ATLANTA — It’s become a staple for many congregations: the one or two-week mission trip, from which many Presbyterians return saying the experience has opened their eyes and changed their lives.
But Roberta Hestenes, an evangelical who has worked with World Vision International and traveled the globe on behalf of outreach to the poor, tempers enthusiasm for such mission work with practical wisdom.
She recognizes the value of sharing one’s faith — of connecting with Christians from other places and backgrounds.
But the balance between Presbyterians’ sending long-term missionaries and congregations supporting short-term mission trips “has reached the tipping point,” Hestenes told the Presbyterian Global Fellowship https://www.presbyterianglobalfellowship.org August 18.
Thousands of congregations are sending people on mission trips, “or their own people are already going whether or not they have permission from any official anybody to be going,” she said.
Hestenes understands why Presbyterians want to do that, but said “we still need to call and to send those whom God has called and gifted, and who will learn languages, learn cultures, build relationships, stay a while as a bridge-builder.”
In other words, the world still needs long-term missionaries, she said — and Presbyterian churches still need to provide their financial support. Hestenes said she dreams of Presbyterians sending 1,000 missionaries in the next five years.
But she sees a danger that the resources used for short-term mission trips could strip away funding from missionaries who stay longer term — and that on short-term trips “we will use the poor for our own spiritual self-fulfillment. That we will in fact redirect resources that God intends us to act as stewards with so that we can go and have a blessed experience which does not in fact end in sacrificial commitment on behalf of the poor.”
Hestenes told of meeting a couple who told of the mission trip they’d just taken, in which they had an “incredible experience,” after which they’d decided to sponsor a child from an orphanage. She added up the cost for the trip — $10,000 — versus the cost of sponsoring the child, $360 a year.
“Oh, church, can we please pray about resources,” Hestenes said. “Can we please be faithful to God?”
Congregations can also choose among many options in deciding which mission groups to support — particularly with the rise of non-governmental organizations.
“The church still needs wisdom in deciding where and with whom and how we carry out our ministry,” Hestenes said. They should demand accountability — “ask questions about finances and boards and all of those kinds of things,” she said — and pray, prepare and form partnerships before deciding where to go and what to do.
But when things are done right, the mission work can be fruitful, Hestenes said. She gave an example of a Presbyterian church from Solona Beach, Calif. that did things right. It was an exciting story of outreach to the Afar people in the deserts of Ethiopia — a tale with a car crash and a Muslim Good Samaritan with a cell phone and unexpected joys and signs of God’s presence.
As a result of that mission work, the child mortality rate in the region has dropped. More women survive childbirth, their families have clean water to drink. In this mostly Muslim area, some have become Christians.
Before Hestenes spoke, Joan Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly, told the 800 people gathered at Peachtree Presbyterian church that she believes people will look back on the Global Fellowship gathering and say, “Something happened here that God used to change not only the church, but the world.”
Gray then gave the fellowship’s organizers a charge as they go forward with their work.
“I charge you to lead from your knees,” Gray told them. “I charge you not to be satisfied with what you can do from your human strength . . . Remember Jesus’ word: `I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me and you will bear much fruit. Without me, you can do nothing.’ Lead from your knees, and then dream big.”
