Short-Term Missions? Useless??

I am currently writing a paper on the relationship of short-term missions to church planting. It is estimated that somehwere between 1-4 million people participated in short-term mission trips in 2004. It is a billion-dollar industry. Yet, there has been very little research on how those trips affect the recipients. Of the 70 or so academic works available on the subject, the vast majority focus on the affect of those trips on those who go one them--sort of ironic, I think. "Let's go on a short-term mission trip. Hope it helps me."

A sociologist at Calvin College just finished a massive study on the impact of short-term missions on communties in Honduras. His findings show that the impact of those trips was negligible in the long-term. The impact was negligible for both the Hondurans and the Americans. In other words, the anecdotal evidence of the benefits of short-term missions to those who go may be overstated by the many advocates of short-term missions. Oddly, my experience has shown that the greatest advocates of short-term missions is by those who have never served for long-periods of time abroad. And often aren't themselves involved in cross-cultural ministry in the USA.

It's time for the American church to critically analyze short-term missions. This hydra is out of control, in my opinion.

Consider this conversation at Christianity Today between a missions professor and the sociologist mentioned above.

This blog is the first in a long series where I will share my thoughts, as a missionary, on short-term missions.