Mission and Ministry, Just Like a Great Rack of Ribs, is Best When it's Done Slow...

If you’re a barbecue lover, you know slow is good.

Few things make your mouth water like a rack of ribs that’s been slow roasted for hours over a low heat. Just the thought of it has me wondering if I can pull something like that off here in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I serve.

The idea that slow cooking was good seemed to really take hold with the masses in the 70’s with the crock pot. 

Rival, the number one maker back then was incredibly successful in teaching an entire generation that if you slow cooked your meat in their crock pot, using their recipes, you could have an incredible meal, full of flavor and as tender as can be.

Today you can find entire web sites and blogs dedicated to the art of slow cooking.

It’s too bad it is so difficult to convince people that when it comes to short-term mission [STM], just like barbecue and the crock pot, slow is usually better. Let me explain what I mean.

Years ago AIL Ministry partnered with First Baptist Church in Oaxaca [PIBO] to build a training center in Tlacolula. The plan was to have a dormitory, kitchen, restrooms and use the existing church building as a classroom to train Zapotec leaders from the churches where PIBO was planting missions.

We started construction in 2005 and in a couple of years we had it mostly finished. Except no one was ready to use it. So it sat, for a couple of years, mostly vacant, except on Sundays when there was a church service there.

Then one day the pastor and his wife asked me if they could live there while pastoring the church. That was one of the quickest answers I’ve ever given. “Of course” I said, “why not?” And soon, with the pastor living there, classes began to be offered to the very group that PIBO had dreamed about, almost 7 years earlier.

Now, more than 10 years after we started construction there, there’s been another change. While classes are still being offered from time to time, the church, under new leadership has started to grow. And grow. The church now has almost 100 people in their community and all the rooms we built for dorms and restrooms are being used on Sundays and during the week by this growing congregation.

Why is this important? Because there were some who wanted to see that facility used the minute we finished, but that doesn’t always happen in mission. One of the reasons for this can be found in culture. One of the things Americans do well is plan for the future. Other cultures, sometimes not so much. They won’t start planning the next step until everything is ready to go, because they’ve seen many unrealized dreams when funding, or resolve ran out.

It’s not wrong, it’s just different.

That difference can be very hard for Americans on short-term mission to understand, especially when their hard earned dollars are involved in the financing of projects like this. Understandably, if you’ve given money to a project, you want to see it being used as soon as possible.

But sometimes, the culture is not ready, even when, like in this case, the building was. Why? Because just like good barbecue, or a great crock pot dinner, the process cannot be rushed. Ministry and mission, especially when you are working in other cultures, takes time. Often, more time than us folks from the states want to admit.

To get a great rack of ribs, or an incredible stew from a crock pot, you need patience. Sure you can microwave your food, or add some liquid smoke to get that slow cooked barbecue taste, but it won’t be the same. The taste you want just won’t be there.

Simply put, there are no short cuts in mission and ministry, no way to speed up the process. No matter how much money we put into a project, or a mission, when we are crossing borders and working in other cultures, often times the best results come after a long, slow process.

Contrary to our thinking here in the US, over there, where ever there is, just like barbecue and a great crockpot dinner, slow is good! 

Think about it.

Photography as mission... focusing in on building bridges

Selfie.  (/ˈselfiː/) A self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. They are usually flattering and made to appear casual. Most selfies are taken with a camera held at arm's length or pointed at a mirror, rather than by using a self-timer.

They are everywhere. You text them to friends, attach them to emails, and make them your Facebook profile pic. You can post them to Tumblr, pin them on Pinterest, Instagram them to the world and, erase them in a few seconds with Snapchat.

Most of us have so many photos of ourselves and our families  we hardly think twice about them. With the advent of the digital age, many people have more photos then they can ever hope to display, let alone organize. 

The days of the Kodak Instamatic Camera with the square flash cube are long gone. And so are photo albums, drive thru film processing from Fotomat, and those classic frames with holes of every size and shape. 

Today, if you want a picture, you just pull out your phone, snap it, save it, and print it. 

But what if you lived in a place where that new fangled technology had not reached? What if you lived in a place like San Dionesio Ocotepec, Oaxaca?

Getting vitals checked at our clinic in San Dionesio Ocotepec, Oaxaca

I was there recently with my ministry, Adventures in Life, to hold a medical clinic for the people of that largely Zapotec community. Alongside the medical checkups and eye exams, we also offered personal photos to the people of the community.

Cyndy Smith of Mission Focused climbing to get the perfect shot

Using Mission Focused, a San Diego based non-profit dedicated to using the power of photography for God’s glory, we were able to give many of the people, like this man, of that small pueblo, and others around Oaxaca, the first photos of themselves.

Read those words again… the first photos of themselves!

You see, the selfie craze hasn’t quite reached many of the people of San Dionesio. Neither has the ability to quickly, and inexpensively print photos. 

As I think about mission, thoughts of connection are always closely intertwined. How do we, as believers, connect with people who are different from us? What are the ways we can develop bridges into communities to make a kingdom difference?

The ubiquitous Splash Mountain shot, complete with a selfie 

One of those ways is through photography. Even if you are that person who hates having your picture taken, I’ll bet you still go check out that candid photo Disneyland takes of you on Splash Mountain. We can’t help ourselves. There is just something about seeing our faces, smiling or not, on an artist’s canvas, or in this case, through the photographer’s lens.

Especially, if it is the first time. In. Your. Life!

Brother Joe printing out photos in San Dionesio Ocotepec

Now imagine if that gift comes from a group of people who love God and are freely giving you that gift. In a world where everything seems to come with strings attached, that idea seems like a relic of a bygone era.

Effective mission, the kind that connects to people for the long hard work of disciple making, takes relationship. It is not accomplished by giving one of Chick’s Tracts to someone you’ve just met. I place great value in the old Young Life saying that you need to “earn the right to be heard” before sharing about the Gospel. 

Those pictures Mission Focused took for us? Along with our medical mission, these were the first steps in relationship building for Adventures in Life in San Dionesio Ocotepec. My hope and prayer is that they will serve as a bridge for the local churches with whom we work in that area to challenge people to live for Jesus.

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Here are a few of the portraits taken that week by Brother Joe and Cyndy Smith during our week of ministry in Oaxaca. We made sure everyone got a print of the photos we took of them. Check out more of their work on the Mission Focused Facebook page...

"They beat us and left us for dead..." An urgent message from AIL Ministry Executive Director Dave Miller about Eloxochitlán, Oaxaca...

***Update Below***

"They beat us and left us for dead... but the Lord gave us life again!"

That is how Pastor Chablé, our main ministry partner in Oaxaca, described what happened last weekend in Eloxochitlán, the village our medical team served in October.

This week I had planned on sharing a simple Christmas message with our AIL Network. And then real life intruded on those plans. So I am sharing something different. A story of pain, loss, and ultimately hope.

On Sunday, December 14th in the middle of the day, Eloxochitlán, more than 6 hours away from our ministry base in Oaxaca City, erupted in political violence between people holding opposing views of the role of government in everyday life.

At the end of the day, 2 people died, both friends of Adventures in Life. Gustavo, one of the dead gave his life protecting our partner Elisa. He leaves a wife and 4 kids. Manuel, Elisa's brother was also killed in the violence. He leaves a wife and two young children.

A few of the vehicles lost in the violence

Multiple houses were set afire, houses where our medical team recently stayed. Cars, trucks and businesses were burned and people near and dear to our ministry, including Pastor Chablé, were seriously beaten. Two of them, Malena and Elisa, have been in the hospital since that day, having been beaten to within inches of their lives. Doctors are now working to save Malena's right eye and help Elisa walk again.

The houses of everyone who served with us, where we stayed while helping more than 350 people receive medical care, were the main houses attacked. Some were completely destroyed. 

Having lost everything, the families escaped to Pastor Chablé's ranch south of Oaxaca City, more than 6 hours away, to recover, rest, and consider their future.

We now have five families living at that ranch. Many of them have lost everything. Houses? Gone. Furniture? Gone. Clothing? Gone. Property? Gone. Money? Gone. Cars? Gone. The other day a local church brought some clean clothes for the kids. Finally they could change their dirty clothing.

Manuel's work truck, a total loss

Step back and think about that for a moment. They have not lost a lot of stuff... they've lost everything.

As Pastor Chablé put it, he now has a group of refugees and no way to get around town and get the things they need. His truck was one of those burned in Eloxochitlán. Stop and consider what that means. A rancher has no way to go and get food. No way to bring feed back for his animals. No way to take his young son to to school.

I doubt many of us here in America can imagine what that must be like. You wake up one morning, and by the time the day ends, you've lost everything.

Adventures in Life needs your help. Pastor Chablé needs your help. Manuel, Vicente, Malena, Elisa, David, their families and their kids need your help. 10 adults and eight children.

There is no FEMA to help in Oaxaca. The evening news is never going to publicize this and ask people to help make Christmas happen in the face of this unspeakable tragedy. No one will be starting an internet campaign there to help them.

But there is the family of God, and we can respond.

I am asking you to consider making a sizable donation to these families. We need to pay off medical bills, provide food, clothing and see if we can get Pastor Chablé another truck to replace the one he lost.

Our goal is to raise $20,000.00 in the next two weeks. That will enable us to get a truck and provide for the families who are now living at the ranch. We expect that they will be there for at least a month.

Literally there is not one person connected to Adventures in Life who has served in Oaxaca that has not in some way seen their ministry impacted by Pastor Chablé and his family.

This is one of those moments that defines ministry. 

Almost 20 years ago, Paul Lathrop and I arrived to where the village of Santa Rosa once stood north of Ensenada. The day before, the entire village was bulldozed, the people losing everything. We brought food, diapers for kids, milk and other supplies for the people of that village. It is where we built our first church.

Even today, when I see people from that village, they still talk about how God used AIL to literally save them after that tragedy.

Together, we can write another chapter in God's story in Mexico. Another chapter where his people in Oaxaca speak of God provided in their hour of need. Indeed, as you read this, we've already received over $5,000.00, 25% of our goal!

Pastor Chablé was taken to the hospital after being beaten in Eloxochitlán. He refused to stay because he told me his sheep, his people, needed him.

Chablé and his people need us. 

Today as you consider how you can respond, let me challenge you to go big. Seldom do we have the opportunity to step up and make a real stand for Jesus. To do something that will make an instant kingdom difference.

This is that time.

This is when we can live the community, the love, and hope that we profess each year at Christmas. This is our chance to help provide a Christmas miracle to God's people of Oaxaca.

If you want to help us raise the $20,000.00 we need to help these families, you can send us a check to our office [address below], use the donate button on this page, or give online through our web site. 

All donations are 100% tax deductible and will go directly to Pastor Chablé, his family, the ranch and to help the people now living there from Eloxochitlán.

Update... To date, Adventures in Life has collected over $50,000.00 in relief funds for Eloxochitlán. We have helped cover medical bills of some of the victims, purchased vehicles, and helped restore the businesses that were lost in the violence. We also provided food and shelter at our ranch in Oaxaca City when people had to be in the capital for medical care, to meet with government officials investigating the attack of because they no longer had a home in which to live.

We have also set aside an account of money for the people of Eloxochitlán to use in the future for development of micro loans for small businesses and other projects designed to benefit the entire community of this isolated mountain village.

Adventures in Life Ministry

A 501(c)3 non profit corporation

3243 E Warm Springs Road

Las Vegas, Nevada, 89120

Federal Tax ID 95-4434963

A Village, A Mission, A Ministry, An Opportunity

We made it.

Leaving Oaxaca City about 9:00am Sunday, we arrived in Eloxochitlan de Flores Magnon [formerly San Antonio de Eloxochitlan], site of our medical clinic last week, about 4:00pm.

Along the way we ate a great lunch, sucked down a few Dramamines, passed through a cloud forest, crossed the Continental Divide, and even saw a few waterfalls before finally arriving.

As we got out of our vehicles, about 150 people were crowded around the house we would use for our clinic getting a small bowl of beans and a handful of tamale masa to dip in the broth. I wondered how many of them would be at the clinic the next day.

When I woke up, there were already people lining up. By the time the day ended, we had seen well over 100 people. But the number doesn’t really matter, it could have been 50, it could have been 500.

Our intake and triage center

What really mattered was the church... and God... and Jesus.

For the community of Eloxochitlan, what mattered was that Jesus showed up in ways many had never imagined. People walked hours to be seen by a dentist, an internist, a pediatrician or a physical therapist who was literally working miracles.

Dr Sue seeing one of our smaller patients on our second day

They came in the back of trucks, in friends cars, any way they could to get a chance to see a doctor, or get some level of medical care. And they came in waves. Just when we thought there would be a break, or perhaps the day was winding down, another collectivo with a dozen patients would arrive.

We saw children with untreated extreme cerebral palsy, people who would soon lose their toes and feet, bad backs, colds, gastritis and sore knees. Almost everyone we saw had at least one cavity. We saw people with Parkinson’s disease, parasites and cases of lice so bad kids had literally ripped their faces off. 

When Pastor Chable was not talking with his community, he helped out by sterilizing medical instruments

And we saw Pastor Chable in his element, serving his people. The people God had called him to years ago. This was the first place he pastored and he has never really left. It’s where his son Abi calls home. His daughter Cesi was born there. It’s where he held a little baby many years ago that died in his arms. 

That baby changed his ministry, and many years later, me and Adventures in Life.

Chable’s son Abi told me I was only the second “gringo” to ever work with the people in Eloxochitlan, the first being the missionary who helped his dad plant a church there years ago. As I listened, I learned that there had never been a clinic in town with more than one doctor. We brought four. I learned that no clinic, including the town health clinic, ever had medicine for the people they treated. I learned that no church sponsored clinic had ever treated non-Christians before. We treated all comers.

Here I am with Doctors Milton and Ita between patients

This time, this year, last week, the church showed up. People were cared for, prayed for, held, touched and loved in ways many had never experienced. The Gospel was shared in word, deed, action and proclamation. 

It was shared people to people, as when Pastor Chable sat with a couple that needed counseling, or when one of our doctors prayed with a patient in need.

Looking back, I shared with my ministry community last week that I was scared. Scared of the unknown as we prepared to head up to our location in Eloxochitlan. Now I ache.

Without a doubt this was the hardest week of ministry I have ever experienced in over 20 years of mission. I know it will never leave me, even as I struggle to understand what I saw there and what should be the role of the church in addressing incredible pain, suffering and poverty.

What I do know is this... we’re going back next year. And we need you. 

In addition to our current, already committed group of physicians and dentists, we need nurses, dietitians, dental hygienists and people who understand public health issues. We need an eye doctor or two to help provide sight to people who have struggled all their lives to see clearly.

We also need a team chaplain. This is a ministry that needs a pastor’s heart to hear the struggles of God’s servants, as they work, and to be praying for, and with them. It is that hard.

Viktor E. Frankl writes in his landmark work, “Man’s Search for Meaning” that everyone must have something for which they live. Perhaps this ministry is that something for which your soul yearns... that something for which you live. 

We are trying to change a pueblo. The pueblo of Eloxochitlan! We are striving to meet immediate needs now, while sowing the seeds of Christian development for tomorrow. Imagine if in a few years, the people of this area could say that God heard their prayers and sent some men, women and children from the church to help.

Then imagine if those He sent, included you.

Please pray about it and if you have any questions, contact me.

A big thank you to Mission Focused for their help documenting our work with their excellent photography. All pictures here are copyrighted and cannot be used without the express permission of Adventures in Life Ministry and Mission Focused.

Short-term Mission... the indispensable key to funding effective long-term global mission

Now we move on to the heavy lifting.  In Part I of this series, I wrote about direct support of missionaries and pastors in other countries.  Part II focused on Short-Term Mission and how funding this important missions work can be a positive part of effective Great Commission work.

Part III, the last part of our series will offer some real world suggestions for financing the ongoing mission work of the church around the globe.

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 as well.

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.

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

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Case Study 1.  A few years back, the American Baptist Churches [ABC] 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.  Recently I had a discussion with a pastor who wondered why his church should pay for anything beyond actual expenses if his church group served overseas.  He saw no need for professional help and guidance, preferred to go it alone, and said paying host receivers for their time was 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 growth industry.  We need only look to the explosion of web sites like gofundme and You Caring for evidence.  In a tangential way, STM even made it into a recent Jeopardy episode with the answer being “donor fatigue,” that feeling you get when you open the mailbox and see 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 that 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 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 at arms length.

The very people you cast aside as not worthy of your time and effort, are those that will organize people back home to raise money for your 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 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.  Mistakes that thankfully were forgiven both by God, and those I harmed.  Grace and forgiveness were accorded me from many different quarters in those days.

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.

Finally, 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, the head of a local Baptist organization for their area a few years back.

After getting a price for a 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.

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

Think of it as a gift.

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

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, Church Missions Coach at sixteen:fifteen.]

Open... The US Mission Community's response to some of the biggest challenges facing our world today

If you know me, you know that I am a passionate voice for people going on mission to be prepared.  If you follow me, you know I've written much on this over the years.

I do not believe it is enough to have a heart of gold, be filled with desire, purchase a plane ticket to somewhere named wayoverthereistan and then just go!  That type of mission mindset is what many of us in the field are talking about when we talk about good intentions/bad mission.

Over the last 20 years, we have seen the short-term mission game improve by leaps and bounds.  Yes, there are still guerilla mission trips where outsiders arrive en masse and set up shop for a few hours of “Gospel Ministry” and “Street Evangelism” before retiring to safe ministry bases miles away, but thankfully, that trend has diminished substantially.

Now it is much more common to see teams on short-term mission going with a clear goal of entering into the local culture and being learner servants.  We no longer see hoards of short-term teams throwing food and candy from the windows of school busses crammed full of students while trying to say “Jesus loves you” in a foreign language.

Where are still too many teams, individuals and organizations whose mission goal is dedicated to primarily serving those who go, as opposed to people “over there,” you cannot make a credible argument that short-term mission has not turned a corner from our early years of anything goes.

Now we are a much more disciplined group that strives to hear to heart of God and the heart of those we serve, where ever that may be.

Much of that improvement has come as a result of the work of a small group of dedicated people who have served through the Alliance for Excellence in Short-Term Mission, or AESTM, for many years.  It was the leadership of AESTM that made possible the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders, the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission and the National Short-Term Missions Conference.

Each of these branches of AESTM worked hard to provide different levels of training and expertise to a rapidly growing short-term industry over the last 25 years.

Now AESTM has partnered with Missio Nexus and the larger long-term mission world in an effort to unify the different mission approaches world wide as we continue our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus gave us.

This September 25 - 27, AESTM and Missio Nexus will be hosting the 2014 Mission Leaders Conference in Atlanta.  There is no better place to hear what God is doing around the globe, talk to the leadership of the North American mission movement, get connected and, above all, learn.  Last year over 1000 leaders from around the globe, representing both long and short-term mission, churches and schools gathered in Dallas.  It was an incredible coming together of the different worlds of mission in one place. 

Do you care about missions?  Do you believe that we should give our best and go prepared when we leave our shores to serve in the Great Commission?  Are you trying to discern whether God is calling you into a lifetime of Christian service abroad?

Then, hands down, you need to be in Atlanta in September.

Too often we complain about the quality of our mission serve, especially when we cross cultural barriers and go overseas.  Here’s an opportunity to be better prepared, better informed and better connected.

Whether you are considering an overseas posting, on a mission committee at your local church, or a support person or CEO in a mission organization, the 2014 North American Mission Leaders Conference should be on your God bucket list for this year.

I’ll be there... will you?

Register Now!

[full disclosure... I have been part of the Fellowship of Short Term Mission Leaders Conferences for many years and served on the steering committee of that group from 2010 to 2013.]

Is Short-Term Mission Bad Stewardship? Not a Chance...

“Dave, don’t you think mission would be better off if we sent the money directly to ‘insert country name here’ rather than spend it all on transportation and inefficient workers?”

I have heard this question, or some variation of it every year since I started hosting short-term teams in Mexico and I was asked just the other day that very same question.  

The theory is this...by directly funding nationals already serving in our “target” country, we could greatly enhance the impact of our dollars in the field.  Why, people ask, should we spend so much money on transportation, preparation, lodging, meals etc., when that money could go directly into the work of the Gospel.

It’s a great idea but one that ignores a set of field and everyday realities that critics of short-term mission have so far failed to address.

The first reality ignored is how much short-term mission impacts the life of the goer.  Now I know the focus of our mission, at least from the viewpoint of the Standards of Excellence in Short-term Mission is primarily on the beneficiary of our mission, and with that I am in 100% agreement.  But, let’s be honest.  Mission is a two way street and the simple fact is that short-term participants, like anyone else in the Kingdom, grow in their faith when they serve others in Jesus’ name.  

Many people like to emphasize that participants in STM end up giving more money to mission during their lives.  Unfortunately, there is no data that conclusively supports this belief.  However, a singular focus on money misses the point.

Just as secular international travel changes people and gives them a greater awareness of the world, it cannot be denied that short-term mission travel and seeing the church “over there” wherever there is, increases awareness of God’s church among the nations.  It would be hard to credibly argue that this increased awareness does not impact the way the church prays for fellow believers around the world.

I would argue that this alone would be significant justification for continued short-term mission, but there is more.  Much more.

Noted missiologist Ralph Winter and the entire Perspectives Movement have built an argument for years that we need the whole church to take the Gospel to entire world. Inherent in this is a need for cross cultural workers in international missions.  There are just going to be times when the message, or ministry, must come from, or through outsiders.  

While this is obvious if we are talking about a pioneering work, often times we can see the same need in an area or country where there is already a long established work.  This can be especially evident in areas where cultural or tribal jealousies and customs hinder fellowship and an ecumenical Gospel spirit.

Much of my work is focused in Oaxaca, located in Southern Mexico.  Oaxaca is the heart of the indigenous culture of Mexico, boasting almost 200 distinct languages and dialects.

In the villages where I work, there is frequently only one evangelical church and if it has more than about 30 adult believers, I’d almost call it a mega-church!  It is an area where if a guy falls in love with a girl from another village, the elders of both villages literally are asked to give permission for the marriage to take place. Marriages are still arranged and many people to this day, live their lives never leaving a small 10 kilometer radius around their home.

In short, the culture in these areas does not allow a lot of cross village fellowship, pollination or brotherhood.  In a practical sense here is what that means.  Christians from a church in one village don’t socialize with Christians from another village.  You just can’t go and attend a church service in another village without raising suspicion.

As a leader, you also will not typically get together with leaders from other churches for fear of offending leaders from another village.  Even if one of the local pastors calls the churches together for a unity service solely to worship Jesus, centuries old patterns of non-association work against the desired outcome.  Because of this inability to get past what for many are a set of unwritten cultural rules, the church is essentially prohibited from gathering the nations in celebration.

Unless there is an outsider.  Many times a person from outside the culture can accomplish things within a culture that those from the culture are simply unable to do.  If I am, as the resident gringo outsider, the driving force behind the service, then there is no problem for anyone who wants to attend.

Since the event is not being sponsored by a church, or pastor, in one village, but instead by an outsider, no one feels the pressures of their culture and no church feels compelled to reciprocate the invitation, something they may be financially unable to do.  With me, they know they can come, there will be no future time or money requirements, no village has been favored over another and we’re all good.

The same is true in the short-term world.  Outsiders have an ability to draw visitors around the church in a way the local congregation may never be able to do.  It’s just different having visitors at your church and if the local mission church is properly prepared, a short-term presence can be a real blessing and give the local church a chance to connect with people they might otherwise not be able to reach.

But let’s get to the crux of the matter for many here in the US that advance this argument.  Money, and by extension, stewardship of the resources God has given us for mission.  Let me be blunt to those who advance this argument as a reason to avoid short-term mission... you’re living in a non-existent utopia, and here’s why.

According to DELTA Ministries, a widely respected STM training and sending organization, the average cost to send 10 people overseas on short-term mission is $20,000.  This amount includes transportation, food, lodging, training, materials, and even offerings to leave with local leaders.

It is then this 20K that becomes the basis for discussion for the Utopians.  In their perfect world, without anyone ever getting on a plane and incurring a dollar of expense, the local sending church would just send the 20K to the field.

Accept that is never going to happen.  Because the church is never going to have that 20K to send and more than likely, without the short-term team going, would be unable to raise it.  I’ve interacted with many who have advanced this argument and in the end, everyone has admitted that without a team going, they would never be able to raise that kind of money to send directly to the field.

Now, as a field guy, I’d love to have that 20K for what we are trying to accomplish.  It will go a lot farther in reaching people for the Gospel in a developing country that it will here in the US.  But let’s be more realistic.  If a team comes and their total cost is that 20 grand, by the time all expenses are paid and the group hosted, there might be between $4000 and $6000 left over.

That means that after a church raises their money, travels to one of my sites, gets housed and fed, works all week, leaves offerings with the local church and pays all of their expenses, about 25% of their money remains for our ongoing Gospel work.

I’ll take it!  And, here’s why.  If that team had not come, the reality is that not only would we never see the 20 grand, we’d never see the 4 to 6 grand, and we need that money for our work.

Additionally, the team, the sending church, and the church with whom they partnered “over there” would never get the benefit of what Nairobi Chapel Pastor Oscar Muriu, in his address to Urbana in 2006, calls the ministry of interdependence that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 12.  How do we put a dollar value on the ministry of encouragement to the entire body of Christ that comes through short-term mission?

In today’s world, with all it hyper-connectedness, people are going to give their time, talents and treasures to projects, causes and missions to which they are personally connected.  How better to introduce people to your needs than through short-term mission where you can see the ministry face to face?

That brings me to what I believe is the strongest argument for a church to spend that $20,000 and send their team.  So they can do a better job of supporting the resident missionaries and leaders in the field after the short-term team returns.

It is my belief that the future of the North American church to fund and send long-term in country missionaries lies in the success of short-term mission.  I’ll develop this more at a later date, but unless the church finds a way to leverage the hundreds of thousands of short-term mission participants, and turn them and those that sent them, into supporters of long-term mission, Christian pioneering and mission work will suffer.

So, to answer the question raised by my friend and so many others, No!  

Short-term mission, when used effectively in support of long-term work, is an essential part of God’s church, whether that church is located here in Las Vegas where I live, or half way around the world.  It is a sound investment in Kingdom ministry when done properly, just like any other expense of the church in taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.