Thursday, 01 May 2008
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tight-fisted
Reversing short-term missions
It’s that time of year again when I get guilt-tripped into supporting people for short-term missions (STM). This year, I might just say no. Call me tight-fisted, and you’re right – I am being tight-fisted. But it’s out of anger that I’m tight-fisted, and not because of stinginess.
Over the years, I’ve become more jaded about the effectiveness of STMs. We spend exorbitant amounts of money for transportation, insurance, and room & board to send a team to a local (exotic) church for a week or two, money which alone could have supported that local church/ministry for years. We put on puppet shows, take the obligatory photos of being surrounded by lots of local kids (if you can hold a baby, that’s even better), make sure we collect hundreds of professions of faith at some evangelistic finale on the last night, and promise to pray for the new believers as we take off for our “decompression period” – a three-day stay at a local resort. While we think we have done good, we have actually violated basic principles of poverty-alleviation and created long-term harm.
When we get back to our home church, there will be the requisite STM testimonies. They all sound the same: God taught me how I take his material blessings for granted; I went there to bless, but I came away being the one more blessed. Show snapshot after snapshot of me-surrounded-by-local-kids. Throw out impressive numbers: 124 people raised their hands to receive Christ! Let a few tears trickle down. Job done. Everyone is happy, especially the STMer who is now among the spiritual elite. The expense has been justified.
Meanwhile, back in the foreign land, life for the local pastor (who is never invited for “decompression” despite his yearly, relentless toil), returns quickly back to normal. His church is still crumbling; none of the “new believers” show up at church the next week; some of the kids flee home or die; he might have to leave the ministry for lack of money.
STMs are set up to benefit the missionaries, not the local churches/ministries. They are set up to emotionally and spiritually and experientially enrich the already rich, while the local foreign church/ministry, notwithstanding the sanctimonious lip-service of the STMer, is left flailing.
Thus, for me, to write a check, is to perpetuate a system which profits the American church at the expense of the truly destitute and struggling foreign churches. And my decision to not write a check is even more valid in light of the growing popularity and effectiveness of volunteer tourism. If non-believers gladly sacrifice time, energy, and money to help the poor, then why can’t the STMer also sacrifice his own money and self-support himself, much like the volunteer tourist does? Why should I financially support your vacation? (And as aside: why do people in full-time ministry seem to have longer, better, and more frequent vacations than us regular working folks?).
In a fascinating reversal of the usual STM model, PaLM (Pastoral and Lay Ministries) is offering a “reverse short-term missions trip.” In their own words:
Every summer since 1992, PaLM has sent a short-term missions team to Little Black Spot Mountain on the Navajo Reservation in AZ to host a week-long Vacation Bible School (VBS). This summer, the reverse will happen - the Navajo are coming here for VBS and we’re calling the trip, “The Navajo to New York City Missions Trip.”
The Navajo will come to our great city where they will spend ten days learning about God, his work, and his people from a very different perspective than what they have seen, learned, and experienced up until now.An intriguing idea, full of implications, objections, and potentially great insights.
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Comments (7)
i agree with your general assessment. at my church, ppl who are expected to pay their own way. if a student, they're expected to pay at least half, and if working, they're not allowed to ask for funding but half to pay out of their own pocket. the church recognizes that the STM benefit is twofold: 1) encourage the missionaries they visit, and 2) personal benefit of the STMer. there's frankly not that much impact to the people of the areas they visit.
i believe the general perception and conception of STM is flawed... but not on the side of missionaries who welcome the teams... rather in the training of the team to have the correct understanding of what they're doing...
that is they're supposed to be helping the missionary do their work in reaching out to people they would not normally engage even over the span of 10 years. think about it, if they didn't have people running VBS and ESL classes and the like, how would a missionary go out and meet so many people? to get plugged into the community? who would they draw from with resources to be able to provide for this opportunity to break the ice? no... the problem is when there are too many teams going to the same place... and people think it's all about what THEY learned... in fact, it's about what the missionary gained in opportunity to more effectively pray, witness, and minister.
and yes... they are also to bless the missionaries with encouragement. it's a lonely task... to take STM's away would deprive them of a lifeline of encouragement and prayer which is lost when one is sent with NO support and NO STM visits to remind people they're being supported... is this how we want to support missions? for it is a "different" call than to be a lay person. yet it is the church's job to supply them with what they need to do their work as they seek to be faithful... which is ultimately the most important aspect of it regardless of if they hate it or not.
and why do people view it as "foreign missions"? that's cultural snobbery in my view. the fact of the matter is that the majority of Christians are OUTSIDE of the united states of america. just look at africa, china, korea, etc. they need to send missionaries HERE because so many people think they have Christ, but have fooled themselves into a world that is completely in disconnect and disbelief.
besides... you should talk to missionaries who are sent out to see what they see... perhaps (no, scratch that!) there is a different perspective they offer up for the situation... i think you might be surprised at why they think you should continue the support and work.
i echo the previous comments. but i think we find that SMT are actually for the benefit of those who go primarily.
I think that's just the way ministry is. People who do ministry and manage not to accept any grace or blessing from it burn out fast. God is not a God who uses us and does not care to grow us at the same time. We abuse our service and gifts to God when we don't look and celebrate the work that He does in our own lives. Ministry isn't one way!
If you make the decision not to support, that's fine, support a long term missionary because you believe its more effective ministry and that's where God wants you to put your money. And make your case like that. But don't just snub the work of God in the American church, anger doesn't excuse that. So you're angry, okay, work it out.
STMs make long term missionaries and infiltrate the American church with the compassion and understanding that it is the agenda of God to reach out to the nations and the poor. To be honest, it sounds like your relationship with your money is really being called out. Being guilt tripped into funding STMs? If that's the reason you're giving, heck yeah, you've got to really think through your decision. Are you going to support because you feel like your money is needed or because you feel like God is calling you to invest in the kind of work that He's going to be doing through that STM/LTM/Etc? Are you feeling like a giant checkbook or a real part of that mission you're supporting?
Thanks, man. This was really helpful as I've been thinking about a service trip I'll be taking to India this summer and I've been struggling with the same issue, and I didn't quite know what to do till I read your post. Part of why I think it is important to raise funds is that, in some small way, it engages people who live stateside with the work that is going on beyond our borders. Otherwise, they have little reason to create a space in their hearts or minds to think about the poor. (And, sadly, they often don't on their own) But if they give money, or if they are asked to remember and pray because someone they know is doing this work, I think that it can be important process. That said, it's still pretty complicated, and I think the issues you've raised need to be considered more deeply. Thanks for bringing it up. Perhaps what I'll do is to raise funds that would go toward supporting the orphanages I'll be visiting rather than toward the trip itself. Not quite a solution, really, but....
Yup, unfortunately money is not the be all end all. There is no bottom line in God's kingdom.
STM are vision trips. There would be no money without them. People who give the most to starving children in Africa are people who have been on STM and have visited starving children. Long term missionaries take short term trips and are inspired to become long term missionaries. And without the long term missionaries, we wouldn't have well trained native missionaries.
Hi thecuttingtruth. It's been a while since I read your posts. I just spent the last 15 minutes catching up. Some good stuff. I especially like the insight you give on Christian dating and your letter to your college church. Anyway, I tend to like your posts, so please don't take my comment as a criticism. Just trying to throw a different perspective into the mix.
For quite some time I was a skeptic of STMs. And to a degree, I still think a lot of them are not the best use of our resources. But I still believe there is great value in STMs. Now, from your entry, it doesn't seem like you've cast STMs completely aside. Ultimately, I think your caution is a good thing, but I do believe STMs are an important part of God's mission in this world. If used rightly, STMs can produce long-lasting fruit for God's Kingdom. (Of course, we can never really know if fruit is "long-lasting" considering the nature of our finite knowledge, but you know what I mean.)
Currently, our church has a long-term relationship with a missions organization in Cote d'Ivoire. We send short-term missionaries to that country every summer for a brief 2.5 weeks to work along with the long-term missionaries and local native pastors. The long-term missionaries have told me that STMs are extremely valuable, and without them, their ministry would be crippled. Here are the list of benefits he enumerated. (1) Long-term missionaries tend to burn-out. They need periodic partners to revive them and to give them new ideas and energy. (2) Oftentimes, it is through STMs that long-term missionaries are found. (3) STMs give them the resources to do large events on a yearly basis. During our summer trips, STMs (about 50-100 at a time) visit several different local villages holding revivals, medical clinics, VBS, street evangelism, and so on. He says not only do the locals look forward to these events, but these events produce a 30% jump in converts in the local churches. This jump lasts through the year. (4) Also, the money raised by the STMs is used to plant churches and community centers and seminaries. Currently, that organization has planted one seminary and 40+ churches in that country, some of them through the efforts of STMs. Through these churches and seminaries, native Ivorians are trained as pastors. These pastors then go plant their own village churches. Further, the seminary has trained people from various other African countries. It seems that the entirety of West Africa could very well be effected by this organization and their partnership with STMs.
Of course, STMs is not always the most efficient use of money or resources. But, this alone should not be the basis of throwing them out altogether. I don't think you're making that argument, but I know many who do. I have found many rather arrogant and complacent Christians who dismiss STMs outright because they think it's a waste of money. Frankly, this argument is not convincing to me. First, I find many who make this argument don't lift a finger to serve God in other ways. They talk all about efficiency, but they don't use their money more efficiently for a different cause. Typically, I see them using the money they withhold from STMs to fund their selfish habits. Second, there is always a more efficient way to do something. Thirdly, from what I can tell about God, He's not really all about efficiency. Biblically, from what I can tell, God seems quite lavish and oftentimes "foolish" about the way He goes about using resources and people for His Kingdom. If we understand God to love His lost sheep and if we understand the nature of love, I think it's reasonable to say that sometimes God throws efficiency out the window. I love my wife. And many times when I want to show her my love, I'm not really that concerned about the money or time I spend. Stewardship is important, but stewardship can also become idolatrous and hinder God's plans of love. (i.e. What would we say to the shepherd who left the 99 other sheep?)
As for supporting oneself to go on the trip. I agree a sizable portion of the funding should come from the STM. But I do believe there is a lot of value asking people to partner with us in prayer and financially. If done right, this is a way for people here who cannot go on missions to be a part of this work. We are partnering with them. That's ultimately not the most convincing argument, but I think there is still value (beyond what I listed) in this component of missions. (And the reality is, some STMs actually cannot fund themselves. If they can find people who are willing to help and they feel the call, I think this is a good solution to the problem. Of course, it is always possible that they are not called, but that's not necessarily for us to determine.)
Thecuttingtruth, I agree with your criticisms on one level. I think STMs has been abused and is used as a badge of accomplishment by many. And it's true STM trips can be used by Christians as an antidepressant. (Though, sometimes God seems to condone this...Isaiah 58.) But if done right, I think STMs are extremely valuable. I think it's really a matter of diligence on the part of the supporter. When I support STMs I try to do my research so that I know my money is being used well. (I can't throw stewardship completely out the window!) But sometimes, if I feel moved, I still give. I just never know with God. (I guess we can say that about anything, but I think you get what I mean.)
Thanks for always posting relevant entries! I hope this was helpful and didn't come across antagonistically. I respect your opinions. The harsh words I've used in this entry are directed at the thoughtless Christian snobs I've met over the years. From what I can tell, you are quite thoughtful.