Short-Term Missions: Opportunity for Deep Discipleship

Short-term mission trips hold all kinds of opportunities. If you are planning to join a mission trip with your church, know that the work God does in short-term missions is not limited to what you can do for others, but also includes opportunities for transformational and focused discipleship.

During my Journeyman term in Europe, teams of students joined us each summer to partner in our outreach to Muslims. For however long they stayed with us—from a week to a month—we covered a lot of ground, walking and praying through shopping malls, business districts, countless parks, and neighborhoods.

Mile after mile, we walked together, learning more about each other in a few weeks than we could have imagined. Jumping into new territory challenges who we think we are—a necessary part of revealing, up close, God’s grace at work in one another.

Whether you will be winding through a crowded market in Southeast Asia or treading red-soil paths in West Africa, you can enter your experience with a discipleship mindset as you move alongside and learn from the brothers, sisters, and leaders who walk with you.

Forming a Heart for Missions

“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:16)

Growing as a disciple of Christ means developing a heart for those who have never heard the Good News. Whether diving into another culture excites or scares you, reaching across those boundaries with the gospel will transform your own understanding of what Christ has done for you. He left His heavenly home and entered a particular culture, time, and place with its own customs, history, traditions, and food.

No matter how imperfectly we do this, seeing God use your willingness to show up and share leaves you humbled and more in awe of our Savior, whose obedience we strive to imitate.

Keep this in mind as you encounter cultural differences. What are your first impressions? What do you see when you look at the people in your host country? These are people Christ is inviting into a relationship with Himself through your obedience to go and tell. Disciples of Christ keep this reality in their minds and hearts no matter where they go.

Beginning and Sustaining Work Through Prayer

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)

The foundation of any work we do as believers begins with prayer. As we seek to partner with what God is doing in the hearts of the people around us, prayer is our act of reliance on Him, knowing that He is the one who can bring what was dead to life.

Through prayer, we can better see those around us and begin a conversation with God about the people and their place in the world. We ask Him to open our eyes to the needs, wants, hopes, and longings of the people we’re reaching, petitioning God to open their hearts to the message that He has made a way to be with us. The heart-changing work belongs to Him, and we are invited to be a part of it!

Wherever you are going to serve, remember that the work is the Lord’s, not your own. As you walk through the villages, towns, or cities of your mission field, the gap between what you desire for those around you and what you actually see may seem enormous. Luke wrote that Jesus told His disciples the parable of the persistent widow so that “they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). Jesus knew that the life He called His followers to would not be easy. They would need persistence and boldness. He invited them to come to the Father in prayer—to not give up asking for God to act.

Whatever you set out to do in your short-term service, let it begin and end in prayer.

Breathing In, Breathing Out

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

We gathered together under the awning along a busy shopping street. It was never easy to find places around town that didn’t feel conspicuous for a group of American students to circle up, pray, and share what they had encountered as they went about town seeking opportunities for gospel conversations. But we needed each other’s encouragement. Talking to strangers can be hard. Talking to strangers in another language and culture is another kind of hard. One time, a short-term student and I greeted a lady in the mall, and she stood up and ran away without a word.

This work can have its moments—but it can also be surprising and fruitful. Listening, learning, and sharing truth with strangers often led to deeper connections and follow-up with those interested in talking about Jesus.

As we stood to the side of the shopping street, we prayed for one another, for eyes to see, for sensitivity to God’s Spirit, and acknowledged together the ways we need Him to lead us, help us, and give us the words to speak. Then we turned and set out once again.

This pattern of gathering to scatter—breathing in and breathing out—is the pattern of the Church. Through His kindness and His love, God takes strangers and makes them family to one another, to build one another up in Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:11). But it doesn’t stop there. We gather and strengthen one another for the sake of inviting others to be a part of this family.

Growing and Maturing as a Witness

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

We were made to grow and mature. Scripture compares the life of a disciple to that of a tree or a vine, tended by the careful hands of the Gardener, who knows just what we need and when. Like well-aged wine, we become more flavorful and more of a testimony to the Lord and His craftsmanship.

As a believer, when you leave your familiar context to engage a new one, the fruit of your life is put on display in ways you may not be used to. As you share what you know about God and what He has done in your life, non-believers are watching to see how our message truly impacts the rest of our lives.

How do we love one another or speak to one another? How do we handle conflict? Do we tell each other the truth? Do we seek to please man before God? The world is watching for these things to see if we truly believe our message. Walking in God’s ways, in community with each other, in unfamiliar places full of new challenges—God uses this to deepen your walk as a disciple of Christ in new and unexpected ways.

Wherever you go and however you serve—whether you experience a call to missions or not—remember that your short-term service is more than a trip. It is participation in a key part of the life of a disciple of Christ, who left His home to come to us so that we might be saved from our wanderings. Keep your eyes open, then, for the lessons, insights, and invitations to draw nearer to Christ as you walk along the way.