Have you noticed your Instagram feed beginning to resemble ads for TOMS shoes? No, all of your friends have not decided to take internships in the inner city; it must be Spring Break mission trip season.
The Mitchell Center for Leadership and Ministry sponsors and organizes mission trips each Spring Break, and last week 265 Harding students participated by traveling to 15 different locations.
The truth is that these photos taken of sweet children are beautiful, but they probably do not represent the lives of those we have led to Christ. Short-term missions are not as effective as the long-term investment that comes from becoming a cross-cultural missionary.
To the Harding community, Spring Break mission trips include fundraising with bake sales, writing support letters and making VBS plans. Students fly on planes or ride in 15-passenger vans to tell people about the love of Christ.
This is not the most effective means of missions, but students’ intentions or efforts are not to blame. Learning to reach a people group requires time and true discipleship means investing in someone’s life.
For example, I once heard a story about a missionary who went to live in South America for a few years. After several months of building a friendship and sharing the gospel with a man there, the man finally asked the missionary if he was going to be like every other American and leave soon.
The honesty of that man’s question is hard to hear. Short-term missions may create a bad pattern that teaches people we are only interested in small snippets of their lives — the part that we are included in. How much can you really convince someone you care for the condition of his or her soul in just a few days?
Despite this, no moment spent working for the kingdom of God is wasted. The messages shared on these trips plant seeds and start a foundation in the hearts of those who are not saved.
Maybe we should re-evaluate and redefine short-term spring break mission trips. Instead of saying we have completed a great accomplishment and instead of talking about all the people we touched, we should see the change in our own mission. Let these trips convict us to a life centered on service.
This week, let us pause for a second, hold off on uploading hundreds of our pictures and first remember the mission of Christ is to seek and save the lost, in every place and every time. Let us strive to become more like him and make his mission our personal mission as well.
