By Carl Tinnion NZCMS Mission Catalyst

You may have heard all sorts of ques­tions and chal­lenges about mission trips. The whole con­ver­sa­tion around “Short-term mis­sions vs Long-term mis­sions”. In my 30-odd years of serving in global mis­sions and pre­par­ing short-term teams, here is a list of the most common questions:

• Isn’t it a big waste of money?
• Is this cre­at­ing an unne­ces­sary carbon footprint?
• Doesn’t it damage or tire out the long-term workers and the local com­munity there?
• Aren’t mis­sions trips another form of Western colonialism?
• Aren’t these young people just enjoy­ing a bit of mis­sion­ary tourism?

I have been working in the short-term mission space in rela­tion to long-term work for over 30 years now. These are normal ques­tions, and to be honest, I think they’re very fair to ask. When people have said this to me over the years (Though they’re often framed as state­ments rather than ques­tions), I’ve said, “Yes, you’re right. When short-term trips are run badly, with no rela­tion­ship or culture of honour towards the local church or the long-term mis­sion­ar­ies, it can be an abso­lute nightmare.”

However, if such short-term trips are well-run, they can become an integral part of the larger story of missions. They can even be a huge blessing.

A Dis­cern­ment Journey

Firstly, most young (post-modern) people do not just wake up one day and think, “I am called to long-term mis­sions. I must do a course and go to another country for the rest of my life”. If only it were that easy! The pathway into long-term mis­sions involves several steps. These steps allow a person to ‘test out’ a call to mis­sions and discern what God might be saying. This might include several 2‑week trips that start closer to home and end up in far-flung places.  A further step might be a 2–6 month place­ment, some­where like what NZCMS’ Moments Appren­tice­ship offers. This step gives a much clearer idea of what long-term life on the field looks like and can act as the final cata­lyst to making a longer-term commitment.

NZCMS understands that a call into long-term missions is a process of discernment, and our commitment is to walk alongside people as they make these first steps and support them as they discern God’s call on their lives. This is why we get excited by short-term missions!

A Burden or a Blessing?

But what about the people receiv­ing this team? The local hosts? In all of this, the key com­pon­ent is the rela­tion­ship between the mis­sions team and the local com­munity there. We would ask ques­tions like ‘How can we come and serve you?’ or ‘What pro­jects are you working on that would really benefit from extra workers coming to help?’ I have seen this work many times over the years. The local church has invited us to serve with them in all sorts of ways! As cliché as it may sound, we’ve even been invited to help paint the build­ings! Now, I know we’ve all heard the horror stories of a team coming over and paint­ing a place ter­ribly or taking work off the local people. But in some of the areas we’ve been to, they’ve had a sig­ni­fic­ant lack of finance and people power and receiv­ing a team to help them paint, build or repair some­thing has been hugely helpful.

One of the best ways a short-term team can serve a local church is if they can raise the fin­ances for pro­jects already hap­pen­ing on the ground. To partner with what God is already doing. A local church might be running a big out­reach in the local com­munity. Or perhaps they want to kick-start a min­istry with an event or camp. It can be great to have a team come and help a church in this way, provid­ing equip­ment, resources or people power that serves the work of the local church and how God has called them to min­is­ter to their communities.

The strategic point in all of this is partnering with the local church and serving them in something that they want to do. To have a heart of humility, ready to listen and to be led by the local church and not project onto them what we think they need!

The Power of Preparation

I also believe that short-term teams work best when they go through a sending agency. It’s not only import­ant to make strong con­nec­tions over­seas, but to get a robust ori­ent­a­tion from those who are exper­i­enced in cross-cul­tural mission. Like NZCMS! Ori­ent­a­tion can include learn­ing about cul­tural sens­it­iv­ity and growing in Bib­lical found­a­tions for mission and ser­vant­hood. It includes helping you think about all the logist­ics you need to con­sider to make the trip a suc­cess­ful one. Most import­antly, it includes a good debrief­ing at the end to help you process your time away, making the short-term trip part of a bigger call from God over your life. We will ask ques­tions such as:

• How did God reveal Himself to you?
• What did you learn from the local church you served with?
• What did you learn about yourself?
• What are the next steps now?

A short-term trip has tre­mend­ous poten­tial to be form­at­ive in a believer’s faith journey. When I look back on my own life, the greatest moments of change, both spir­itu­ally and in my char­ac­ter, have been when I’ve gone over­seas. Espe­cially when I am serving in some sort of capa­city and seeking to bless the local church. I love this com­pon­ent of short-term mis­sions, and we shouldn’t under­es­tim­ate the long-term impact of such form­a­tion in a person’s life. Who knows what God is doing in their heart and what new vistas it might open up for them?

The Lan­guage of Encounter

Short-term versus long-term mis­sions? Maybe this is the wrong way to frame the dis­cus­sion in the first place? There is a link between the two per­spect­ives, and if we can think of a call to mis­sions being more like a pathway, then we can develop a more hol­istic view of how short-term mis­sions can work. Of course, as I’ve said, this doesn’t mean we use short-term mis­sions simply for our own dis­cern­ment pur­poses. Short-term mission still needs to happen at the invit­a­tion of the local church.

But the key to healthy long-term missions is nurturing a heart within yourself to serve and bless what God is already doing. And the process of well-run short-term missions can be a key part of developing that in a person following God’s calling on their life.

At NZCMS, we enjoy using the lan­guage ‘Encounter teams’ when it comes to short-term mis­sions. For one, it doesn’t give you that whole ‘Chris­tian Tourism’ impres­sion that the phrase ‘mission trips’ gives. Our encounter teams start with God. By serving on a team over­seas, you will encounter God in a way you never have before. Secondly, you will encounter the world by being led by the global church and serving with them. You will encounter each other through deep rela­tion­ships and mutual service. Finally, you will encounter your­self. By placing your­self in a new envir­on­ment with new people, this ‘newness’ becomes a mirror to us. We see with new clarity all of our strengths and weak­nesses and how God can form them.

So, is God calling you to join an Encounter Team? The next Encounter Team that NZCMS is running will be to Nepal in July 2026, led by my wife, Mel and me. We will be taking a team for 10 days to visit some of the work there, connect with local churches, and learn more about the culture. We are also looking to do a 3‑day prayer trek in the Him­alayas as part of an ongoing prayer ministry.

So, if you’ve felt a nudge from God to con­sider global mis­sions, why not con­sider our Nepal Encounter? It could be your first step of many to serve with the global church. Find out more inform­a­tion here: https://​www​.nzcms​.org​.nz/​e​n​c​o​u​n​t​e​r​-​t​e​a​ms/. If you would like to talk more about this oppor­tun­ity, you can contact me dir­ectly at carl@​nzcms.​org.​nz.