When I was serving as a full time youth pastor, I did the thing we all do – plan our summer mission trip. As many of my colleagues had, I inherited a summer mission program when I got to the church. It was the program that they did every year for I-don’t-know-how-many years and the last thing that I was to do was to rock the boat and change what we did.
Long story short, after two years of that program, I noticed a need to rock the boat, to change what we did.
You see, I’m of the opinion that missions isn’t just about serving outwardly – to the least of these, but also to be used as a discipleship tool for investing in those who are doing the serving.
What I found with that program I had inherited is that the students in our group looked forward to the goofing around together all week than they did the ministry that was happening.
I’m no prude, and I have no problem with some fun in ministry. But after two years of this program I came to see that every conversation our students had in the months we returned was about the game of spoons that was played, or the girl in the group of a few states away.
There was never any conversation about the spiritual components of our week, those individuals we served, or the needs we witnessed. Somewhere along the line, our mission experience lost its emphasis on discipleship.
So we changed what we did. We chose new locations, a new organization to go through, and made sure that our prep time before the trip and our debrief time after the trip were much more intentional. We ensured that our students spent time having fun, but not at the expense of going deep.
It wasn’t a quick or easy change, but one thing I know for sure is that it did prove to be beneficial. Of course, there were some hurt feelings (there always is in change), but it all worked out in the long run.
After we implemented our new program, we realized that missions wasn’t just the thing we did each summer; it wasn’t the traditional sacred cow.
It became a catalyst for action among our students.
It became focused on life change for those on the receiving end and those on the giving end. And It became a specific and intentional part of our discipleship strategy as a youth ministry and as a church.
