Thursday, December 04, 2008
More on STMs
The WSJ looks at the efficacy of short term missions. I have talked about this a number of times on this blog, and this article does a good job of addressing many of the major issues, so I will not belabor them again.
I will; however, mention one aspect of the whole STM phenomena that is really beginning to get under by skin - and that is how many people ask me for support for these "near" vacations. Certainly these trips have mission content, but when there are so many questions being raised one has to begin to wonder if people are not just using that, in part, to leverage others into paying for their exotic travel.
The WSJ piece points out how much more efficacious the dollars spent on the field would be if put directly into the filed as opposed to filtered through the trip mechanisms. When you add to that the somewhat self-indulgent nature of those participating on the trips. Yes, they do mission work, but they also visit Angor Wat, or hit the beach in the DR.
Back in the day, high school days to be precise, I was on something called "work crew" at a Young Life camp. That meant I worked for a year to qualify to spend a month at camp serving the camp. In my case as a bus boy. I was responsible to get myself there, in this case from Indiana to Colorado, and I hitched a ride with a group of local campers, so I needed no money. But I also know that experience, while mission, was really about me - it was more "Camping 200" than it was true missionary service. I, frankly, would have been ashamed to ask others to pay for me to do that.
And yet we seem to have no shame about such now. Heck, even in full-time missionaries I often get letters now that are more about helping them express "their call" to mission than about the mission field and people they serve. I find that pretty troubling as well.
I do not know what the future of the STM fad holds, but I would like to make one suggestion - if you elect to participate, pay for it yourself, or, like the youth of my church, EARN IT, through bake sales, house cleaning, babysitting and so forth. Please don't expect me to pay for your vacation with service work thrown in.
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I will; however, mention one aspect of the whole STM phenomena that is really beginning to get under by skin - and that is how many people ask me for support for these "near" vacations. Certainly these trips have mission content, but when there are so many questions being raised one has to begin to wonder if people are not just using that, in part, to leverage others into paying for their exotic travel.
The WSJ piece points out how much more efficacious the dollars spent on the field would be if put directly into the filed as opposed to filtered through the trip mechanisms. When you add to that the somewhat self-indulgent nature of those participating on the trips. Yes, they do mission work, but they also visit Angor Wat, or hit the beach in the DR.
Back in the day, high school days to be precise, I was on something called "work crew" at a Young Life camp. That meant I worked for a year to qualify to spend a month at camp serving the camp. In my case as a bus boy. I was responsible to get myself there, in this case from Indiana to Colorado, and I hitched a ride with a group of local campers, so I needed no money. But I also know that experience, while mission, was really about me - it was more "Camping 200" than it was true missionary service. I, frankly, would have been ashamed to ask others to pay for me to do that.
And yet we seem to have no shame about such now. Heck, even in full-time missionaries I often get letters now that are more about helping them express "their call" to mission than about the mission field and people they serve. I find that pretty troubling as well.
I do not know what the future of the STM fad holds, but I would like to make one suggestion - if you elect to participate, pay for it yourself, or, like the youth of my church, EARN IT, through bake sales, house cleaning, babysitting and so forth. Please don't expect me to pay for your vacation with service work thrown in.
Technorati Tags:short term mission, fundraising, effectiveness
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