As you know, I recently returned from Tamazunchale in the Huasteca Region of Mexico. I typically don’t recycle posts, but I was just thinking about short-term missions and wanted to return to some thoughts about short-term missions that I posted in 2005 after returning from Morogoro, Tanzania. These thoughts center around concepts presented in John Piper’s book Let the Nations Be Glad. The basic premise of that book is that worship is the fuel for our obedience, including missions. We do not obey out of a spirit of drudgery, but out of the overflow of our joy in God’s glory.But many people separate short-term and long-term missions. While few would argue the worth of long-term missionaries, there is much debate surrounding the concept of short-term missions trips. I’d like to briefly discuss and defend the idea as not only valid but important for all believers (for our purposes, we will classify short-term missions as any trip with a clear objective from one week to five months).

Missions-work of any breadth personalizes God’s heart for the nations (Genesis 22:17-18, Psalm 22:27, Psalm 67, Revelation 5:9, etc.). We often feel led to pray for “the nations” and “every tribe, tongue and people.” This is entirely appropriate and within God’s will for both our hearts and prayers. However, we must admit that our prayers are often more fervent the closer they hit to home. Short-term missions accomplishes just that. We leave praying for “nations” and “tribes” and we return praying for individuals with names and lives just like ours. Short-term missions puts names and faces to the nations, adding fervor to our prayers.

Short-term missions also gives us a different perspective. For example, a Scripture such as, Psalm 84:5a: “Blessed are those whose strength is in You” takes on new life after a short-term trip. Such a text is devotional and uplifting, reminding us that the same God who saves will deliver. Yet, after meeting men and women who live in not only humble, but seemingly dire conditions, we are forced to consider that, especially for Americans, our strength is often placed everywhere but God. We look to our country, our school, our church, our doctrine, our friends, etc. But when faced with believers who truly have nowhere else to place their strength than in God, we are reminded again of God’s perspective on issues.

While in Mexico, I had the opportunity to meet pastors who strive and struggle every day to serve God, edify His people and spread the Gospel of His Kingdom. These men knows what it means to place their strength in God in ways that we might never experience. Short-term missions opens our eyes to God’s perspective and fills us with God’s heart. We must makes Christ’s last command our first concern:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20

• Read Operation World
• Read Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper
• Read the original 2005 post