A Sober Look at Medium-Term Mission Trips
The purpose of mission trips can differ based on what the trip is designed for. Some trips are to visit church plants and to edify the members and disciples of that church. Some trips are to help with a retreat, conference, or an activity that the church is putting on to do outreach to their community. Some trips are medical mission trips for a select group of people who have medical training, and they get to be a blessing by providing medical care to people who may not have access to it while also ministering the gospel to those people. Some trips are exploratory where we are trying to see what the ground is like in a particular area, so we focus on evangelism. And there are some trips where we go with the intention of planting a church.
There is absolutely value in short-term mission trips. Trips that last just a few days or even a couple weeks can create incredible opportunities for fellowship between believers going on the trip, exploring new cultures, and engaging in the mission in a new way. But one of the greatest opportunities of my life was to take a medium-term mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya for one year.
The value of a medium term mission trip is that you have the time to make a deep and lasting investment into other believers. I have taken trips in the past where we focused on evangelism and got to win souls to Christ, but then we immediately had to leave. And it can be hard to keep in contact with someone who lives on the other side of the world and is waking up when you are going to sleep. But with a medium-term mission trip, I was able to spend a year investing in souls. By God’s grace, I was able to lead people to Christ, and then I got to disciple them in Kenya for an entire year. So now, those souls are not just babies running around with no guidance. Now they are a little more mature, now they are plugged into ministry, and plugged into the body of Christ. Now they are involved in Bible study, and they know their pastor and leaders in the faith. And now I am not the only lifeline that they have to the body of Christ.
God prepared me to spend a year in Nairobi by growing me in ministry in my local church right here in Kansas City. I learned how to evangelize by being in an on-campus Bible study at the University of Missouri Kansas City. I learned how to disciple by first being discipled myself and then eventually winning souls and discipling them here in Kansas City. The local church is the greatest place to get equipped for ministry. It is the biblical environment that God has ordained to build up His saints to prepare them for the mission field. The only thing that is significantly different about doing ministry anywhere else in the world is culture. Culture is the only thing that is really different about ministry. So it is very important to learn how to adapt to new cultures. And to learn this and experience it, I would recommend short-medium-term mission trips.
My experience with a medium-term mission trip was awesome. I met people that I would have never met unless I went. I made friends that I will know for the rest of my life. I have another entire church family that loves me, and I love them. I got very intentional time with Pastor Myles Cheadle for one year where he poured his life into me and showed me all that goes into planting a church. There were times that were hard. Maybe you have to teach the youth ministry with soaking wet pants because the hose for the baptism tank wasn’t working properly. Maybe you planned to do a one-mile hike to test out a trail for a church-wide hiking day, and you thought the trail would eventually end after a mile or two but it didn’t, so you ended up hiking about seven more miles than you expected, and there was nothing at the end of the trail, and you had to hitchhike back to a city to get an uber. You never know what could happen, and sometimes things are not going to be what you expected, and sometimes it will be hard. But in my experience, it was the unexpected and difficult things about church-planting that were the most fun. They were the things that brought us the closest together.
There is some advice I would give to someone who is considering a medium-term mission trip. If you are considering a longer term trip, and you have never been on a mission trip before, then consider a shorter term trip (1-2 weeks). And on that short-term trip, try to learn everything that you can about how that culture is different from the culture you already know. Even if you are going across town to another church, their culture will still be different. It is so crucial if you are considering a medium-long-term trip, you understand how to adapt to a different culture. Because if you don’t, then you will set yourself up for a lot of unmet expectations with the people you are ministering to.
Consider the following questions:
What aspects about that culture are the same?
What aspects about that culture are different?
Are there any cultural aspects that you see are unbiblical?
Are there any cultural aspects that you might need to adapt to in order to minister to this group of people more effectively?
And if you are considering a medium-term trip and have been on short-term trips already, then consider your motivation for going. Let’s be real, sometimes it can be pride that is fueling our desire to do these things. Maybe we want other people to think that we are very spiritual or that we can handle big things, so we decide to go, and we actually end up being more of a hindrance to the mission than a help. Going on this trip did not make me any more spiritual than anyone else. It just meant that I was the same guy but in a new location. I was the same guy, but now I didn’t have all the accountability that I had back home. Now I don’t have the family, the friends, or the same amount of mature believers to ask me how I am doing. It is easy to get caught up in the idea of church-planting because it is fun and exciting. We can get so focused on what ministry is going to look like on day one when we get there, but consider what you will be feeling after one month. You have been in the mission field for a while, and you have a long way to go before you come home.
Ultimately, you have nothing to prove, and you won’t move up the spiritual ladder just because you went to the mission field. Now, that being said, the mission field is amazing. It is so much fun, and you will get to know people that you otherwise might never get to hang out with. And reaching the nations is God’s command and plan for the church. Just make sure you are doing it for the right reasons.
Cheney Perkins is a faithful member and leader in the College and Young Adults Ministry at Midtown Baptist Temple in Kansas City, MO.
