New Short Term Missions Think Tank

In the mid 2000’s Christianity Today took notice of research by Calvin College Professor, Kurt Ver Beek, on the lower-than-expected benefits of sending volunteers out from North America. Ver Beek has lived in Honduras for 30 years and was there for the duration of Hurricane Mitch (which took 14,000 lives in 1998). The North Americans who flew south to serve in the aftermath of the storm were his case study. The results showed little long-term change either in Honduran communities or in the lives of the people who invested so heavily to go.

This can be a source of dissonance for mission trip sending churches because, in some sense, they know Ver Beek is right. Church councils may have even carefully broached the issue prior to ever reading the research—asking that uncomfortable question, “What if, instead of spending $830 per volunteer on plane tickets for 12 people we just send the $10,000 straight to the people who need relief?”

Despite the research, people who spend time reading the Bible feel compelled to go or, if they cannot go themselves, to support and send. In Scripture God says, “Go!” a lot. It is a theme. Jonah would have probably been happy to simply send $830 to Nineveh but God said, “Go.” God is a sender. He sent Jesus.

What should Christians do with this situation? If sending Jonah was actually about God giving a heart challenge to Jonah and later all of us through the retelling of his story, then what kind of personal transformation should we expect as a result of our mission trips? And if the church in North America is spending millions of dollars on short term missions what assurance is there that this time and money will actually result in ending poverty?

For members of the newly formed Justice and Excellence in Short Term Missions Think Tank these are old questions with no quick fixes. The Think Tank, made up of short-term mission staff from the CRC and the Reformed Church, brings over a hundred years of combined experience to the table. The agencies and churches they serve have vision statements that talk about transforming communities, growing with God in the renewal of all things, multiplying believers, doing justice, and being the very presence of Jesus Christ in the World. They value the call to go, justice, equity, and sustainable transformation in impoverished communities.

The Think Tank is taking a long view to increase the effectiveness of Short Term missions in the CRC and their agencies. They have a two-pronged approach. One: evaluate and expand their own effectiveness in transforming communities and participants with the help of a peer review organization called the Standards of Excellence. Two: invite interested congregations to join them and do the same. They meet over video and telephone conference for about one hour per month and expect to complete the peer review process by the summer of 2014.

For a list of Think Tank participating agencies and the themes they are using for peer evaluation, see below. For more information about the Excellence and Justice in Short Term Missions Think Tank contact Carol Sybenga or Kris Van Engen.

Participating Agencies:

World Renew Disaster Response Services

World Renew Global Volunteer Program

CRC Office of Social Justice

CRC World Missions

Youth Unlimited

RCA CARE Network

Service Link

Association For a More Just Society

Linked Engagement Action Program–

Themes for peer evaluation:

(Happening in partnership with the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission)

God centeredness

Empowering Partnerships

Mutual Design

Comprehensive Administration

Qualified Leadership

Appropriate Training

Thorough Follow Through

[Image: Flickr user Bingham Becky]