Thank you for this needed article. I was raised overseas, the child of missionaries, and I have been on short-term mission trips as an adult. One of the primary issues with mission trips is the terminology. Mission is how we live our daily lives, not something we do for a specific, limited period of time on a trip in another country. Are churches and donors willing to donate funds for youth cross-cultural ministry exposure trips, not just ‘mission trips’? If they care about youth being on mission, they should!
Heidi Carlson San Diego, CA
I was excited when I saw the cover story was about short-term mission trips. But when I finished the article, I was disappointed. It seems like, in your view, all that’s left is exposure trips and compassion tourism. Really? I still think short-term mission trips can bless people in faraway places, but it really helps if skilled people are involved and serious prior planning is done.
We all see that just sending money fails. Short-term teams bring accountability to the receiving of gifts. So does going back to the same place for several years in a row. When accountability is provided, development continues to happen.
Wayne Wager Champaign, IL
The assertion that the apostles are biblical examples of “short-term missionaries” is weak exegesis at best. The best New Testament example of short-term mission is Epaphroditus mentioned in Philippians who visited Paul to aid in his ministry. Using him as a benchmark, biblical short-term mission should in one way or another further the goals of the long term missionaries involved.
Daniel Hoskins Jacksonville, AR
Having served as a missions pastor for nearly 30 years, I was both surprised and disappointed that in a very long and what should have been a thorough article there is virtually no mention of evangelism. Is not evangelism central to all we do in ‘missions’? Although there is much attention paid to holistic ministry, there is too often a hole in our holistic. Jesus sent out short-term teams, but he sent them out to preach! May we never forget that, regardless of what we do to address injustice and other societal problems, our primary calling, whether short-term or long-term, is evangelism.
In high school I was the “runner” at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, part of a team assisting Kathryn Kuhlman. Your article represents Miss Kuhlman well personally but misses a major difference with her ministry. While indeed healings were claimed—my job was to escort the healed to the stage—the real richness of her meetings was the atmosphere. There was such a strong presence of the Lord. It felt as though the Lord Himself was right there and could be touched. That was what made her meetings unique, and it was in this wonderful manifestation of the Holy Spirit that the miracles occurred. She often ended her meetings saying she “felt like taking off her shoes, for we were standing on holy ground.”
I have been shaking my head in disbelief that a Christian magazine would think that it was good literary content to promote the grasping of power by anyone. The whole concept of grasping for power is presented in the Bible from the Garden of Eden to the Revelation as an expression of sin and ungodliness. It is the exact opposite of what Jesus did in “kenosis,” emptying himself of power and taking on the very nature of a servant. (Philippians 2)
Jesus taught that it is better to seat yourself at the low end of the table and be raised up by the host then to take for yourself the seat of honor. The fact that men in ministry commit the sin of grasping for power and influence does not mean that women should be encouraged to sin in the same way!
I once was a Mormon and, after meeting my wife, I became a born-again Christian. What really stuck out to me in this article was the phrase “experienced a burning in my bosom,” which perfectly describes the feelings I felt when I was in the Mormon Church. My experiences coming back to Christ after Mormonism primarily consisted of reading through the New Testament and comparing what was taught in the Mormon Church to what was really being taught in the Scripture through the Holy Spirit. Thank you again for sharing this article—it gave me comfort knowing I was not alone in feeling the pressure to “live up to a standard in order for Jesus to love me again.”
Sam Cadeaux Elk Grove, CA
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