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He was one of the original designers of the Peace Corps. I stood in awe of this leader from Washington D.C. who visited Costa Rica when I was a rookie missionary.

I was intrigued by this project that was sweeping the world. In our conversation together, I asked, “Has the Peace Corps movement fulfilled your expectations?” His response was revealing. “Our vision to change the world through an active force of volunteers has been quite successful,” he began, “but there has been an outcome we did not anticipate. The greatest benefactors have been the volunteers themselves. Through these young men and women whose lives have been changed, the United States has benefited more than the countries targeted by the Peace Corps.”

The same phenomenon is evidenced in short-term missions. Those who serve abroad are transformed and sending churches are revived. This is admirable and may be good cause to advance the mushrooming short-term missions movement. But there is a marked danger. The benefits to short-term workers and the blessing they impart to their home churches can become the primary goal. A side benefit becomes the central theme.

To design short-term outreach around personal enrichment in the lives of those who go and resultant home church advance can be shortsighted and self-serving.

Even more distracting is the rising number of those who see short-term service as a substitute for career service. Some say, “I went to Mexico for a week last year. I’ve done my part in world missions.”

All the short-term efforts in the world will not fulfill Christ’s mandate to “make disciples of all nations.” God sent his Son to this dusty planet to live among us, identify with us, minister to us, and die for us. Similarly, we must send career missionaries to live with those who need the Savior, bring the gospel to them in their language and help them grow in the Lord and multiply his work in their society.

To keep short-term missions from becoming a shortsighted distraction, two principles are essential:

1. Everyone involved in short-term endeavors must constantly evaluate their effectiveness from a field-of-service perspective. What has this done for the advance of God’s work abroad?

2. Effective outreach requires essential career missionaries. Short-term must be seen in light of long-term objectives. What is this doing for ongoing evangelism and multiplication overseas?

Short-term missions is a rapidly growing movement. We dare not let it distract us from God’s assignment to build his church around the world. Sacrificial service must be the driving force. Self-satisfaction, self-enrichment, and self-fulfillment may result from short-term exposure, but this is deficient motivation. If these benefits become objectives, they can be shortsighted distractions.

Ron Blue, former president of CAM International, leads the Spanish D.Min program at Dallas Theological Seminary.

April 19, 2002