadership for our students are just bad planners and like many adverse to commitment.

Then I asked Don. He is a director for a large mid-western mission agency that sends hundreds of shirt-term participants around the globe in support of their long term missionaries. Don said his ministry was asking the same question. So they did some research using focus groups.

They brought in youth pastors from big and small churches. Urban and suburban. Rich and poor. And they asked questions. Trying to find out what they, as a ministry could do to better serve the youth pastors of America regarding short-term mission.

After two days of questions, conversations, and evaluation, Don, and his ministry got their results. The answers may surprise you. They should shock you. They should anger you.

Youth Pastors do not believe they need any specialized training to do short-term mission.
Youth Pastors do not want to participate in any training related to short-term mission.
Youth Pastors believe that those of us who invest our lives in short-term mission have nothing to offer or teach them.

I don’t know about you, but I find this troubling. I spent the better part of my conference talking to other leaders trying to disprove these results. Surely, I thought, these leaders had indeed come across youth pastors who were seeking out training and leadership in this important area of their ministry.

Nope. I found no one who regularly came across youth pastors that saw a need for stuff like cultural training, developing cross cultural ministry partnerships, or real language learning in short-term mission.

This means that the people arguably responsible for sending more Americans abroad than any other group, believe they are adequately trained and in no need of additional insight from some of the top short-term ministry minds in the country.

Is it any wonder people are questioning the effectiveness and indeed, the very idea of short-term missions?

What are your thoughts?

Short Term Missions and Support

2009-09-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

Let’s talk about support. Not the easy type that includes stuff like prayer and encouragement. We’re talking financial. Money. Bucks. Greenbacks. Are you getting the picture?

What I want to open up is this whole discussion of support and short-term missions.

There are three areas to think about:

Direct regular support of national churches and pastors.
STM leadership and host receiver support.
Goer-guest, short-term [STM] participant support.

Today, we will deal with in country national churches and pastors, their needs, and our ability to offer financial support.

As a person who leads numerous short-term mission experiences every year, I am involved with many pastors and leaders on the field. Often these pastors have only one goal in life, to serve God with all of the heart, mind, body, and soul.

The decision to become a pastor in Mexico where I serve, and many other emerging countries around the world, is a decision to struggle financially, often to leave behind family and friends, and lead a life constantly under examination by others.

Let’s look at the financial side of this and the impact of short-term mission.

Here’s a picture of what that might look like. You decide whether it rings true to you or not.

A perspective pastor begins by sharing the Gospel to his family, friends, and people who live nearby. Soon he has a small group of 10 – 15 people gathering weekly for a time of worship and bible study. As the weeks go by, this newly organized group continues to grow and quickly multiplies to between 20 – 30 adults.

Soon after, a US church gets connected through short-term ministry and together they dream about future ministries. At some point during the relationship, the US church expresses a desire to help support this fledgling ministry.

When the US group returns home, their leadership makes the case to the home church that there is a vital Kingdom interest in helping this new church and their pastor financially.

Up to this point, every thing is good. However, this is where many US churches, all with good intentions, get off track. Because with big hearts, we respond without any guidelines. Guidelines that can make the difference between just throwing money at a problem, and being part of the solution to a very real issue.

Here are some guidelines that I believe can make a difference for you, your church or mission board, and that national church, or pastor you want to support.

Be generous. Give enough to make a difference. If your objective is to support a pastor or a church, make sure what you give can do the job. Often a US church decides on a gift of $100.00 a month, without regard to whether this amount will actually be a help, or a hindrance.

Let me explain. Oftentimes a gift that only does part of the job leaves the church in a place of always needing more. With scant resources, she is barely able to keep her head above water, never really having an ability to move ahead.

Perhaps a gift of $500.00 a month is a more realistic amount in light of local living expenses and church expectations. Think about that for a moment.

Would you spend $500.00 a month on a ministry in your own church if you knew that ministry would be serving between 20 – 30 people each week? If the answer is yes, why not a Kingdom ministry elsewhere that also is making a difference?

Whatever amount you can give, you will feel better about it if…

You only give money to an established church. By established, I mean a church with a leadership team that makes the decisions. This ensures that there is accountability within the local body and that the local church you are supporting is aware of all outside support of the local ministry.

A corollary within this, to protect both the pastor and his family from charges of abusing his position for financial gain, is that the treasurer of the church should not be related to the pastor or his family.

Do not designate your funds. This is hard for US churches, but I believe it is vitally important. Let the local church leadership make the decision on where to spend the money. As people who are there 365 days a year, they, better than us, know where the needs are greatest.

If we trust them enough to serve along side their ministries, we should trust them enough to make good decisions with the resources God has provided.

You will be amazed at what this simple step will do for your ministry partnership.

Have a clearly agreed upon exit plan. Years ago I was involved in a new church plant here is Las Vegas. As a small group there was no way we could support a pastor. So our denomination agreed to support us for a period of five years, with that support declining by 20% each year.

That was such a blessing for us. Their support told us they believed in what we were trying to do, but it also told us that at some point, we had to be self supporting.

Open ended outside support of national churches is the kind of support that encourages dependence. It does not lead to stronger church bodies and in fact tells the local members that they themselves do not have to sacrificially support their ongoing ministries.

A clear, agreed upon exit plan, will help you avoid hard feelings in the future, and give the local church the time it needs to build a strong financial base.

Let me give a final note on your exit plan. There will be times when circumstances change. Our current economic situation here in the US is a perfect example. That will demand that everyone involved be somewhat flexible.

But please understand this. Those working on the field, and receiving outside support, have few, if any options to replace a sudden withdrawal of support.

If your church finds it necessary to eliminate, or substantially altar an agreed upon support amount, or plan, I believe you need to give that church at least one year notice to avoid a potential catastrophic situation.

So there you have it. Four guidelines that can help you become a better steward of the resources God has given you or your church when it comes to direct regular support of national churches and pastors.

Be generous, give to an established church, do not designate your funds, and have an exit plan.

What are your thoughts?

Did You Hear Their Answer?

2009-08-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

Let me ask you a question. How would you feel if someone asked you the best way they could serve you, and then ignored your answer and did something else?

Sounds far fetched doesn’t it? Unless you are talking about short-term missions.

We are currently in the middle of a massive disconnect between those who want to serve in short-term missions and those of us who are host receivers or full-time in country missionaries.

It is an issue that is affecting mission work around the world, but because of the sheer volume of short-term participants, is perhaps most evident where I serve, in Mexico. Let me explain.

A few years back I was facilitating a short-term team from the states serving in Ensenada, Mexico. Their new youth pastor was leading the team. Before coming to this church, he had served in the same position at a prominent mega-church in Southern California.

About halfway through the trip, we were talking. He shared with me how much he appreciated our style of ministry. One that was focused on long term relationships and looked for ways to serve the local church body in Mexico. He said that after years of serving in large-scale mission trips at his previous church, he could really see value in this type of ministry.

So I asked him a question. “How do I, as someone who organizes these short-term mission trips, and you as church leader, sell this type of mission to your church?” He looked at me for a few moments and then responded, “Great question Dave.”

I was in a village south of Ensenada one day with a team and one of the women of the church I had known for years came to share something. Maria wanted me to know that I could always bring my groups to that little village. I told her I knew that and said thank you. As I was getting ready to move on she grabbed me to add something else, “David” she said “You can just bring your groups here to listen to our stories and hear about our life and our church and not do anything else. You being here is an encouragement to us. It means we are not forgotten”

Think about that for a moment. Our presence can be an encouragement to the body of Christ. The simple act of us being in the same place as those who are “over there” can have a profound effect on the ability of the church to grow and expand.

Isn’t this what we all want? Effective local churches that are encouraged and active in sharing the Gospel around the world? If so, and if our presence alone can be an encouragement or a motivating factor for the local church, then perhaps we need to rethink our short-term mission strategy to focus more on relationships.

Maybe our effectiveness could be enhanced if when we participated in these short-term mission experiences, we took a longer view of how we might be able to bless and assist the local church when we go to serve.

Here is how this might look.

First of all, go small. Now I know this is completely against the grain for many teams, especially those focused on students, but smaller can be better. With a smaller team you are less likely to over burden the local host receivers and missionaries.

You are also more likely to have a better quality team since you are not feeling compelled to take people just to reach some arbitrary participation number. Given a choice between a smaller team of quality people and a large team of people who need constant supervision, most missionaries will opt for the smaller team.

Second, take only people who are already living a Christ centered life. I know this means less people, but it also makes achieving the goal of sending smaller teams much easier.

Let’s face it; STM has become the new Christian camp for many participants. Proponents of STM frequently extol the life changing virtues of these one and two week experiences. It is true; the lives of many who serve are changed in incredible ways. However, foreign mission service, whether long or short term, generally should not be used as a training ground.

Third, seek long-term effectiveness with your short-term mission. This means establishing multiyear partnerships between your church and the local missionaries or host receivers. From a field perspective, if we can plan on your church to participate for a number of years, we can think in ways that are not only beneficial to our local ministries, but will help serve yours as well.

With this type of approach, your people will be better able to learn about the local culture, serve as David Livermore says in his book of the same name, “With Eyes Wide Open,” and be a blessing, not a burden to your host receivers and missionaries.

Finally, think through your exit plan. This is a difficult area for many of us because we hope that our partnerships will last forever. However, the reality is that there will come a time when most sending churches will find a need to move on. The question then becomes how to do this in a way that considers both sides of the short-term mission experience.

I recommend at least a one-year notice from the visiting church of any substantial change or alteration of the existing relationship. This includes your decision to withdraw from, or terminate the relationship for any reason other than a clear moral failing by either party. This allows the host receiver or local missionary time to plan, and prepare for any coming changes.

One year I had a church serving along one of our partner churches in Ensenada, Mexico. They had been doing so for three years and everyone thought all was good. Imagine our surprise, and the feelings of the local church when one of the visiting students informed the locals in their mid week service that this was their last year and that they would never see each other again after that night.

The work that had to be done to reassure the local church congregation that this separation was not their fault was tremendous. We later learned that the visiting pastor had never planned to serve with this church more than three years. He had just not bothered to tell anyone.

All of the hurt and confusion of this type of exit could have been avoided if this church had thought through their exit plan ahead of time and notified the local church after their second year that their next trip was going to be their last.

I wish I could say that the pastor I mentioned above went against the grain and decided to come back and stay connected to us. But it just did not happen. He told me that he needed a more exciting program for his youth group.

From what he was saying, he understood the need of the local churches where we were serving. But he said he had to consider the needs of his group and his church first.

I worry that he may have had the idea of mission and serving backwards.

When Good Intentions Are Not Enough

2009-06-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

I am going to step into it here. I’ll just be upfront.

Sometimes, no matter how good our intentions, people should just stay at home. Because good intentions, or a good heart are not always enough to ensure a good outcome in short-term mission. In fact, they can sometimes lead to a bad outcome.

Let me explain.

There is generally no shortage of people wanting to serve on short–term mission. In America, it is almost part of our DNA to help others. Add that to our understanding of the biblical call to missions, and you have an abundance of people willing to go and serve.

But are willingness, and an ability to go sufficient? Should we take, or allow to go, each and every person who desires to help, regardless of his or her skills, spiritual maturity or cultural sensitivity?

This is a very real issue facing those of us who are leaders in the short-term mission arena. It is even more of an issue for those of us serving our neighbor to the south, Mexico.

Due to a shared border, Mexico attracts the majority of people involved in short-term mission from the United States. Every Spring and Summer, you can see hundreds of ubiquitous white vans heading south through California and Texas delivering more than 300,000 well intentioned people to places like Juarez, Tijuana, Mexicali, and Ensenada.

Many of these well meaning participants are of dubious spiritual maturity, have not developed a cultural sensitivity, and come from an Americentric theological view that can clash with local understandings, customs, and mores.

Let me give you a concrete example of good intentions gone bad. One of the main ministries brought by short-term groups to Mexico is Vacation Bible School. You know the drill. Teach a story, help kids memorize a verse, play some games, have a snack, and then give the children an opportunity to receive Christ.

All of this is done by groups of well-intentioned people. The problem is that seldom do these groups of people have a strong enough grasp of Spanish to be able to teach in a way that is understandable to those attending.

What we have is a program usually translated by the one Spanish speaker on the team to a group of feisty kids who cannot be controlled because no one else in the group understands the language, or the culture or ethos of the area.

Not exactly an effective way to teach, or communicate something as important as the Gospel Message.

I know, because I have done these very types of Outreach Clubs. Usually what happens is that the short-term group leaves feeling good about themselves, and the difference they made, not realizing that there is a mess being left behind that the locals, and us in-country folks must somehow clean up.

So what is the solution, should we stay home? I am not willing to go that far because I have seen the positive aspects of short-term ministry first hand, but I think we should really ask ourselves a few key questions before going.

1. Is your group properly trained? There are some great organizations available to you as a leader whose sole purpose is training short-term mission teams.

People and groups that participate in short-term mission that make it a priority to get good training before leaving home are miles ahead of those who feel they can just “wing it.”

Never underestimate the impact of effective training. I know there is a cost involved in this, and I have heard many leaders tell me they just cannot afford these costs.

But I want to ask, can we afford not to send fully trained people on these mission journeys?

2. Can you communicate to locals effectively in their language? And I am not talking about using a translator. There is no substitute for a firm grasp of the local language when serving cross culturally. If you are unable to do that, perhaps a teaching ministry in another culture is not for you, or your group.

Now this does not mean do not go. It simply means that maybe you need to reevaluate your perspective ministry based on the gifts and skill sets of your participants.

Maybe a construction-based trip is a better fit. Think creatively with your host receiver missionaries, or agency, to find a more appropriate method of serving during your trip.

Perhaps if your group has some strong creative skills, they can come alongside the local church and help them to do activities like crafts, games, and music, leaving the teaching completely to them.

This type of approach, that of working together, side by side, is more in line with an interdependent style of mission ministry. It is one that sees value in both sides of the ministry team and encourages real ministry partnerships, a key component to effective cross cultural mission.

3. Are you guilty of a double standard? Would I be able to bring a team of outsiders to your church and present a week long VBS of the same quality that you are preparing to present on your mission trip? If you thought twice before answering yes, then maybe you need to rethink your mission.

This is a tough issue for American sending churches to hear. Frequently I have heard from US churches that the Mexican church should be happy with whatever help they can get from America.

To me, that is like saying “beggars can’t be choosers.” I am not sure this is the attitude we want to communicate to our brothers and sisters in Christ who live south of the border.

It is as if short-term mission in has become the new Christian Camp/Experience. With the publication of Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” and his call for everyone to go on a mission, for many, the short-term experience has become a sort of check mark on the to do list of many Christians.

This has led many to come, and take part, but neglect the necessary hard work needed to insure a positive ministry outcome on both sides of the border.

Short-term mission holds unbelievable promise for the local church. Channeled effectively, the thousands of people who participate annually in these missions can be real salt and light to not only those they are serving, but also their home congregations.

It will take more than good intentions. It will take hard work and lots of it; before you go, in preparation, and while you are on the field.

Your comments...

Us and Them

2009-06-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

I started this mission journey in 1992. It was then that I sat with a good friend, Grady Martine, and together, we fleshed out the idea of Adventures in Life Ministry. Little did I know what that was going to mean over the long haul.

In those early years we were fortunate to have a guy named Paul Lathrop walking by our side. Paul had served in Mexico and Columbia with Latin American Mission, so that kind of made him our expert. Plus he spoke Spanish, not unimportant if you are serving in Mexico.

Together, the three of us really lived out putting the framework around our short term ministry. We would try something, and if it didn’t work, try something else. And we made lots of mistakes, just like we still do today.

Yet through it all, we remained committed to building relationships. Horizontal, people to people relationships that hopefully would lead folks to consider their vertical relationships with Jesus.

While we were committed to helping the Mexican Church realize their dreams of having a place where they could worship, to us, the churches, or facilities we would help our brothers and sisters in Christ build in Mexico, would always be second to relationships.

Now if you sit and talk with missiologists about this, they will wholeheartedly endorse the idea that mission with a relational focus centered on “them” is indeed the most effective way to be about Christ and make a Kingdom impact in this world.

But we have a problem in America. Our short term mission efforts are primarily about "us." What we can do, how much we can accomplish, what we can bring, and what we have to offer. It is as if we believe God’s Church has a deficit as it is being lived out outside of our borders.

It’s a pretty colonial way of thinking isn’t it? This belief that our forms of Christianity are superior to those found in churches around the world.

Imagine the impact on the Kingdom if the almost 400,000 short term missionaries annually leaving U.S. shores, left with the idea of building relationships and being learner servants instead of leaving knowing it all.

Think how this might change how we do short term mission.

Your thoughts?