Short Term Mission

This past summer, I led a small team on a short term mission to Honduras. We worked at a small Christian school, where we conducted teacher workshops, taught in classrooms, provided a Gospel presentation, and served in many other ways. Over the last few years, my wife and I have been on several short term missions to the school and have developed abiding relationships with teachers and students. We believe we are filling the mission given to us by Christ.

One way that Webster’s dictionary defines “mission” is “a specific task with which a person or a group is charged.” Another definition is “a ministry commissioned by a religious organization to propagate its faith or carry on humanitarian work.” Both definitions would apply to short term missions, since they usually involve a team organized for a specific task that primarily includes propagating the Christian faith.

Recently, though, there have been lots of articles and social media posts opposing short term missions. It seems the general idea is that short term missions produce dependency, focus more on the travelers than the people being served, and are ineffective at making true disciples. In some sense, I agree with those sentiments and have written about them myself.

However, short term missions on the whole are not bad, and I encourage folks to go on short term missions (for the right reasons!). Done correctly, there’s no biblical basis to oppose short term missions; in fact, there is plenty of Scripture to support such activities in general. Short term missions fulfill

Christ’s command to “Go and make disciples”—it’s just that we are going further than our hometown mission field.

But I’ve heard people ask, “Why would we go to another state or another country on a mission when there are lost and hurting people all around us?” It’s actually a good point. Why go halfway around the world to do what you can do right down the street? In fact, I strongly urge folks to do mission work locally before they go on a mission trip elsewhere. Jesus’ model for missions appears to support that idea: start locally (Jerusalem), then go further afield in your culture (all Judea), then further afield into a different culture (Samaria), and finally to the ends of the earth.

However, while it makes sense to begin our mission work locally, I also sense that those who chastise short term missions are the same people who aren’t willing to walk the talk. Are they there when the church is delivering meals, or repairing houses in the neighborhood, or serving at the homeless shelter? Do they spread the Good News in their own neighborhoods? If so, great. In my experience, if they go to these local activities, they’ll meet folks who also go on short term missions. If we are truly on mission for Christ (and all Christians should be on mission for Christ), then we are on mission fulltime: at work, at school, at the gas station, at local events, and yes, even on short term missions around the world.

Note: To learn more about the Honduran Christian school we partner with, visit HopeHelpHonduras.org.