DEEPENING FAITH THROUGH

MISSION TRIPS

“Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” Mark 16:15

Introduction

To be part of a family means to have a place in that family with particular privileges and responsibilities based on family configuration and a person’s age or role.  So it is with community service or volunteer work in a church or community.  It is part of the privilege and responsibility of belonging to that church or community. Getting into the routine of including some form of daily or weekly volunteer work within our own communities is a vital part of growing in connection and faith.

Mission Trips, taking a group of people out of their usual place to do volunteer work, should never be thought of as a replacement for local church or community service which is built into daily/weekly life.  Mission Trips are, however, amazing ways for a group of people to deepen their experience of each other and to learn about other parts of God’s creation which may include cultures and places away from their daily routine.

A Mission Trip can be done with as few as three or four people, or as many as a couple of hundred (such as a habitat for humanity project or a red cross disaster relief operation).  Obviously, the more people going on the trip or gathering for the trip from different places, the more organizational work there is to do ahead of time as well as during the experience.

The work of a Mission Trip could be things that the people on the trip aren’t able to do at home, or things that they do in their own backyard.  Whichever it is, being away from home and traveling to a new place, eating differently, and being in the temporary community of the trip, are powerful experiences for growth and faith.  Going somewhere else and proclaiming “the good news of God’s love” through action and word is part of being Christian.

Parents and church folks often raise the question, “why a Mission Trip?”  A great part of the bonding, learning, and developing of Christian values comes from the experience of  a different setting.  This is a retreat of sorts…too far from home to bail out, and too exciting not to participate.    It provides exposure to other people, settings, and cultures in order to foster better understanding, and broader tolerance within the context of Christian service and community.  Most mainline churches do missions trips not so much as to send groups out to sell Christ to the “less fortunate”, but to help their young people find Christ in the faces of those with whom they will work.

Deepening Faith:  Youth Ministry Resources and Some Miscellaneous Advice

Rev. Lizann Bassham, Front Porch Spirit Press

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