Monday, December 21, 2009

Short Term Missions: do they help at all?

This guy says no, not really:

Part of this response is also driven by the hollow hope, expectation, and rhetoric about the impact of short-term missions activity on long-term missions commitment. The myth says that growth in short-term missions and mission trips leads to growth in long-term missions. The facts, however, say that growth in the one has not led to growth in the other. The Mission Handbook statistics regarding the overall U.S. and Canadian trends are clear: the short-term boom has not produced a long-term echo. (p 36)

Jaffarian, Michael. ‘The Statistical State of the North American Missions Movement, from the Mission Handbook, 20th Edition’ in IBMR Vol 32:1, Jan 2008, pp 35-38.



2 comments:

abu 'n um tulip said...

Thought-provoking, for sure. A lot of these trips are counter-productive and a waste of limited resources.

If we are sending people short-term it should be to give specific, high-intensity help to long-termers and their ministries or to national church leaders, and/or challenging the short-termers with a long-term vision.

-Abu Tulip

Tim Herald said...

I agree with abu 'n um tulip 324%