Some Advantages of Short-Term Missions
Having just returned from an observation trip to Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, where I joined our RPGM Short Term mission team, I have a lot to ponder. I am glad you are joining me as I process my time there.
I stayed with our host pastor Harry Coulter and his wife Heather. Their grown daughter, Anna, has been involved in the development of our RPGM Short Term training and trips since I joined RPGM in 2021. Anna lives with her parents while she pursues an education degree to become a chef and works at a local bakery. Harry and Anna have designed our team’s ministry to the RP church plant—Hope Reformed Church—in Enniskillen, the primary town in the center of Fermanagh County.
With one local ruling elder and three provisional ruling elders, this church has a ministry of hope that manifests itself with deep involvement in mercy ministries, faithful preaching and teaching of the word, and, notably, a regular ministry of sharing the gospel from street corners and at various public events. The outreach ministry is called Having Hope Sharing Hope. It is based out of a small bus giving away coffee and tea (and of course some baked sweets as well). The pastor and his wife carry the brunt of this ministry with the help of the local elder and an occasional member, as they each have time.
So why should we send a team of workers to labor with this small church?
The most obvious reason to the church is a notable increase in the number of events and street corners the Hope ministry can explore without putting a heavy burden on the members of the church. RPGM’s team goes out on the Hope 153 bus more frequently and helps identify locations, times, and opportunities that will be strategic for the church for the remainder of the year. For each event, instead of a handful of people scattered strategically around the parked bus, the ministry can send out four to seven people when our short-term team is on board. In addition, our team goes out on the Hope 153 bus three or four times each week, compared to the one or two weekly trips during the normal ministry season. From what Pastor Harry reports, the extra people make a difference.
There are other ways our teams can magnify the ongoing work of this church plant. Since the short-term team is ministry-focused, they function alongside other church members in greeting newcomers and even reaching out to members of the church. The RP Global Missions team is able to do diaconal work that is hard to sustain amid the pastor’s and elders’ regular mercy ministry. For instance, the manse is a delightful building, but the landscaping needs some TLC. A crew of short-term workers can tackle a lot of trimming, weeding, raking, and other landscaping that are hard for the Coulter family to keep up with. The team prays daily for the rich variety of ministries the church is involved with, as they come alongside the church emotionally, spiritually—and sometimes physically.
The RPGM short term teams all receive training focused on developing a vision for taking the gospel to the nations, and they acquire a wide repertoire of ways to be involved in sending missionaries to the ends of the world. Their training places their work as short-term teams in the larger context of the long-term work of church planting. Among other preparations, they practice sharing their testimony and the gospel. The training, alongside the significant amount of time set aside for our trips, gives this program an advantage over other shorter programs that lack training.
RPGM Short Term trips provide a manageable level of cross-cultural ministry experience to people who are new to the idea of serving the church around the world. When a person is interested in going to a remote or challenging part of the world, our regular short-term trips are a first step in their training. This opportunity helps them discern God’s calling to be more involved in long-term missions and gives them hands-on training for the more extensive work of planting churches.
Many people question whether short-term missions are justified—and rightly so. However, we consistently hear from our hosts that they want teams! These small churches and mission works are encouraged and invigorated in their work. We hope the long-term returns on investments are worth the short-term costs and efforts. We think they are.
Keith M. is the Program Manager for RP Global Missions Short-term.