The Place of Short-term Missions

So I have a few minutes to talk about the place of short-term missions. I think what's been in view for most of last night and today is long-term missions. But for the next 15 minutes we're going to consider short-term missions. My name is Jason Dome and I was sent out by our host church today, Hope Baptist Church. Fourteen families were sent out seven years ago to plant Sovereign Redeemer Community Church about ten minutes away from here.

So we meet just down the road and it's always a pleasure to be back. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Father, thank you for last night, thank you for today, thank you for your word. Thank you for men who opened it up and encouraged us from it. I pray that our hearts would soak it in.

We would love every word of yours that you would pull us up from our thoughts and our ways to your thoughts and your ways. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, what a world our modern world is. Just this week we had four men who came back from Turkey.

They were in Turkey across the ocean for 10 days. On Wednesday they woke up in Istanbul and they went to bed right around here. Later in the week I was supposed to Skype with a pastor friend in Malawi. Malawi, you go to the southernmost tip of Africa and then go up two countries, that's Malawi. And we do this regularly.

He's one of my closest friends in the ministry and Skype allows us to talk like he was in the next room, if his internet connection has to be particularly good, he can put himself on camera, we can see each other and I can see his kids. And this air travel and the internet and Skype and WhatsApp and these tools lend themselves to short-term work overseas. But I believe there's also a biblical basis for it if you turn to Acts chapter 11. I think what we see in Acts chapter 11 is representative, meaning you see it elsewhere. We don't have a lot of time so I'm going to this one spot, but I think it just represents many places that we could go to in the New Testament.

Acts chapter 11, I'll be reading 19 through 26. Acts chapter 11, beginning in 19. Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people.

And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." So what we have in this text is because of the dispersion from the persecution related to what happened with Stephen in Jerusalem, the preaching of the gospel began to reach remote areas, Gentiles began to be saved, and the church in Jerusalem, which is by comparison, at least in a relative sense, a mature church, hears of these new believers in more remote regions and so they sent out a man. They really sent one of their best out to provide what this church probably didn't have, which is depth, teaching, help, maturity. And so they hear of it, a need, and they send because they have what is needed. And many of the missionary visits of Saul and or Barnabas and or Silas and or Timothy would actually be much shorter here in Acts chapter 11. It's a whole year.

In many of these other visits, what you see is churches have been planted and then they're going back through. It sounds like really even whirlwind tours. They come through, they encourage, and they keep moving. I think the point for us is that short-term missions are not just a modern invention based on modern technology and the modern conveniences like air travel and Skype, although short-term missions are certainly helped by those things. I'd like to describe for you a relationship that has developed over the better part of the last decade that fits in the category of short-term missions, and this is with our brothers and sisters in Malawi, Africa.

This was a connection that was formed nine years ago. We didn't seek it out. It sought us out in the form of a young man who was looking for support to go back to Malawi and work with his father who was planting churches there. We were tremendously aligned theologically. Friends, this is important if you want to do it more than once.

In other words, short-term missions could be a one-off thing where you go and you paint the building or you help do this or that or the other and you come back and then that's sort of the end of it. I don't think over the long term that is the most fruitful way to go about these things. So if we're going to do things that are more than that over a period of years, being aligned theologically is really important so that you don't get down the track and find out, wait a minute, we really can't wholeheartedly support what they're doing because we're not really on board with all that they're teaching. Over the last nine years, the relationships have broadened and deepened every year. Broadened in the sense that more on their side of the ocean know more people on our side of the ocean, and deepened in the sense that just over time, we're getting to know each other better and better and better.

And as a consequence, we know each other better. We trust each other more. So we've been able to do bigger and bigger things. So if you were to chart this out on a timeline, you would find early in the timeline, we were doing little things together. We were sort of dabbling.

Not to say that in a derogatory term, but the scope of the things that we were doing were small. And then a year after that a little bigger, and then towards the end of this we've been doing big, big things in terms of short-term missions. For instance, in August 2017 we taught through the 1689 over there. Have you read through the 1689 recently, confession of faith? To try to teach through that in a week is insanity.

Well, we embarked on insanity and that, hey, the teachers, the Malawian teachers and North American teachers stood side by side all day every day for a week and we taught through the 1689 over there. That's not something you could ever even think about in year one. So the point is we planted seeds in the early years that now we're able to harvest the fruit from, and we're building on those things, and we're able to consider now things that we couldn't have even talked about even three years ago. Had we talked about them, there would have been a sense that this is premature, we're just not ready for that. But now we're ready for it.

So now not only can we talk about it, we can actually do it, and there's no end in sight. And I hope there is no end to it. By the way, in those nine years across that span of time, there have been many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many other very worthy opportunities that we've kept at our arm's length and said no thank you to. Because we've wanted to preserve the little resources that we have to continue and to build in this area. I think that's another important thing to say about short-term missions is because there are so many worthy things that come knocking at your door, if you say yes to Even a handful of them in little churches like ours, you end up being so distracted by all the things that you have going that you don't make headway.

I'd like to give you considerations for short-term engagement, just sort of a three-point grid, three things that form a lens through which we can look at short-term missions. Number one, exception versus rule. Exception versus rule. In other words, where are the weight of our resources going? So I'm part of a local church, you're part of a local church, you have resources to spend on the advancement of the gospel in the world, where are the weight of those resources going?

Are they going to long term sustained missionary investment or to short term mission trips? I want to say this, and this is the most important thing that I'm going to say in my 15 minutes. Short-term mission trips are a sorry substitute for long-term sustained missionary investment. I'll say it again. Short-term mission trips are a sorry substitute for long-term sustained missionary investment.

Now did I just say that short-term mission trips are invalid? No, I didn't say that. That's all I've ever been a part of. So in a sense, if you think I'm condemning something, I'm condemning the only thing that I've ever been involved in. So I don't think bad about short-term mission trips.

I'm just saying we have to look at the thrust of our limited resources. And if we think that we can do this short-term thing and then say we're done, that's wrong. That's all I'm saying. Maybe I should have just said that, wouldn't have taken as much time. Number two, so the exception versus the rule.

Let the rule be our resources are saved and spent on long term sustained missionary investment. Number two, think about stewardship. When we think about short-term missions, think about stewardship. We're a little church. If everyone comes, we have 100 people, 17 families.

And I'm a fully supported pastor. So you can imagine the wealth of extra resources that we have laying around, OK? It's not. We have very limited resources. But you know what, even big churches with big budgets find that they have limited resources too.

Nobody has unlimited resources. So is what you are considering for short-term missions the right use of the money, of limited resources. Because when you come to the end of the money, you really are at the end of the money. You can't spend it another way. So when you're thinking about a short-term missions investment, you have to think, is this the right use of our limited resources?

In other words, if I spent the same money, if I took the same pile of money, and I spent it a different way, would that way be better? If you have limited resources, you can't afford not to think that way. So number two is think about stewardship. You have one pile of money. In what way can you spend it where it goes the furthest to expand the kingdom of God?

Number three, this is the question for us when we're thinking about short-term missions. What does that foreign church say they need? Short-term missions. Somebody on this side, somebody on that side with an ocean in between. Not what do we think would be neat or awesome.

What do they say they need? Now they may say what they need and you may want to wrestle with them about that. Again, this is about stewardship. God has entrusted those funds to you. What they say, you have the right to question what they say they need and wrestle with them over it.

But we should start with the question, what do you need? What would be a blessing to you and the church there if there is a church there? What would help the church there? Not what do we think would be neat or awesome, but what do you need? And what does the missionary on the ground say that they need?

In other words, maybe someone from here who's gone over there planning there, they need to be articulating what they think would be helpful. Because you know, you can go do things over there that you think that are helpful that just slow him down. Happens all the time. Just ask any missionary over there, have you ever had a group come over and work through their agenda and all it did was slow you down so when they left you were no better off but you'd lost a bunch of time and energy and every one of them will say oh yeah that sort of thing happens all the time. I have two recommendations for you, Two recommendations.

Number one, take time to pray, think, talk, study, research. Find a long-term fit for your short-term missions. I think if we're going to be engaged in short-term missions, this should be the target to spend whatever time and prayer and study and thinking and talking and brainstorming and searching out to find a long-term fit for our short-term missions so that we can build year after year something that's significant over time. Find a long-term fit for your short-term missions. And then do that for a long time.

Maybe instead of calling it short-term missions, we'll call it intermittent missions. Not short-term in the sense that we go do a one-off here and then we go do a one-off there and then we go do a one-off there, but that we have taken the time to have a long-term strategy for these things that we can build one thing on top of another to do more significant things over time, and then we just do them intermittently. So think of it in those terms. Number two, Create a roadmap for long-term sustained missionary investment. We can't do the short-term missions and say, we're done with the Great Commission.

Heaven help us. Create a roadmap for long-term sustained missionary investment. Pray that God will raise somebody up in your church body whose heart is burning to be deployed for the rest of their life somewhere else. So much more to say. Please pull me aside during lunch or whatever if you want to talk about something.

Father, thank you for your goodness to us. I pray that you would bless the rest of our time here. Let it be consecrated to you. Have your way, Lord, with us, with our lives, with our hearts, have your way. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So I have a few minutes to talk about the place of short term missions. I think what's been in view for most of last night and today is long-term missions, but for the next 15 minutes, we're going to consider short-term missions. My name is Jason Dohme, and I was sent out by our host church today Hope Baptist Church. Fourteen families were sent out seven years ago to plant Sovereign Redeemer Community Church.

About 10 minutes away from here, so we meet just down the road. And it's always a pleasure to be back. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Father thank you for last night. Thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for men who opened it up and encourage us from it. I pray that our hearts would soak it in. We would love every word. Of yours that, you would pull us up from our thoughts and our ways to your thoughts and your ways we pray this in Jesus name Amen. Well, what a world our modern world is. Just this week we had four men who came back from Turkey that were in Turkey across the ocean for ten days on Wednesday they woke up in Istanbul, and they went to bed right around here.

Later in the week, I was supposed to Skype with a pastor friend in Malawi. Malawi, you go to the southernmost tip of Africa and then go up two countries, that's Malawi. And we do this regularly. He's one of my closest friends in the ministry, and Skype allows us to talk like he was in the next room. If his internet connection has to be particularly good he could put himself on camera, we can see each other, and I can see his kids. And this air travel, and the Internet, and Skype, and WhatsApp, and these tools, lend themselves to short term work overseas.

But I believe there's also a biblical basis for it. If you turn to Acts Chapter 11 I think what we see in Acts Chapter 11 is representative. Meaning you see it elsewhere, we don't have a lot of time, so I am going to this one spot but I think it just represents many places that we could go to in the New Testament.

Acts Chapter 11. I'll be reading 19-26. Acts Chapter 11 beginning in 19- "Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Zarine who when they had come to Antioch spoke to the hellinest preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord, then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabus to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God. He was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord for he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great many people were added to the Lord.

Then Barnabas departed for Tarsis to seek Saul. and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So what we have in this text is because of the dispersion from the persecution related to what happened with Steven in Jerusalem, the preaching of the Gospel began to reach remote areas. Gentile's began to be saved. And the church in Jerusalem which is by comparison at least in a relative sense a mature church, hears of these new believers in more remote regions, and so they send out a man they really sent they sent one of their best out to provide what this church probably didn't have which is depth, teaching, help, maturity, and so they hear of the need. And they send because they have what is needed. And many of the missionary visits of Saul and or Barnabus and or Silas and or Timothy would actually be much shorter in here and acts Chapter 11. It's a whole year in many of these other visits what you see is churches have been planted and then they're going back through it sounds like really even whirlwind tour as they come through. They encourage and they keep moving. I think the point for us is that short term missions are not just a modern invention based on modern technology, and the modern conveniences like air travel and Skype, although short term missions are certainly helped by those things. I'd like to describe for you a relationship that has developed over the better part of the last decade that fits in the category of short term missions. And this is with our brothers and sisters in Malawi Africa. This, was a connection that was formed nine years ago. We didn't seek it out, it sought us out in the form of a young man who was looking for support to go back to Malawi and work with his father who was planting churches there. We were tremendously aligned theologically.

Friends, this is important if you want to do it more than once. In other words, short term missions could be a one off thing where you go and you paint the building, or you help do this or that or the other, and you come back, and then that's sort of the end of it. I don't think over the long term that is the most fruitful way to go about these things, so if we're going to do things that are more than that over a period of years, being aligned theologically is really important so that you don't get down the track and find out "wait a minute we really can't wholeheartedly support what they're doing, because we're not really onboard with with all that they're teaching." Over the last nine years the relationships have broadened and deepened every year. Broadened in the sense that more on their side of the ocean, no more people on our side of the ocean, and deepened in the sense that just over time we're getting to know each other better, and as a consequence we know each other better, we trust each other more, so we've been able to do bigger things. So If you were to chart this out on a timeline you would find early in the timeline we we're doing little things together was sort of dabbling. Not to say that in a derogatory term but the scope of the things that we were doing were small. And then a year after that a little bigger, and then towards the end of this we've been doing big things in terms of short term missions. For instance in August 2017 we taught through the 1689 over there.

Have you read through the 1689 recently confession of faith? To try to teach through that in a week is insanity. Well we embarked on insanity and the Malawian teachers and North American teachers stood side by side all day, every day, for a week and we taught through the 1689 over there. That's not something you get ever even think of inn year one. So the point is, we planted seeds in the early years that now we're able to harvest the fruit from, and we're building on those things, and were able to consider now, things that we couldn't have even talked about three years ago. Had we talked about them there would have been a sense that this is premature, we're just not really ready for that, but now we're ready for it. So now not only can we talk about it we can actually do it and there's no end in sight. And I hope there is no end to it. By the way in those nine years across that span of time, there have been many other very worthy opportunities that we've kept at arm's length and said no thank you to, because we've wanted to preserve the little resources that we have to continue, and to build in this area. I think that's another important thing to say about short term missions, is because there are so many worthy things that come knocking at your door, if you say yes to even a handful of them in little churches like ours, you end up being so distracted by all the things you have going, that you don't make headway.

I'd like to give you considerations for short term engagement. Just sort of a three point grid, three things that form a lens through which we can look at short term missions. Number one, exception versus rule, in other words where are the weight of our resources going. So I'm part of a local church. You're part of a local church. You have resources to spend on the advancement of the gospel in the world, where are the weight of those resources going.

Are they going to long term sustained missionary investment. Or to short term mission trips. I want to say this and this is the most important thing that I'm going to say in my 15 minutes. Short term mission trips are a sorry substitute for long term sustained missionary investment. I'll say it again. Short term mission trips are. Sorry substitute for long term sustained missionary investment. Now did I just say that short term mission trips are invalid? No, I didn't say that. That's all I've ever been a part of, so in a sense, if you think I'm condemning something I'm condemning the only thing that I've ever been involved in. So I don't think bad about short term mission trips. I'm just saying we have to look at the thrust of our limited resources, and if we think that we can do this short term thing and then say we're done, that's wrong.

That's all I'm saying. Maybe I should have just said that, wouldn't have taken as much time.

Number One. So the exception versus the rule. Let the rule be our resources are saved and spent on long term sustained missionary investment. Number 2, think about stewardship. When we think about short term missions think about stewardship. We're a little church.

If everyone comes we have 100 people, 17 families... And I'm a fully supported pastor so you can imagine the wealth of extra resources that we have laying around. OK, it's not, we have very limited resources, but you know even big churches with big budgets find that they have limited resources too, nobody has unlimited resources. So, is what you are considering for short term missions the right use of the money of limited resources?

Because, when you come to the end of the money, you really are at the end of the money, you can't spend it another way. So, when you're thinking about a short term missionary missions investment you have to think, is this the right use of our limited resources. In other words, if I spent the same money. The same pile of money. And I spent it a different way. Would that way be better? If you have limited resources you can't afford not to think that way. So number two is think about stewardship.

Yet one pile of money. In what way can you spend that where it goes the furthest to expand the kingdom of God. Number three, this is the question for us when we're thinking about short term missions. What does that foreign church say they need? Short-term missions. Somebody on this side, and somebody on that side with an ocean in between.

Not what do we think would be neat or awesome.

What do they say they need? They may say what they need and you may want to wrestle with them about that. Again this is about stewardship, God has entrusted those funds to you. You have the right to question what they say they need and wrestle with them over it. But we should start with the question like, "What do you need?" Or "What would be a blessing to you?" or "What would help the church there?" Not what do we think would be neat, or awesome, but what do you need, and what does the missionary on the ground say that they need. In other words, maybe someone from here who has gone over there planning there. They need to be articulating what they think would be helpful because you know you can go do things over there that you think that are helpful that just slow him down. Happens all the time.

Just ask any missionary over there. Have you ever had a group come over and work through their agenda and all it did was slow you down, so when they left you were no better off but you had lost a bunch of time and energy? And every one of them will say, "Oh yeah, that sort of thing happens all the time."

I have two recommendations for you. Number one, take time to pray, think, talk, study, and research. Find a long term fit for your short term missions. I think if we're going to be engaged in short term missions, this should be the target. To spend whatever time in prayer and study and thinking and talking and brainstorming and searching out, to find a long term fit for our short term missions, so that we can build year after year something that significant over time. Find a long term fit for your short term missions and then do that for a long time. Maybe instead of calling it short term missions we'll call it intermittent missions. Not short term in the sense that we go do a one off here, and then we go do a one off there, and then we go do a one off there, but that we have taken the time to have a long term strategy for these things, that way we can build one thing on top of another to do more significant things over time, and then we just do them intermittently. So think of it in those terms.

Number two, create a roadmap for long term sustained missionary investment. We can't do the short term missions and say we're done with the Great Commission, heaven help us. Create a roadmap for long term sustained missionary investment. Pray that God will raise somebody up in your church body whose heart is burning to be deployed for the rest of their life somewhere else. So much more to say, please pull me aside during lunch or whatever if you want to talk about something. Father, thank you for your goodness to us. I pray that you would bless the rest of our time here. Let it be consecrated to you. Have your way the Lord with us, with our lives, with our hearts, have your way. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.