Friday, February 12, 2010

Study Questions Whether Short-Term Missions Make a Difference

Study Questions Whether Short-Term Missions Make a Difference

Interesting article.   I always found that mission trips focused more on the team than on doing anything lasting in the location.  I remember in Juarez attending worship/exhortation sessions for 3 hours and going to a work site for 45 minutes, where in the end, most of the team goofed around.  That was contrasted to the Mexican believers who labored to make our meals and coordinated our visit who worked all-out for the entire week.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I came across your blog while googling antioch because I had some questions. I'm a baylor freshman and have been going to antioch since about this past september. I started out as just going to my lifegroup but now also attend the wednesday service frequently. I actually just got back from the training day for the awaken trip...that's why I'm commenting. I wanted to know what your experience has been with the trip. I want to go, but something is holding me back. I really like all the people from there, I just question if it'll actually be worth it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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  2. Excellent question. In my day, the Juarez trip was primarily a training ground for helping us practice Antioch's version of charismatic gifts. Not a whole lot of it really seemed in my opinion to be all that useful for the people of Juarez, except as it pertained to helping folks get connected to local congregations. That last part I think was a good thing; but in general, I think a more service-oriented activity might be better. That said, they may have since changed the format of the Juarez trip. I haven't been since about 2005, so I wouldn't know.

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