The Positive and Negative Effects of a Short Term Mission Trip
Introduction
This research paper explores the negative and positive effects of short term mission trips. There are many different types of short term mission trips as well as different effects that those trips have on the community and people that they are serving. Some positive effects that I will go deeper into during this paper are culture exchange, unique opportunities, positive impact, and career opportunities. Some negative effects that I will go deeper into during this paper are financial responsibility, short term impact, taking away from local jobs, misunderstanding culture, and improper motives. This paper will dive into what really happens as result of a short-term trip, and what we can do, as Christians to serve others while expanding our boundaries to unknown cultures and points of view.
Defining a Short-Term Mission Trip
Short-term mission trips can vary from many different things. Examples of short term mission trips area group of students going to Mexico or Costa Rica on their spring break from school. Another example would be a group of adults working with children in the inner city. The idea of a short-term trip is ever changing and evolving with the increasing numbers of trips happening over the years. Short term missions have experienced explosive growth in the past two decades. Many church organizations promote such trips for many congregations. Short term mission trips have become a key component of youth group activities. In the United States short term mission trips are widely promoted. Most short term mission trips are for two weeks or less than a year. Today more than 1,600,000 adults and young people from the United States travel abroad yearly on short term mission trips (Howell, 2009).
Craig Greenfield an activist, author and serial social-entrepreneur, disagrees with the name “short-term mission trip” completely. He contends that we don’t have “short-term” dentists or “short-term” politicians, so why do we have short-term missionaries (or short-term mission trips). He argues that instead we refer to them as one of three things: “vision (or exposure) trips, learning exchanges or discernment retreats,” (Greenfield, 2015, para. 18–20). The terms he comes up with are more fitting than the otherwise known term “short-term mission trips.” The term “mission” entails what? Getting a project done? Evangelizing? These are goals that short-term trip tries to accomplish. In conclusion, it is hard to define short-term mission trips.
The Financial Responsibilities of Short-Term Trips
Short-term trips nation-wide rack up a lot of dough among churches and young people. An estimated $2 billion is spent yearly, according to Dr. Robert Priest, a missiology professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in a 2008 article in Missiology journal (Priest, 2008). Mission trips are often funded by relatives, close friends and church congregations to help send a group of students and adults overseas. David Peach, a full-time missionary from 1994 to 2012 asks, “Why does a team of 10 people from Ohio need to spend $35,000 to fly to Ethiopia to paint a church when they could have donated $400 to buy paint and let the church members do it?”(Peach, 2013, para. 22). Peach makes an incredible point here, often times, churches will go to great lengths to raise money to send students on short-term trips. These fundraisers include: church wide garage sales, run/walk/bike 5k’s, raffles, pancake breakfasts’, spaghetti dinners among other things. Some may argue that the time put into these events and the money raised could be used funding other projects like community outreaches or like Peach stated before, donating the money directly to the church or community in need so they can distribute it in the most effective way.
Jo Ann Van Engan (2005) tells the story of eighteen students that raised $25,000 to fly to Honduras for spring break (Van Engen, 2005). She lists that they painted an orphanage, cleaned the playground, and played with children. She goes on to reveal that the entire yearly budget of the orphanage is $45,000. One of Engan’s staff members explained, “The amount that group raised for the week here is more than half our working budget. We could have done so much with that money,” (Van Engen, para. 4).
The amount of money raised and spent in the name of short term missions can be viewed as one negative of short term missions, depending on how effectively the money is used. Next, we will look into another aspect of money, how short term trips effects local business and laborers.
Hurting the Local Economy
Many short term mission trips include some type of work project to complete over the time spent on the trip. This is a major negative effect that arises within short-term mission trips. The work that a mission team does, like building a library or digging a trench, are jobs that are sometimes being taken away from local workers. In Kurt Alan Ver Beek’s case study, “The Impact of Short-Term Missions,” he explained that the work done by short-term mission groups could have been done by Hondurans who desperately needed employment, (Ver Beek, 2006). Not only are our short-term mission teams taking away jobs, Westerners, often young people, are most likely not doing the job as well as experienced workers could do.
In addition to the free labor short term mission teams bring, they often bring donated items like clothing and toys. Large non-profit organizations like SHARE Africa send donated items, like T-shirts, to developing countries as well. In doing this, the locals stopped buying the locally made T-shirts. As a result, the textile industry workers were run out of business (Good, 2015). Mark O’Donnell, a spokesman of the Zambian Manufacturers Association said in the documentary, T-Shirt Travels: A Documentary on the Secondhand Clothes in Africa, “Every single clothing factory in Zambia went out of business; we do not have a clothing industry left in the country because the secondhand clothes are coming in,” (Bloemen, 2001).
When mission teams perform free manual labor or when someone donates used clothing to developing countries, it is because they want to help people in need. However, often times it hurts the people in need in the long run rather than helping them. Next we will discuss how these free donations and services are at risk of creating a dependency between Western churches and the developing people they are trying to help.
Creating Dependency
When short-term missionaries frequent the same area or church, that group of people can often become dependent on the missionaries. We can define dependency as the unhealthy reliance on foreign resources, personnel, and ideas, which stifles local initiative (Reese, 2010). In mission history, dependency resulted from western missionaries importing foreign forms of worship, church organization, institutions, and theology during the colonial period (Reese). Although mission dependency began with bring western ideas, they have now evolved into bring western money, which can many times be positive, but it also risks creating a dependency between the church in need and the western church. These dependencies result in expecting someone else to do for you what you could most likely do for yourself (Reese). Because Western missionaries are often more financially well off, they believe bringing that wealth to the country is beneficial to the people. However, Westerners often create projects, programs and institutions, which cannot be carried on or reproduced by those they are trying to help (Schwarts, 1998). This, as a result, continues the unhealthy reliance between the Western missionaries and the people they’re trying to help. This dependency can also result in the development of negative feelings in the people of the developing church and could be seen as offensive, which will be elaborated on next.
Coming Off as Offensive
Short term mission teams’ goals are always to help people in need and to share the love of Christ. However, sometimes the way trips are presented can sometimes come off as offensive to the people in need. Van Engen (2010) explains that third world people do not need more rich Christians coming to paint their church and make them feel inadequate. Although the teams of short term mission trips may feel as if they are being helpful, they are sometimes doing a task that could be easily completed by someone in the church. Van Engen also stated, “How would Americans feel if visitors came to the United States to spend a week at the Salvation Army and only eat food from home and only talked with each other and never left the building?” (Van Engen, pp. 2). Americans would be confused and possibly offended if people from other countries did exactly what we send many people to do. Short-term groups want to solve problems quickly and can make third world Christians feel incapable of doing things on their own. If short term missionaries worked together with the locals it can make them feel less frustrated and unappreciated (Van Engen).
Medical Missionaries
There has been some ethical concerns that have been raised in regards to short term medical mission trips, such as whether informed consent and proper education are provided from the patients (Meidl, 2017). However, medical missionaries work to promote the health and well-being of people often in poverty and medically underserved regions of the world. Faith based medical missionaries use their charitable actions to promote good will, understanding, and their religious beliefs. Medical missionaries have been able to reduce the suffering and disability for a variety of conditions at generally acceptable costs and complication rates (Meidl).
Along with providing surgeries for acceptable rates, short term missionaries can also provide medical education to developing countries. What is unique about medical education is that in some cases, this can be done by students and adults that are not necessarily nurses or doctors. During a short term mission trip to South Africa, Cyndi Cummings, along with a group of nineteen students and adults, taught AIDS prevention education in the local public schools and churches. Although the information that the missionaries shared is easily accessible here in the United States, it was the first time the students of South Africa were able to learn about the prevention of AIDS. One of the school masters, whose name is unknown, told Cyndi, “You have no idea the impact this is going to have on these students,” (Cummings 2018, November 12, personal communication).
Medical missions like affordable care and surgeries as well as medical education like AIDS prevention are both positive effects of short term medical mission trips.
Culture Exchange
No matter where you go on a short term mission trip you are leaving your environment and experiencing a culture exchange. You are experiencing a place that you would not experience in day-to-day life. When tourists (and short term missionaries) communicate directly with local residents from other cultures, cross-cultural adaptation becomes a central issue. Cross-cultural adaptation refers to the process that individuals go through when trying to adjust to the differences they encounter in new cultural environments (Lee & Gretzel, 2016). When going on a mission trip, the new culture can be a positive experience for the Western short term missionary. However, it is important for the people visiting a new place to be respectful of that new culture. Mission trips often lead mission travelers to communities with little touristic infrastructure and little previous contact with foreigners. All these factors make cultural adaption very important but also very challenging (Lee & Gretzel).
When Western short term missionaries experience this cultural exchange, it helps them understand the world outside of themselves. Short term mission trips can also lower the ethnocentrism level of mission trip participants (Lee & Gretzel, 2016). This lower level of ethnocentrism as a result can open the eyes of the short term missionaries to new ways of seeing the world and having more compassion for others. It also brings more understanding and trust of other cultures. After a short term trip to Mexico, 169 students were surveyed about the social trust of the Mexican people (Priest, 2006). This survey concluded that there was a positive upward perception of the attributes of the Mexican people. These attributes included: intelligent, trustworthy, hardworking, and polite (Priest).
Cultural exchange can be challenging but rewarding for the short term missionaries as it provides perspective and decreases their ethnocentrism. Another positive effect of short term mission trips and that it leaves a positive spiritual impact on the short term missionary.
Positive Spiritual Impact
Although there is some negative impacts and connotations that go along with short term mission trips, it is found that going on short term trips often leave the short term missionary with a positive spiritual impact. A study surveying a short term mission group before and after the trip showed that following a medical mission, participants were more likely to spend time in private religious activities such as prayer, meditation, or Bible study (non-organizational religious activity). They also had a deeper intrinsic religiosity through having a greater sense of experiencing the presence of God and feeling closer to God (Meidl 2017).
Hoschar (2016) tells the story of how her mission trip deeply impacted her spiritual life. She says, “If you are considering a short-term mission trip, I would recommend the experience to anyone seeking to experience God and how he is working all over the world. Be prepared to be changed, forever and for good. The impact of these trips stayed in my heart long after the schoolyard dirt washed off of my feet,” (Hoschar, para. 8).
Short term mission trips are often young adults and teenagers first major experience sharing the love of Christ with other people and cultures. This can result in a spiritual awakening that could continue after their trip and into their daily lives.
Conclusion
This study concluded that there are many positive and negative outcomes of short term mission trips. I explored what a short term mission trip was, uncovered the possible negative effects of short term trips such as dependency, impact of the local economy, offending the locals among others. I also revealed the positive outcomes of short term mission trips such as, medical missions, positive spiritual impact among others.
If you ever decide to partake in a short term mission trip, it is important to fully understand both the positive and negative impacts that you may be leaving so that you may conduct your trip in the most appropriate manner as well as doing the work the Lord has called you to do.
References
Bloeman, S. (2001). T-shirt travels: A documentary on second hand clothes in Africa. New York: Filmakers Library.
Cummings, C. (2018, November 12). Personal Interview.
Good, E. (2015, February 8). Short term mission trips — the risk of harming the economy [blog post]. Retrieved from http://riskybusiness.web.unc.edu/2015/02/08/short-term-mission-trips-the-risk-of-harming-the-economy/
Greenfield, C. (2015, March 4). Stop calling it a “short term mission trip.” Here’s what you should call it instead [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/2015/3/4/stop-calling-it-short-term-missions
Hoschar, E. (2016). How a short-term mission trip changed me: Why I’m an advocate for these opportunities despite criticisms of their effectiveness. Odyssey. https://www.theodysseyonline.com/how-short-term-mission-trip-changed-me
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Schwartz, G. (1998), How missionary attitudes can create dependency, The mission to the “Aucas,” (May-June 1998). Retrieved from http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/how-missionary-attitudes-can-create-dependency
VanEngar, J. (2000), Short term missions: Are they worth the cost? The Otherside, Jan/Feb, 20–23
Ver Beek, K. (2006). The Impact of Short-Term Missions: A Case Study of House Construction in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch. Missiology: An International Review, 34(4), 477–495.
