Short-Term Service
People who drive across the border into a neighboring culture for a day of shopping probably do not need to be concerned about reentry. Likewise, people who fly to a vacation spot in another country and spend time seeing the major tourist attractions are not likely to need preparation for reentry. Such people usually do not get out of “vacation” mode because they are interested primarily in sightseeing or relaxing and make only a superficial acquaintance with the people or the culture they are visiting. The beliefs and behaviors of the nationals are curious and interesting but have little personal impact.
However, those who go to serve and interact personally with nationals may find their own assumptions about life and living challenged as well as their worldview broadened. Those who go to learn about and understand the everyday people living there may find themselves considering major changes in their own lives. They may realize that their own beliefs and behaviors are only one way of looking at things and that their worldview may be quite provincial.
What is Short-Term Service?
Short-term service is defined more by the intentions of people going than it is in exactly how long those people are gone. Short-term service may last weeks, months, or even a couple of years. People going short-term go intending to return to the same house or apartment, drive the same vehicle, work at the same job, attend the same church, and so forth. They view their time in the other culture as an interlude in their ongoing lives, never intending to enter fully that other culture. They plan to go for a limited time, complete a well-defined task, and then return to life at home.
Such service may be for a college student serving a week or two during spring break, for a brick layer serving in a warmer climate for a month or two when it is too cold for him to work at home, or for a teacher serving a year or two to fill in for one serving long-term but who needs to be gone temporarily. All these people serve knowing that they will return to pick up their lives where they left off. They do not intend to become part of their host culture.
Short-Term Service in Bible Times
Going from one culture to another is not a new phenomenon. For thousands of years people have visited neighboring cultures as anyone can verify by reading the first book of the Bible. God told Abram to leave his country, his people, and his family and go to Canaan. Abram obeyed. When a famine occurred there, Abram went on to Egypt for a while. Before long, Abram headed back toward Canaan (Genesis 12).
Jonah
The first short-term cross-cultural missionary recorded in the Bible, a rather reluctant one, was Jonah. When Jonah finally obeyed God and went to Nineveh, he was there only a few weeks. His first day there, he preached that within 40 days God would destroy the city. The people repented, and God did not do so. Jonah remained there a few more days angry with God because he wanted God to destroy the Ninevites, not reform and forgive them (Jonah 3-4).
Jesus’ Apostles
Jesus sent his 12 apostles out on short-term home mission trips ahead of him. He called them together and specifically instructed them not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans, but to people in Israel (Matthew 10:5-6). Of course, he noted that ultimately they would also reach governors, kings, and the Gentiles (Matthew 10:18). In our multicultural world, we find people of other cultural backgrounds in large city enclaves, in remote mountains such as Appalachia, and in recent immigrants, both legal and illegal, across the country.
Paul
Although Paul was gone for long periods of time on his missionary journeys, he planted churches in some places during short-term stays. During his first term of service, on the first Sabbath Paul was in Antioch (in Pisidia), Paul was asked to speak in the synagogue. He was invited back the next week, but then he was run out of town after he did so (Acts 13:13-52). During his second term of service, Paul spoke three Sabbath days in Thessalonica and was then run out of town (Acts 17:1-10). Thus his first time in these cities was for only two or three weeks.
Short-Term Service Today
What is new today is that people in many countries can travel to cultures on every continent in a matter of hours, spend a week or two ministering there, and return home again in a matter of hours. These people have no intention of learning the language or culture. They do not intend to stay an extended period of time or return to the same culture ever again. Many thousands do this each year.
Many mission agencies offer short-term service not only because it helps nationals on their fields, but also because it may result in those planning to serve only a few weeks or months becoming much more interested in mission work after they return. Such people often increase their giving and praying; and some even return for further service, both short- and long-term.
My Story
In 1989 Bonnie (my wife) and I wanted to do something to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so we decided to go on a two-week mission trip to help build a church in southern Brazil. Less than 24 hours after our plane took off we were on the ground in Sao Paulo. We had never traveled outside of North America and did not even know enough to buy and read some sort of guidebook. All we knew was that we were going to Iguassu Falls to help build a church. For several years a fellow Sunday school teacher had been telling us we ought to go on a mission trip. This one fit our schedule and our budget.
Though we had contributed to missions and prayed for missionaries throughout our marriage, we had never felt any “call” to serve in missions. In fact, our trip was advertised as a “vacation with a purpose.” As far as we were concerned, this was a one-time venture to celebrate our anniversary, and we would return to our work at Asbury College. Our group of 16 people from Kentucky, Texas, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Missouri met each other for the first time in Miami International Airport. We had never met anyone in the group except the leader, and we knew little else except for some health information and the fact that we were going to help build a church. We were on our way to our “vacation with a purpose” with one other couple, two women, and ten men.
We had not even read about where we were going, but we assumed it was some place out in the jungle. Our purpose was to help build a little church for people in a village near a waterfall. We were on our way to an adventure to help others; then we expected to return home and life would go on as usual.
Your Story
Now consider your story. The following questions will help guide your thinking. If you are reading this book before you go on a short-term mission trip, answer the questions about your plans. If you have already completed your short-term service answer the questions about what you actually did.