10 REASONS YOU NEED TO GO ON A SHORT-TERM MISSION TRIP
1. It will awaken and embolden your heart to God’s global purpose. Evangelism and Missions are commissions given to each believer – they are not options. We are to share God’s burden for the salvation of persons from every tribe, tongue, and people group. Going on a short-term trip serves to widen our perspective and instill us with a passion in this regard.
2. It will contribute significantly to your spiritual growth. A short-term trip takes us out of our daily habits and comforts and stretches us in ways we cannot anticipate, thus deepening our dependence upon God and our experience of His grace. No true Christian will ever go to a foreign field and remain spiritually unchanged or unchallenged.
3. It will provide you with new venues and opportunities for obedience. Quite often, we allow the comforts of our Christian “bubble” to insulate us from new ministry opportunities. A short-term trip will take you out of your bubble and provide new ways for you to use your spiritual gifts to further global missions endeavors. It is a spiritual delight to discover these outlets and to experience new ways of investing in eternal things!
4. It will reawaken your zeal for personal evangelism. If you can travel to another part of the world to tell people about Christ, then you can also cross the street or the aisle to tell a neighbor, co-worker, or classmate. God has an amazing way of using short-term mission trips to lead us to repent of our apathy in this area and to renew our passion for personal evangelism.
5. You will love interacting with vocational missionaries. These men and women have sacrificed the relative ease of American culture and their relationships here to follow God’s calling upon their lives. As you spend time with them on the field, their love for lost persons and their dedication to sow the gospel in their chosen people groups will touch your heart and open your eyes to aspects of God’s work that you have never before considered.
6. You will either be called to vocation mission work or you will develop a fervor to send more missionaries. God commonly uses short-term mission trips to call persons into full-time mission service, to confirm callings He has already put in place, or to develop in us a passion for sending more workers to the field. I have even seen entire congregations driven to prayer and shaped into fertile seed-beds for future missionaries. We could want nothing better for our children or our church!
7. You will gain first-hand experience of new cultures. We are a very “Ameri-centric” people who largely choose to remain ignorant of the beauty of other cultures. Trust me when I say that we are missing out on so much. When you go to interact with people in other cultures, you will experience the joy of seeing how much we have in common with them, but you will also be struck by the beauty of their unique traditions, perspectives, foods, and family dynamics.
8. You will appreciate what God has given you here in America so much more. Visiting other nations deepens your appreciation for the religious and political freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Being away from home for a time will likewise make you appreciate your parents, spouse, and children even more. It also makes you realize how wealthy we are when compared to the rest of the world.
9. You will build deeper relationships with members of your own church family. As fellow members in one local body, we worship and learn and serve along side of one another in many ways, but often we still lack “deep” friendships in the church. Traveling together, rooming together, and serving together in a foreign land will build bonds of friendship that will last you the rest of your life.
10. Your example and testimony will touch your congregation and build a passion for global outreach. When we go, we pray that the passion of those going will be matched in the congregation by a passion for sending and supporting. When we share testimonies upon our return, we hope to foster in our spiritual family a common joy and unity in striving for the completion of God’s global purpose. God wants to use you as a catalyst for this kind of congregational growth. Regardless of your age, your occupation, or the current constraints of your life, you NEED to go and experience the glorious privileges and challenges of sharing Christ among the nations. I love you all!
