This
important and provocative paper is being presented this morning to the IWU
colloquium where 500 religion students take a half-day off and along with their
professors discuss an issue important to the church’s future. Today’s topic is “Short Term Missions” and
many will be responding especially to this very provocative paper by Jim
Lo. Every church and every youth pastor
in America should read this paper—especially if they ever plan to put together
a mission team. Even if they decide to
have a mission team after reading this paper, they’ll have a far different one
I bet. Jim Lo has said in this paper
what mission leaders, missionaries, and denominational leaders have been afraid
to say for fear of alienating their giving constituency. He is gutsy to say these things… and most of
the readers won’t like them. But I is
right. (and it is only half the
story). –Keith Drury
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Click here to respond (or read other responses)
to this important paper
Concerns
Regarding Short-Term Missions
Rev. Dr. Jim “Umfundisi” Lo+
Short-term missions. Some have referred to it as the “amateurization
of mission.” Others have labeled it “drive-by missions.” Missiologists trace the phenomenon to 1960
when George Verwer of Operation Mobilization (OM) and
Verwer’s zeal was inspired by
his own mission trip. "Three of us
went to
Ask career missionaries what they
think about short-term missions, and one will get a spectrum of opinions. Some think they are great; others are willing
to tolerate them; and there are those who detest them. Whatever one's feelings may be, one cannot
deny their popularity. Many church goers
in the
Is this a good thing? My immediate
response is “No”. Granted, it has
had some good effects on those going and for their home churches but overall I
feel this explosion of short term
missions has had a negative effect on intercultural ministries itself. To be honest, I have mixed feelings
regarding short-term missions, even though for the past ten years I have been
seen to be its promoter at this university.
Its popularity has concerned me deeply.
Evangelical Missions Quarterly published an article I wrote entitled, “What
have we done?” I started the article
with these words.
My brother-in-law, Andy, is a rancher. One day he asked me to help him corral his
cattle. Enthusiastically, I agreed,
honored that he was asking a “city slicker” to help him. My task was fairly
simple. I was to stand at the gate and
open and close it while Andy, riding his horse, herded stray cattle in my
direction. There were already over 30
head of cattle in the corral. As Andy
rode off, a penned-up little calf moseyed over to me. He was so cute, I wanted to stroke his
head. To do so, I needed to open the
gate just a little. How could that hurt
anything? Before I knew what was
happening, however, all the other cattle began pushing their way out.
When Andy returned to the empty corral, the
cattle were running in every direction.
I am
concerned that short-term missions, like the cattle described in the above
article, has gotten out of hand. Allow
me to share thirteen concerns.
1.
Wrong Motives
Richard Slimbach, professor in the
department of Global Studies and Sociology at
-Adventures in missions
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-Turkey Bible Land short term mission trip – Tour more Biblical sites than any other country – just for the fun of it. This is NOT a work team.
The motivation of “wrong” service
A national in
Nationals in two third-world countries are also saying that it is time to quit treating volunteer short-term missionaries as spoiled children, and get them out of fancy hotels and into tents and dirt-floored chapels in the countryside and urban barrios. Some short-term mission team leaders will argue that the reason they house short-termers in hotels is because they know they can’t push their team members that far out of their comfort zones. But I contend that this kind of thinking must be re-thought.
North
Americans often go on mission trips seeking the emotional rewards of hands-on
involvement rather than a way to make an investment in long-term
empowerment. The motive is to do things
that will make the team feel good. As an
example, a short-term mission team from South Carolina came to El
Estribo, a poor village in southern Honduras, and insisted on handing out $50
U.S. to each family (single mothers excluded), despite objections by local
church workers. When asked why they
insisted on doing this, one member honestly answered, “because it makes us feel as though we are doing something
worthwhile as well as making us feel good.”
Another
wrong motive that some short-term missionaries have is seeking for visible
accomplishments. An IWU student wrote these
thought-provoking words, “You ask, what should the purpose of short-term
mission trips be, an extremely important question for us goal-oriented,
task-obsessed Americans who are always looking to get something done. Too often we consider the question of how
efficient and how productive can I be today in regards to all of our
actions. While this can be a helpful
method of ensuring success in tasks such as working in a factory or completing
assignments, it is this very concept that can absolutely destroy missions. How?
By its nature, this attitude trivializes people and interactions,
causing short-termers to look at each national as a soul to conquer rather than
a brother or sister to connect with.
(Justine Iskat “Response to “what have we done?'”)
Personally,
the incident that really got to me was when a short-termer took out his camera
and asked another team member to take a picture of him holding the hands
of a poorly clad and dirty national
child. I would not have had a problem
with this if he had been relating to the child, but he hadn’t been. All afternoon long the short-termer had made
no effort to interact with this child.
But when he wanted a good missionary picture, she became an important
prop. To get the “perfect picture,” he
positioned her in different poses. I
found out later that he wanted to be able to show those in his church that he
was a good ambassador of God’s love in another country.
2. Confusion about What Missions
Is
Years ago
when people stated that they were going on a short-term mission trip, one could
assume that they were going to go to a foreign country to do “missionary
work.” Today, it seems as though the
meaning of missions has become so
encompassing that anything can be classified as missions. One individual sent me his support letter
asking me to help finance his hiking
trip in
While
I was a missionary in
Since I did not want to intrude into his thoughts, I got up from my seat and tried to take my leave by saying, “I should go.”
“Don’t leave, Jim! I really need someone to talk to. Sometimes I wonder if I am a missionary or a tour guide.”
For the next two hours I sat listening to a deluge of frustrations. It was not that he was opposed to short-term missions, but he was feeling as though many short-termers were really tourists and not missionaries.
The letter he had received was telling him about a team who wanted to come visit him in Africa for two weeks. It included a list of things that they expected Larry to do to make their trip enjoyable.
1.Book rooms at the Holiday Inn for the team. The Inn had to have the following:
- air conditioned rooms
- a swimming pool to help the team members relax after a long day
- color televisions
- a restaurant that served “American” style food
2.Rent a bus. The bus had to be…
-air
conditioned, since the weather in
-comfortable to include padded seats.
3.
- Some of the team members were wanting to go to stores where they could buy Batiks, khaki-styled African shorts, spears, shields and copper wall hangings.
4.Arrange a trip for the team to go to Hwange Park, a wild game reserve.
Things that Larry was to avoid:
1.manual labour, since many on the team were older and retired.
2.long worship services, since Americans are not used to sitting for extended periods
3.churches which did not have chairs for the team members to sit on
A short-term mission team went to Thailand. When they returned to the States, they reported that over 125 Thai’s had become Christians. When a mission-minded church heard this report, they wrote these words to the long-term missionaries who had been ministering in Thailand for many years, “We do not understand. As we read over your yearly reports, we notice that the number of Thai’s becoming converts under your ministry is very low. Your report shows that in three years you have seen only twenty-four Thai’s become Christians. This does not make sense to us when we just heard from a short-term mission team that they were instrumental in seeing 125 people become Christians in a span of two weeks. Unless you become more productive, we may have to stop supporting you financially and shift our funds to more productive missionaries.”
A large church in the United States had taken on part of the support of a missionary couple being sent to work in a certain country. Without conferring with the missionary couple, the mission committee of the church set up goals for the pioneer work. In the first year the missionary couple was to have three congregations planted; by the third year, ten churches; and by the fourth year, 15 churches. The missionary couple questioned the feasibility of the plan. They shared, “Why, we don’t even know the language. We are hoping to spend the first term learning how to communicate. However, when they approached the chairperson of the mission committee to tell him what they thought, they were basically told, “Either produce or lose our support.”
One
missionary commented, “We get pressure from some of our supporters to report
success stories with numbers that accompany success. Often we feel this pressure coming from
larger churches. It is almost as if they
are thinking, ‘Since we are so productive, we expect our missionaries to also
be productive.’ However, there are times
when the numbers just aren’t there.
During these times I have been tempted to make up numbers just to ensure
I obtain funds to support the ministry I am involved in.” I asked some of my missionary colleagues the
question: Would you lie? All of them answered “no,” though a majority
of them did state that they have been tempted to.
Jesus said, "You shall be my
witnesses in Jerusalem...and unto the ends of the earth." Jerusalem
represents our own backyard. It is
counterproductive for a group to gear up every year for another glorious trip
beyond their borders, but then return
home and fail to be involved in outreach ministries to those living in their
One must begin with Jerusalem. See people through Jesus' eyes. Compassion for the lost begins with those you see and touch every day.
As I have already
stated, I have been a strong voice at my university, promoting
short-term mission trips. But of late I
have been filled with deep feelings of guilt. These feelings have been
fanned to a higher intensity this past year when I was receiving letters and
emails from career missionaries pleading for funds in order to be able to stay
on the field. One couple shared that,
due to lack of donations towards their support, they feared they would not be
able to pay the rent for their apartment. Another couple wrote that,
because giving had dwindled so much, they were being told by their mission
board that they would have to return to the States, in the middle of their
term, to do fund raising.
Short-term missions truly has become the “in thing,” but I
believe this has been to the detriment of career missions. This past year
students at the university where I teach raised over $250,000 to go on
university-sponsored short-term mission
trips. That is a lot of money. Could that money have been
better used to support career missionaries? I have also heard about a
church which sets up a mission budget every year. Last year they budgeted
$30,000 for missions; $10,000 was to be used for people in the church who
desire to go on short-term mission trips. This seems like a lot of money
to be spending on “ourselves” when some career missionaries are struggling just
to make ends meet.
An issue
that most mission boards do not seem to want to talk about is the relationship
between short-term mission service and the possibility of creating unhealthy
dependency.
Whether short-term missionaries recognize it or not, paternalism sometimes creeps into the heart of Western altruism, and perhaps even more often into the demeanor of missionaries. There isn’t time to develop it here, but I will just mention it in passing. Many short-termers cannot imagine how our benevolence or altruism could possibly be at the root of the dependency syndrome. After all, we use money to solve so many of our own problems. Furthermore, we get such a good tingly feeling from giving that we may not even realize when paternalism creeps in. Some time ago, a missionary friend of mine challenged a team on what was clearly paternalism. The response he received was classic. He said, “How can you accuse me of paternalism? I treated them like my own children! I can’t believe they didn’t appreciate it!”
Glenn
Swartz, a fellow missionary in Zimbabwe, Africa, told the following story about
a group of Americans and Canadians who came to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (then
Southern Rhodesia), where I lived and worked.
About four weeks into their six-week visit, the group suddenly
left. He heard about their premature
departure and went to the building site to ask what happened. Since they were from North America, he
thought it was good to learn why they left early. The local builder in charge of the project
gave the following explanation: What the
Americans didn’t know is that we here in Africa also know how to build
buildings. It isn’t that they didn’t
work hard. The trowel was too slow to
put mortar between the bricks, so they used their bare hands to speed things
up. But they must remember that we built
buildings before they came, and we will build buildings after they leave. Unfortunately, while they were here, they
thought they were the only ones who knew how to build buildings. Finally, things
got so bad that we had to ask them to leave.
Obviously this short-term mission was counter-productive to “building
goodwill between the youth of two nations.”
Ironically, when I visited the site some months later, after the
building was complete, there was a bronze plaque beside the entrance saying,
“This building was built by the youth of
10. Lack of Incarnational Ministry
Short-term missions does more harm than
good when the size of mission teams becomes so large that it is forced to set
up separate and self-sustaining social structures that exist as foreign
enclaves within the local community.
Some
proponents of short-term missions may feel that
I am stuck in the past, but I feel that too many short-term missionaries
reflect standards of living much higher than the nationals they are ministering
to. Please understand, I am not
suggesting that they need to exist at the same level if they are ministering in
“poorer, primitive” areas, but I do believe they can lower their
standards. As an example, the use of
cameras can be so dividing. My
suggestion to one team I was sharing
with was, instead of everyone bringing a camera on the trip, only one camera be
allowed, which could be shared by all the team members. The reactions I got back were revealing. “What, not bring my camera! Are you crazy!” “No one is going to stop me from bringing my
camera and I will take what ever **** pictures I want!”
“I’m glad you’re not my team leader. I don’t like dictators!”
Too many short-term missionaries,
without meaning to, are importing their Western ways. Why would I say this?
I have seen nationals having to hire a
truck to haul the heavy, bulky luggage that short-term missionaries have
brought with them, even after I had begged the team members to down-size.
I have seen team members pack into
their suitcases hair driers, CD players, DVD players, curling irons, electric
fans, computer games, American-produced coffee, just to list a few things that
I feel they should have left at home.
I have also heard new missionaries being
told by those supervising them that learning the language of the people is no
longer important since most people want to learn to speak English. I have no doubt that there are many who want
to speak English, but I have found that nationals still love to hear their
“heart language” being spoken.
Incarnational ministry includes
learning the communication styles of nationals on the field. I have seen too many short-termers ignore
doing this. As an example, I have
observed short-term missionaries use certain illustrations, or wear certain
things, that do not communicate the same message in the place they are
visiting. I like the account of the
missionary who enlisted a national to interpret for an American preacher. The preacher was told not to use jokes, since
they did not apply to the culture. In
the middle of his sermon, however, the preacher told a joke anyway. The national interpreter told the
congregation, “The preacher is telling an American joke. If I told you, you would not understand
it. But if you want to make him happy,
when I count to three, then laugh!”
11. Imposing Western Culture
The South African missiologist David Bosch contends that the advocates of missions and short-term missions (my addition) are blind to their own ethnocentrism. They confuse their middle-class ideals and values with the tenets of Christianity. Their views about morality, respectability, order, efficiency, individualism, professionalism, work, and technological progress are, without compunction, being exported to the ends of the world. He writes that they are “predisposed not to appreciate the cultures of the peoples whom they go to…turning people into objects and reshaping the world into the image of the West.” In other words, short-term missionaries are often unaware of the pagan flaws of their own culture. Because of this, they tend to exude a benevolent paternalism that is not healthy for those they go to minister to.
Stan May, in his article, “Short term mission trips are great, if….” described the following.
After the brilliant sun set in
the
A noticeable quiet descended. Excusing himself, the missionary took the volunteer from the States outside and explained the women and men did not discuss these things in this society; to do so was rude. The short termer persisted, arguing that this was the “20th century”. The missionary urged the man to accept the society as he found it, but the volunteer muttered in front of the national brethren, “I’ll drag them kicking and screaming into the 20th century.”
One volunteer’s “wisdom” nullified, not only all that he had hoped to accomplish, it tainted much of the short-term missionary’s labor.
12. A Truncated Understanding of
Evangelism
At the First International Consultation on Discipleship, John Stott spoke about a “strange and disturbing paradox” of the contemporary Christian situation. Even though the Church is experiencing enormous statistical growth, corresponding growth in discipleship is lacking. Stott then gave this warning, “God is not pleased with superficial discipleship.”
One African theologian, Tobunboh Adeyemo, describing the paradox of what short- term missions is producing, wrote, “The church we have ….is one mile long, but only one inch deep.”
I sense that too many short-term missionaries have an incomplete view of evangelism. Their reading of the Great Commission is truncated, in that their understanding of evangelism is limited to only one aspect – evangelism is going and preaching the Gospel in order that sinners would say the penitent’s prayer to become Christians. Though this is a part of evangelism, it is not the only part. Evangelism must also include discipleship—helping new Christians to become established in the faith and also helping them to be equipped for works of service. Failing to include all the components of evangelism is similar to parents who give birth to children, but who are not willing to take care of them and nurture them.
Perhaps part of the reason short-termers like the “soul-winning” part of evangelism is because the results are more easily obtained and observed. One short-termer explained why he liked the soul winner part by bluntly saying, “Because the evangelist is the one who gets the most recognition!”
Another said, “Discipling someone can take so long. This is even true with equipping. But evangelism is quick…it seems to take less effort.”
Short-termers need
to be reminded of what James Kennedy said years ago, “It takes 5% effort to get
a person saved, but it takes 95% effort to get them established.”
13. Displacing the Role of the Church
Leslie Newbigin writes that a “central theological reality is that the church is uniquely equipped to be the locus of missions because it is essentially missionary by its very nature.[1] In other words, according to James Engel, “the church itself is the missionary reality that God sends into the world. The church is to be more than just an institutional source from which funds are obtained to send forth missionaries. The trend today has been for mission agencies to send out missionaries. This, according to Engle and William Dyrness, has led to a present- day problem in regards to short-term missions: short-term mission efforts are being initiated by para-church organizations which have little accountability to the church.[2]
Conclusion:
The cattle are out! But they can be corralled again. But if it is not done soon cattle have a way of wandering and then becoming lost. I do have great concerns regarding the way short term missions is going. I also believe that it can be made right, but something must be done soon for this to happen. There are three questions that need to be examined in greater detail.
1.What is the biblical view of short term mission trips?
2.How should short term missionaries be selected?
3.How can short term mission trips better help the national church?
One may believe that I am against all short term mission trips. I am not. But I do believe that this type of ministry has gotten out of hand, kind of like the cattle that escaped from my brother-in-laws’ pen. AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE SOON!
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