What's Your Mission?

I have been in ministry for a long time and one of my favorite yearly events has been a mission trip.  When you work in a church, you are not necessarily subject to "physical labor" so the opportunity to drill, hammer and build something always excites me!  It's not every day that you get to build porches, paint houses and fix roofs.  These trips have also been great bonding experiences.  It's not just an opportunity to work, but also to talk with those that you are working with and build relationships with them.

There are some great organizations out there that do a fantastic job.  Group Workcamps is one of them.  They do all of the organizational work, programming and cooking so that the students and leaders can spend time working and building relationships.  They also have a variety of camps to choose from every year.

With that being said, I have felt a pull these past few years for local missions.  Maybe you are like me and live in a pretty affluent area.  You might not see the need right away.  A few months ago on a cold and rainy Saturday morning, I help out with Loaves and Fishes, an organization that works with the Illinois Food Bank.  Three hours before the food was going to be distributed, people began lining up.  I couldn't believe it!

Last summer, I took some students to a local adult assisted living facility.  We spent 4 hours washing and cleaning vans and busses that were used to transport the residents.  It didn't seem like we did much, but it was something that is probably done only once a year and really should be done more frequently.

You see, the pull on my heart is that there are SO many people in our local areas that need help.  Why spend $600+ per person to go help a community 1,000 miles away when you can help your community for about $100 and give the rest of the money to a variety of local organizations that need it.  I have headed up many mission trips and I can tell you from experience that a majority of the money goes to gas, tolls, hotel rooms, food, day trips, programming and staff of the organizations.  Those don't sound like very "missional" needs.

Another question to ask yourself: why is someone going on the trip?  Is it to genuinely serve the community, or is it to get away from family for a week?  Is it a way to take a vacation to hang with friends, or are you really there to work?  Again, from experience, I can tell you that I have seen kids and adults on these trips for the wrong reason.  They aren't there to work, they are there for the time away from mom and dad.  Students that are only there for the day trip to the amusement park on the way home.  Adults that are there and complain the entire time.  This is not necessarily true of the majority, but it is still an issue that can effect the attitude of everyone around them.

What would happen is you took away the "sexiness" of the trip?  What if you had people sleep in your church and served them food made in the church?  What if the church leadership did all of the planning and organizing?  How much would that cost?  $100?  $125?  And again, little funds wasted on gas, tolls, hotel rooms, and more.  What if you were able to give the remaining $500+ per person to the charities and local organizations that you worked for during the week?

Like I said, I have been wrestling with this for a while.  If you want to wrestle with it some more, read "Radical" by David Platt.  He spends a chapter or two wrestling with this idea himself.  If you haven't read it yet, I would highly recommend it!  It's very challenging!

Unfortunately, it's rare to see churches serving in their own communities.  When you ask them what service projects they do, they will tell you all of the places around the country and the world that they have gone.  Very rarely can they tell you how they serve within a 5 mile radius of the church.  I think that "long distance" mission trips have their place.  But what about "local missions."  What is your church doing to impact the community in which you live?