In This Issue: Short-Term Ramp-up: Thoughts, Tips, and Warnings
Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!
Practical Mobilization by Shane Bennett is published once a month.
Short-Term Ramp-Up: Thoughts, Tips, and Warnings
By Shane Bennett
Nothing in the mobilizer’s tool box packs the punch of a well-designed, God-directed cross-cultural experience. Christians have learned through long experience how to resist the wiles of a good sermon and a sunset-climaxed slide show. But share a cup of tea with a Turk in a back street chai house in Istanbul and, it’s all over but the visa application.
Summer is the short-term trip high season, at least for American Christians. So now is the time to prepare, in earnest. I’d like to think with you about some key issues for mobilizers regarding short terms. And then I’d like to invite your feedback. Over our 25 years (By the way, we’re celebrating this anniversary at the end of February and you’re invited to the party. Please go to 25th Anniversary for the specifics), Caleb Project has been involved in a ton of short-term teams. But our numbers pale amazingly when compared to Operation Mobilization, Youth With a Mission (YWAM), and the Southern Baptists, among others. So I hope this article can generate some good feedback from the more experienced.
Key Questions
1. Will this short term, or any short term, contribute?
Ultimately the question is: Will this project contribute to the unfolding of God’s kingdom, to the fulfilling of his promises to Abraham in Genesis 12 to bless all the families of the earth? In a narrower sense, the questions take a variety of forms around the possible impact on four entities:
a. For a church-based team, we’ve got to ask: Will this experience contribute to the global journey the church is on? This is a real question that churches and the mobilizers in them, must answer early in the planning of a short term.
b. The same question needs to be asked for, by, and of the individuals who participate. As someone who has stressed out when no one seems to be signing up, I’ve been tempted to yell out, “I need warm bodies. Warm bodies, over here!” But we should rather let the team die than take people who aren’t ready, who don’t need the experience, or who don’t have the right stuff to offer.
c. Will the project contribute to the work of long-term servants in the area where the team is going? We can’t know this if we don’t ask. And we might not hear real answers without real relationship. We need to take our time. We need to submit. In my mind, if you’ve bought a one-way ticket, if you’ve bought real estate, you have the right to speak to my short-term ambitions in your neighborhood.
d. Will this project contribute to the unfolding purposes of God among the people you’ll be serving? Maybe this should be the first question. It is vital, but tricky. Here are two tips: Consult people who are smarter than you, confiding your deepest dreams for the impact of your team. Then listen to them. Second, think in terms of years, even decades, rather than months or, heaven forbid, the ten days your team will be on the ground. Keep in mind the possibility of multiple teams and potential long-term teams.
2. The second main question is this: Is God calling this team forth?
As a fanatic mobilizer, as a passionate advocate for unreached people, and, frankly, as an American, I struggle with this. A basic assumption of my life is that short terms are good – for everyone, for every church, for every time. I need to learn greater submission to God’s timetable. Maybe you don’t. Either way, may God give you strong conviction that this is the time, or grace to patiently wait for the situation to develop and for God to open the door.
Given positive answers to those questions, we’re ready to roll. Here, in a couple of lists, are my thoughts on what to look for and what to look out for in developing a great short term.
Keys to Success
Start early. Churches move slowly, people take a long time to decide, sometimes months are required to raise money, and you just don’t want to have to FedEx everyone’s visa applications at the last moment. Give yourselves months, make a project timeline, and work it.
Develop team. Train together, get to know each other, and learn to serve together. This is particularly important for church-based teams.
Aim for unreached peoples. A short-term project among an unreached people is probably, on the whole, more difficult than one where the church is present. Nonetheless, we need to aim for this. There are plenty of good ideas, but it will take more work.
Do something worthwhile. I don’t want to question certain short terms and their “worthwhileness.” But if you’re planning a short term, you should most certainly question the worthiness of the work. Maybe address these questions: Could other people do this work better? Are other people doing it already? Do we have the skills and experience to speak into this situation? Will this specific work aid the long-term destiny of this people?
Deliberately debrief the event. At Caleb Project we’re wild about debrief. A good rule of thumb might be to tithe your short-term project time for debriefing. Going for ten days, door to door? Set aside a full day for debriefing. And do it before you return home. Debrief put off is often lost.
Pitfalls to Avoid
Christian tourism. Let’s go into the world, led by God, ahead of our desire to see cool places. For people who love culture (or who, like me, rate their short terms based on the yumminess of the food consumed) there will be cool places in abundance. But it’s the real contribution, in the local setting and then back in the home church, that should determine the worthiness of the project.
Speaking when we should be listening. Can I just apologize for Americans to the non-Americans who read Missions Catalyst? We tend to talk way too much. That said, maybe most of us, Americans or not, need to be cautious about talking too soon in a new cultural situation. We definitely have a most important story to tell, but we also have so much to learn. As God gives you grace, please be learners. He’ll honor you in this, giving you ample opportunity to say what needs to be said.
Missing the comfort/challenge balance. Sure, you could sleep on the floor, brush away the bugs, eat dahl and chapatis three times a day, and go home happy. Chances are the senior elder at your church isn’t thinking that way. If you want him and his wife to fall in love with a particular people, make sure the comfort/challenge balance is commensurate with their sensitivities and experience. A good rule of thumb is to aim for a comfort level only one or two notches below what they’re accustomed to. The rugged stuff will come, if necessary, in due time. Be patient and let God transform lives.
Opportunities to Explore
Out of hundreds of good opportunities, I want to mention three, with some editorial comment on each.
1. Domestic, unreached short-term project. This isn’t a specific trip, but an idea that has value and potential. Save the airfare, passport, and parental stress energy by taking a youth team to a domestic city to work among an unreached people.
Cost: Relatively low.
Time frame: Can be quite short, depending on length of bus journey.
Key benefit: Builds passion for unreached people; takes burden off short-term team hosts in Mexico.
2. Syria prayer journey. What a great country. What a long wait it’s been for the church to once again flourish here.
Contribution level: High. Long-term workers are actively seeking prayer-journey teams to cover their work with intercession. See Shout for Joy.
Chai likelihood: High. Arab hospitality will bless your team members. There’s a chance your pastor will be asked, over a cup of tea, if he’d like to become a Muslim.
Regional volatility and temperature: Both high. Mind the situation and the reality that summer in Damascus can be scorching. Of course, 18 million Syrians live through it.
3. Caleb Project research team.
Contribution level: High. Caleb Project teams dive into relationships, seek to see cities through the eyes of locals, and develop materials that help long-term workers to plant churches and that help believers worldwide to pray with insight.
Shameless self-promotion level: High. Way high. Maybe too high! But we love these teams and think you may as well.
Join the Fun
Has this article sparked some thoughts? Please share them. E-mail me with your comments and your own Keys to Success, Pitfalls to Avoid, and Opportunities to Explore. I’ll compile some of the responses (or maybe all, depending on the feedback volume!) in next month’s Practical Mobilization column.
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.