What do mixing concrete, long trips, little sleep and eating unusual food have to do with real mission work?

Many youth groups take an annual short-term mission trip. Unfortunately, many people who go on these trips are misinformed. How can missions miss the biblical mark? Let’s look at what characterizes a biblically grounded mission trip and explore specific guidelines to help us have informed missions.

Informed by Popularity
Not too long ago, I heard a very well-known preacher suggest we take youth on a mission trip based on the hit TV show “The Amazing Race.” He said we should take a bus and stop at a different mission site each day. The kids never would know where they were going next. “How much fun this would be!” he suggested.

Multiple times, I have heard of youth leaders wanting to take their youth groups on an international trip to show them another culture, yet what happens is a transplanting of America to a different location. One group traveled all the way to an African country and then alienated themselves from the locals in every way imaginable, missing the opportunity to get to know the locals and be known by them.

Americans love to work hard and be productive, which can be very good qualities; but can our definitions of success and efficiency get in the way of God’s plan? Why do we travel so far and use so much money to go on these trips? Is it to point at the concrete building we just constructed and feel good about ourselves? To see the world? To have fun? What informs our missiology? What do students take away from the mission trips that we lead?

Informed by Scripture
“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His cloak. Immediately her bleeding stopped. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched My clothes?'” (Mark 5:27-30). Jesus was not willing for the woman to just have physical healing; He wanted her to know Him. He wanted conversation and communication so she could get to know Him. He wanted her to be in relationship with Him.

The Great Commission instructs Christians to go out and make disciples (Matthew 28:19). The very understanding of a disciple is relational in nature. The postmodern culture in which today’s youth grow up encourages movement from one event to another, always to be busy. How can we make missions not just another event to add to our to-do lists? How can we make them truly connectional and biblical? Are we actually making disciples or just filling our schedules and padding our resumes?

In the beginning of the Gospel of John, an important question and answer exchange takes place, “Rabbi, where are You staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see'” (John 1:38-39). Throughout this gospel, we see this “Come and see; follow Me” theme. Jesus’ teaching and His very life were focused on being in relationship with those around Him. This same calling is true for us today. We are called to go out into the world. While it is good to build things with our hands, may we remember the most important things being built are not those made with our hands. The relationships that develop when we travel and the fact that we are called to go in the name of Jesus are the valued fruit that is produced when we are sent out.

“‘Moses, Moses!’ God called out from the burning bush” (Exodus 3:4). He then instructed Moses to remove his sandals and told him that He is the God of his ancestors. God eventually told Moses, “I will send you” (Exodus 3:10). Let us see more clearly what God did before He sent Moses out on this mission.

God established a relationship and then set a purpose for Moses to go. Continuing to look at Exodus, we see that God did not call Moses (or anyone) for a short goal to be achieved and then end the deal. God clearly calls His people and walks with them, never abandoning the person. Our mission trips need to be experienced in this context. Not that short missions are bad, but there is more to mission work than a week or two, more than traveling anywhere we want for our own adventure.

God wants us to see who He is more clearly before we go, to understand the calling He has for us and to grasp that He goes with us always (even when we return). Short-term missions need to be viewed in three stages: before, during and after the trip itself. How do we prepare to hear God’s voice more clearly? How do we follow God while we are on this trip? How do we see God once we return from the trip, realizing that it is not over but only just beginning? We must see that being called by God to go in His name is to be on holy ground.

Informed and Practical
Whether it is your church’s first mission trip or the youth group’s trip that has been happening for decades, we must keep a right biblical perspective before us. We must fight against missions being seen as an entitlement, as something we just do or as our next opportunity to scratch our itch to explore. A clear vision is needed, answering the question, “What makes our group going in Jesus’ name different than a group going to do a good social work?”

This past summer, our senior high youth went on a weeklong mission trip to Mexico. We wanted the Bible to guide the planning and the actual trip. Although it was a work trip, our goal was to focus on building relationships.

We wanted the youth to wrestle with what it means to be called and to follow Christ. We had strict requirements helping the students to take ownership and listen to God’s call. Trip requirements included: writing an essay, taking part in six vision meetings, raising most of the money needed, participating in local service projects, writing thank-you letters and sharing our stories once we returned.

Several months after our trip to Mexico, the youth are still talking about the trip. We continue to pray for those in Mexico. We are able to talk about Mexico not as a project but about the people we met and the relationships formed with them. This has opened doors for us to see that God does not see us as projects either but as His children. Trying to have the focus on the Bible and not on accomplishing another task (even for a good cause) really has helped our group grow in our understanding of Christ’s love for us.

It is my prayer that we may grow continually in our understanding of the Great Commission and how to have biblically informed missions.