How to Support and Partner with Long-Term Missionaries on a Short-Term Trip

Hosting short-term partners can be a joyful experience. They can aid the team strategy so much. However, sometimes these potential partnerships can be challenging, especially if the short-term team and long-term missionary do not share a strategic vision.

I was excited the first time I had a potential partner contact us about bringing a short-term team. Sadly, this excitement quickly diminished in my first conversation with them. The short-term leader said that his team was interested in coming to do a medical camp in our area, and he needed us to find a place for a medical camp, provide certain supplies, and identify partners who would be able to assist them with this task. I was initially confused by these statements, and I explained that our team had never utilized medical camps before. The short-term leader continued to insist that they were coming and needed us to take care of the logistics of their trip. Eventually, I confessed that we would not be able to help them within their timeframe, but I would try to connect them with another team where medical camps would fit better into the team strategy. The short-term leader was disappointed, and despite my attempts to connect them with other teams, I never heard from him again.

When short-term teams and long-term missionaries share a strategic vision, we see incredibly fruitful results. Short-term trips can play an integral role in the long-term field strategy. George Robinson correctly asserts that “Time is not the foundation of strategy. Activity is. Church planting can be the goal of [long-term missions] and [short-term missions] alike.”1 In order for short-term missions to be strategic, they must fit into the long-term mission strategy. There are some steps that you can take as a short-term missionary to strive for alignment with your long-term missionary partners.

Listen to and understand the long-term strategic vision.

Long-term missionaries necessarily have a larger vision for the work they are doing. Take time to hear about the strategic vision and understand the part that your team will play in moving that strategy forward. Work to understand and use the terminology and tools that the long-term team uses.

Recognize that you probably will not see the entire plan in action in the short time that you are there.

A short-term team is, by definition, only on the field for a brief time. Whether the team is scheduled for one week, a few months, or somewhere in between, there is simply not enough time for a short-term team to fully see the long-term strategy. An exception to this might be if you commit to a long-term partnership with the field personnel including sending short-term teams at least once per year. Even so, the short-term team will not be able to see the steady progression of events in between visits. The short-term team needs to be content with this limited role. The short-term team should serve a strategic role, but they need to accept that they are part of a larger strategy they do not set.

As much as possible, get contact information for the people you talk to and share it with your field leader.

This suggestion seems easy, but it is often overlooked or forgotten in the excitement of the moment. A team member may be excited because this is the first time they have shared the gospel in a cross-cultural setting, or they simply do not think about getting contact information. Part of the strategic value of a short-term team is that they are often able to make new contacts or new avenues of work. If you have a gospel conversation with someone, ask them for their contact information so you can possibly meet with them later in the trip and connect them with the long-term missionaries for follow-up at a later time.

Learn to tell your story well.

This final step is critical when the short-term team returns home. Family and friends will likely ask team members about their work. Many churches also ask short-term teams to give reports to the entire church. Team members should learn to tell their stories in an engaging and informative way. Short-term team members can play a critical role in mobilizing long-term missionaries to the field. Short-term teams serve the long-term missionaries by serving as an ambassador and mobilizers for the long-term work. When short-term team members ramble, are boring, or are dispassionate, they do not serve as good ambassadors.

Closely connected to compelling story-telling is the warning not to exaggerate the events of the trip.

Team members may come back in love with the culture or are determined to never go back. The emotions upon immediate return from a trip are often strong. Exaggerating the positives or the negatives from the trip does not accurately represent field realities. Furthermore, inflating or underestimating the spiritual response is problematic. Before you tell your story, share the story with the long-term missionaries. Let them help you learn how to tell your story well. They will likely be able to provide some insight into what seems like an overwhelmingly positive response or stubborn coldness to the gospel.

As many as two million Americans are going on short-term mission trips every year. The question is not whether they will go but rather if they will go in good strategic partnership with long-term missionaries.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] George Robinson, Striking the Match, 52.