Discovering the Best Short-Term Mission
How to decide which one is best for you
By
Steven C. Hawthorne
Steven C. Hawthorne has led short-term teams in Asia and the Middle East . He served with Antioch Network, an organization serving churches sending teams to unreached peoples.
You have an "overchoice" problem in missions. Hundreds of mission agencies have opportunities. Many of them want you or someone like you. Yet each is different. Which one is right for you? Which one will best fulfill God's call on your life?
I remember the strange mixture of exhilaration and despair that I felt at Urbana '76. I was open to missions, but I was paralyzed by the overchoice. I spent hours studying a list of mission opportunities available at that conference. I let my eye pass over a listing if I didn't like the name of the organization or if I didn't care for the city in which the headquarters was located. It occurred to me then that I didn't know anything significant about the missions I was rejecting.
My mind was bouncing back and forth: Did I want to go for a summer or leave for a whole year? Did I want to go to Africa or work in India ? How about using my major? Should I be willing to do construction work, or would that be a waste of time? Evangelism opportunities were all over the place, but at that time I was needlessly suspicious of literature evangelism, so I skipped over many "street evangelism" opportunities.
I knew that I was being arbitrary. I also began to realize there was no way I was going to get a master's degree in mission opportunities in one afternoon. So, not wanting to quit the job I had lined up for the following summer, I made the very bold decision to stay home. Somehow, God eventually got me overseas, despite my confusion.
What I wanted was a simple list of steps. I might as well have waited for a yellow brick road to appear to lead me to the Emerald City of Oz. There just isn't any simplistic sequence of things to do. Lives like yours and mine aren't easily squeezed into a hopscotch game of one step followed by another.
Instead, I've learned to take note of six decision areas which need to come together. Everyone works through them in a different order and in a unique way.
You might come to the process with some assumptions in one or two areas, but everybody decides or defaults at each of these points. Face them all. Identify your assumptions. Choose which areas should be priority as you sense God's guidance. Develop criteria for deciding which options fit your situation in each area. Pray through them all. Get counsel from others.
The sequence in which you consider each area makes a difference. For example, one who assumes he or she will go overseas for the summer (term) to play basketball (talent) with a sports ministry (team) may not be able to choose between going to Mexico City or to Muslims in Indonesia (target).
Target
Consider your target. What need will you touch? To which country will you go? What people? Which city?
For some people, targeting is the main event. Perhaps they feel that God has "called" them to a particular country. Others figure it is important to go where they are most needed. Others have learned to put their finger on places and peoples which are strategic in light of the big picture of world evangelization.
For example, some people set their heart on going to Kenya , and all their choices follow from that. Perhaps you have known people who eat and sleep China . When they look for a short-term opportunity, they will look first for chances to go to China .
Task
Consider your task. What kind of activity will you be doing from day to day? What goals will you accomplish?
Some short-termers are open to serve in just about any way. Others start out fixed on a particular job description. You may have your heart set on digging wells, church planting, nursing, literacy work, helping in churches, playing with orphans, street evangelism, or even building runways in the jungle. Get acquainted with the range of fascinating possibilities. Dream boldly, but beware of spinning scenarios in your mind which are out of reach during the short time you'll stay.
Team
Consider your team. With whom will you go? Which mission agency? What relationship will you have with national churches? With your home church?
To step into a short term usually means that a team is taking you on. Suddenly, you will be involved in something larger than yourself or your own career. It's really a matter of trust. Mission agencies will probably accept you, believing that you will contribute to the task God has given them. You need to trust the leadership of that agency to help guide your service. If you choose your team first, then that agency will usually be heavily involved in determining your target, task, and term.
Carefully consider several agencies. Don't get stuck on one mission just because you know someone who went out with them or because you have supported them in the past. Develop some criteria and go shopping.
A large part of your total team is the church which is sending you. Don't leave them out of your decision at any point.
Talents
Consider your talents, gifts, and strengths. What spiritual gifts are called for? What do you like to do most? What weaknesses do you have?
Many people start here on the search. There may be something they are good at, like basketball or playing guitar. Some are pleasantly surprised that their special gift can be put to use in missions. Others get trapped by their gifts and put undue expectations on mission leadership to assign them to duties in areas in which they excel or have interests. They can easily find themselves disappointed and resentful when given tasks which don't give them that magic feeling of "self-fulfillment." Don't get involved in missions, even for a short term, if you merely seek to feel fulfilled and good about yourself. Mission work is work. It's fundamentally service.
On the other hand, try to find something that fits you best. You may not feel like you have much to offer. You do. You may not feel like you have too many well-developed expectations of your time. Silent expectations are the most dangerous. Get in touch with them.
Training
Consider your training. What are you prepared to do? What can you be ready for?
You may begin the selection process by examining your education, experience, and qualifications. This is a worthy consideration, but sometimes a poor place to start. Although you might find something which fits you, you'll probably miss several key opportunities. It's odd how Americans assume that people should do something in the field of their college major, when most of us do work in areas entirely unrelated to it.
Be sure to inventory all of your qualifications. You may be more prepared than you think. Check to see if different mission structures offer training as part of the short-term experience.
Term
Consider your term of service. What length commitment will you be making? Are you thinking of just spending a summer, a semester, or a year? Do you want an option to extend your short term longer? Are you seriously exploring how to spend most of your life overseas if this short term works out well?
Consider how much more you may gain and give if you commit yourself for a year. Be wise about severing ties and quitting jobs, but short-term missions is missions, after all. Expect to give up something in order to give something. Beware of trying to work missions into your schedule when it seems convenient. It's rarely convenient to change the world.
Putting It All Together
Here are five ways to sort through your options:
1. Find a friend to help you. People don't do radical things by themselves. And face it, you are doing something radical by going overseas. Find a trusted friend or leader in your church who will understand your motives and mission hopes.
2. Stretch out your future on a time line. This is one way to identify the roadblocks and the conflicting agendas. A well-thought-through time line will show where you are attempting a "mission impossible" with utterly unrealistic expectations.
3. Stretch your faith. On the other hand, don't settle for what is merely possible. God may lead you beyond the easy or the obvious. You'll have to trust Him no matter where you go, but prepare yourself for some risk-taking ventures.
4. Face your fears. You may have good cause to worry. Maybe you have a phobia about getting shots. Perhaps you fear being single the rest of your life. Or you might fail miserably and be embarrassed before everyone who supported you. If you dredge up all the fears and look at them in the light, though some will still be scary, you may get a laugh out of some silly scenarios in your mind. This exercise may not make you feel any more courageous, but you won't be paralyzed with wrong impressions.
5. Deal with freedoms. You may have to give up some of the prerogatives you think are yours in order to be truly free to choose the right mission opportunity. Obey God. It's not a matter of finding something that "fits" you or furthers your career. The real issue is being utterly mastered by Christ. You may need to face up to a mistaken sense of entitlement. Do you somehow believe that God is rigging up the whole world to revolve around your own self-fulfillment? Be prepared to relinquish areas of your future or dreams you thought were yours to decide. If you let them go into God's hand, He has promised to give you more than you bargained for. "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:35 ). Jim Elliot said it this way: "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."