Short-term mission trips have never been more popular than they are right now. Researchers estimate that over 2 million people will participate in short-term mission trips this year from U.S. churches alone. That’s a pretty incredible number.

But why?

What is driving the popularity of short-term missions?

Before you pull out your Sunday School answer and say Jesus so we can move along here, let’s stop and really consider the question.

I’m not saying that Jesus isn’t the answer, of course. Ultimately I think that people are doing missions because Jesus commanded us to go make disciples. I doubt that there are any churches out there planning their mission trips for any other reason than to make God known and to help hurting people.

Even with the right motives and the big picture securely in place, it is easy to begin to let other things drive our mission engagement. The most common problem I see is the tendency to let the experience for our people drive the trip.

It starts with questions like, “What will our students be able to do or accomplish when they are on the field?” Or, “Where can we go with a high level of “gospel receptivity?” After all, we want this to make an impact on our participants.

But those questions can lead to other questions. “Will this trip give us good enough footage for the highlight video we will show back home?” “Will this make my students appreciate how good they have it in ‘Merica?” Questions that may or may not be spoken out loud.

There are better questions we can ask in order to make sure doctrine drives our missions.

“How can we truly help the workers/church planters/missionaries that live and serve here?”

“What Biblical truth can our students learn and absorb by serving in this location with this assignment?”

“How do we integrate this “experience” into our real lives back home so that we begin to live on mission?”

You see, when doctrine drives our mission trips…everyone wins. Instead of being pulled away from their work, the workers on the field see the work advanced and receive personal encouragement. Long-term impact is accomplished as we fit into the strategy on the ground. Students engage a work that causes them to see and embrace the purpose of God for their lives.

So what does this look like? Basically it looks like approaching the mission trip with our Bibles open. What are the Biblical truths that inform why we go, what we should do when we go, how we communicate what we are doing, where to go, and who God wants us to be when we return? These are some good questions, and the Bible has plenty of answers.

At iGo we call these foundational doctrines core values. These four doctrines drive everything we do, and our approach to mission training might help you no matter where you are with your mission trips.

We call them Group Treks. They are our way of coming alongside local churches in order to help train and mobilize youth groups, family groups, or even adult teams for mission engagement. We would be HONORED to come alongside your church in order to help take your mission trips to the next level. Or help you get started with your first youth mission trip ever.

Check out the info on our Group Trek Page and share this with your youth pastor or a friend you think this could help.

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