The 10 Commandments for Short-Term Mission Trips

Here is my version of the 10 Commandments for Short-Term Mission Trips which I referenced in my last post, “What Is a Mission Trip?”

1) Remember that the primary function of a short-term mission trip is to partner with God in what He's doing in a given part of the world.

2) Always seek to serve those with whom you are partnering, whatever that may mean.

3) Lay down your expectations and be ready for whatever the Spirit wants to do.

4) Be flexible.

5) Honor the authorities over you, including government and church authorities.

6) Leave a light cultural and financial foot print in the area that you're visiting.

7) Be a learner. Prepare for your trip by studying the culture or area that you're visiting, but also continue to ask questions and learn during the trip.

8) Be respectful of and sensitive to cultural differences.

9) Demonstrate integrity. Don't make promises about following up or staying in touch that you can't keep. If you do make them, keep them!

10) Make prayer the staple of the trip. Ask God what to do, where to go, and how to act each and every day. Strive to go deeper in the Lord through this experience, and look for signs of how He may be answering your prayers each day of the project.

What would you add to the list?

What Is A Mission Trip?

If you are planning on a mission trip next summer then you have probably begun to pray about the destination to which God may be leading you. You also have probably been reading all the many blogs online discussing missionaries, mission trips, and how to prepare for the journey. So, over the next few months I will be writing about missions, being spiritually prepared, and even how to raise funds for the trip.

In all honesty, and with all due respect to the thousands of Christians who go on short-term mission trips each year, I want to offer you what I consider is another way to think about short-term missions.

I know that may sound a bit arrogant, but please hear me out.  As I told a friend a few years ago, mission trip isn't synonymous with service project for me (or the ministry for which I lead).

I don't understand this fascination with missions as a glorified form of public service. Mission trips are much more than that, in my opinion. 

A mission trip isn't a vacation or a mere cross-cultural experience. It's just what it sounds like, a trip with a specific mission. According to Scripture, the mission isn't necessarily giving handouts to the poor or even aiding long-term missionaries in their work. It's about sharing the Gospel.

I realize I may be stepping on a few toes of some other organizations, so please bear with me.  I don't have any problem with helping the poor or partnering with long-term missionaries; in fact, I think that those are great activities to do on a mission trip.  However, I think that those are the means, not the end, of short-term missions.

The end of any mission trip, quite simply, is for the glory of God.  It's not to build a house or learn what it's like to be a real missionary for a week. It's to join the Lord in the work that He's doing.

Now, that may mean digging a hole in the middle of the Eastern Ghat Mountains of India or working at a children’s home in Haiti. It may require you to go knocking on doors or to pray through the night at a dilapidated church. It may even require you to lay your life down, like it did for Nate Saint in Ecuador. Regardless, the point of a mission trip is not our cleverly-devised acts of service.  It's obedience to God.

We need to set aside our human agendas and make God once again the central point of missions.  It's not about us, our rules, systems, and ideas. It's about Him. I'll say that again, understanding that there are some legitimate caveats to this statement: Missions isn't about us; it's about God.

Church, I think we're in need of a bit of a revolution when it comes to how we approach mission trips.  Quite frankly, I think that we could stand to be a lot more adventurous, for starters.

Let's stop bringing the high calling of missions down to our carnal level, and instead seek to meet God in the work that He's doing in the world, even if it means that we have to redefine some commonly misunderstood words like mission trip.

Next time I'll be posting my version of the 10 Commandments of Short-Term Mission Trips.  So stay tuned until next time. 

Intercessory Prayer

“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” (Daniel 9:3) 

Many times we forget that God has a purpose for the unsaved of this world and is looking to us to be their intercessor.  When we bring the needs of others to God in prayer, we interact in partnership with His heart.

In Daniel 9 we can see that Daniel was concerned for God’s people in captivity and sought to know what God would do with them. When he discovered in the Scriptures why his people were in captivity he began to intercede for them, confessing the sins of the nation and agreeing with God regarding them.  Then he pleaded with God for mercy and deliverance for them.  We can see in Daniel 9:23 and 10:12 that on the very first day Daniel began interceding, God sent a messenger who had been withstood for twenty-one days until there was finally a breakthrough.

God delivered His people in part because Daniel interceded for them.  We need to hear from God for all the unsaved people of the world and intercede for God’s will to be done for them.  We need to insist in effective, fervent prayer until there’s a breakthrough.  

God’s hand is moved, His angels are sent, and His provision is granted in response to our prayers. Do you make time to get away and hear from God for your people and to intercede for them?  There is nothing like time alone with God to hear what He wants for His people.

Make it a part of your busy schedule to spend quality time with God.