Bigger and Better

by Jody Long
As you read this, 10 FBC high schoolers and 3 chaperones will have recently returned from the annual FBC Youth Ministry High School Mission Trip. In past years, we have journeyed to such far-flung locales as Arlington, TX, Washington D.C., and Miami, FL. These trips - and many more - have been formative for many of our youth through the years. Short-term mission trips provide a place for relationship building, utilizing known (and unknown) skills, and exploration into God’s calling for our lives.

Recently, The Christian Century magazine featured an article about the pitfalls of short-term mission trips. One of the problems that stuck in my craw was the following:

“If this is 2010, then we must be in Tanzania: Tanzania this year, Bosnia next year, Nicaragua the year after that, and the Philippines in year four: a different country on a different continent every year! Changing the mission trip location each year may provide variety for participants, but it subverts the goal of establishing deep and lasting relationships. Better to make a commitment to one community.”

One of the temptations of church ministry, in general, and youth ministry, specifically, is to always do "bigger and better."

The idea is that we build on each event or program by making its successor bigger and better than before in hopes to attract more people to our church or event. It doesn’t require too much imagination to see the tragic ends to which this ministry philosophy leads. It requires a swelling budget, more resources, more planning, more publicity and more effort. Eventually, though, you run out of places, events, or ideas.

This summer, instead of shooting for bigger and better, we went for smaller and local. Instead of flying to an exotic location to serve God’s neediest children, we traveled all the way to Americus, Ga. After the long, hour and a half drive, we pulled into Maranatha Baptist Church to hear President Jimmy Carter teach Sunday school and worship with the good folks of Plains, Ga.

The final stop was Koinonia Farms, founded by Baptist prophet Clarence Jordan and birthplace of Habitat for Humanity. The group spent the week living in a guest house without air conditioning, picking organic blueberries, clearing brush from the Peace Trail meditation trail, making candy from south Georgia pecans and various odd jobs around the farm. A trip to Habitat’s Global Discovery Village and Cafe Campesino helped frame international issues of housing, poverty, and economics.

Most of the time was spent focusing on building relationships among our group and learning to be community to each other. In an increasingly scattered world, the best mission for our students may be working, learning and reflecting alongside each other. It may be a wise lesson for the rest of us, too.