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.]

Listening to Local Leadership... a step too often ignored in US short-term mission...

“Listen, and trust us!”

That’s it.  Four little words.  Four little words that, when taken in context, explain all that is wrong with Christian missions work around the globe and especially in Mexico.

I was recently in Ensenada to help a group in their continuing relationship with a local pastor and congregation.  As part of our ministry, we have been helping this pastor expand his small house for his growing family.

Wiring rebar castles in Ensenada

The next step was to make what we call rebar castles, wire them in place, set forms and pour concrete around them.  It is hard work, it tears up your hands and there is a way to do it in an area that has few resources available.

Now if we were doing this kind of work in the US, we would always use new lumber perfectly cut for the project.  In Mexico however, we use old wood and try to make it work without cutting it.  Frequently it is borrowed from someone else.

The pastor with whom we were working, Martin, had asked another pastor friend to come and help us out.  He and I hit it off instantly as we have both worked with a lot of groups and churches from both sides of the border.

I loved when he was watching me on the scaffold wiring the forms and he asked Martin how I knew how to do this work like a Mexican.  We talked and worked at a level most people never reach cross culturally because he knew, from watching me and from what Martin told him, that I was not your typical short-term kind of guy.

As the day moved on, I decided to ask him the $64,000 question; “Pastor Jose, what is the one thing you want to say to American groups serving short-term here in Mexico?”  Was he nervous.  So nervous that he came back at me with a question of his own... “Do you really want to know?”

“Of course I do" I answered and Martin assured him he could be honest with me.

And that’s when he answered me... “Listen and trust us!”

He talked about the incredibly big hearts of the American people.  He spoke of people having homes, food on their table and a saving knowledge of Jesus as a result of those big hearts expressed through short-term mission teams from the US.

But he also talked about Americans being taken advantage of unwittingly.  He spoke of gifts given in good conscience being sold once the giver was out of site.  He spoke of piles of clothing given to people that were wasting the blessing they received.

And in all of this, Pastor Jose spoke about how, if the American groups would have listened to local leadership, it all could have been prevented.

Listen, and trust us!

So often, for Americans serving in other places, that is hard for us.  I had to work really hard on this when we started Adventures in Life.  I still have to work hard at it.  This idea of trusting others does not come easy, but the benefits of doing so, far outweigh the difficulties.

Pastors Martin and Jose of Ensenada

Listening and trust are both at the heart of what the framers of the US Standards of Excellence in Short-term Mission [SOE] expect when we serve overseas on mission. As  missionaries, we are to establish healthy, interdependent, on-going relationships between sending and receiving partners, focusing primarily on those we serve.

The role that trust plays in effective mission cannot be overstated.  It is that trust that gives people the freedom to be open and honest.  Trust is what gives people the confidence to share things, even if it may be perceived as difficult, or hurtful.

Years ago I received a letter from a partner who was brutally with me.  A lot of his words hurt and were very difficult to digest.  I though this guy was my friend, and yet here he was criticizing things at the heart of my ministry.

I still have that letter handy in my office.  For two reasons.  First, because he was right.  Second, because he cared enough about me and Adventures in Life Ministry to say something.  We had worked together a number of years, had built a relationship and trusted each other.  If he was telling me I had an issue, I had better listen.  That type of honesty only comes when there is real trust between ministry partners who are looking out for each other.

Every year US churches send thousands of people around the globe to serve, trusting those to whom we send our people and teams to care for and lead them in mission.  Let’s remember that in doing so, we also must listen.