Our church made it a practice
for short-term mission teams to give a presentation upon their return. Since the church had sent them we should hear from them by way of a
report/presentation, we thought. This accomplished three things: celebration, challenge
others to go and accountability. It was a few weeks after our team shared the
story of our two-week mission trip to Belgium, when it dawned on me that we may
be short-circuiting the missional purpose of our church. Our reporting may be unintentionally
sending the wrong message about how God wants to use His people in our churches
to incarnate the Gospel in our neighborhood.
Why do we seem to have really good and fruitful
experiences when we go to another state or country on mission? This may not always
be the case but trips that did not go so well are rarely reported as such in
front of a church. We tried to steer away from numbers but it is inevitable
when you are working in such a compressed time frame. We encouraged using names and telling personal
stories about people encountered for the sake of the Gospel mission in these
reports. I cannot think of one single occasion where someone regretted they had
gone on a trip or wasn’t stretched as a disciple by the cross-cultural
experience.
Here are some of the elements
of a “successful” short-term mission trip:
1.
Identify the need
as observed or communicated by people on the field.
2.
Our churches hear
of the need and disciples decide to go.
3.
These disciples
marshal resources in order to go, which requires an intentional investment of
time and money. Also team members co-op
prayer partners who invest in the trip as well.
4.
These same
disciples prepare themselves for the physical, mental and spiritual rigor of
the trip with training, planning and intercommunication.
5.
They go with the
whole purpose of Gospel mission from rising up early to going to bed late. From
the van ride to the airport to getting back on the plane, the whole matter is
infused with Gospel-mission intentionality.
6.
Glad to return
home but with heavy hearts concerning broken people, desperate needs left
behind and at the same time rejoicing that God uses broken people like us to
entice others to consider the goodness and grace of God in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
7.
Remember. Celebrate.
Rejoice.
Why not apply the same
elements to reaching our community, our town or our neighborhood where our
church is embedded? It’s certainly not difficult to observe some needs in the
lives of people in our neighborhood. Share the need with others who may want to
participate with us by giving, praying or going with us. But the greatest step
is the decision to go! We must teach,
challenge and stretch disciples to be Gospel-intentional and mission-minded
about work, school, store, races, ballgames, and going walking at the park. In
short, believers must make no less a decision to go out of the house on mission
daily than to go to Africa on mission for two weeks. This may be a greater
challenge than going to Africa for two weeks!
And Sunday worship gatherings
and small group gatherings would be akin to walking down the steps at baggage
claim and seeing loved ones who prayed, gave and longed for your return.
In our gatherings, it would
serve our covenant community well to create space for Sandra to tell about going
to teach fifth-graders day after day on mission for Christ? Why not celebrate
with Joseph concerning his effort to reach a classmate who responded to an
invite by attending Wednesday night student worship? Let’s hear from a praying grandmother who is
celebrating the way God is using suffering in a grandson’s life to open his
heart to the Gospel.
A large part of the
challenge, blessing and growth comes from the cross-cultural nature of the
mission experience when we go to another country or state for that matter. One
thing we should consider is how going into our community as a follower of Jesus
Christ really is cross-cultural but we have become so adapted that we cannot
sense that our ‘citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20) Have we adapted too well
and cannot seriously engage our surroundings because we have become so much
like our surroundings?
Fellow disciples, we are on a short-term
mission trip. Make no mistake; we are working with a compressed time frame that
is determined by our life span or Christ’s return. The church is an outpost of
heaven in a foreign land and we are ambassadors for our King. We are not where
we belong but we are where we should be for now. Let’s be resolved about our
disciple-making purpose on this short-term trip. One day the One who loves us,
sent us, intercedes for us and gave Himself for us will receive us at the
baggage claim of heaven. What a day that
will be…until then; Remember. Celebrate. Rejoice. Go.
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