By Jonathan Moseley
Renewal Church is planning a second trip down to Haiti to partner with Grace So Amazing Ministries. We will have an informational meeting after service on Nov. 6th. Maybe you're wondering if you should do this. I would say, "YES!" Use this trip as an opportunity to deepen your heart for God's plans and purposes for the world and to rekindle your commitment to Jesus as a disciple maker.
But go with the right motives and the right mindset. Too often, we approach short term mission trips wrongly. We rush in, cause more harm than good, and the attitudes we bring down can be prideful. Our involvement can create feelings of inferiority in the host community, an unhealthy dependence on Westerners, and a division between “us” and “them". It's easy for teams to develop a Savior complex honing in on the needs of the people they're serving instead of seeing their strengths and upholding them as image bearers of God. We should not go down on trips with an obsession to do. One week is not going to do much honestly to see the depths of poverty undone. But we can be a mouthpiece of truth, a vessel of love, and a support for the ministry partner that is already on the field. At Renewal, we say"Don’t go to do—go to grow. "
And if you're asking whether or not you should consider going on a mission trip this summer, here are 10 ways a mission trip can grow you as a disciple, and why you should:
1) Go to learn from godly examples.
You will find people that risk their very lives for the Gospel’s sake. And you will experience a greater faith in people than what you may have found in the States. Let their lives encourage you, humble you, and stir you up to greater obedience.
2) Go to gain a better understanding of God’s global mission.
God is at work in the country you’re visiting well before you arrive, and he will be at work well after you leave. God is committed more than you are to his mission, which is to bring every tribe, tongue, and nation into worship of his Son.
3) Go to grow in compassion and your servanthood.
When was the last time you cried over the lost like Paul and Jesus? Ask God to move your heart for the people you meet as you sense their spiritual lostness and you see the depth of their physical needs. Then, be compelled to respond in love. Take on the same attitude of Jesus who lived not to promote himself; instead, his life was centered on service counting others more significant than himself.
4) Go to understand more fully the comforts and privileges Jesus gave up for us.
You will surely go without the common luxuries you experience in the States. Use this to better comprehend the sacrifices Jesus endured to bring you into his kingdom.
5) Go to grow in your love for the universal church and its presence in the world.
Fall in love with the local church, and the people God has miraculously brought together to propel his mission forward. This is God’s appointed means to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The local church is the salt and light of the world—and you can be sure that wherever Christians gather together, there is hope for that community.
6) Go to grow in your understanding of the human heart.
Yes, there are many differences across country borders, ethnicities, and nationalities. The differences are easy to see. But understand, the human heart is the same. See the similarities you share with the people you’re visiting. For example, people do not fall victim to rebellion against God. We choose this rebellion, whether we’re from America or Haiti. It doesn’t matter what country you’re visiting—every human heart is disobedient toward God until grace gets a hold of it.
7) Go to grow in your trust in God.
When you aim for a routine, safe, comfortable Christian life, your love for God will grow cold. You’ll become a cultural Christian—if that’s even such a thing. But take steps of faith and risk your life for God, and you will experience him in ways few have. Taking a mission trip is not radical—but it’s an opportunity for you to see his faithfulness in your life and grow your confidence and boldness for the mission you have before you to make disciples.
8) Go so that you might be used as an instrument to wake up your local church to God’s mission.
Too many churches in the States are passive to the Great Commission. God may use your passion and your “Go!” attitude to enliven people to his cause.
9) Go to embrace the day-to-day purposes for which you were made.
The very things you do on mission trips--praying, worshiping, sharing the Gospel, encouraging your teammates, living for others—these things are not to be done one week out of the year. This is your purpose 24/7. Take the rhythms and intentionalityfrom your mission trip back home with you.
10) Go to grow in your urgency to share the Gospel.
Time is short. Hell is real. Silence is selfish. Don’t lull or meander with the life you’ve been given. Share the Good News of Jesus. Let this mission trip remind you of the eternal destinies of those you cross paths with.
Jonathan Moseley is the Director of Community and Operations at Renewal Church.
