Paul - A Short-term Missionary?
I experienced my first short-term mission trip in 1987. Texas Baptists and Australian Baptists had forged a partnership. It was 1986 and my first book on church planting had just been published.[1] At the last minute, a key church planter cancelled his church planting seminars scheduled in Sydney and Melbourne. I received a call from the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Partnership Missions office on Wednesday asking if I would leave the following Sunday for Australia. I said “yes” even though I did not have a passport. Remarkably, on Friday, I was granted one. I packed my bags on Saturday, kissed my wife goodbye and boarded a plane on Sunday. Then somewhere over the Pacific I asked my colleague, “What are we supposed to do when we get there?”
My first short-term mission experience may be the premier way not to do short-term missions. But God was good and used the experience to accomplish His purposes. The following year, Australian and New Zealand leaders invited me to return and lead church planting conferences in Perth and Auckland.
When I served as a Director of Missions, I led mission teams to Joao Pessoa, Brazil to plant churches. The focus was on empowering local leadership and resources to gather core groups for indigenous church planting. We steered mission teams away from constructing buildings. Later, as Executive Director for Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptists, I led the convention to do much the same thing in Manaus. We also worked with an orphanage in Maceo, Brazil. One of our families in Minnesota later adopted a daughter from that orphanage.
Not all of our goals were reached. Not all of the strategies we identified were implemented. Mistakes were made. But, lives were impacted and changed—both in Brazil, Texas and in Minnesota-Wisconsin.
In this issue of The Insider, you will find information to evaluate the value and dangers of short-term mission trips. What began as a trickle twenty-five years ago has become a flood. The short-term missions movement has produced stories of remarkable transformation and miraculous intervention by God’s spirit. It has also produced stories of disastrous blunders and mistakes.
I have sometimes wondered whether the Apostle Paul would be classified as a short-term missionary. This may sound strange. For most of us, Paul stands as an example missionary. However, during his journeys, he never stayed long in one place. His longest was in Corinth where he settled for eighteen months—well within the definition of short-term missions. Paul was sent by the church in Antioch, and returned to report his experiences. He made serious mistakes with culture and language. At Lystra he was completely misunderstood and barely prevented the people from offering sacrifices to him and Barnabas as gods. At the same time he developed the most effective strategy for missions ever seen and implemented principles for church planting movements that spread throughout the cultures of the first century world.
Short-term or long-term, we are on mission with God. It is His mission. Our task is to be obedient, to go where He directs us, and to do what He directs us for His glory among the nations.
by Bill Tinsley
WorldconneX Leader
[1]Upon This Rock by Bill Tinsley is available at http://www.veritaspublish.com