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The most important part of many short term mission trips is not what fifteen people accomplish with a two week visit to a foreign country.

Now, please take that statement with a grain of salt. Short term mission trips often achieve a lot of in-country purposes like encouraging and helping long term missionaries or impacting a community by meeting a vital material need. And we hope and pray that God will use our work to impact His Kingdom.

So, I’m not saying that He doesn’t or that he won’t impact the people we leave behind. He Does.

What I am saying is that the most measurable impact many trips have on the Kingdom, is on its team members. Here are a few ways I see this being played out, and I’d love to hear what you’re seeing in your teams in the comments.

Popping the bubble

There’s nothing quite like experiencing a new community and culture for the first time. And whether it’s through going deep in new relationships, working ten-hour construction days or playing with children who may or may not have bathed this week, short term mission trips are sure to take your team out of their comfort zones and personal space bubbles.

As many of you can attest, this is where the real change begins. God finds us in our brokenness and our inability to do it on our own and brings His own strength into play. Seeing God’s power in our weakness brings a renewed perspective of our identity and value in Christ.

Africa is not a country

Actually visiting a different country is a lot different than reading about one in “Multiculturalism 101.”

You may have read Dr. Dennis Horton’s article in the Huffington Post last week, which posed the question: “Are short term mission trips worth it?” (If you haven’t perused it yet, it’s an interesting read.)

As the director of ministry guidance at Baylor University, Dr. Horton conducted an interesting study on the impact of short term missions on 578 Baylor students. Of the 578 who were surveyed, he conducted in depth interviews with 32 of them who had just returned from trips.

Of the 32 students interviewed after their trips, 29 said the experience had changed the way they see other cultures, with 17 mentioning increased respect and concern. Almost half said they were less likely to see their culture as inherently superior.

He also found that some students’ existing desire to enter the mission field was strongly affirmed by their short term experience.

While many of us can say from experience that this is true, it’s exciting to see it happening similarly in other parts of the country.

♫ Come together ♪

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” – John 17: 22-23

Out of all of the things we do “programmatically” (so to speak) in the youth ministry at my home church, mission trips seem to create unity more than anything else we do. There is something about being in a foreign country and only recognizing twelve people. It forces you into a situation where it’s suddenly all the more natural to depend on and support your brothers and sisters in Christ.

The long term effect on the church body is invaluable, especially in the United States where relationships typically run shallow. The impact of unity goes beyond the church however, and like Jesus promised, has a profound impact on the world around us.

With these kinds of benefits to our churches, it’s hard to argue that we don’t need short term missions—and it may be that we even need it more than the communities we visit.

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Do you agree? How do you see short term missions impacting your local church or mission organization? What is one thing you hope your mission team this year will be impacted with?