Should Your Youth Group Participate in an Evangelistic Mission Trip?

Peggy Allan

During my years as a local church Youth Pastor, I involved my high school students in mission trips in which the main purpose of the trip was to help them learn how to effectively share their faith with the people around them. Usually, that meant heading to a large urban area (we served in places such as New York City, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Pittsburgh). While there, we typically participated in classroom training, “on the street” experiences, and evening celebrations. But before I did so, I had questions. Here are a few of them…

  • Are high school students capable evangelists?
  • Will our ministry encounters during this trip be disingenuous, based on deceitful ways to gain a hearing for the Good News?
  • Could a bad experience at this event cause some of my students to spiral in the opposite direction?
  • Will being involved in an evangelistic mission trip cause us to miss out on involvement in ministries of service and justice?
  • Could this kind of mission trip bear lasting fruit?

The parents of our students also had questions. Their deep concern was for the faith development of their children, but they most often asked about practical matters, like “How much will it cost?” “Will it fit into our summer schedule?” and “Are the places to which you are going be dangerous?”

With so many questions in mind, why was I stirred toward this kind of experience with my students? Here are three reasons…

  1. Jesus’ Example – I was moved by the example of Jesus’ own training process. One of his main training methodologies was to send his disciples out on ministry tours, three of which you can read about in the span of Luke 8-10. Jesus’ training methodology bore fruit in a way that still animates us today. Not a bad example to emulate!
  2. Participation in God’s Wider Mission – The nature of being a young person today causes one to think that truth and reality exist only in one’s immediate setting. In that sense, their world is small, and, quite often, so is their understanding of God. When they go elsewhere and experience God at work in that new area, their view of God expands along with it. They learn that they are part of a larger process… God’s mission in the world. It’s like Jesus told his disciples when they returned from a mission trip on which he had sent them. They were excited because they’d experienced a harvest being reaped, but Jesus pointed out that there were those who’d gone before them who had done the hard work of cultivating the soil and planting the seed.
  3. Accelerated Spiritual Growth – The book Faith for Exiles by David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock reveals that 90% of Christian young people want others to see Jesus reflected in them through their words and actions. What better way to help them accomplish this goal by immersing them in an experience where they learn to carry out a counter-cultural mission, influencing the world toward God’s good, original intentions? Through this kind of experience, they gain confidence in what they believe, as well as clarity about how to express those convictions. As Amanda Hontz-Drury wrote, “We are best able to thrive spiritually when we can articulate our narratives in a meaningful way.” Rehearsing the message of the Good News helps students understand and internalize their faith. Involving young people in this kind of mission helps your church carry out its responsibility to help young people know what they believe and how to express it to others in a spirit of love and respect. These first steps into a disciple-making lifestyle that can generate excitement and renewal throughout an entire church.

That’s why Sonlife offers three experiences for your group’s consideration. eXperience Jesus (XJ) is our week-long evangelism mission trip in Chicago, carried out in partnership with, and on the campus of, the Moody Bible Institute. Remix takes place in Toronto every summer. And Reverb is a 3-5 day customizable experience for you to use in the setting of your choice, and even in partnership with other youth ministries.

You can learn more about all three of these events click HERE

Here are a couple of books we recommend on this topic:

  • Amanda Hontz Drury, Saying Is Believing: The Necessity of Testimony in Adolescent Spiritual Development (InterVarsity Press Academic, 2015), 86.
  • Kinnaman, David, and Mark Matlock. Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon. With Aly Hawkins, Baker Books, 2019.

Want to talk to someone about this.  Any of our team members can help.  Click HERE for contact info.