Should We Send Short-Term Teams to Unreached Locations?

Often the pushback to sending short-term mission teams to certain parts of the world is that they can do more harm than good. If the objective is to reach people who have never heard the Good News, a group of lightly trained, selfie-taking short-term missionaries, even with good intentions, truly can cause long term damage to the cause of Christ. 

The question is should we send short-term teams into unreached locations?

Defining Short-Term missions and Unreached

Short-term missions, commonly called a missions trip, usually involves a few days up to a year in length. In the past these types of trips didn't make sense with the high cost and how long it took to travel to far-reaching destinations. With the relatively low cost and speed of travel, hundreds of thousands go on a short-term mission trip each year.

These short-term missionaries usually don't know the language, have received a few hours of cross-cultural training (if any), and often lack a clear objective for the trip other than personal experience. 

Let's define Unreached People. First of all, a people group isn't defined by a countries borders. In fact, most countries have multiple people groups living within its borders. And, people groups transcend borders. A people group typically share the same ethnic identity. They share a common language, religion, and history. 

As for Unreached People, often a percentage is used to describe how many within that people group is considered Christian. A common percentage to define a people group is unreached is under 2%. Perhaps a better definitive approach is whether the people group has an internal, self-sustaining Christian presence. If this Christian presence doesn't exist within the people group, then I consider that people group unreached. 

Challenges of Sending Short-Term Teams to Unreached Locations

• Logistical. Even with the ease and affordability of travel many remote areas can only be reached on foot or basic means of travel making a trip of a few weeks or less impractical. 
• Cultural. Lifetime missionaries spend years understanding a culture to avoid offending out of ignorance. A short-term team usually devotes a mere few hours learning only the basic cultural differences.
• Political. Many countries will not allow a short-term team to enter for religious activity, so if the team does go, they need an acceptable reason.
• Safety. Many places around the world are openly hostile to Christians. The presence of a short-term team can create a safety issue for themselves and any Christian living in that country.

I haven't answered the original question yet have I? 

Should we send short-term mission teams into unreached locations?

What does a missionary living in an unreached location think?

Rather than answering it myself, a person who has only done short-term missions, the longest term being six months, I will share with you the thoughts of a missionary who has served in an unreached location for several years. His insight on this topic is in response of another blog post I recently posted:

If You Can Follow These Ideas, You Can Succeed as a Short Term Mission Trip Leader

I really enjoyed reading this!  All of it resonated really well both with our experience going on short term trips as well as being on the field in a different context and ministry.  For me I see one of the key pieces to short term trips being what it does for the goer.  God got my attention on a short term trip that ultimately led me to pursue where and how He wanted me to participate in the Great Commission.
From the perspective of someone working in an unreached place I now view short term teams in a slightly different, but just as critical way.  Here are some ways that I have seen short term teams greatly impact areas that are unreached:

1. Serving Long Term workers: While it seems less "important" to the GC it cannot be understated how much of an impact this type of team makes.  Coming to serve us by loving on our kids and allowing us to worship, meet, play and pray together without distraction is very life giving to a long term worker.  Not only child care, but coming to encourage, equip, counsel and care for those workers truly fuels them forward.  In an industry with such a high burn out rate the timely visit of even just a couple of people can really recharge us.
2. Prayer:  As we seek to see where God is working so we can join in, the single most important task we do is pray.  Having someone from outside of the context come and prayerwalk with us helps us see our context with fresh eyes and allows more people to hear from the Spirit what is going on there.  Even if the short term folks never engage in a single translated conversation with a local, being on site and praying and seeking the Lord alongside us can often lead to incredible breakthroughs.
3. Advocacy: Regardless of the purpose of the trip I love to see folks from back home catch the vision of what God is doing around the world and taking that back to their friends and family.  As people better understand the context, the work and what God is doing it shapes their prayers, their conversations and their focus.  Not just for what is happening overseas, but how God is impacting the world in their local context and what part they can play.

I love hearing this perspective from someone who is living and raising a family in this context. 

If you are one who goes on short-term mission trips, and especially if you lead and train teams, I hope you keep in mind the eternal impact you have. Yes, short-term trips have an immense influence on the person taking the trip. But we should invest time understanding how to best reach the unreached. 

Have thoughts on this blog post? I want to hear them! Join the conversation in the comment section or reach to me via social media or email.