by Randy Friesen
During several recent meetings in Nairobi, one of my goals was to reconnect with friends in the city. I had heard that a Massai friend, Sarone, had been relocated to Nairobi from Arusha and I was hoping to see him.
During several recent meetings in Nairobi, one of my goals was to reconnect with friends in the city. I had heard that a Massai friend, Sarone, had been relocated to Nairobi from Arusha and I was hoping to see him.
In 1996, my wife and I had visited Sarone’s Massai village, Olepolis, near Narok, and had jointly planned a short-term missions team assignment for a group of university students to the village for the following summer.
A team of four university students from Canada partnered with four Christian Massai university students from Daystar University in Nairobi for a six-week discipleship and ministry assignment in Olepolis in the summer of 1996. At the time there were virtually no Massai Christians in the Olepolis area. The alcoholism rate was estimated to be around eighty percent of the population, with women brewing their own maize beer to keep family members supplied. Sarone arranged for the team to camp on his family’s farm and they worked together to build a bridge of rocks through the local river. When the river flooded (an annual experience) the village was cut off from the outside world for up to four weeks. In addition to building the land bridge, the team visited Massai families in the area and spent hours “chewing the news” outside their homes and under the shade of trees.
As they shared their family stories outside traditional Massai bomas, the eight team members demonstrated the gospel and the love of God which bridges all cultures. As a result of their witness, the Massai villagers requested that another Christian mazungu (white man) be sent to come and live with them and help them develop their land.
The short-term missions team returned with many stories of planting gospel seeds. Some team members were discouraged that they had not “accomplished” more. What is the long-term fruit of short-term missions?
Back at the mission guesthouse, I left my room to find the shower room and bumped into an African in the hallway. It was Sarone! I couldn’t believe it. He informed me that he was at the guesthouse that weekend with three elders from the new Masaai church in Olepolis. The village that we had planted seeds in seven years ago now had a church of over three hundred members! The church leaders were in Nairobi for a leadership training seminar and were interested in having breakfast with me that morning. They thanked me for sending the team seven years ago and remarked on the visible witness it had been to see young Massai and Canadian Christians living and serving together. These leaders shared their church planting strategy for the surrounding Massai villages, which would utilize short-term missions teams and focus on AIDS awareness and prevention strategies.
After fifteen years of leading short-term missions teams with Youth Mission International I have numerous stories like this one to illustrate the long-term impact of short-term missions both on the assignment hosts and the participants. But I wanted more statistically and scientifically verifiable data that would measure the longer-term impact of the short-term missions experiences regarding changes in participants’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
I enrolled in a doctoral research program and began to discuss my ideas with my thesis advisor. We decided to focus our research on denominationally-connected short-term missions programs from as homogenous a research sample population as possible. My relationships within the Anabaptist-related Global Discipleship Training (GDT) Alliance provided such a network. I selected five Mennonite/Anabaptist-related short-term missions programs: the YES (Youth Evangelism Service) a program from Eastern Mennonite Missions, the REACH program from Rosedale Mennonite Missions, the SALT (Service and Learning Together) program from the Mennonite Central Committee, and the ACTION (Actively Claiming Territory in Our Nations) and TREK programs from Youth Mission International (related to the Mennonite Brethren Churches of North America).
Other studies have been done on single short-term missions programs with a simple pre-trip, post-trip design, but no one was doing extensive comparative research between organizations and testing a wide range of beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. I also had not seen any longitudinal studies that surveyed participants a year or more after they were home to track if the perceived changes occurring because of their short-term mission experience were lasting.
What is the long-term value of the growing short-term missions phenomena?
Over the past three years I’ve set out to answer that question with an extensive research study of 116 short-term missions participants from the five different short-term missions (STM) programs. All of the participants were between the ages of eighteen and thirty and had served on STM assignments ranging from one month to a year from September 2001 to August 2002. Data was collected from these participants over the course of two years in three stages; pre-trip, post-trip and a follow up stage (one year after they returned from their STM).
The research design focused on measuring changes in twenty-four concepts related to participant’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviors in their relationship with God, the church and the world around them. The research project collected 27,000 pieces of statistical data, hundreds of essay type short answers and over thirty taped interviews over the three stages of the data collection.
RESEARCH RESULTS
Here are a few of the fascinating research results:
1. Prefield discipleship = higher change scores. Short-term mission participants with extensive pre-trip discipleship training experienced significantly higher change scores than those without training during their assignments in their beliefs, attitudes and behavior related to personal communication with God (prayer), the Bible as a guide for life, the value of Christian community, relationship with the local church and evangelism.
The only concepts for which pre-trip discipleship training did not seem to have a significant impact were those in which participants had limited previous exposure and which required a personal experience rather than theoretical training. These concepts included the global church and compassion for human need.
2. Longer experience = deeper impact. The longer an STM experience, the deeper and more lasting its impact on participants’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
The ten-month TREK program had significantly higher change scores during the assignment phase related to service in the church, teamwork in ministry and the value of social justice when compared with the six-week ACTION program. During the year following the participants return home, TREK participants’ change scores were significantly higher than those of ACTION participants as related to their concern for global issues.
Both programs were offered by Youth Mission International with very similar values and instructors involved in the program delivery. TREK’s longer program enabled participants to receive more extensive pre-trip discipleship training, take team relationships to a deeper level, experience a host culture more fully by living with a host family and serve in a significant ministry experience alongside a local church. A longer mission program invested in intentional discipleship, community building and mission experiences can result in broader and longer lasting changes in beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
3. Cross-cultural experience = greater valuation of global church. Cross-cultural short-term mission assignments have a significant lasting and positive impact on participants’ valuation of the global church when compared with the impact of domestic assignments.
The TREK team serving in a cross-cultural setting also had stronger positive change scores in the year following their return home from missions in all four cross-cultural concepts (the global church, concern for global issues, respect for other cultures and their values and reconciliation between cultures) when compared with the TREK team serving in a domestic assignment.
4. Teams = greater growth. Short-term missions participants who serve on assignment as teams (rather than as individuals) experience significantly greater growth in their value of Christian community.
Participants who served on teams had an easier time processing their disappointments. Participants serving on assignments as individuals learned independence and resilience, but their limited access to settings where they could open up their lives meant that difficulties sometimes resulted in ongoing frustration and unresolved conflict.
5. First-time short termers = broadest positive change. First time short-term missions participants experienced the broadest positive changes while on assignment, but also the most significant decline in beliefs, attitudes and behaviors a year later.
Repeat short-term mission participants were better able to retain their positive changes over a wider number of concepts during the year following their return from missions. Repeat alumni had significantly stronger retention of positive change in the year following their return from missions in the concepts of prayer, purity, stewardship of time, teamwork and the stewardship of creation when compared with first-time missions participants.
6. Supportive families = retained positive impact. Supportive families can have a significantly positive impact on short-term missions participants’ ongoing value of teamwork, evangelism and the global church in the year following their mission assignments.
Participants who viewed their families as supportive of their short-term missions experience seem to have received the support needed at home to retain more of the positive changes they experienced while on their mission assignments. It is interesting that all three of the concepts in which there were significant differences between participants who viewed their families as supportive and those who did not, were relational concepts. Supportive families can offer short-term missions participants both support and the relational skills they need to grow through their mission experiences.
7. Strong church support = less decline in personal purity. Churches that strongly support short-term missions participants can have a significant positive impact on participants’ value of purity and respect for other cultures once they return from the mission field.
Participants who viewed their home church as supportive of their short-term missions experience were less likely to experience a significant decline in their experience of personal moral purity. The support of a local church for short-term missions participants could indicate a broader interest in their personal development, including areas like purity and cross-cultural sensitivity.
8. Relational focus = significant positive impact. Relationally-focused (as compared to service-focused) short-term missions assignments can have a significantly positive impact on a participant’s understanding of Christian community, reconciliation and teamwork.
Participants who viewed their assignments as relationally-focused experienced higher positive change scores in concepts related to Christian community and reconciliation between cultures. Those on relational assignments also retained significantly more of the positive change they had experienced in relation to teamwork in ministry in the year following their return home from missions.
9. Female participants = greater spiritual growth. Women grew significantly more than men in both their identity in Christ and their value of work while serving. In the year following their mission assignment, men regressed more than women in both their purity and their value of reconciliation between cultures.
The overall change scores indicated that women experienced greater positive changes in belief, attitude and behavior concepts than men, both during the mission assignment and after returning home.
10. Alumni polarized. A year after returning from their mission assignments, short-term missions alumni became more polarized in their interest toward future full-time mission work.
A year after their return from short-term missions, alumni’s response to future full-time mission work was a perfect distribution graph, with almost equal numbers moving away from an “average” response to either a “great extent” or a “hardly.” Discovering and following up with short-term missions alumni who were moving toward stronger interest in future full-time mission work is a critical task for mission agencies and local churches.
11. Strong interest in future mission work = ongoing positive change. A strong interest in future full-time mission work seems to provide an incentive for ongoing positive changes in short-term mission participants both while on assignment and after returning home.
Short-term missions participants strongly interested in future full-time mission work experienced significantly higher change scores while on their mission assignments related to worship, attitude toward family and teamwork in ministry as compared with those who indicated limited interest in future full-time missions. Once they returned home, those interested in future full-time missions had significantly stronger change scores in their identity in Christ, evangelism, compassion for human need and concern for global issues as compared with participants who weren’t interested in future full-time mission work.
12. More assignments = greater interest in full-time mission work. The more often participants serve on STM assignments, the more interested they are in future full-time mission work.
The correlation between the number of short-term missions experiences and degree of interest in future full-time missions work was very strong. This could be because short-term missions participants interested in future full-time missions work keep serving on short-term missions assignments or that short-term mission assignments are encouraging a growing interest for future full-time mission work.
13. Decline in personal purity. Most participants experienced a significant decline in personal purity both during the mission program and the year following their return home.
The overall average of the mean scores for all 116 participants for all three stages of study indicated a progressive drop in the scores related to personal purity. The quantitative data related to personal purity indicated that regardless of whether programs focused on this concept in their extensive pre-trip discipleship training or not, participants declined in their experience of personal purity. There is a battle for the purity of young adults serving in short-term missions programs and most seem to be losing.
14. Decline in spiritual discipiines. Most participants experienced a significant decline in the spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible study in the year following their return home.
While pre- and post-change scores indicated an increase in prayer, and Scripture study went up for most participants, many seemed to go on a spiritual “vacation” in the year following their return home. The removal of daily accountability structures and supportive relationships seemed to contribute to a decline in a participant’s spiritual disciplines.
15. Decline in local church relationship. Most participants experienced a significant decline in their relationships with the local church during the mission program as well as during the year following their return home.
The average of the mean scores for all 116 participants in the three stages of the study indicated a progressive drop in scores related to the participant’s relationship with the local church. This decline was consistent across all of the programs in the study, except the ACTION program which was a six-week program, with pre-organized teams from local churches. Participants’ relationships with their home churches declined during their time away on missions and then continued to decline once they returned home from their mission assignments. This may have been because many left their home communities to attend a university, a college or to find employment. This decline could also be an indication that the experiences of participants while on missions were not processed upon their return home, leaving participants feeling disconnected from their local church.
16. Regression in positive changes. A year after participants returned home from their mission assignments, many of them had regressed in virtually all of the positive changes they had made, in some cases to below their pre-trip level.
The overall average of the mean scores for all 116 participants indicated a positive change in twenty of twenty-four concepts during the mission assignment phase of the study. During the year after participants returned home, the mean of all the participants’ scores decreased in twenty concepts from the post to follow-up stages of the study. In fact, in fifteen concepts the final mean score was lower than the initial score before participants left for the mission experience. This is a significant finding that warrants considerable attention by anyone interested in short-term missions.
IMPLICATIONS FOR CHURCHES, MISSION ORGANIZATIONS AND STM PARTICIPANTS
1. Discipleship training before and after an STM is critical. Look for STM programs that do this well. Participants in organizations that didn’t emphasize pre- and post- trip discipleship training were consistently lower on almost all positive beliefs, attitudes and behavior change scores. The anticipation of an STM experience provides a unique teachable moment in the life of a participant. To miss this discipleship training window is an irresponsible use of the STM experience.
2. We must do more to debrief and follow up with STM participants. The huge fall off in positive beliefs, attitudes and behavior following the STM experience indicates there is a battle for the hearts of STM alumni. We are not allocating enough resources to coordinate the discipleship follow-up at the local church level after the STM experience. The discipleship baton is getting dropped on the track and some of these runners are dropping out of the race.
3. Supportive families and churches can make a significant positive contribution in STM alumni’s ability to retain the positive changes experienced through missions. How about discipleship contracts with gifted mentors for STM participants that are negotiated before these young adults leave on the STM? When they return from their STM these mentors can follow through with the positive growth steps that were experienced on missions.
4. Multiple STM experiences are moving young adults deeper into missional life. Encourage young adults to experience STM, pray for them, support them and then follow up with them.
5. Participants must be ready for re-entry. Following their return from the missions field, STM participants must prepare for challenges such as culture stress, temptation, isolation and the loss of spiritual vitality and accountability. The body, soul and spirit require restoration after challenging cross-cultural and spiritual experiences.
6. The church must support the spiritual health and ongoing discipleship of STM participants. The role of the local church must go beyond financial and prayer support. Local churches can take leadership in discerning suitable short-term mission participants; assisting these participants in building a support team; and offering “life coaches” or mentors.
While the impact short-term missions has on participants and those they interact with is difficult to measure, this study points to data and trends that should both encourage and challenge those who have served in short-term missions.
Randy Friesen is general director of MBMS International, the international mission agency of the Mennonite Brethren Churches of North America. This article is based on his research data for a doctorate of theology in missiology at the University of South Africa. Randy and his family live in Abbotsford, BC.
For a copy of the research results in pdf format click here.
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Copyright © 2005 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMQ. Published EMQ Oct 2005, Vol 41 No 4 pp. 448-454
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