Ten ways to ruin your short-term mission trip

Tips for having a successful mission trip plus Ten Commandments for Mission Trip Participants

Unhealthy attitudes and behaviors on short-term mission trips

Believe it or not, it's possible to have a bad short-term missions experience. Most times, this is not the fault of the situation or the organization setting up the trip. Instead, the attitude and expectations of a short-term trip participant often wind up being the root causes of negative experiences.

A Bit of Reverse Psychology. . .

To maximize your short-term experience, AVOID doing things on this Top Ten list:

  1. Be narrowly focused on "spiritual" activities. Since you want to win people to Christ, focus on only the loftiest of things. Avoid menial work like data entry, loading trucks, or working on buildings. Such things will distract you from your primary task.
  2. To tighten up your schedule, eliminate personal prayer and Bible study. You will be so rushed away that you probably won't have time. Besides, can't you get all the spiritual food you need from group devotions and church services?
  3. Stay organized and on schedule. Set detailed goals before you go. Establish schedules and refuse to deviate from them. Do not accept delays, last-minute changes, and impromptu visits and invitations. Those things will just keep you from getting things done for God.
  4. Help the missionaries by pointing out their mistakes. Bring them up to date on what you've heard are the latest trends in missions. Some missionaries are stubborn. So, you may need to enlist support among the nationals for your views about how things should be run.
  5. Get involved romantically with someone. Being away from family and friends makes this the perfect time to do so. While it may distract you slightly from the work, you will be able to expose national Christians to America's progressive dating customs.
  6. Don't embarrass yourself by trying to learn some of the local language. People say that English is spoken worldwide. So, insist that people use it with you.
  7. Immediately begin pointing out your team members' faults. Time is short. It will be difficult for people to make the needed changes if you don't help them right from the start. Focus your helpful criticisms on team leaders.
  8. Do not eat any of the local food as you go all out in the war against dangerous germs. You may miss some friendly opportunities with "the natives," but you'll keep those awful germs at bay!
  9. Keep your distance from team members who couldn't raise their full support. They may try to mooch off you. Don't give in. Sweating over finances builds faith!
  10. When you return home, scold your home church and friends for their lack of commitment, weak prayers, and inadequate giving to missions. This may be one of the few times you will have their deferential respect. Make the most of this opportunity to make them feel guilty.

If you do all these Top Ten things (or even some of them), you will have a less-than-fruitful and not-so-enjoyable short-term mission trip. These are, naturally, tongue-in-cheek rules. You and your team members need to be doing the opposite!

-- adapted from an issue of Commissioned
Question: "Do people actually do the things on this list?"

Yes, they do. Recently, a friend who needs to remain anonymous wrote to me: "I had a woman on two of my trips who consistently did five things on your list. Last year, I actually prayed that she couldn't come. God answered my prayer."

A motto for mission trip teams

One short-term mission leader makes his team members memorize this servanthood "mantra:"
No rights. No control. No status. Whenever. However. Wherever.

"Seeing not only cultural differences but all the similarities between peoples will make us better citizens and Christians." -- Dee Kelley

Building bridges versus burning them during your mission trip

Your choices on a short-term mission trip will determine whether you are building bridges or burning them as you try to minister cross-culturally

How to build cross-cultural ministry bridges

Doing incarnational ministry in a broken world

How to burn cross-cultural ministry bridges

In other words, How to destroy ministry opportunities and relationships

Ten Commandments for mission trip participants

How can you make your mission trip a worthwhile one?

Healthy attitudes contribute to short-term mission trip fruitfulness

  1. You shall not forget that you represent your home country and, more importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ.
  2. You shall not expect things to be the same as they are at home, for you have left your home to find different things. [ mono-culturalism ]
  3. You shall not take minor things too seriously. Accepting things as they are will pave the way for a good mission trip.
  4. You shall not judge all insert name of target people by the one person with whom you have had trouble.
  5. You shall not let other group members get on your nerves. You raised good money and set aside this time. So, enjoy yourself.
  6. You shall not be overly worried. The person who worries has no pleasures. Few things people worry about are ever fatal.
  7. Remember your passport (or other identification document) so that you always know where it is. A person without documents is a person without a country.
  8. Blessed is the person who says "thank you" in any language. Verbal gratefulness is worth more than tips.
  9. When in insert name of country (Rome), do as the insert name of people (Romans) do. If in difficulty, use common sense and your native friendliness.
  10. Remember, you are a guest in insert name of country. He who respects his host shall be treated as an honored guest.

Okay, so these aren't the 10 commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. However, these principles are foundational to success in short-term cross-cultural experiences.

Violating these ten commandments (even if Moses didn't receive them and handed them on) will likely spoil your short-term experience and tarnish your contribution to a clear witness for Christ in a cross-cultural setting. Keeping these ten rules will make your short-term mission trip far more fruitful and successful in terms of the Kingdom of God.

"I learned a lot about myself and about God on two month-long mission trips to Washington, D.C.. Those two trips were God's way of telling me that there are other people who need to hear about Him . . . It was, without a doubt, the best two months of my life." -- Johanna Rice

Safety: The first priority on a mission trip

Doing things safely: The first serving of the mission trip pie

"Whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm" -- Proverbs 1:33

During a Nazarene Missions Team short-term mission trip in Monterrey, Mexico, a lady fell at a construction site and dislocated her shoulder. In the aftermath of that accident, veteran mission trip participant Ken Earman drew a pie diagram on a paper napkin.

As he handed that napkin to me, he mentioned all the ingredients that go into a pie. A mission trip is like a pie, he said. Like a pie, a mission trip has a variety of ingredients. The ingredients of a good mission trip "pie" include things like:

Ken noted that putting together a good mission trip pie usually takes a long time. Then he said, "But, the first piece of that pie that gets served at the destination is safety. Don't serve any other piece of the pie until the safety one has been eaten!"

photo of piece of pecan pie

Ken Earman was right. Psalm 23 affirms God's presence even in life's dark moments. We are also offered the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And we are cautioned against reckless stupidity!

"Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm" -- 1 Chronicles 4:9

Flirting on a mission team — Giving Jeff a thrill

Case study

Jeff felt like Katy had disrespected him.

On Sunday evening, the two college students had been introduced to each other as teammates for a summer of short-term missions. They then spent an intensive week of training with their four teammates and other students going to 20 different countries. At a Saturday evening bonfire on the beach, Katy made a remark to Jeff that seemed too flirtatious and possibly even laced with sexual innuendo.

He felt it needed to be confronted, but he didn't know in what way.

It had been a great training camp in California. Jeff, who was a student at a university in America's heartland, was excited about spending the summer in Nigeria with the team to which he had been assigned. His five teammates were all from different universities. They seemed to have a good mix of personalities. Katy was by far the most boisterous. Jeff thought some of her outbursts bordered on the inappropriate. Still, in his confidence that the Holy Spirit had put their team together, he trusted that Katy's exuberance would be used in their ministry, which they had been told would involve outreach to Muslims.

They had now arrived at the next-to-last night of training camp. The nearly 100 Youth in Mission participants and the training staff were at an evening campfire on the beach. The laid-back evening was a welcome break from the crammed week of seminars, team-building exercises, and spiritual development sessions.

Jeff was lost in reflections on the weeks of ministry ahead as he stood facing the fire. People from his own team and others were milling around, enjoying the fire and the sound of ocean waves on the sand. His teammate Katy was directly on the other side of the fire from Jeff. Her back was to the fire as she talked to friends.

A cool, gentle wind was blowing, but the fire was hot. As the fire warmed up those around it, Katy decided to take off her sweatshirt. When she pulled it over her head, the back of her T-shirt underneath rode up with it.

Though Jeff was facing Katy, his mind was far away. In just 48 hours, they would be in Nigeria! Then, when Katy began taking off her sweatshirt, her movements caught his eye. Jeff found himself staring at his teammate's bare back. He shifted his eyes away. It was too late. One of the young ladies with Katy saw Jeff looking across the fire and said something to Katy. Pulling her shirt back down, Katy looked back over her shoulder with a mischievous grin.

"Give you a thrill, Jeffie?" she said loudly enough for all of those nearby to hear.

Stunned, Jeff just stood there. For a millisecond, he tried to think of a snappy comeback. Then he decided not to respond as Katy turned back toward her friends.

What Katy had just done seemed very inappropriate. Even outside the Youth in Mission context, her language and manner seemed too coquettish. As far as Youth in Mission was concerned, what she had done ran counter to several cautions raised during their week of training: (1) The need to protect team dynamics and guard against cross-cultural misunderstandings by avoiding romantic involvements during the summer, (2) The insidiousness of sexual temptations during lonely times they might encounter in their eight weeks away from family and friends, (3) Specifically for Jeff and Katy's team, the opportunities they might have in Nigeria to challenge the prevalent Islamic view that American Christians were morally bankrupt.

As the evening went on, Jeff wondered what he was supposed to do now.

Processing the case study

Need help in deciding what Jeff should do? [ case study discussion guide ]

    -- Howard Culbertson,

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