Olu Menjay: Are short-term missions a waste?
Much has been written charging that short-term missions are, if not a waste, at least a poor use of time and money. For the host of one such mission to Liberia, they are nothing of the sort.
An argument can be made that short-term mission trips are a waste of time and resources. Some say these represent new instance of colonialism and paternalism. Christianity Today hosted an interesting dialogue some years back that included some of these critical perspectives. On the other hand, Faith & Leadership’s recent pieces are more appreciative of such endeavors.
From where I sit, directing a boarding school in Liberia, such trips are neither a waste nor a new example of colonialism or paternalism. They are a matter of genuine partnership in the gospel.
I invited a former teacher of mine from Mercer University to visit our school and to discuss ways we could collaborate in service to God and humanity. Richard Wilson accepted my invitation and visited Liberia for the first time in 2007 to learn about our school and lead daily devotionals.
He returned to Ricks Institute in 2008. At our dining table a casual conversation arose about his church coming to of re-tile our school auditorium. Our vinyl tiles had suffered the toil of many years of use as well as 15 years of civil war. Random shooting of guns on the roof and the smashing of windows had allowed rain water to enter the auditorium, destroying the tiles. The tiles needed to be replaced.
Some may argue that precious resources should not be used for short-term mission projects to replace mere tiles. If funds were again available, they should be given directly to the school for educational purposes. In normal human reasoning, it may seem nonsense to purchase tiles for an area of more than 5500 square feet and ship them all from the US to Liberia, not to mention all of the necessary tools and adhesives for installation. In normal economic terms, it made no sense to have five persons travel from that congregation in Georgia to Ricks Institute to lay vinyl tiles. Surely the nearly $25,000 could have been spent more efficiently, right?
It is within the “nonsense” of such service that God’s transforming grace is often manifested (1 Cor 1:24-25). Most practically, the auditorium is most useful space on our campus. More intangibly, the project connected peoples from two economic extremes and involved them in embodying the scriptures by becoming partners on the way to a mutually transformative experience.
There were at least two outcomes to our particular short-term mission project. One, the project was a collaboration that was free from any form of domination. Everyone had input in the conversation. All worked together to re-tile the floor. There was a genuine spirit of sharing ideas and serving together, born of us not being expert tile layers, but all equally novices. Serving together is not necessarily about how much one knows, how much education one has, or the credentials one brings to the service. It is about willingness to work together with love on whatever is required.
Two, amidst the respectful collaboration on this project, more that 600 persons of our community and the small group from the United States experienced the process of transformation. Lessons from this exchange can be made applicable to the lives of each of our community members, many of whom have experienced the ugly face of a civil war that has left many hopeless.
With America’s new economic reality, a reality of scarcity the rest of the world knows intimately, trips like these will likely be casualties of budget cuts. I hope they do not vanish totally. For without them we lose the benefits of genuine collaboration and promising transformation among world citizens situated in the extremes of human affluence and poverty.
Olu Menjay holds a PhD in church history and directs the Ricks Institute, a boarding school outside Monrovia, Liberia.
Foundation Communities
Discussions about short-term missions are misplaced if they are only about efficiency or money or resources. The issue does not concern if it is an efficient use of resources to fly across the world but does flying across the world build continual discipleship within the community of faith.
Could those people who fly to Liberia build relationships and community in missions with people in or near where they leave, people they see every day and can (hopefully) grow with. It is these foundations of community that should be fostered and developed so that missions does not become a summer vacation or spring break activity. Discussions of this issue does not need to be an either/or situation: short-term/long-term, local/foreign. Churches need to wait, though, and grow so that when they go over sees it is not with a romanticism/exoticism mindset (which makes missions like a vacation) but with the earnest desire to do the work of God where ever the need may be.
Are short-term Missions a Waste?
Thanks to Dr. Menjay for a wonderful article.
I believe Short-Term Missions are instances for life-transforming opportunities. It is were last cross-cultural partnership and relationships are build. Look out for a more detail comment in a few days.
Are short-term missions a waste?
Well said Dr. Menjay!!!
I could not agree more with your write-up. These missions are way more than what they represent on the surface. The points you make about collaboration, communion of spirits and knowledge, sharing...are all gems. I can only imagine the exchange...the opportunity to tell...the opportunity to listen...the opportunity to teach and learn...all would be lessons of far reaching proportions that would make projects like these invaluable. These missions are priceless!!!
Couldn't Be Better Expressed
Dr. Menjay,
I am grateful for the manner in which you so lovingly and humbly expressed the reality that such trasformative exchange, though often costly to some and offensive to others, are nonetheless quite important from God's point of view. I would like to add that such short term mission trips are also sincere opportunities for people on the other end of the economic spectrum to be able to express themselves in the service of Christ. Additionally, such acts may seem as absurd but from God's point of view, such acts are eternal value. Hence, instead of discouraging such acts, it should be our desire to promote such gestures for by such acts, we display witness and faith as being true disciples of Christ.
Dr. Menjay, you are truly a role model. Thanks again and God bless you as you keep up the good work.
Pastor Victor G. Koon
Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, Gbarnga, Bong County, Central Liberia
GRATITUDE
Dr.Menjay,
In our liberian way,I say thank you plenty for all of what you've done and continue to do at Rick Institute.
you pratically abandom the luxaries of the united states to come and serve your country by molding future leaders who will soon be taking the manto of authority.
Thanks for the patience and courage you exhabited,May God richly bless you and grant your heart desires.
The Image of the Church of Christ today
I listened to a teaching CD few days ago about the Law and the Gospels and Dr. John Nunes said, "Tradition is the living faith of the dead but traditionalism is the dead faith of the living..." I believe that this speaks directly to the image of the church of Jesus Christ and reputation it is gaining in the world today. It is easily noticeable that the lines of morality and modesty between the church and the world are becoming so thin that one wonders whether there is any such thing as a “church”. It even appears like, if Christians had their way they would cancel their reservations for heaven and ask for a permanent residence-permit status here on this earth.
If we were to take the time to observe the ministries / church groups that God has gracious led us to be a part of, we would easily observe a lot of vices to include high degrees of individualism and self-centeredness; gross disrespect for the demarcation of the priesthood status of other believer by the clergy; and the like. People seem more focused on achieving their personal goals that they are not really concerned about whether a brother or sister is gradually falling away from the faith of not. Now, I am not ignorant that the church is not going to be a perfectly perfect place of perfect people until Jesus comes. Notwithstanding, I am also aware that we are commanded to grow in our “knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ… practice righteousness as Christ is righteous…”
What can do about this? What is the way forward? I guess, it is high time that every true child of God take the time to re-evaluate his/her purpose as to why we are here on planet earth. In my humble estimation, that purpose is not about accumulating wealth and material things; it is not about amassing degrees and intellectual credentials just for their own sake; it is not even about longevity or for pleasurable fulfillment as great as these all are. Thus, it has to be for something higher… “Fearing God, having a sense of a deep passionate and respectful stance of His every abiding and sovereign presence and consciously expression that fear of Him by learning his commands and obeying at all cost.”
This is what is lacking in the church today. I pray that this brief message will arouse our consciences and quicken our resolves to ask ourselves whether our presence in the body of Christ is promoting a Christ-honoring image for the church or not. When was the last time we remembered to tell somebody about the Love of Christ? Do people who are not in our “class” really matter to us at all that we would take the time to let Christ touch them through our lives? Should we go on asking God to excuse us on the basis of our “busyness” as to why we are losing our enthusiasm for the things that are above?
Well, before I take leave of you, what is the image of your church family? Don’t know yet? Take a Spirit-guided retrospective look at your own life and that will say just how impressive the church looks to the world for Christ. Someone once said our attitudes will are affected by the size of the “I” in it. The more “I-centered” I am the worse the church looks but the more “Christ-centered” I am, the more glorious the church looks. So, let us be ever mindful that God would have our lives lift up Christ, for by that He is able to draw men unto Himself. It’s time to A – awake C – ommit T – ransform our world for Christ…
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