Vineyard Missions

SHORT-TERM TEAMS OVERVIEW

One significant method of cross-cultural interaction for North Americans has become short-term mission trips. Individuals from churches or groups of churches visit another geographical or cultural area, either within the U.S. or internationally. Their trips can last for a few days or as long as several weeks, sometimes a small group can stay for a couple of months. People go to serve and positively impact the lives of others who are very different from them. However, they return as individuals who are much more aware of how God is at work throughout the world, and of His purposes being worked out in their lives.

Some estimate that as many as four million Americans take short-term mission trips out of the country annually; and American churches now spend as much on short-term mission trips as on long-term missionaries.

Peterson, Aeschliman and Sneed, 2003 quoted in Livermore, "Serving With Eyes Wide Open" .

The activities of a short-term team can range from hands-on projects such as installing water filters to ensure safe drinking water, to prayer walks, evangelistic outreaches, and even focused time and attention spent on building relationships.

When trips are well-planned and the team well-prepared, they can play a significant role in the Vineyard’s long-term mission strategy of planting other church planting movements. To be effective, short-term trips require prayerful and practical preparation, training and equipping and responsible oversight.
 
We are grateful that we have many churches that are committed to designing and implementing meaningful short-term ministry experiences such as these. Some examples of their resources for preparation, training and oversight can be viewed here:

Sample Manuals

• Vineyard Columbus Short Term Leader Manual
• Short Term Teams - Atlanta Vineyard

Sample Forms

• Short Term Mission Release Form
• Short Term Mission Waiver

Practical Ministry Help

• Using PowerPoint in Another Culture. This is a great concise piece on how to prepare PowerPoint presentations for talks or sermons for a different culture or language group that will be effective.

Articles

• First Do No Harm: Short-term Missions at the Dawn of a New Millennium
• Telling Stories: Contextualization and American Missiology
• A Whole New World: Interview with missions veteran Don McGregor shares how good cross-cultural training can revolutionize your missions experience

Our plan is to integrate a variety of models in order to create a frame work that can be used to develop a plan unique to your church’s purpose and vision. We value your feedback on the resources as they are made available as well as your input on how to make short-term trips even more valuable.

Additional Resources
 

The Safe Travel Institute is an educational institution dedicated to researching and disseminating Best Practices in the area of Safe Travel. The Safe Travel Institute is led by former executives from the US Government (Department of Defense, FBI and the US Intelligence Community) with over 200 years of experience in the fields of Safe Travel, Risk Management and Crisis Support.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its biennial guide on travel health. Generally known as “The Yellow Book” because of its cover, the latest edition of “Health Information for International Travel” can be read online at: www.cdc.gov/travel.

Hesperian is a non-profit publisher of books and other educational materials that help people take the lead in their own health care. Simply written and heavily illustrated, our books contain a wealth of life-saving information on diagnosing and treating a broad range of health problems. Hesperian works in close collaboration with health workers, grassroots groups, and community organizations around the world, to assure that our books and newsletters are practical, accessible, and appropriate across different conditions and cultures. Many works have been translated into mulitple languages and all materials are free for download.