As I’ve written before, I’m disturbed by the trend in our churches to take our members on service trips and call them mission trips. They aren’t. If we lose the meaning of the word “mission,” we will have lost something of value within our church.
At least one congregation here in town is doing something about it. They’ve decided that every one of their members that goes on a mission trip sponsored by their church must go through a course in evangelism. If you are going on a mission trip, you need to know how to teach someone about Jesus. Not just build houses. Tell people about Jesus while you are building houses.
I think that’s a good way to begin to counteract this trend. For a trip to be a mission trip, it needs to have an evangelistic purpose. Or call it a service trip. But if it’s a mission trip, let the participants be prepared to do mission work.
Tim, we know your background, so we know where your bias lies, I don’t see anything wrong in referring to a church backed trip as a mission, just define the mission, actually it would seem to me that all church missions should have a duel purpose, to teach and to help physically. As James said show your faith (to others) by works. I believe the works should come before the evangelizing, You would have much better listeners if they have a roof, and a full belly. I believe James said something to that effect also. Hummmm I kinda like James. Oh by the way, I too believe some in the group should know how to teach the word, but many teach with their hands. Even Jesus had to gain the faith, before he could teach.
Tin said; “I’m disturbed by the trend in our churches to take our members on service trips and call them mission trips. They aren’t.”
Although I don’t find the word “mission” in my bible, the dictionary describes it this way.
mission– a ministry commissioned by a religious organization to propagate its faith or carry on humanitarian work.
What is it about this description that disturbs you Tim?
The problem is, there is something that the church has historically referred to as “missions.” When we substitute something else, the original object of that word gets lost, that is, it’s not just that we are doing evangelism AND service, we’re replacing evangelism with service. As you very correctly stated, we need both, not either/or.
Let me give you another example. Many churches collect money for benevolence. We’ve used that to refer to money that is collected for the poor. But benevolence means kindness. What if churches started saying, “It would be an act of kindness to serve donuts before Bible class. Let’s use the benevolence fund.” They then use the money that would have gone to the poor for another purpose. It’s not so much that the word is used in the wrong way; it still fits within accepted meanings. But the normal use of that word within the church is gone.
We have raised a generation that doesn’t care about evangelism. That’s a fact. Replacing what we used to call mission trips with trips focused on service hasn’t helped. Calling those trips “mission trips” has done a lot of harm.
Do you have a problem with the participants in these trips being trained in evangelism?
Tim asked:” Do you have a problem with the participants in these trips being trained in evangelism?”
Tim, I have no problem with participates being trained evangelist , where my problem arises is when we exclude all but the preachers.
I believe Paul said the church is made up of people with different abilities and they are all needed. And Laymond said, when we go on these trips the whole church should be represented, whether we are articulate speakers or not. And I believe the preacher types should take along their “Boss Whollopers” ( a brand of work gloves probably misspelled) If Jimmy Carter can do it, It sure wouldn’t hurt Joel Osteen. Ha can you imagine seeing that :)
Amen! I heartily agree with this, Laymond. I’m not advocating in any way a trip where one guy goes as “the evangelist,” and everyone else is along for the ride. What I want to see is our young people being taught that as you build that house, be looking for chances to share the gospel. Expect those chances. I want them to dream of the chance to share their faith with someone else.
Thanks for letting me clear that up, and maybe I will in another post. I’m not talking about teaching people to be public speakers. I want to see our people being taught how to share their faith in ordinary situations.
Grace and peace,
Tim
See, this is one of those points I meant from my last comment on the last blog. Tim and I disagree here.
I believe we’ve wrongly called evangelism MISSIONS. The mission of God is more than personal evangelism. The same Romans 8 we’ve been discussing portrays the mission of God as a cosmic rescue mission. We’ve sent out so many groups with tracts and OBS pamphlets and Ivan Stewart strategies and Jule Miller filmstrips and done a bang-up job of creating little American Church of Christ cloisters — right down to the short-sleeve white shirts and ties.
I believe we’re wrongly calling benevolence trips MISSIONS. The mission of God isn’t about giving away stuff and making people happy, either. But I think the swing you’re noticing, from teaching trips to service trips, is not surprising, but to be expected in the wake of such long-term focus on one end of a pendulum. Of course things will swing the other way — that’s what wrecking balls do.
I think real MISSION trips need to be fully-integrated affairs. Not just “teaching about Jesus while wearing work gloves” but “using work gloves TO teach about Jesus.” The Celtic Way of Evangelism and How the Irish Saved Civilization are very interesting resources this way. At the resurrection, the gospel was preached to every creature under heaven. It is our calling as communities of God to go fulfill that gospel — to make clear and apparent the meaning of Jesus. We’ve got to equip people to be able to say WHY they are building houses from a gospel context, not a “it feels good to be nice” context.
in HIS love,
nick
PS – Your ‘doughnuts for class’ parable fails because neither evangelistic nor benevolence trips are intentionally self-serving.
Nick,
Last things first: I did think about that with the example, but I realize that many people do things like buy donuts, etc. out of genuinely unselfish motives. And so many of the service trips I’ve seen have focused more on those going than those being served. But I’ll admit the analogy was not long-studied nor well-crafted; I’m open to a better one.
I recognize the short-comings of terms like missions, ministers, evangelists, deacons, benevolence, charity, etc. At some point, however, we’ve got to recognize that all such descriptions turn out to be inadequate. The answer isn’t to stop using the words that people understand.
My concern is, by using the same inadequate term for both activities, we’re leading people to believe that one can effectively replace the other. Instead of improving our understanding of evangelism, we’ve merely dropped it from our agenda. Instead of making those trips more about God’s mission, we’ve made them more like the world’s mission. Service for service’s sake is not God’s mission; as you stated well, God’s mission is service that points to Jesus.
Grace and peace,
Tim
Wow, Tim, a controversial point!
I’m not sure I agree or disagree, I am going to have to process this.
But I love it that you have made me re-think this.
Well, done!
ME
Mark, I’ll look forward to your further thoughts on this. Though I have to warn you, we regulars here in the Kitchen prefer to write without thinking. :-)
I get the concern about loosing “evangelism” from the idea of mission. But is mission only about evangelism? My understanding of the mission of God is wrapped up in the good news Jesus declared, that the kingdom of God was finally breaking in. I understand this to be about demonstrating that God’s rule is coming upon our space. This means telling people that the ways of their life and this world are bankrupt and they need to allow God to rule their life through the Lordship of his Son, Jesus. But it also means showing people, demonstrating, God’s inbreaking rule through ministry (service).
I don’t see where Jesus prioritized evangelism or ministry over the other. Someone will ask, would I rather have a cup of cold water or hear about God’s gift of eternal salvation? I believe that question seeks to make a distinction where scripture does not. I respond to the question that I would rather experience the “new” world of God’s kingdom reign rather than this “old” dying world. That means when I am hungry, I need to be fed. It equally means I need to learn how to allow God to reign in my life (which comes through hearing, repenting, etc…).
So I guess what I am saying is that I don’t think it is necessry for everyone on a short-term mission team needing to know how to “evangelize.” Some may not be spiritually gifted for such, while they are gifted for being a handy-man of sorts and ministering to people in that way. Together, with those gifted in evangelism and those gifted for ministry, and the other gifts, the entire team becomes a witness and serves/participates in the mission of God. I think it is problematic if a short-term mission team goes without any capability or plans to evangelizing those who need to hear the good news. But “mission” is holistic and more than just evangelism, so it seems to be equally problematic if the task of evangelism is elevated about the other tasks on a mission trip. All of the tasks cooperatively work together (or they should) to further God’s mission in the world.
Any ways…thanks for this post because this is something that we need conversations over. As congregations make short-term mission trips (something I wish my congregation would be interested in), what is our purpose? What is our role in connection with the local churches and/or missionaries?
Grace and peace,
K. Rex Butts
Maybe that’s where the confusion comes in. Sort of like when I studied what used to be called “Speech” in college. It had become Communication, while the old “Journalism” track was considered Communications. We also spoke of Human Communication and Mass Communication, yet there is obvious overlap. Journalism involves humans, and Human Communication can be done to the masses.
I’m not debating Missio Dei. I’m saying that we used to take our kids on evangelistic trips. Rightly or wrongly, they were called mission trips. Now we take our kids on service trips. Rightly or wrongly, they are also called mission trips. Because they bear the same name, one has supplanted the other.
The reason I think it’s harmful to call these “mission trips” is not the fact that they don’t represent the mission of God; it’s the fact that the church was doing something under that name that it now no longer does, or rarely does, at least.
Grace and peace,
Tim
“it’s the fact that the church was doing something under that name that it now no longer does, or rarely does, at least”
Tim, that is the argument against the changing of any church traditions, “That is the way we have always done it”
Laymond,
That’s a very good point. I could very well just be an old fogey.
At the same time, I’m really not advocating door knocking campaigns, Jule Miller filmstrips, nor any of the methods of yesteryear. I think that the Let’s Start Talking campaigns are wonderful. I’m not concerned about the how, I’m concerned about the what. If young people were being taught to tell people about Jesus via _____ (you fill in the blank), I wouldn’t mind. They’re not being taught to tell people about Jesus. They’re not even being taught to care whether people hear about him or not.
I don’t consider the need for evangelism to be merely a tradition. As you expressed so well, we can’t just leave it to the “professionals.” Every Christian needs to have an awareness of the need to tell other people about Jesus. And I believe that every Christian needs to have some idea of how that is done.
Grace and peace,
Tim
Tim, I have a final question on this subject, well maybe two. does the Catholic church do any type of evangelizing.?
And is there any place where Jesus tells us to urge others (by word) to join us.
sorry, one more, do you ever expect that the Church of Christ will ever compete in membership with the Catholic Church, if not why?
OK, Laymond, since you promise these are the last 3 questions, here goes:
(1) Yes
(2) Yes
(3) No
Tim, I think you defined your issue as the fact that people aren’t being trained/taught how to share the gospel. And that is going to affect spreading the gospel in our day to day lives or on special trips.
Wow, Wendy. Why couldn’t I state is so succinctly?
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