Propempo International

First, anyone planning a short term missions ministry should become aware of the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission. Even if someone is hoping to gain exposure by joining an agency planned trip, they should ask the questions implicit in the SOE document.

An overview of those guidelines are, as follows:
1. God-Centeredness. An excellent short-term mission seeks first God’s glory and his kingdom, and is expressed through our purpose, lives, and methods.
2. Empowering Partnerships. An excellent short-term mission establishes healthy, interdependent, on-going relationships between sending and receiving partners, and is expressed by a primary focus on intended receptors, plans which benefit all participants, and mutual trust and accountability.
3. Mutual Design. An excellent short-term mission collaboratively plans each specific outreach for the benefit of all participants, and is expressed by on-field methods and activities aligned to long-term strategies of the partnership, goer-guests' ability to implement their part of the plan, and host receivers' ability to implement their part of the plan.
4. Comprehensive Administration. An excellent short-term mission exhibits integrity through reliable set-up and thorough administration for all participants, and is expressed by truthfulness in promotion, finances, and reporting results, appropriate risk management, and quality program delivery and support logistics.
5. Qualified Leadership. An excellent short-term mission screens, trains, and develops capable leadership for all participants, and is expressed by leadership which exhibits mature spiritual character, skills and competence, and ability to equip others.
6. Appropriate Training. An excellent short-term mission prepares and equips all participants for the mutually designed outreach, and is expressed by Biblical, appropriate, and timely training, on-going training and equipping (pre-field, on-field, post-field).
7. Thorough Follow-Up. An excellent short-term mission assures debriefing and appropriate follow-up for all participants, and is expressed by comprehensive debriefing (pre-field, on-field, post-field), re-entry preparation, and post-event evaluation.

See http://www.stmstandards.org/standards/ for further development of the Standards of Excellence.

Let us capture key principles, specifically for a church-based trip, whether it involves one person or many:
1. The target ministry should specifically supplement and encourage a ministry in which your church is already a partner.
2. There should be not less than four preparation and training times prior to departure and sufficient debrief and re-integration/evaluation times after the trip.
3. Selection of those involved should reflect high standards of character and conduct with high expectations of servant-hearted ministry involvement..
4. Every participant should be expected to participate in public presentation of the trip and to utilize the fruits of their participation in the trip in future commitments to ministry in the church.
5. The participants should be respectful, positive, and encouraging toward both the expat and national hosts and coworkers.
6. Participation in a short term missions ministry should be considered an excellent opportunity to fast-track personal spiritual discipleship with all participants.

That's all for now. Does your thinking about short term missions ministry measure up?