Short term missions - STM




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Planning and preparing for a Christian mission trip . . . and enjoying a successful one

Short term mission experiences are those cross-cultural missionary assignments ranging from one week to up to two years.
     From a handful of people who were involved each year a half century ago, short term missions now draw more than a million Americans each year.1 Is this a good thing? What can you learn on a missions trip?
     Why short term missions? "I support short-term missions," says noted author Philip Yancey. "Despite their drawbacks, such trips provide two distinct cultures a taste of the harmony that exists between members of the Body of Christ." Mission trips also give prospective future missionaries a taste of life on the field.
     Every organization has a title for its short term missions program. Within the Church of the Nazarene, for example, thousands of people go on one- to two-week "Work & Witness" trips which may be focused on construction projects or evangelism events or medical service. Two hundred or so people serve each year as Mission Corps volunteers in assignments ranging from 90 days to two years. (The old acronym NIVS stood for Nazarenes In Volunteer Service.)
     You should prepare yourself spiritually, mentally and financially for your short term missions experience. Here are resources for your short term mission preparation.

Short term mission mobilization and recruiting

Some opportunities

Short term trip training: Preparing to go on an STM (short-term mission)

Planning: Travel issues

Team and group dynamics: Being a short-term mission team member

Crossing cultural barriers

Spiritual preparation for short term missions

Coming home: re-entry

STM (short term mission) leadership conferences and retreats

Practical issues

Links  Links to Internet short term missions resources

Country information, airline flights, fund-raising, team preparation and more [ click here ]

1Statistics for the Church of the Nazarene alone indicate that in a recent year 643 short term mission teams had 10,475 participants who served from one to three weeks. That same year there were 241 Nazarenes who served as Mission Corps volunteers from 21-90 days on a mission field and 239 people who served from 91 to 365 days. In addition, there were 268 Nazarene university students worldwide who gave a summer of volunteer service through Youth in Mission

Interested in long-term missions service?

Short term mission service is one fact of how the church works to complete the Great Commission. The patient planting of churches and development of leaders can often only be done by a career, long-term missionary force. [ read more ]

SNU missions course materials and syllabi

Cultural Anthropology    Introduction to Missions    Linguistics    Mexican Field Studies    Missions Strategies    Modern Missionary Movement (History of Missions)    Nazarene Missions    Church Growth and Christian Missions    Theology of Missions    Traditional Religions    World Religions
 
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008  |  Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2002 - Last Updated: June 23, 2008 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/short.htm

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