THE ISSUE: Band-Aid Approaches to Complex Problems
Short-term missions and Relief and Development programs are becoming increasingly popular in America’s churches. Combined, they account for 73% of the total dollars spent on missions in our country leaving only 27% for evangelism and church planting. They are an easy sell in our churches because they appeal for a compassionate response to obvious hopelessness and despair. The secret is that sadly, they DO NOT WORK in changing those desperate conditions.

Misconception
Short term mission experiences lead large numbers of participants to get involved in supporting long term solutions.
REALITY
While 52 percent of respondents claimed to have increased their giving to the sending organization after the trip… 70 percent of the participants in their short-term missions trip to Honduras didn’t send in a single direct donation in the three years after the trip. (Christianity Today, June 2005)

Assumption
Short term missions and relief/aid projects are an effective way to present the message of salvation to people in foreign countries.
REALITY “Cross-cultural evangelization will hardly occur when the time frame is a 2 or 3-week visit into and out of a society, with little knowledge or understanding of local language and culture.” (International Journal of Frontier Missions, Spring 2004, p. 29)

Misconception
Short term missions and relief/aid projects are an adequate substitute for long term missionary presence.
REALITY
Such activities are valid expressions of love… but in the strict sense, they do not qualify as missionary work. The distinction is vitally important if we are to keep gospel proclamation, evangelism, church planting, and discipleship at the heart of what we are supposed to do. (Jim Reapsome, Mission Maker
Magazine–2005, p.26)

Assumption
Short term efforts lead to vast numbers coming to Christ and are better investment of our dollars in missions.
REALITY
Decades of time, hundreds of thousands of workers and millions of dollars have been poured into countless projects. Instant evangelism? A growing number of national pastors and long term missionaries report finding few real followers resulting from such efforts. These popular ministry efforts may be considered a failure. (Rick Johnson, Missions Frontiers, June 2000)