Source: The Chalmers Center
Many Western Christians’ first engagement with cross-cultural ministry is through a short-term mission trip. When we go, though, we also need to commit to embodying healthy and dignifying ways of telling others about the trip.
We live in a “pics or it didn’t happen” culture where every latte, sunset, or family gathering is fair game for a picture and a social media post. For many of us, it’s how we allow friends and family to share in our day-to-day lives. But we need to be mindful of how these habits play out in short-term missions (and cross-cultural ministry settings more generally).
Chalmers has created a social media guidelines sheet you can share with your short-term teams. They also have a whole book on helping without hurting in short-term missions.
Speaking of sharing our stories, see One Big Change to Make for Ethical Storytelling (Nonprofit PRO) and Creating Change Through Marketing (Lasting Change Podcast).
Or maybe you want to learn ways to share Jesus stories with people who don’t know him. All Nations has been doing webinars and workshops on that and now offers self-paced online courses.