The Disciple-Making Power of Short-Term Missions

Sometimes youth ministry leaders get saddled with a “shoot-from-the-hip and ask questions later” stereotype. It’s a romanticized vision, but is it a good thing? Granted, some incredible disciple-making opportunities with teenagers come from things like unplanned, last-minute trips to the store, inviting a student along for the ride. And Jesus regularly modeled the skill of taking advantage of unplanned circumstances for the purpose of investing in his disciples (teachable moments like we find in Mark 8:14-15).

But not everything in youth ministry should be unplanned and spontaneous. Some things need significant planning and preparation, and short-term mission trips fall into this category.

You might be a veteran who has taken students on short-term mission trips for years, or maybe this is something that you’re considering for the first time (or, quite possibly, you fall somewhere in between). Wherever you land with regard to experience in this area, there are several things that you need to consider in order to make a short-term mission trip “successful”:

1 – Jesus’ model — Since Jesus is our model for life and ministry, he’s our model for short-term missions as well.

2 – Relational focus — Students need opportunities to build relationships with others on the team, as well as people where you’re going.

3 – Disciple-making fruit — This isn’t just about “doing important work” wherever you’re going; it’s about what is happening in the lives of the students you’re bringing with you.

We believe that short-term mission trips are one of the key aspects in building a disciple-making youth ministry. The main reason for this is the fact that Jesus took his disciples on several short-term, cross-cultural mission trips. Something about these experiences was formative for Jesus’ disciples, and the same is true in the lives of teenagers today.

Over the past 30 years, Sonlife has crafted a short-term, cross-cultural missions process that’s designed for student ministries who want to make disciples like Jesus. The process is called FUSION, and it’s designed to imitate the way Jesus used short-term mission trips with his disciples. In the FUSION process, a student ministry from North America is partnered with a student ministry in Latin America or the Caribbean, and together the two groups work to discover Jesus’ disciple-making process. Students are challenged to step out of their comfort zones throughout the process as they have the opportunity to invest in their peers cross-culturally. Relationships are formed that last far beyond the duration of the time in-country. Most importantly, Jesus’ disciple-making model is multiplied as students (from both groups) grow in his character and priorities.

So, as you plan for next summer, our Sonlife team wants to invite you to consider FUSION. It will take a significant amount of planning, but the disciple-making fruitfulness will be incredible!

For information, visit www.sonlife.com/fusion