Why I Support a Short-term Mission Trip Policy
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 ...