Who hasn’t heard or said this at some point? Short-term missions are incredibly prevalent in the western church, and there are very few congregations that have not participated in this expression of compassion. In the last decade, however, there has been a call for followers of Jesus to take a closer look at the long term implications of these kinds of trips.

Many go-to activities for short term mission trips — such as building projects and handing out school supplies — end up disempowering communities, leading to unhealthy cycles of codependency. In addition to this concern, the constant parade of new people (who often don’t understand their host culture and rarely have any stake in the reputation of long-term workers) through a community can deeply damage the long-term work being done. When you stop to consider how many churches from the U.S. alone are sending groups out year after year for a short-term missions experience, you can’t help but imagine what negative impact may have on the communities we so desperately desire to serve. But does that mean we immediately cancel all short-term missions trips because there is the possibility of doing more harm than good?

We don’t think so. Here at GFM, we believe that short-term missions trips can both positively impact the lives of participants while simultaneously maintaining the dignity of people in the communities they visit. 

So what if we re-imagine what short-term missions look like?