Building a Group's Mission Vision
by J. Mack Stiles
When Rob Wells told me he had decided to go overseas with an InterVarsity short-term
program called STIM, it was the first time I had thought about my students doing
a short-term missions project.
Don't misunderstand me, I was firmly committed to missions. Leeann, my wife, and I had come on InterVarsity staff to prepare for the mission field. We had attended lots of Urbana Mission Conferences and had indicated we were ready to go when the Lord said the word. Not a short-term, though; our goals were bigger.
Our goals for students at the University of Tennessee were bigger, too. I wanted students to develop a Biblical understanding of missions - to meet missionaries, to hold missions prayer breakfasts and, of course, to go to Urbana. And when they went on a mission trip, I wanted it to be long-term.
A short-term costs too much, I thought. Besides, it's not only an expensive thing to pay for, it's lost summer wages. What parent, I reasoned, would let their child face the wilds of Bongo Bongo just for a short-term?
Almost monthly I would get a flyer about a short-term in some unpronounceable place. I usually tossed it into the circular file. Rob even had to confiscate his flyer on STIM from another staff person at a retreat.
I wish I could tell you that my response to Rob's commitment was one of encouragement. I wish I had said, "Rob, this may be the most important decision you will make in your life." Well, what actually came out was, "Yeah, Rob, right."
Rob, you see, was not the one I would have picked to go on a mission. He was a good friend and chapter leader, but he was always clowning around. He didn't seem serious enough. Rob would break into our house to do his laundry when we weren't there. He would call an emergency leadership meeting just to see everyone. He played practical jokes in our InterVarsity meetings. Rob even slept through most of the STIM training.
But Rob did one thing no one else in our group had done. Rob went. It was a hard and wonderful summer. It changed Rob, and we saw it. Oh, he still did laundry at our house, but he started taking German classes and telling us he was going back full-time. (He also talked about some castle in Austria that housed a student ministry close to ski slopes!)
Rob's summer made an impact on the chapter. We saw how God had provided his finances. We saw how God cared for Rob on the field. And we saw the difference in Rob's life when he came home. Suddenly summer missions seemed attractive, and do-able. People privately told me, "if Rob can go ... I can, too."
As the school year progressed, 10 people decided they would serve Christ on a short-term. Two of them were Leeann and I.
I learned some things from Rob about setting realistic mission goals for a group.
They are easy things to apply to your group and yourself:
1. Set realistic goals tailored for your group.
- Think short-term. Aim to get at least one person involved in a short-term.
- If your chapter has no mission involvement, you may need to think about a two-year plan. Try little steps at first. Invite a mission speaker. Talk about some opportunities to go on a program for a week or two.
- Recruit for a short-term much the same as you would for a camp or conference. Let people who have done a short-term talk about their experience in a small group or at your weekly meetings.
- Make it a group thing. A community effort helps the short-termer and community.
2. Let people know what is available.
- My flyers no longer go in the trash, but into people’s hands. I pray for the same kind of response Rob had.
- Let people know about the opportunities that exist and let the Holy Spirit do his work.
3. Let people know how to go.
- Help people know what is involved in going on a short-term. One reason Rob’s experience proved effective for our group was it educated our chapter about how to go.
4. Don’t let obstacles make you think it can’t happen.
- Parents, money, summer school and unpronounceable names do not overwhelm the God of heaven. Study the Scriptures about God’s call in people’s lives. A clear biblical theme is that if God calls, he will provide.
5. Don’t think that to go on a short-term you must levitate when you pray.
- A big obstacle to our involvement in missions is our inflated view of missionaries. They are real people with real successes and failures in life . . . just like you.
6. Send someone you know.
- Looking back, it is easy to see a critical factor in developing a missions-minded group. It was for someone we knew to go. All the missionary breakfasts in the world will not have the same impact as one person from your group going.
7. Send someone you know ... like yourself.
After all, the easiest way to get folks in your group motivated is to say, "Come with me."
Things happened after Rob’s decision to be involved in missions:
- Rob really did learn German.
- The UT InterVarsity group, a medium-sized chapter, has sent students on short-terms every year since – one year that included everyone on the leadership team. Students from that one chapter have gone to Kenya, the inner city of Atlanta and places in between.
- The Tennessee area has a twinning relationship with the student movement in Kenya, a result of the short-term project Leeann and I directed for five years.
- Over the last seven years, Leeann and I have taken over 120 students on a short-term. Many of those are serving Christ in full-time ministry here and abroad.
When we put Rob on the plane, for his three-year stint with IFES (and not a little skiing), I marveled at what happened because of Rob’s simple obedient steps to Christ’s call in his life. I marveled at what had become Rob’s spiritual inheritance, and I was grateful God had changed my mind about setting realistic goals for missions in our group.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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