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245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 126 126 Volunteerism in Mission to reach the benchmarks set by these seven standards will not guarantee a great experience for every participant, but it certainly moves things in that direction. Standard 1: God-Centeredness The first standard of excellence, God-centeredness, looks at how well short-term mission experiences follow the Matthew 6:33 principle of seeking first God’s glory and His kingdom. In order to do this, short-term mission projects must be built on sound doctrinal foundations—ecclesiological and soteriological—rather than on the need to finish a construction project or give a youth group something to do. God-centeredness means that short-term participants will recognize and affirm that the primary focus is the triune God and not them or the experience. For mission trips to be truly God-centered, they must be enveloped in persistent prayer and seek to foster godliness in thoughts, words, and deeds. Standard 2: Empowering Partnerships The second standard of excellence calls for short-term mission to be done by an interdependent partnership of senders and receivers. In the best shortterm mission experiences, short-termers recognize that they are primarily accountable to career missionaries and national partners on the field rather than to an individualistic sense that God has called them to accomplish something. Authentic partnerships can flourish only where there is mutual trust fortified by functional systems of accountability. Initiating, building, and nurturing partnerships can be a challenge in cross-cultural situations where communication problems cause frustration and misunderstanding. Then, even when the spotlight is on the receptors, the participants must never feel that they are going to do something for someone, whether that someone be a missionary, an indigenous pastor, or a congregation. Standard 3: Mutually Agreed-Upon Design The third standard of excellence judges whether goers and receivers have been equal partners in planning the experience. An excellent short-term trip never has one side announcing to the other, “Here is what we’re going to do.” Whatever methods and activities are done must contribute to the long-term health of the partnership and must fit within agreed-upon strategies. The experience must have a doable design. That is, it must ensure that participants can successfully implement their part of the plan while the expectations placed on the host receivers are within those people’s capabilities. For example, it is probably unrealistic for a team to expect to do 10 days of one-on-one personal evangelism in a culture where none of its members knows the language. Likewise, it is probably unrealistic to expect that every member of a host congrega-
245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 127 Volunteerism in Mission 127 tion will give 40 hours to being with a mission team during the week they are on-site. Standard 4: Comprehensive Administration How short-term mission is set up and administered can make a difference in how successful it will be. This fourth standard calls on leaders of short-term mission programs to be above reproach in handling finances and to be truthful in pretrip promotion and in post-trip reporting. It expects that short-term mission programs will be of high quality and will be carried out with integrity, flexibility, and thoroughness. For example, in an area where there is little or no potable water, providing sufficient purified drinking water is a detail that must be on a priority list. Criminal activity on the field, an unstable political climate, or even just travel itself all have the potential for creating safety and security problems for short-term mission participants. Thus, good trip organization will set up appropriate risk management procedures. This includes formulating action plans for accident, natural disaster, or civil unrest scenarios. Standard 5: Qualified Leadership As with almost any venture, having leadership that is competent, organized, and accountable is important for successful short-term mission. This fifth standard calls on organizers of short-term mission programs to recruit and train capable leaders who are spiritually mature and who see themselves in a servanthood role. Such leaders must see their primary role to be that of empowering and equipping rather than of running the show. Standard 6: Appropriate Training A well-done short-term mission will train participants prior to their going to the field and continue that training while the volunteers are on the field. In addition to preparing participants for specific tasks, such training needs to foster in them a measure of cultural sensitivity. The training will also seek to prepare people for interpersonal and mission team dynamics and for handling individual behavior problems in biblical ways. One of the newest trends in short-term mission is that of putting groups together from two different nations or cultural groups to form a unified team to go to a third culture. In this case, participants will need cross-cultural training to enable them to successfully interact with other members of their team as well as with their site hosts. Standard 7: Thorough Follow-Up The seventh standard recognizes that good short-term mission programs provide debriefing and follow-up for participants. This should be done by onfield and post-field debriefing. It will be done with some on-field reentry preparation and through follow-up and evaluation after the volunteers return
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discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

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