The Effect of Short-Term and Long-Term Missions on the global Kingdom of God

Today is my weekly "Sabbath," so I'm not going to spend much time blogging today, even though I enjoy it very much.

Some of my work here involves working with short-term interns and teams. I enjoy this very much and have appreciated the contributions of many of them. Isaac, who just arrived 11 days ago for a 9 month internship, has already been a huge help. Teams from churches in Florida and New Jersey were invaluable to the "Open Doors of Belleville" that our church did this past May.

Nevertheless, I am concerned about the increasing number of "cutting edge" churches whose world outreach philosophy, while it includes supporting "missions," doesn't entail formal partnering with long-term missionaries. Sometimes there is more glitz to sending a lot of short-term workers and teams. However, in terms of the overall impact on the Kingdom of God in those nations that receive short-termers, I have questions sometimes about the total impact, when all is said and done. The bottom line shouldn't be the quantity of short-term workers and teams that a church sends. While there are positive effects in the lives of those who go short-term, this in itself shouldn't be the ultimate factor for send short-term workers or teams. The bottom line should be what kind of fruit is produced in terms of world outreach.

And I believe that those long-termers (who have taken the time to learn the culture and the language of their target location or group and have developed relationships) will most likely produce more fruit than a group of short-termers (although a strategic team that is given good direction by a wise long-termer can be very helpful). They are also the ones who can benefit the most from strategic short-term teams and workers. But if a church only sends short-term teams, rather than also sponsoring long-term workers, then it is limiting its impact in the global Kingdom of God.

It's not a case of either short-term missions or long-term missions, but rather a both short-term workers and long-term workers situation. However, to be more strategic in the global Kingdom of God, the long-term workers need to given more attention, funding, and prayer support.

My former professor Jim Plueddemann and his wife Carol have an excellent blog called "The Missionary Observer" that addresses pertinent questions related to world missions. They have a helpful entry titled Long-term missionaries.

He makes the following suggestions:

* Those who have had short-term experiences – Ask the Lord to show you if your experiences should be a stimulus for long-term service.
* When you return from a short-term trip, work hard to communicate your experiences to the church. We realize that many of you have had life-changing experiences and few in your church seem to care.
* If, after a short-term missions experience, the Lord definitely leads you to stay home, pray fervently for missionaries, and be an example of someone who is willing to sacrifice financially to support long-term missionaries.
* If you are considering a short-term missions trip ask the Lord to touch your heart with the opportunities of long-term service.
* Church mission committees, we encourage you to make the support of long-term missionaries the backbone of your missions program. We realize that short-term missions might seem more “glitzy” but your first obligation is not to provide interesting experiences for members of the church, but ask yourself “how can our church make the most difference in the worldwide Kingdom of God?
* Long-term missionaries, hang in there. Yes, you are sacrificing much but your effectiveness for the Kingdom can grow every year you are on the field. No reward in the whole world can begin to match the commendation from Jesus “well done, good and faithful servant.”