Worship Weblog

Mission Trips: who or what changes?

Posted by Joan Huyser-Honig

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Brad A. Greenberg’s recent Wall Street Journal piece, “How Missionaries Lost Their Chariot of Fire,” has provoked a lot of comment–especially about the value of short-term mission trips. Greenberg quotes a study by Calvin College professor Kurt Verbeek about short-term missions in Honduras. In his comments on Greenberg’s story Verbeek agrees that today’s Christians are often ashamed to talk about faith but says that local leaders and long-term missionaries are better-equipped than “STMers” are to build churches. “I believe God wants to use STMs to transform both the ‘goers’ and the ‘receivers,’” Verbeek says. Other reporters have written about Verbeek’s research in Christianity Today and Wall Street Journal.

Sometimes “goers” get the most impact from mission trips close to home, as a Presbyterian middle school youth group found while visiting Michigan blueberry farms.

Tags: mission trips, spiritual formation, youth