Service

Maybe You’re NOT Called into Missions

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God can use anyone. He wants to use us in ways we can only begin to imagine. God can, and does, use everyone who makes themselves available and open to His will. But, it needs to be in His will and His timing. We all have different giftings and talents; not everyone can do every job.

We host a lot of groups here at our ministry in Mexico, almost three hundred groups a year. For most people, short-term missions is a mountaintop experience, an experience that has a tangible impact on their lives. Frequently, when people are out of their comfort zone and the distractions of everyday life, God can and does speak to them in new ways. More often than not, IF a person has a call on their lives for full-time missions work, they will first hear that calling on a short-term trip. I’ve never met anyone in long-term missions, that didn’t start with a short-term mission trip. So, if you’re on a mission trip, and feel called long-term, what do you do?

Almost every group we host has one person who comes to my office and asks about staying long-term to partner with us. We love that people are open to the idea of long-term missions and a life of service. But, when people are on a short-term trip and immediately want to transfer it into a long-term commitment, we find this tends to be an emotional decision. God might be speaking to them, or it might just be them caught up in the emotions of the moment. How do you know the difference?

When someone approaches me on a trip about long-term missions, I always meet with them, try to encourage them, and give them all of the pertinent information. I also tell them to go away for about thirty days. If, after a month, they still feel called, then it might be real. I don’t want them deciding in the moment. To commit to a mission for six months, a year, or longer is a huge decision. If it’s not done in the right way, a person’s desire to serve can sometimes do more harm than good.

If you feel called into a long-term mission (6 months or longer) there are a few things you should do. Before anything else, go to the person in your life who REALLY knows you, and you see as a leader. This person might be your pastor, youth pastor, mentor, or some other person you trust completely. It needs to be a person who will be honest with you. The hope is that if your personality or skill sets are not ready for the missions field, they will speak the truth to you. If they think you do have the right motivation, skills, and calling, they can help you take the next steps.

If you feel called into missions, honestly ask yourself whether or not you have a humble servants heart. This will make all the difference. Everyone thinks they have a humble, servant attitude until they’re asked to serve. It can be very challenging to be self-aware in this area; this is another reason to seek wise counsel. Are you living a life of service now? If you’re not serving those in your church, your school, your work, your town, you won’t suddenly develop a servant’s heart once you cross the border. Just because you change location doesn’t mean your personality and priorities will change. In every way, your baggage travels with you.

Humble service is a big deal to God and essential in missions. As we go into the mission field, we need to represent Christ well and walk in His steps. If we look at the life of Jesus, He was all about service. Humble service. Very often, when He did great acts, He would instruct those around Him to tell no-one. Every action Jesus took was for the benefit of others, are you ready to walk in the same way?

You might be called into missions, even if it’s just for a season in your life. Please be open to that calling and seek competent counsel. If it’s right, and the calling is real, it will change your life in ways you can only imagine, and you will find a joy that few people experience. If you think you’re called into missions, and it’s from the wrong motivations or the timing is not right, you can do a great deal of damage. Please seek God, and make a mature, informed decision.

Please share with the missions pastor at your church. Thanks.

Photo credit: Pat Rogers: Pat Rogers Studios

American Exceptionalism and Mission Trips

djschuetze6 Comments

sunset-flag-america-fieldsAfter living outside the US for a while, I thought I had the whole “America is better” thing sorted out. I was wrong. It’s one thing to realize that America doesn’t have it all figured out, it becomes very real when you travel to other countries. When you carefully observe your surroundings while traveling, you realize that America doesn’t have all the answers. It’s healthy to experience this. Humility is good.

There are some things that the US does very well, but we have a lot to learn. A few years ago I was traveling back from South Africa. The Johannesburg airport in South Africa is an architectural marvel: graceful design, incredible dining, great shopping, a reasonably priced attached hotel, this airport has it all. From Johannesburg I landed at London’s Heathrow Airport: modern, efficient, beautifully designed, it’s very impressive. From there I landed at Los Angles International Airport(LAX) which is pretty much a third world country, what a pit. LAX is rundown, horribly designed, and once you get out of the inefficient facility, your first impression of the US is blocks of porn shops. “Welcome to America.” I know airports are an odd example where the US is a little behind, and maybe I’m the last one to realize this, but there are simple examples like this everywhere.

Sometimes it’s the little details we see when traveling that make us go “why can’t we do this at home?” In Mexico, they have a very different system for traffic lights. They still use red, yellow, and green BUT they’ve found a simple way to make them work to help traffic flow better. In the US the lights jump from green to yellow requiring a quick reaction: “Slam on the brakes or gun it?” In Mexico, as the green is approaching the end of its time, it starts to blink, letting everyone know yellow is coming up soon. Simple difference, a significant improvement.

There are a lot of ways to judge a country. I am an American, and I’m proud to be an American, but I also understand America is far from perfect. In many basic areas, we rank way down the list worldwide. Of the 20 wealthiest countries in the world, we’re in last place with infant mortality rates. When compared to the bulk of “first world countries” we rank well down the list in income discrepancies, math and science education, healthcare, internet access, etc.. Pretty much the only area we consistently rate near the top worldwide is obesity rates.

In our day-to-day lives if we attend the same church, go to the same job, hang out with the same people, even visit the same websites every day, it’s easy to live in our own little bubble and think everything is OK. If we only spend time with people who look, think, and act a lot like us, it’s challenging to have an accurate view of humanity, and the world as a whole. We need to get out and meet people in other areas, walk the streets of a foreign city, and watch the news about America from a different country. Until we see the bigger picture, it can be hard to truly understand the world, how it interacts, how it functions, and how we fit into the mix.

If we go on a mission trip, it’s usually motivated by one or two primary goals: Spreading the gospel and/or filling needs through service to people in developing countries. Both of these are valid, but the side benefit of serving in other countries is that it broadens our horizons. It helps us to have an accurate picture of where we stand in the world. We have a lot to offer, and we have a lot to learn. From an evangelistic standpoint, most countries people travel to on mission trips have heard the Gospel. In Mexico, Central America, most of Africa, etc. missionaries have been sharing the gospel for years. In many areas of the world, the church today is healthier and more active than most areas of the US. Once again, America doesn’t have it all figured out. Which is why we NEED to go. We need to spend time with, and learn from, others.

Short-term mission trips work in both directions. We, as Americans, have a great deal to offer, and there are countries around the world that have a lot to offer to us. By traveling out on mission trips, we’re able to serve, encourage, and help support people around the world. We also have the privilege of experiencing faith and cultures in ways that we will never experience back home. Through our missions service, we can share with others, build relationships with others, and we will be better for it. If we go with a humble heart and attitude, we might also make the world slightly better. We will come to appreciate each other and the vast differences we each bring to the table and the Kingdom.

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Your Missions Project Doesn’t Matter

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pexels-photo-298297If you’re organizing or participating on a short-term missions trip, you probably spend a lot of time raising money or planning for your “project.” Your project might be building a house, roofing a dorm in an orphanage, or some other physical way to assist in a needy community. These projects are necessary and a huge blessing, but they are not what is most important. It’s good to recognize this, discuss this, and encourage your missions team to remember why they go. Ultimately, it’s all about representing Jesus well.

When I first started bringing teams to Mexico on weekend trips, I would only focus on having our team do a quality construction job for the orphanage where we were serving. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that; anything we do for the Kingdom and to serve others should be a quality job. In whatever we do, we are representing Christ and the church. After I had lead three or four trips, a good friend of mine pulled me aside and we had a conversation that I remember almost word for word. I felt like we were making an impact on that orphanage through the construction and painting projects we were working on. My friend asked this question: “In ten years, will these children remember that we painted the wall? Or will they remember the time we spent with them playing soccer, sharing a meal, and listening to what is going on in their lives?” That one conversation stuck with me and has had a dramatic impact on my ministry work over the last twenty-five years.

One of the many privileges of hosting hundreds of short-term missions teams over the years is being able to observe the differences in the groups. We’ve been able to see a wide range of aptitudes, attitudes, funding, skill sets, goals, and all the details that set groups apart. Sometimes these things set them apart for good reasons, many times for bad.

Without a doubt, our favorite groups are the groups that understand the bigger picture. They come down focused on working on a project and doing a quality job, but they realize that the projects themselves are irrelevant. The construction projects, the home builds, and the painting projects are just tools to build relationships. They understand that we are all in this together and they (or we) do not have everything figured out. Humility goes a very long way in missions work.

It is so important to remember that in the grand scheme of things; our physical projects are irrelevant to the relationships that we build. The activities we might organize are irrelevant to our heart behind them, and our heart for the people that we are proposing to serve. Lives are touched by people, not stuff. Does a child care more about a new soccer uniform, or the fact that his parent was present at every game through the season? When a casserole is brought to a grieving family, the quality of the dish might matter, but the fact that an individual would put forth the effort and deliver the meal to the grieving family means so much more. It’s all about relationships.

I network with a lot of international ministries and every year my team hosts a tremendous amount of visiting short-term mission groups. We have one group that really stands out for all the right reasons. It’s a fairly large church from the middle of Iowa. Every year they send large teams into our town and over the course of two weeks build between two or three houses for needy families in our area. If that was all they did that would be plenty. These houses are a huge blessing in our community and a tremendous witness to all those involved in the project, and the surrounding area. But this group from Iowa really “gets” that it is not about the houses. They do a quality job, but they also go out of their way to build a relationship with the families they are serving.

This Iowa church shares meals with the family, and the family usually prepares a few meals for the group. They invite the families to come back with them and spend time around the campfire. Every year when they come back, the leaders go around and visit the families that they’ve met in prior years. Sometimes this group even sends packages down for birthdays, graduations, etc. for the children in the families. A couple of years ago they took it to another level. They realized that over time they had built about thirty houses, so they planned an evening and invited all the families to come together for a potluck and games with the kids. Thier dinner is now an annual event and a big deal in our town.

I, and the many people in the full-time missions field, could not do our work without the groups working on projects, putting up buildings, etc. I like a quality project, but I know that it’s just brick, wood, and paint. It’s not what is MOST important. Jesus never painted a wall. Jesus never built a house for someone. Jesus listened. He encouraged. He asked, “what do you seek?” Jesus was (and is) all about relationships. He sets the perfect model for all of us to follow.

Please share on Facebook or with your missions pastor, thanks.

Expectations in Marriage and Missions

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pexels-photo-94953The church in America is an interesting animal. Over the years the church has done some incredibly positive work and at the same time, if we’re honest, the church has done a lot of damage. One ongoing and problematic issue the church has is that it tends to have a pack mentality. The church tends to embrace whatever the current trend is. Whether it’s calling for the prohibition of alcohol one hundred years ago, the rabid opposition to secular music about 30 years ago, or the spike in end-time studies that seems to come around every 10 or 15 years, the church follows trends.

One of the current trends in the church (besides coffee houses and pallets EVERYWHERE) is to question the value of short-term missions. I’m not saying there isn’t a lot to question, but there is also a great deal of positive when done right. Missions have been a double-edged sword through most of the history of the church. Missions have done a tremendous amount of good, and some deep damage, but missions are an important part of our faith. We’ve been instructed to “go into all the world.” We have a responsibility and calling to serve others. It’s important we take an honest look at missions and do it correctly, lovingly, and with a humble heart.

If one looks at marriage as an institution and judges it on the end results, it would be very easy to mount an argument for abolishing it. Marriage is messy. Marriage is difficult. A healthy marriage is complicated requiring ongoing effort. Frequently, marriages require outside counsel and guidance. Way too many marriages ultimately end badly. Way too often there is intentional or even unintentional abuse. All that being said, very few people in the church would say the institution of marriage should come to an end. When marriage works and both parties are serving with humility, understanding, and a desire to build each other up, the institution of marriage can be a spectacular gift from God. If people enter into marriage with selfish motivations or unrealistic expectations, it makes a healthy marriage incredibly difficult if not impossible. How we prepare and enter into marriage sets the foundation for a healthy loving endeavor, and God is glorified.

Okay, now go back through that last paragraph and wherever you see the word “marriage” replace it with the phrase “short-term missions.” Short-term missions are messy, can cause deep harm and they require a great deal of effort. All these things are accurate. But, when it does work well short-term missions, like marriage, can be an incredible gift from God that changes the lives of those involved for the better. It is worth all the effort.

When a marriage does end in divorce, it usually comes down to one of a few issues. I recently read one theory that the majority of failed marriages are because of unmet expectations: “I thought marriage would solve my loneliness.” “I thought you would be a better homemaker.“ “I thought you would be a better provider.” “I thought it would be different.” When our high expectations bump up against reality, it can be very easy to be disappointed. When people go on short-term missions with unrealistic expectations, the same thing happens, disappointment and discouragement. The trip can be seen as a failure. 

When planning or participating in a short-term missions trip, it’s so important to set realistic goals and expectations. Once the goals and expectations have been defined, it needs to be communicated to everyone involved, while realizing the importance of flexibility. It’s very rare when our expectations happened to line up with what God has planned. This conflict of expectations and reality can cause profound disappointment in any situation if we don’t have the right outlook.

We once had a home-building team come down to Baja with the goal of building a house in four days. This project was highly ambitious, but they were up to the challenge and very focused. About 30 minutes into the project the power in the town went out bringing the project to a stop (when the power goes out it’s usually for a full day) They could have been upset and judged their first day as a failure, but they had realistic and flexible expectations. They were willing to flow with whatever was thrown at them knowing very little was under their control. This team was great. They spent the day playing soccer with a few local teens and the family receiving the house. It turned out to be the best day of their trip with some real ministry going on and relationships being built. Building a relationship is much better than building a house. By not being tied to their specific expectations, they had a tremendously successful trip.

Like marriage, short-term missions is a huge blessing wrapped in a challenge. The enemy doesn’t like marriages or missions, and he will do what he can to destroy them both. By being mature, and having realistic expectations in anything we approach in this life, God will guide us into blessings that are way beyond what our expectations might be.

Short-term missions, when led in a healthy way, can change lives for all those involved. You can teach your team members the importance of working in complicated situations, being flexible in whatever comes their way, and seeking God’s will in any situation. By teaching your team the importance of controlling and managing their expectations, you will set them up for success in whatever life brings them: in missions, in marriage, and in life.

Please share on Facebook or with the missions leaders at your church.