Encouraging Mission Involvement
Henry F. (Jack) Brown
 

One of the recoverable distinctives of the Congregational Way is participation in and promotion of missions.  During early post-colonial days Congregationalists were leaders in mission involvement both in direct and indirect ways.  There have been notable men and women who have personally served both in domestic and foreign mission  projects.  Just as significantly Congregationalists have been catalysts for missionary service and support.

“In New England in 1797 what was sometimes known as the Second Great Awakening broke out among the Congregational churches, and continued for a number of years,” writes Kenneth Scott Latourette.  (A History of the Expansion of Christianity; the Great Century.  p. 77, vol. 4.  Harper and Row, 1941) In the wake of these revivals a number of missionary societies were formed.  In 1810, through the initiative of a group of Andover Theological Seminary students, the first society dedicated to spread Christianity outside of the American colonies was formed:  The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.  The leading students in this group were Samuel J. Mills and Adoniram Judson.

Mills, a Congregational minister’s son, was 15 when a revival swept across his home county.  His own conversion did not come until three years later and with it came a conviction that he should share his blessing abroad.  To prepare he went to Williams College in New York , and became a leader of mission-minded students there.  Meeting one day in 1806 with three fellow students under a haystack near the college (to get out of a rain storm) they determined to organize themselves into a mission society.  Mills went to Yale to study further and to foster interest in missions.  From there he entered newly established Andover Theological Seminary, as did others of the “Haystack” group. 

Mills remained diligent and faithful in creating missionary interest.  He and his colleagues attempted (unsuccessfully) to create mission focused groups at other colleges.  At Andover they engaged their teachers and prominent clergy in their dreams.

In 1812 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent out its first group of missionaries, to Asia .  Judson went out with his wife (departing as a Congregationalist, but arriving as a Baptist after a prayerful change of heart aboard ship.  Thus, the first American missionary to be sent out was a Congregationalist, but the first to step ashore overseas was a Baptist - the same Adoniram Judson!)  It is Mills, however, who deserves more of our attention.

Mills, it seems, was intentionally held back from going overseas by his peers because he was so well suited to foster interest in missions.  He had a short career, yet he developed much interest, raised financial support and recruited many potential missionaries.  He traveled extensively in the States and was at least partially responsible for the plan and formation of the United Christian Missionary Society “organized in 1817 to spread the Gospel among Indians of North America, the inhabitants of Mexico and South America , and in other portions of the heathen and anti-Christian world.”  (Latourette, p. 84)

He made but one mission trip abroad, dying on his way home.  It is his domestic work which I believe deserves honor - his role as a promoter of missions, as a visionary, as a worker behind the scenes whose contribution was enormous.  While Mills’ direct participation in missions on the field was negligible, the value of his role in encouraging others to participate is immeasurable.  Congregationalists can be proud of one who motivated many to participate actively in the Great Commission and to model cross-culturally the Great Commandment.

In the spirit of this unsung Congregational hero and after his own example I would like to promote one particular facet of mission, the short-term mission trip.  Having participated in and led such projects I have found substantial benefits.  Research and reflection have further reinforced the value of such experiences.  I would like to promote, in honor of the short-lived (1783-1818), now obscure, but nonetheless highly significant Samuel J. Mills the values of a short-term mission trip, its value to the particular mission visited, to the individuals who participate and to the church from which she or he goes out (and, significantly, will return).

What value does a short-term mission have to the mission which is visited?

The particulars will differ on each trip but generally it can be assumed that expertise and resources will be supplied which would otherwise be very expensive if available at all. 

Sometimes the most valuable support is having someone come in to take care of the routine but necessary issues of maintenance, safety, and development of infrastructure,  so that the specialized work of the mission can proceed. 

Encouragement and new ideas and perspectives can be shared both by “experts” and by individuals with simply a good measure of common sense.  Sometimes the mission’s aims can be sharpened or better prioritized by shared times of reflection.

Partners in mission will be developed for when the short-term missionaries return home they will promote, pray for, contribute to and otherwise be ambassadors for a mission which has proven itself to be credible and significant. 

What might a short-term volunteer mission experience in a cross-cultural setting do for participants ?
It can deepen and give new definition to our faith in Jesus Christ.  Confidence in living, sharing, incarnating and even understanding our Christian faith grows as we get out of our accustomed environment and depend on God and try to do, as Mother Teresa would often say, "something beautiful for God."

It can motivate us to a broader and more significant commitment to missions.  It prepares us for next steps.  It is soul-developing to exercise a little courage;  it motivates and invigorates us for even more significant involvement. 

It can make us credible promoters of mission because of our experience and reflection on it.

It can show us that (if we feel we are too unskilled, theologically underdeveloped, too unspiritual, and too immature as Christians) we are big enough for God to use.  Conversely, if we feel we are too advanced, God can humble us and shrink us to useful size for practical service.   We will always find plenty of excuses to not participate.  However, if God wants us to be involved there will always be more good reasons to do so than excuses not to, and God will provide if He is calling us.

We are or we become what we think about.  A short term mission experience matures, deepens, and “empathizes" us to life all around us.  It offers many worthy, noble, excellent, things to think about.  (Philippians 4:8)  It will sensitize our hearts and motivate us to serve more consistently.

Dr. Quentin J. Shultz in Moody Monthly, June 1998 writes,"...engagement with the wider culture helps the church identify its own tribal folly.  Like all people, Christians tend to be so set in their ways that they fail to see themselves accurately or to evaluate their culture honestly."  A short-term mission gives us perspective and may even free us from burdens we have assumed are required of us because our culture or our church subculture does things a particular way. We learn by coming along side and serving with Christians of other cultures that a lot of things that we supposed were "gospel" are merely cultural.  It frees us to see and do things in fresher and better ways.

It allies us with our Congregational heritage and its positive, proactive, and practical contributions to this world.  We can be proud of missionaries such as Samuel J. Mills, John Eliot and the Pilgrims themselves who blessed their world by their faithfulness in reaching out to others in Jesus' name, in significant, helpful, benevolent, evangelical ways.

It allows us to see God as the Provider, Jehovah Jireh, in action.  Seldom will we have more "God sightings" than as we prepare for and participate in a short-term mission.

We can involve ourselves strategically in a gloomy and under seasoned world as light and salt.  Making a little difference can in reality be making a big difference. 

Our unique perspective or skill or suggestion on the mission field may go on touching many, many lives after we have returned home. The pleasure of seeing and knowing that we have made a difference with our lives, even if only a relatively small one, will be personally rewarding for months if not years to come.  (You may have heard about the young boy who was throwing starfish back into the Gulf of Mexico when a cynical old man asked him if he really thought he was making any difference in the face of the thousands of starfish which were still up on the beach, left high and dry by the tide.  The boy said, “It makes a difference to this one!" and kept throwing them back in the ocean one by one.)

It teaches us to be thankful for ordinary things.  Have you ever thanked God for drinkable tap water, flushable toilets, consistent electricity, smooth roads, and protein laden food whenever you want to eat it, that your children are not malnourished, that your kids have a playground at school or in a nearby park, for quality health care?  I appreciate these things very much after visiting places where they barely exist, if at all. 

I am also grateful that God taught me what hospitality is really all about.  I have learned from my short-term mission experiences that if I do not have a lot that is no excuse not to share my little.  Lessons of hospitality, holistic Christianity and of redemption will be learned without effort.  Lessons on joy, heartfelt worship, cross-cultural friendships will be part of the package.  3-D experiences of culture, history, aesthetics, and values will be thrown in for free.

Breaking out of our comfort zones often allows God to move us into new zones of blessing - not always comfortable, but well worth experiencing.  When we leave comfortable surroundings behind we become unsettled, but we often underestimate the blessings God has "out there" for us until we go to the place God has in mind for us to serve.  Think of Abraham or Jonah in the Old Testament and the blessing God had in store for them in their obedience and service.

Gioacchino Campese in Missiology (vol. xxv. No. 2, April, 1997) in his article "Walk Humbly with Your God!"  quotes the Spanish proverb:  No se llega a Dios con los zapatos limpios.  "God cannot be reached with clean shoes."  I put it this way:  "Jesus may not come close to us to wash our feet if they never get dirty."  We will miss out on His closeness, His touch, His refreshing cleansing.  My point is that sometimes we have to do what Jesus says we should do even though we may become "soiled":  “Go out in My name...serve after My example...Inasmuch as you do it for the least of these My brothers and sisters, you do it to Me.”  When we do what He says we will meet Him; He will be there; He will renew us.  He certainly has done so for me.

It is a way to "cast your bread upon the waters for in many days it will come back to you."  Someone else will benefit from our presence and contribution, and we will as well. When we fulfill our calling or ministry (2 Timothy 4:5 NASB) God generally fulfills us.  And when it comes down to it, what we share satisfies us way more than what we keep. Someone once well said that the only things we will take to heaven are the things we give away here on earth.  Our time, skills, creative efforts and ideas, acts of hospitality, and friendship are tools fit for use in God’s kingdom.

James Chukwuma Okoye, in "Mutual Exchange of Energies; Mission in a Cross-cultural perspective, An African Point of View."   Missiology  (vol. xxv. No. 4, Oct., 1997) speaks of the concept of "missions-in-reverse."  He explains how visiting, missionary workers can and should learn from the people to whom they minister.  The introduction of the article reminds us that everyone has bread to give and bread they need to receive.  While I do not advocate going out on a short-term mission primarily for what we can get out of it, we will get much out of it and should expect to do so.  Part of grace is giving but an equally important part of grace is learning how to receive.

It teaches that Christianity need not be compartmentalized, that it can permeate all of life, while eating and resting, while working and worshipping.  It is a little bit of heaven - people with different languages, different life experiences, and different cultures honoring the Lord of life together.

It is a key (necessary?) element in becoming what God has designed us to be - servants.  To be a servant we have to serve somewhere.  See Isaiah 61:1 ff.

What can a short-term mission trip do for our churches?
If we share the experience, if two or more go out together from our congregation we will likely find that we will have a deeper friendship with those involved than we have ever had before.  Friendship is the sharing of experience and reflecting together on it; this kind of shared Christian experience has fostered deeper friendships with fellow church members for me.

It will create mission boosters in our churches.  Just as sports teams and band groups in high schools have boosters who make sure that special things happen for the young people they support, the same dynamics result from people who have been on short-term mission projects.  Budgetary support, invitations to missionaries to visit our churches, special projects to support missions, creative thinking about mission involvement, personal participation in and insistence on local benevolence project support have all come because of short term mission by members of our congregation.

It fulfills a congregation’s vision and ministry foci.  Most churches want to serve and thus make service and mission a part of their intentions.  Short-term missions are a great way to make real the hopes and ideals of our churches.  It opens up other undiscovered possibilities for service nearby and around the world.

It motivates fellow congregants to become involved in short-term missions.  We have experienced a growing number of people, including young people, involved in short-term missions.  It legitimizes and tends to create more ready support for short-term missions once a precedent is established.  Also, better policies come out of experience.  Subsequent volunteers go out with less trepidation and more support and direction.

It turns a church from looking inward and over focusing on things that are negative or problematic and allows it to look up and out to new possibilities.  It is a real morale builder.

Prioritizing for missions, planning for missions, finding financial support for missions, creating more connections to missions and missionaries all become easier when someone or several from a congregation participate in a short term mission.

People who participate in a short-term mission tend to become more actively involved in their own local church, and in outreach projects locally and nationally.  A young man in our church spent 10 weeks in Venezuela working and exploring missions as a vocation to ultimately conclude that his calling was to reach out here in Southeastern Michigan .  His witness was to the possibilities for service close at hand.

The best promoters of short-term missions are those who have participated in a successful short-term mission experience.  Following is a collection of principles which go a long way to establishing an environment for positive and spiritually satisfying short-term projects:

• Participants represent Jesus whether in public or private; all are ambassadors of Christ, sharing in the work of reconciliation and renewal.  [2 Corinthians 5]

• Participants are representatives of the Mission that will be visited and its philosophy and standards all the while we are out of our country;  remember to respect the dignity of each person we meet or serve or work with:  people in the villages, beggars, policemen, staff members, our team members; we are participating in a mission which is committed to holistic transformation: body, mind and spirit are honored; we want to model this in our relationships, choices, and behavior.

• Participants are going out to help the staff of the mission not to impose on them. (This is the major down-side issue of short-term mission.)

• More can be accomplished side-by-side than alone; each person is an important part of the team. [Nehemiah 3, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12]

• All need to be working to support the mission and ministry of the Mission we are visiting; we develop, build, maintain and repair facilities so they can do the direct ministry they are better equipped to do.  Exposure to people of the culture may be limited.

• Participants need to be respectful, flexible, patient, agreeable, open, positive and cooperative, particularly those going to a different culture.

• Participants are going out to bless others, but God has blessings in store for each person; give with generosity; receive with grace.

• Plan to have a good time, but our fun is secondary to our service; be a willing volunteer; do your fair share and a little more.

• We need to take care of ourselves; work hard but rest when you need to; drink a lot of fluids, get enough rest, eat enough to keep up your strength, protect yourself from unique environmental circumstances, speak up if you have a need.

• Short-term missionaries are on a once in a life-time adventure, make the most of it but help others have a good time too.  Get to know the other team members a soon as possible; change tables from meal to meal; work with people you do not know well, volunteer for clean-up duty with those you have not yet become acquainted, take the initiative to introduce yourself and to meet others.

• Share what God has given you; if you have a special ability or skill let it be known; within the constraints of the Mission ’s needs and the short-term mission teams priorities, time and budget, consideration will be given concerning how to use what you have to offer.

• Trust God; rely on His resources.   “Two are better than one and a three-bonded cord is not easily broken.” [Ecclesiastes 4]; tie all that is done to the Lord.

Participants who follow these principles tend to have positive experiences and often return to serve again with people they have recruited to other short-term projects.  While some would prefer to send money rather than become personally and directly involved the fact is that financial support follows rather than precedes these kinds of experiences. 

Samuel J. Mills established a wonderful precedent of encouraging and promoting mission involvement.  It is time to follow his example and reestablish his policy.   The time is ripe for short-term mission involvement.  There is a burgeoning interest.  In the past five years we have had to turn away many extra applicants for our trips.  As Congregationalists we can recover our mission heritage by taking advantage of our opportunity by participating ourselves, by becoming group leaders, and like Samuel J. Mills, by encouraging churches and individuals to get more directly and personally involved.