discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

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245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 122 122 Volunteerism in Mission work educator Edward C. Lindeman noted how volunteer service often generates positive feelings of self-worth: The act of volunteering is an assertion of individual worth. The person who of his own free will decides to work . . . is in effect saying, I have gifts and talents which are needed. I am a person who accepts a responsibility, not because it is imposed upon me, but rather because I wish to be useful. My right to be thus used is a symbol of my personal dignity and worth! 6 One way that entering the ranks of mission volunteers enriches a person’s life is through changed attitudes about prayer, mission giving, and mission education. This showed up in research that James Engel and Jerry Jones did on the attitudes of Christian baby boomers toward the missionary enterprise. Many of the Americans involved in short-term missions have been members of the boomer generation, that generation born in the 20 years following World War II. This generation began with the baby boom that resulted when hundreds of thousands of American soldiers returned home after World War II and started their families. After surveying professional baby boomers in several American evangelical churches, Engel and Jones concluded that going on a mission trip affects how members of that American generation view world evangelism. Engel and Jones said their research showed that “spreading the gospel overseas as a ministry is a high priority among those who have been onsite overseas, those who are financial contributors to missions, and those engaged in personal evangelism.” 7 Remedy for a Sick Church The best remedy for a sick church is to put it on a missionary diet. 8 —Unknown Research by Roger Peterson and others has also shown that long-term shifts in attitudes and actions occurred among many short-term mission participants. Peterson’s research indicated that mission trip participation generally resulted in a stoking of passion about global missions as evidenced by a doubling of prayer life and financial giving to mission causes. That same study also indicated a substantial increase in involvement in mission-related support activities. 9 Mission agencies say that significant numbers of new missionaries report receiving their missionary call during a short-term mission trip. All of this does not mean that every participant on a 10-day mission trip has been dramatically transformed. In that regard, going on a mission trip has some parallels in how a youth camp or a men’s retreat affects people. For an occasional participant there will be striking positive changes; for most others who are positively im-
245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 123 pacted, the changes are smaller. The changes, however, are usually incremental; thus, the more short-term mission experiences people have, the more likely it is that they will experience noticeable changes. 3. Effect on the Sending Church Kingdom Work Gets Done Too! Volunteerism in Mission 123 Short-term work, whether two weeks or two years, can indeed be effective and pleasing to God. Yes, it can cost a lot of money, disrupt nationals and missionaries, encourage short-term thinking, and inoculate some against career missions involvement. But done well, it can open participants’ eyes to the sometimes gritty realities of the world, make them aware of their own ethnocentrism and the gifts and courage of non-Western believers, and spark a lifelong commitment to missions. In the best cases, some real kingdom work gets done, too. 10 —Stan Guthrie, Christianity Today news editor How mission trips affect the sending church may be the least obvious of the three categories of short-term mission effects. Still, a lot of money comes out of local churches to transport short-term mission participants to and from a destination as well as feeding and housing them while there. The home church receives dividends from its investment when the spiritual fervor of returning participants ignites new passion within the local church. David Hayse, who coordinated hundreds of short-term mission teams, observed that shortterm mission trips “have made an incredible impact on the sending church.” 11 Many sending churches experience ripples of positive effects before and after having members participate in short-term mission trips. Excitement is generated within the local church as volunteers prepare to go and then after they come home. As trip stories are told and retold, sending congregations often gain a renewed sense of ownership for the world mission task. This can shift the focus of a congregation’s concentration away from a maintenance mind-set toward the fulfillment of its global covenant responsibilities. As laypeople put their gifts and talents to use in world evangelism, there is often renewed recognition within the home church that believers need to function together as the Body of Christ. The mobilization of prayer support for the trip will often have positive side effects for the sending congregation. A burden and passion for lost people in another part of the world may get people thinking about the lost of their own city. As Engel and Jones noted, there is a link between involvement in personal evangelism and a passion for world evangelism. Churches that have people regularly going on short-term mission trips also often become leaders in
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