Timothy's Thoughts

U ntil a few weeks ago, I gave no thought to our church adopting a short-term mission trip policy. I had given plenty of thought to short-term missions as a concept, but it hadn’t crossed my mind that we might need a policy. Somehow, I ended up right in the middle of developing one. I’m still on the fence about short-term mission trips. I’m torn between hearing short-term missionaries rejoicing in the work of God accomplished through them and hearing horror stories from long-term missionaries about it taking more money to get the short-term missionaries on the field than the annual budget of the mission. The Big Picture My indecision concerning short-term mission trips is part of the reason I see the need for a policy. While I see reasons to encourage short-term mission trips, we need to keep our eye on the big picture. Short-term missions is good, but only if it is beneficial to long-term missions. We want our members to help finance short-term missions, but it is more cost effective ...

Y ou don’t realize how much people learn from actions until you hear them talk about it. As Hindu friend of mine told me about something he had watched on television concerning Christmas. When he had watched it in the past, a man had held “the baby Jesus” in a basket and shown him to the people. This year, the man held the baby in his arms. My friend asked, “ why would he do that? He is a god, he shouldn’t be touched by humans.” Who would’ve thought that a basket would have such theological importance? But my friend is right. Jesus is God and from that standpoint, we humans shouldn’t touch him. That’s what amazed John when he wrote his epistle. God, the creator of the world, took on human flesh and dwelt among us. John had touched him, perhaps not fully understanding the significance of that when he did, but he touched him. The whole point of Jesus coming in human form was to restore fellowship between God and man. He took a form that made it possible for people to touch him. I don’t k...