Does doing a short-term mission change our lives?

Churches say that they need to get their people out. It will make them more mission minded, deeper followers of Christ, give more, pray more. I thought this too.

But the research coming out in recent years tells a different story. Eleven out of 13 studies showed that participation on a short-term mission team had little impact on those who went. Sadly, little impact on the people they went to serve as well. If you want to read about this, here is a good article.

There is a lot of fervor at first after a trip. But, it fades away over time. If you look at what people really are like six months or a year out, they're mostly the same as they were. This shouldn't surprise us, changing our lives isn't easy, so why should two weeks in another country do it?

Since nearly two million American adults and nearly two million teenagers serve somewhere every year, that is a whole lot of expectation not being met.

Rather than be discouraged, we need to learn how to do it better. There are two key ways. One is that people need help and accountability when they come home. The trip isn't over once they get off the plane. We need to encourage them to keep learning, to stay involved. Maybe have an advocacy group in the church for the place they went to. Take the Perspectives mission course. Do some kind of outreach to internationals in town.

The second is that a short-term team shouldn't be viewed as an end in itself. It should be just one piece of a strategy to develop a long-term relationship between the church and the overseas organization. Teams shouldn't skip around, going to one country this year and another the next. That makes you always a beginner. Instead, we should find a few places where God is calling us to make a difference and stick with them, sending a team to those places every year. The first year, the team doesn't know much what to expect. The second year, they know more. As time goes by, they are better prepared and the local people overseas also get better at how to use them. And after some years, there are strong relationships on both sides. By then, people aren't just going on a trip, they are going back to help their friends.