Lausanne World Pulse – Bonding through Short-term Mission: A Lifeline to the Unreached
By Chris Leake
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A STM participant learning to make flatbread in a home in |
Short-term mission has missed the point of the Great Commission. Something hundreds of thousands of Christians are doing every year with the term “mission” in its title has very little to do with the Mission—making disciples of all nations. The Greek for “all nations” in Matthew 28:19 is ta ethne; therefore, Jesus commanded us to make disciples of every ethnic group on the face of the earth. According to the Joshua Project, over 6,700 ethnic (people) groups are still unreached with the gospel, and the combined population of these groups is 2.5 billion, or nearly forty percent of the world’s population.1
Despite this overwhelming need, only twenty-six percent of all long-term missionaries are dedicating their efforts to taking the gospel to these forty percent who have no opportunity to hear it.2 Short-term mission, with a proper focus, can play a pivotal role in mobilizing more Christians to fill the tremendous gap in Great Commission labor.
Bonding and Short-term Missions
Bonding is a crucial issue presently hindering short-term missions (STM) from realizing its Commission-catalyzing potential. In Bonding, and the Missionary Task, Thomas and Elizabeth Brewster share how God prepares newborns to develop a deep bond with their parents during a heightened state of awareness upon entering the world.3 Interestingly, researchers have noted newborn humans and animals will bond with whomever/whatever is present in the short period of time following birth—even with a surrogate parent of another species. The Brewsters draw a parallel between this phenomenon and missions, arguing the first couple of weeks a missionary spends in a foreign country represents an important bonding period. If missionaries spend this time immersed in the new culture and language, they embrace their new home and establish strong relationships with nationals. Conversely, the worker who arrives on the field and is immediately ushered into a mission compound bonds with the expatriate missionary community, rather than with the local culture. This missionary usually struggles adapting culturally, is not as fruitful in ministry and has trouble staying on the field.
Short-term mission involves a similar bonding scenario. It takes people who are willing and eager to follow God’s call and serve in missions and throws them into their first experience on the field. This becomes the bonding period. During this critical initial plunge, the bright-eyed participant undergoes a period of extreme receptivity to the leading of God.
Perhaps you know people who have made significant decisions, commitments or changes in life direction as a result of STM participation. But with what are they bonding, and what types of commitments will they make as a result? Few will deny the role of STM in mobilizing long-term mission laborers.4 Ask any full-time, foreign missionary if his or her first time on the mission field was during STM involvement, and chances are the answer will be yes. Is it possible, though, that the way we are doing STM is one of the reasons we are seeing so few long-term laborers going to the most unreached areas of the world? If we do not bring short-termers into contact with the unreached and teach them this need, they will not bond with the unreached.
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Chris Leake serves with Global Frontier Missions in Oaxaca, Mexico, which exists to reach the unreached and mobilize Christians to do the same. His role includes church planting efforts and coordinating short-term mission teams. |