A New Reality... Funding the Great Commission through Short-Term Mission

This is the final piece detailing what I believe the church needs to do to address chronic funding issues as they relate to ongoing missions work around the globe.  

Today I want to offer some real world suggestions for financing the Great Commission work of US churches around the world.  

Let’s start with a few realities.

1. Short-term mission [STM] is here to stay.  Hundreds of thousands of people serve each year and STM is effectively a billion dollar industry when you factor in not only direct costs like fees and offerings, but travel and lodging.

2. Denominations are cutting back on their historical support of in-country missionaries as they scramble to fund their domestic operations and service churches closer to home base. This is forcing many log term people to have to learn themselves how to raise money to support their ministry and mission.

3. Cross-cultural Great Commission work is hard, takes a huge commitment, and is exceedingly costly. 

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Case Study 1. Years back, the American Baptist Churches [ABCUSA] responded to a series of bad financial decisions by breaking a historic pledge to their in-country missionaries, telling them that they now had to build teams to help raise part of their personal support. Sadly, this was decided not as good missionary policy, which I believe it is, rather, in response to the denomination’s inability to continue funding their global missions force.

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Case Study 2. I've had numerous discussions with pastors and leaders who wonder why churches should pay for anything beyond actual expenses when they serve on short term mission overseas. Many see no need for professional help and guidance, often prefer to go it alone, and believe paying host receivers for their time is bad stewardship of the dollars God had entrusted them.

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Case Study 3.  Not too long ago Adventures in Missions, founded by Seth Barnes, had a little survey on their web page. The results showed that cost was the top factor in determining where to serve on short-term mission.

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Short-term work, long the bane of career in-country missionaries is a billion dollar growth industry.  

We need only look to the explosion of web sites like gofundme and shorttermmissions.com for evidence. In a tangential way, STM even made it into a Jeopardy episode a while back with the answer being “donor fatigue.” It's the feeling you get when you open the mailbox and see support envelopes from every student you’ve ever known. 

I believe that the future of our ongoing Great Commission work around the globe is dependent on Short-Term Mission and Ministry [STM]. Without the energy, vitality, youth and direct personal experience from these ministries, we are going to struggle to fund and continue our long-term work.

So, what should we do?

First, long-term missionaries need to reorient their ministries to take advantage of this incredible resource and opportunity to call people to a long-term commitment to cross-cultural missions.

Gone are the days when these faithful servants served and lived their lives in isolation from anyone from their home country.  With the availability of relatively cheap, and quick air travel to even the most far off locale, folks are going to visit.

Simply put, there are people back home who want to visit and serve in other countries alongside knowledgable, God-loving people who are involved in God’s work over there. A long-term missionary in a stable country that is not open to short-term work, is a kingdom liability.  

If you are a long-term missionary and are not making use of STM in your ministry, you are robbing yourself and your work of a valuable partner. Worse, you are refusing to develop relationships with the very people most interested in prayerfully and financially supporting your ministry over the long haul.

It is ironic that even as denominations like the ABC recognize the necessity of career missionaries building partnerships with potential donors, those missionaries who will benefit from these partnerships still try to keep STM involvement at arms length. The very people in country missionaries are casting aside as not worthy of their time and effort, are those that will organize people back home to raise money for their work and causes.  

Does the seminary where you teach need a new computer lab? Do you need a financial shot in the arm to jump start a new church plant? Would you like to finally move that long hoped for project from the shelf of dreams to reality? Short-term mission can help you in all of these, and more.

As a career in-country missionary, the short-termer is your friend, not an enemy, or an adversary. He or she, is there in response to a call by God to serve you, your people and your ministry. Make use of them! Encourage them, and maybe one day they will be your biggest supporter, or even the much needed replacement to continue the ministry you spent a lifetime developing.

Next, we need to recognize that it takes strong leadership to do effective mission, and that leadership costs money. It takes even more money to sustain long-term mission. If you are choosing your short-term ministry site primarily because it is a cheap option, you need to rethink your priorities.

Talk to anyone who has served long-term in another country and ask them how long it took before they felt like they were beginning to understand the people and culture where they served. It has taken me more than 20 years to finally feel like I have a grasp on “some” aspects of the Mexican culture. 

Without a doubt, I made a myriad of mistakes in my early years serving. Thankfully those mistakes were forgiven both by God, and those I harmed. Grace and forgiveness were accorded me from many different quarters in those days.But that grace only came as a result of a years of humble learning and servanthood.

However, the presence of grace and forgiveness should not be an excuse to not do all we can to ensure effective ministry. Often that means spending the money necessary to do mission and ministry right. The first step in this is partnering with a person or organization that has invested the time necessary to learn and understand not only the church culture, but the larger cultural issues where you are going to serve.

It is not bad stewardship to make use of an experienced person, or organization, when you go abroad to serve. In fact, it is exactly the opposite! It is bad stewardship not to use a person who is experienced with the people and the culture you are going to serve.  

Church planter and missionary Roberto Guerrero of Del Camino Connection says that any ministry that thinks they can sustain an effective cross cultural partnership without someone standing between those two cultures is "doomed to fail."

Churches, groups and individuals need to repent of their cheap gene. In all my years of hosting short-term groups, the strongest partnerships we had were ones where I knew if something came up, the church, or group was prepared to respond. They had raised extra money for their mission, were looking for God’s guidance, often through the missionary they were supporting, and came with a generous spirit and the resources to back that up.

It is that spirit of giving, and the wisdom to plan for it that leads to my final point.

Double up! 

I've proposed this before, but with every passing day, it’s simpleness continues to gnaw at me. It is an idea first floated by Larry Hovis, Executive Director of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina a few years back.

After figuring out your cost for short-term mission, each and every leader and participant on a team should agree to raise double those fees. Let’s face it, those people on short-term teams have huge networks of friends and family that are not even part of our local faith communities. Those networks, and the people that make them up, are going to be personally vested in making sure little Billy raises the money he needs to be successful.

So let’s put little Billy and his networks to work not just for this mission, but the larger Kingdom need. And when that extra support comes in, give it directly in support of the local missionary with whom Billy is working.

Give to their denomination, their organization, or directly to their mission, but make it clear that the funds are a direct gift to the mission and ministry of the missionary you are serving. 

This type of approach will go a long way towards helping our long-term in country missionaries achieve financial stability, fund a vision that often goes unreached for lack of resources and see the value of short term mission.

Imagine the impact this could have on a global scale.

If young people knew they could have financial security on the mission field, they may be more willing to enthusiastically meet the ongoing call for career in-country missionaries.

If those of us in the field knew with certainty that we had the resources available, in many cases, we could move from Christian relief to Christian development. Churches would be planted, workers would be resourced, lives would be changed and God’s Kingdom would grow.

The resources are there. Short-term mission holds great promise for the continued resourcing of vital long-term mission work. It’s proven ability to raise money and potential future missionaries cannot be discounted.

If I could rerun that conversation I had with the pastor who suggested paying host receivers for their time was bad stewardship, here’s what I would say.

Bad stewardship on the part of career missionaries, churches, groups and individuals is a failure to leverage this billion dollar industry for the greater good of the Kingdom and financially provide for our ongoing Great Commission work now and for generations to come.

[The 1.6 million statistic is from Robert Wuthnow, author of Boundless Faith, the Global Outreach of American Churches.  The $20,000.00 STM team statistic is from Asher Sargent, long time friend and Mission Pastor at Cole Community Church in Boise Idaho.

Taking the Kids on Short-Term Mission... how to make sure you get it right!

One of the emerging trends I am seeing in short-term mission from both the sending and receiving side of the equation is a desire for families to involve their children in missions.

To that I offer a hearty amen!

All of the pictures here show kids serving on mission with AIL and their families

From my perspective, the opportunity to “train up a child” from an early age about the importance of getting personally involved in cross cultural missions cannot be understated. Whether those children ever become lifelong missionaries will remain to be seen, but in a world that is becoming more multicultural everyday, cross cultural competence and fluency will be increasingly necessary to effectively share the Gospel.

Before I start, let me clarify where I stand regarding children in mission. I am a strong proponent of kids going on mission, provided they do so with their parents. I don’t believe parents should pass that responsibility on to another parent, even if that parent is a close friend. The family experience of serving together is central to a child understanding that this is a big deal for his or her parents, and the kingdom. It becomes about modeling the value of mission and self sacrifice together.  

As a host receiver, I have had a front row seat to some of the perils and pitfalls of family mission experiences. Generally in my role, I have tended to always say yes to parents and families wanting to be part of our work, provided I can reasonably accommodate them within the ministry we are doing.

This means there are going to be limits. If your host receiver primarily works in high danger areas, or in specialized ministries like rescuing women from the sex trade, those would not be appropriate places for kids and families.

With the above as a backdrop, here are a few thoughts 

Parents are more the issue than their kids. 

US parents are significantly more over-protective of their kids than many other cultures. This is not to say one parent loves their child any more than another. I simply want to suggest that if you are a “helicopter parent”, missions might be a struggle for you and your family.

Effective mission takes place when we enter into a culture, as opposed to standing outside of it as a pseudo-observer. One of the first points of contact, and struggle for kids and families on mission, is at meal time. When you are in another country and the food comes out looking different, smelling different and tasting different, what are you, as a parent going to expect from your son or daughter.

My son started coming with me on mission at a young age. From those very first days, he understood the biblical model of eating and drinking what is put in front of you that we learn from Jesus in Luke 10. To this day I still hear him respond to friends when asked how he could eat something so different at someones house with two simple words... “Missionary meal.”

Before you head out on the field with your bundle of joy, are you prepared to force the issue when it comes to food, or are your going to travel with a secret stash of goodies to give to your son or daughter when they tell you they don’t like what is being served?

Missions is about sacrifice. 

One of the reasons many parents want to bring their kids on missions is for them to learn about sacrifice. Don’t short circuit that lesson out of a perceived need to cater to your child. Once they learn that you expect them to eat what they are served, and that there are no other options, believe me, they’ll eat, and quickly learn the importance of the term “missionary meal.”

US kids have significantly less stamina than many children around the world.

Generally when I think of appropriate mission opportunities for kids, I like to see them involved in kid friendly activities. This usually means ministry to children. If you want to bore a kid to death, take them on mission with you where all the work is focused on adults. If you want them to thrive, make sure they have time and opportunities to interact with the kids their own age who they are going to serve and get to know.

This however can pose a serious challenge because of the stamina issue. Let me give you an example. Each year my ministry facilitates a series of children’s camps in Oaxaca, Mexico. The kids we serve are from very poor rural backgrounds and are often expected to help work the family land along with school and any other “chores” around the house.

They get up before dawn to work the field and leave for school around 8:00am. There is no bus, or car, so they walk. When they get home in the afternoon, they return to the field until dinner is served, around 8:00pm. After dinner they finally get a chance to do their homework, getting to bed between 11:00 and 12:00 each night. The next morning before dawn, it starts all over again. Every day, every week of their young life. 

When these kids come to camp, they are loaded with enough energy and stamina to go full bore, all day. Unfortunately, their peers from the US are not able to keep up. Before bringing your child on mission with you, think about this. We want people set up for success, not failure and if your child lacks the stamina to keep up, perhaps it would be better to wait a year and work on his or her physical endurance.

Recently I had a group serving with me and they were adamant that their kids were in good shape and well prepared for the ministry awaiting them. As would happen on any camp ministry in the states, we divided all the locals up into teams and then placed the Americans kids on teams with them.

We gave points and awards for everything from attitude to participation in the various activities at the camp. Across the board, the teams with more participants from the states scored the lowest amount of points. One of the primary reasons for this was because those kids from the US were simply not physically able to keep up with a full days’ activities. 

Incarnational Mission is not a museum.

One thing we do not need more of on the field is observers. We need people willing to role up their sleeves, get into the hard work of sharing the Gospel and helping the local church build bridges into the communities where they are working. We need people willing to actively seek out ways to live the Gospel for whatever length of time they are here.

This means that people on a mission site, whether they are 5, or 75 years old, will be expected to get involved. One way to gauge this is to see what your kid is doing as opposed to what the local kids are doing.

If the locals are playing a game of kickball, and your child is sitting quietly reading a book, or has decided it is time for a nap, what message does that send to his new international friends?

Trust me on this... the only way to ultimately get what you want for your child on mission is to arrive prepared to make sure he or she gets involved, whether they like it or not. It is that involvement, that living outside of a comfort zone that will stretch your child. It is that incarnational witness and decision to be directly connected to the life of another that leads to effective transformational mission.

Asher Sarjent of 16:15 Church Mission Coaching has a few rules for anyone going on mission that he always shares when he trains a team. Two of those are especially relevant here.

"Do everything you are asked, or told and no complaining."

As an adult, it is fairly easy for us to live this. For kids though, unless they are well prepared ahead of time, and constantly reminded, this does not come naturally. This is where the rubber meets the road because given the option, most kids prefer a mission that is a museum.

Let me introduce to you Jim [not his real name]. Jim was 12 when he and his parents served on mission with us in Oaxaca. One of the activities we had for the kids at our camp was a chance to go to the theater and see the latest animated movie that was showing. For most of the kids at our camps, this was the first, and maybe the only time they would ever see the inside of a movie theater.

Like a lot of theaters in the US, this one was connected to one of the local shopping malls, so when we announced to the group of Americans where we were going, they were all excited.

What was interesting about this group of kids serving with their parents was that their excitement had nothing to do with mission or building kingdom relationships. They were excited because they were going to a mall. You could sense their disappointment when we told them we were not going shopping but to a movie and that they could only go if they were willing to spend time with their new Mexican friends and see the movie.

Every single young person in the group decided not to go except for Jim. As we were driving over to the theater, I asked Jim, all of 12 years old, why he decided to go. He said to me “Dave, I may never get a chance again in my life to a movie I Spanish, in Mexico, with a group of my friends.” 

It should not surprise you that Jim was the star of that camp. The attitude he showed that day, being willing to stretch himself and live incarnationally among the people he was trying to serve should be an example to all of us.

If you are going to bring your children on mission with you, and I strongly recommend and support this, neither you or your children should treat mission like a museum. Mission that is effective, or that makes a Kingdom difference, is not to be observed, either by adults or by your kids. It is to be lived, all day long in relationship with the people you are trying to serve.

Final thoughts for parents.

Don’t bring your child before he or she regularly does not need a daily nap. We all know how kids are when they do not get the nap. Cranky, tired, whiny and everything no one wants to see on the mission field. Set your children up for success by waiting until they have passed this important developmental step.

Wait until your kids are potty trained. No one likes cleaning up a messy diaper. Trust me on this, you are gonna like it even less on some far away mission field location. You, your kids and your host receiver will all appreciate it if before you pack your future missionary off on mission, he or she knows how, and when to use a restroom.

Your kids are your responsibility. Period. No team you are serving with is there to baby sit your kids and neither is the missionary. Understand that if you have a relationship with a missionary host receiver who is willing to let you bring your child, that is going to be the exception. Honor that and take to heart the above points.

Final thoughts for missionary host receivers.

Be open to the idea of children on site with you. In todays world, kids are going to travel. Do we want a generation of children growing up feeling like God’s servants around the globe don’t want them around? Of course not. Who knows, one of those kids might just grow up and be the person who continues your ministry into the next generation. 

I am not saying allow kids on every site where you are involved. What I am saying is take a look at your calendar, see where it might be appropriate for young children to be involved and when a parent asks about bringing their child, give it a try.

In closing.

The idea of bringing children on short-term mission is enough to sometimes send even the most laid back host receiver over the edge. For parents, the thought of trying to keep a growing boy or girl under control in another country, where they speak another language, may be just too much.

But let me offer this encouragement to both sides of what I am sure we will seeing more of in the coming years. The Kingdom, the mission field, your family, and our ability to attract new leaders to the global Great Commission will be strengthened by having children on mission with us.

That alone should cause us to explore ways to make this happen.

Mission Support... funding effective Great Commission work with Short-Term Mission

This is Part II of a three part series on effective cross cultural mission giving.  Part I focused on direct regular support of national pastors and non US based churches. Today we will deal with short-term mission leadership and long-term missionary support.  Part III will delve into ways we can leverage short-term mission to fund long-term work.

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Perhaps no area of funding Great Commission work is as fraught with peril as when we talk about short-term leadership and host receivers, or long-term missionaries.  But before we begin, it is necessary to define the terms so we are all on the same page.

When I use the term Host-Receiver, originally coined by Roger Peterson and Wayne Sneed in their book, “Maximum Impact Short-Term Mission, I am talking about those cross cultural missionaries living in other countries who serve as hosts and receive short-term teams.  You probably know them as long-term missionaries.

Short-term mission [STM] leadership on the other hand are the professionals whose job it is to facilitate effective short-term work around the globe.  In my position as Executive Director of Adventures in Life Ministry, not only do I handle the day to day operation of AIL Ministry, I also spend significant time in the field each year.

Others, at organizations like DELTA Ministries in Vancouver, WA, where my friend Asher Sarjent works, spend significant time recruiting, training and preparing short-term teams for their various types of mission work around the globe.

All of these positions need to filled with quality people who are following God’s call on their lives if we are to have consistently effective cross cultural missions work.  And anyone who fills these valuable positions, just like a pastor at a local church, deserves a fair salary.

And therein, for many, lies part of the problem.

Many of us on the field, and yes I include myself in that group because I spend significant time each year in Mexico, even if I do not have a residence there, would serve for free.  Few of us see what we do as a job, because deep down inside, we believe God has called us to where we are.  We cannot stop what we do anymore than a pastor can just walk away from the pulpit.  

But that presents us with some problems as it relates to funding.  Let me give you an example.

Friends of mine serve as denominational missionaries in South America.  They are asked, actually expected, to function as host receivers for anyone the denomination decides to send their way on short-term mission.  Skipping past how they must alter their existing ministry schedule, let’s just deal with the finances related to this.

They are not allowed to ask for additional financial resources from the team apart from what the denomination has predetermined are reasonable expenses.  They are expected to work longer hours, because they must also maintain their current ministries, provide additional materials and do it all with scant additional financial help.  Sadly, their case is not the exception to the rule.  Even if they are short on raising their financial support, many long-term host receivers, like this couple, are not allowed to appeal directly to the teams the “home office” sends to help.  

Is it any wonder long-term host receivers who deal with short-term teams, teams that often raise an amount equivalent to 50% of the long-term missionaries annual salary, are frustrated?

Long-term missionaries are expected to raise enough money not only to cover their salary and benefits, but their ministry as well and a chunk of change for the office back home.  All without asking the very people serving alongside them for additional help!  this is no small feat for many who have lived a significant portion of their lives in another culture.

We need to change this equation now.  I believe failure to do so and to recognize the financial reality of cross cultural Great Commission work will have a long lasting negative effect not only on current work around the globe, but on our ability to recruit and keep future generations of missionaries deployed on the field.

So what should we do?

First, let’s accept reality.  Short-term mission is here to stay!  As much as many long-term missionaries might wish it away, that is not going to happen.  So instead of complaining that STM siphons off valuable funds from effective long-term work, in country host receivers need to reframe their ministries.

Long-term missionaries need to look for ways short-term teams can empower the people they serve to accomplish their goals.  Almost every leader I encounter wants to be effective when they serve short-term.  In fact, they are begging to know what to do.  Tell them!  As they are beginning the process of planning their time with you, an effective host receiver needs be honest and let them know how they can support your ministry.

Now for some, this is going to be extremely difficult, because many have never thought of, or have never wanted to work alongside short-term teams.  But folks, if short-term mission is not going away, and it isn’t, wouldn’t it be a better strategy to figure out how to use this resource in a way that improves your ministry?

Let me give you an example. 

My ministry, Adventures in Life is currently working in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Our partners in this area had a desire years ago to provide a Christian camp experience to kids from some of the poorest areas in the state.  The hope was that by giving children an opportunity to have a great week in the presence of people living out a joyful faith in Jesus, they would begin to have a positive impression of Jesus and Christianity.  This positive experience would then open doors for local pastors and leaders to sit and share the Gospel with families and adults in this vastly underreached area.   

There was one problem.  There were no resources to make this happen, so the dream went unfulfilled.  Until we came alongside these leaders, these host receivers, and helped make their dream a reality.

Now we have regular teams from the US that come as support staff for this camp.  They don’t teach at all, as we prefer that to be done by trusted local leadership.  But we can wash dishes, sweep floors, clean dorms and play with and love kids.  We can also bring the financial resources necessary for a successful camping experience.

AIL Ministry had no plan for this.  We never went to our partners and said we’ll do this for you.  We simply asked what ministry dreams they had, and we tried to help make them happen, under their leadership.

If you are a long-term missionary serving in some far off land, don't you have ministry projects that your ministry needs help with?  What ministry dreams do you have that are sitting on a shelf because of a lack of resources, both people and financial?  Think about this, hard.  Because the answer contains the key to continuing to fund your ministry and that of future generations.

The second thing we must understand, and this relates directly to my friends in South America, is that cross cultural, ends of the earth ministry is expensive.  Sadly, many church leaders, especially when they think about short-term mission, don’t like to hear that.  So instead of really thinking about what they are doing, they want to design ministry on the cheap.

Apart from the travel required to get somewhere, there are a myriad of expenses related to hosting a group.  Things like lodging, utilities, offerings, transportation and insurance are all part of this.  But these are the easy expenses.  Every church or group expects to pay these and generally does not struggle with them.

Problems arise however when we get to leadership.  Churches and groups that want to design ministry on the cheap do not believe they should have to pay for professional leadership.

I’ve been told by group leaders many times that they believe paying for on site field leadership is bad stewardship.  I’ve also been told that those of us on the field have been gifted specifically by God to live with less.  The implication being that while we might deserve more, we should be content with whatever we get.

I believe the future of long-term Great Commission work hinges on this.  Unless we can insure that on-field host receivers will be fairly compensated and their families adequately cared for, I am afraid that we will see a steady downward trend in people following a call to serve overseas.

So, what should we do?  That will be the topic of the third and final part of this series.