Tammy Kuntz: Response to Mission Bound: Short-Term Mission as Pilgrimage

Today’s post is by Rev. Dr. Tammy Kuntz. Rev. Dr. Kuntz is Coordinator of United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM), North Central Jurisdiction. 

Mission Bound: Short-Term Mission as Pilgrimage by Rodney Aist offers a consideration of the short-term mission volunteer as a pilgrim on the journey. He defines pilgrimage as “the experience of God, self, and the Other through time, place, journey, and people and the thoughts, images, and reflections thereof.” (chap. 2) He writes, “[Short-term mission] as pilgrimage is a paradoxical journey of give-and-take, in which we help ourselves by serving others …” (chap. 16)

In making the connection between short-term mission and pilgrimage, Aist emphasizes the importance of the “individual pilgrim who must interpret personal experience and situational context as she navigates her spiritual journey.” (chap. 3) He shares many good concepts for the individual who moves in the world seeking enlightenment. He cites Walter Brueggemann defining “transformation as a movement from orientation to disorientation to new orientation.” (chap. 13)

However, in Aist’s focus on the pilgrim as hero, the focus of service is lost. Aist provides little room for accompaniment, partnering, or the concept of risk-taking mission and service. Examples are offered of pilgrims who dictate the task that will be done and how it will be accomplished to the detriment and disappointment of the homeowner.

There is no hero when we serve with our neighbors in the world, and United Methodist Volunteers in Mission are much more than individual pilgrims. Volunteers in Mission move into the world not as individuals, but as a connected group of people serving as the hands and feet of Christ. They know that their presence in God’s mission is an opportunity to live in mutuality as they serve in new places and in new ways, knowing that the experience may change the way they see the world. 

Unlike a pilgrimage, where the individual expects a transformational experience, an effective mission journey is an experience with a team, living in a new culture and context, engaging in God’s mission. Regardless of location or the way people serve – as a medical team, disaster response team, education team, etc. - the connection with mission partners provides opportunities for learning, engaging, reflecting, and serving in mutuality. The opportunity for transformation is great, yet it may never be understood or may be experienced much later, after the story is shared and the extent of the experience is embraced.

Ultimately, this experience is not about us and our enlightenment as Aist suggests in a pilgrimage. It is about God and the ways we are called to share together in God’s world as we live out the Great Commission. As Rev. Jeremy Bassett said, “Therefore, it is not so much that the church has a mission, but that God’s mission has a church.” (A Mission Journey: A Handbook for Volunteers, p. 5.) God calls us to mission not just as individuals but as a church.

A Volunteer in Mission should not enter the mission field alone without effective conversation and prior experience with a team. Connectional support is critical in order to engage effectively. Volunteers in Mission provides opportunities for volunteers to engage in God’s mission safely and effectively while serving in accompaniment with the people of the community - as part of a team, contextualizing the work as they honor one another’s spiritual journey. They realize that many facets of the mission journey are shared in the context of the relationships that are established.

Aist states, “Our theological task is to hold things together, to immunize complexity, to create the pathways for ‘both and’ approaches.” (chap. 5) This presents a challenge to the work of Volunteers in Mission as they engage in God’s world. Part of the job is to not hold on to conflict and challenges. Teams are reminded to remain flexible in planning and engaging. Complexities and alternative approaches create opportunities for cultural competency and engagement with our host partners and allow space for the Holy Spirit to be part of the community.

There is no acknowledgement in Aist’s book of the United Methodist Volunteer in Mission program as a resource for connections with project sites and missionaries and training for all aspects of the mission experience for teams and team leaders and individual volunteers. Training for missionaries of all types provides opportunities for reflection, discussion, and understanding prior to engaging with their project hosts. Volunteer in Mission team leaders are trained to facilitate conversations around mission theology and serving in accompaniment.

It is unfortunate that the Volunteer in Mission movement was ignored in this discussion. Something will always be missed; however, excluding this key resource that is available to everyone at God’s table of grace, for volunteers of all denominations, faiths, and secular groups, leaves the conversation lacking an avenue to engage in deeper conversation around how to serve safely and effectively.

Rodney Aist: Mission Bound: Short-Term Mission as Pilgrimage

Today’s post is by Rev. Rodney Aist. Rev. Aist is a United Methodist clergy in the New Mexico Annual Conference, currently serving as the course director at St George’s College, Jerusalem. It relates to his recently published book, Mission Bound: Short-Term Mission as Pilgrimage (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023).

The mission journey is a response to the longings of the world, addressing issues from poverty and health care to natural disasters. People, near and far, lack sufficient food and shelter, safety and security, hope for a better tomorrow. Christian mission is a response to an imperfect world, following in the footsteps of Jesus, who was moved to compassion by the needs and potential of others. The mission journey offers a pathway for everyday Christians to embody the love of God, to serve others, and, in doing so, to change the world.

The mission journey changes lives: our own and others, in immediate and long-term ways. Mission travel takes us beyond the scenes and routines of our everyday lives to paradoxical settings: to places in need where we encounter God in the Other, to people of faith who grace us with gifts to transform our lives back home.

Through serving others, we encounter God, and our lives are changed as well. What we discover on a mission journey is that the people who we’re called to serve bless us with the power and grace of God. While the call of short-term mission is to journey faithfully as a servant, guest, and stranger, the lesson of religious travel is that our everyday world is also in need of healing, salvation, and reconciliation. That’s an important, if overlooked, aspect of the mission adventure: the self-awareness that our everyday world isn’t perfect, that our culture doesn’t hold all the answers, the humility to know that we are all incomplete people in need of God and one another.

In my book Mission Bound: Short-Term Mission as Pilgrimage, I offer a transformative approach to short-term mission. Pilgrimage is a comprehensive image of the Christian life that encompasses both personal and social transformation, and Mission Bound reframes short-term mission as pilgrimage as a holistic expression of faith that includes the experience of God, self, and the Other.

On a mission journey, we engage the Other, encounter God, and (re)discover ourselves in transformative ways. Pilgrimage is crossing boundaries, following God in unfamiliar places, both being and befriending the stranger, and walking alongside one another. As the imitation of Christ, pilgrimage embodies humility, service, love, and compassion, as well as our vulnerability with others. Espousing the union of God, self, and the Other as the objective of the Christian life, Mission Bound casts the mission partnership as one of reciprocal relations based on the body of Christ. Being partners in mission is the practice of journeying together. It’s discovering together, through the grace of God, solutions to the worlds in which we live.

Mission Bound develops a pilgrim spirituality for short-term mission, offers the gift of cultural humility, and addresses the challenges of the mission experience. In doing so, it covers the entirety of the mission journey in detailed, practical ways, including preparation and departure, time at the mission site, the return home, and the aftermath of the journey. As a pre-departure study guide, questions for individual and group discussion conclude each chapter.

The core of the book explores short-term mission through the lens of the Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell), which follows a threefold pattern: the traveler (1) leaves his or her ordinary world, (2) crosses a threshold into a special world full of ordeals, allies, conflicts, and treasures, and (3) returns home transformed, sharing the rewards of the adventure with others. Heroes consist of ordinary people who are summoned on a journey, face challenges, sacrifice and suffer, and emerge as wiser, more virtuous figures. Through short-term mission pilgrimage, ordinary Christians can be heroes in their faith.

Recommended Reading: The Pandemic's Impact on Short-Term Medical Missions

Short-term medical missions, in which teams of medical professionals travel from the West to a developing nation to provide services for a week or two, are a common model of both church and secular mission. However, like many aspects of mission work, such trips have been disrupted by the pandemic over the past two years. While there are negative outcomes to such disruptions, they also provide a space for rethinking mission practice. A recent post on NPR's Goats and Soda blog titled "COVID is changing medical fly-in missions — and it might be for the better" shares examples of how that rethinking of short-term medical missions is happening. In brief, the pandemic has accelerated pre-existing trends towards focusing on developing local medical expertise and capacity, rather than focusing on provision of services by Western experts. New communication technologies have made such capacity-building work possible even without Western travel, though the article notes that travel can still play a role in the work of building relationships across contexts. Focusing on the growth of local expertise and capacity provides for a more sustainable and equitable long-term approach to the provision of medical services. While the article's main examples come from secular work, those involved in church-related short-term medical mission projects would do well to consider the implications for their own work.

Recommended Reading: New UMVIM COVID Guidelines for Delta Variant

United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) put out new COVID guidelines earlier this week in response to the rising number of COVID cases resulting from the Delta variant. The new guidelines cover those traveling in mission and those hosting mission travelers; the fully vaccinated, the partly vaccinated, and the unvaccinated; and domestic and international mission journeys. The guidelines are based on CDC recommendations but helpfully condense that guidelines for mission team members. All churches considering short-term mission experiences this fall are recommended to consult these guidelines, whether or not the experiences are official UMVIM journeys.

Recommended Viewing: COVID Travel Tips from UMVIM

Although the COVID-19 pandemic remains a health threat around the world, access to vaccines in the United States has many traveling again. Included in this re-engagement with the world is the possibility for renewed travel for short-term mission. UMVIM has released this video with tips from UMVIM coordinators and project hosts about how to resume short-term mission travel in a safe way. This video is an excellent resource for anyone thinking about domestic or international mission travel in the near future.

Short Term Mission after the Pandemic

Today's post is by UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott, Mission Theologian at the General Board of Global Ministries. The opinions and analysis expressed here are Dr. Scott's own and do not reflect in any way the official position of Global Ministries.

The world is now over a year into the coronavirus pandemic. While much remains uncertain about the future of the pandemic, leaders are beginning to feel confident enough in the future to begin talking about the "new normal" or "next normal" that will emerge after the pandemic. Questions about the next normal affect all aspects of life and church, and in this post, I will explore some of those questions as they apply to short-term mission.

First, a quick recap: Travel restrictions because of COVID-19 meant that short-term mission trips, both domestically and internationally, were largely cancelled last year. In some cases, they were replaced by other forms of engagement: virtual mission trips and online partnership building. In other cases, probably the majority of cases, US churches did not replace their short term trips with anything. For many partner organizations, the cancellation of short term mission trips represented the loss of a significant revenue stream, though it also meant more staff time to focus elsewhere. For more on the impact of COVID-19 on short term mission, see this series of UM & Global posts from last year: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], and [6].

Many churches in the United States and around the world are still not meeting because of the pandemic. Nevertheless, reviewing news from US annual conferences indicates that US churches are beginning to contemplate the return of short term mission trips, at least in some form. At this point, plans are most likely to involve relatively local trips (within a few hours' drive), for a limited day (often day trips), doing work that can be done outside and with other precautions (outdoor VBS, certain construction, repair, and gardening projects, etc.). Longer trips and long-distance trips, including international trips, are mostly still on hold.

As they begin to resume their short term mission trips, here are some questions that churches would do well to reflect on:

What have we learned from the pandemic?
Many Christian writers have described the pandemic as an "apocalypse," not necessarily in the sense that it is the end of the world, but in the sense that it has unveiled or uncovered many things about ourselves, our churches, our society, and our world community. What has the pandemic uncovered about your church's participation in short term mission? What has it revealed about the sorts of partnerships forged? What has it revealed about the role of short term mission in your congregants' spiritual lives and the financial model of your church?

What have our partners learned from the pandemic? What are their hopes for the resumption of short term mission?
Just as we have been learning from the pandemic, so have our partners and hosts. They, too, have been learning about themselves, their communities, and the world. US churches' first impulse might be to look for new needs among their partners, but there are also likely new strengths that partners have discovered in themselves. World War II was a great disruption to mission in some regions. But one of the things that younger churches learned during that experience was that they could stand on their own, without the constant support of their mission partners from the West, even amid very difficult times. Whatever our partners have learned, the new normal of short term mission that we create must incorporate their learnings and their hopes for the new normal.

Are there aspects of our short term mission trips that should not come back?
The question of how to resume short term mission work is not just a question of what to start doing again. It is also a question of what not to do anymore. Perhaps we or our partners have learned that some aspect of that short term mission arrangement no longer serves a point or perhaps it is even detrimental to one group involved. The advantage of a pause in activity is that it makes it easier to let that activity or parts of that activity go. Again, the goal is not to get back to the old normal. It is to collaboratively build a new and better normal.

How can we (continue to) incorporate alternate forms of connection in our mission work?
Whether or not we have used Zoom to connect with mission partners, just about all churches in the United States have experimented with new forms of technologically-mediated connection, even if just to connect members of the congregation while it was not meeting. Rather than seeing these practices of connection as temporary measures that can now be laid aside, churches can see them as new skills that they can use to strengthen our short term mission partnerships, which are usually characterized by not being about to meet together on a regular basis.

The pandemic has been a great tragedy around the world. The resumption of short term mission after the pandemic is an opportunity born out of tragedy. It is both an opportunity to resume mission and also an opportunity to use the break from mission activities as an impetus to change and improve those activities.

Plan Now: North Central Jurisdiction Mission Academy

The North Central Jurisdiction has long held a Mission Academy for congregational and annual conference leaders interested in improving their mission skills and knowledge. Like many events, this one has been moved online this year. But one of the benefits of the move to virtual participation (as with so many events this year) is that it makes that participation more widely possible. Anyone, regardless of whether they reside in the North Central Jurisdiction or not, is welcome to participate in a series of mission-related webinars throughout the month of October.

For a short list of the webinar topics and dates, see here.

For a fuller description of the webinars and instructors, see here.

For a registration link, see here.

UM & Global Collections: UMVIM and Short-Term Mission

After having debuted UM & Global Collections two weeks ago, today we present another collection:

UMVIM & Short-Term Mission

The PDF for this Collection includes a table of contents; the posts, including the original URL, date published, title, attribution, content, and tags; and some discussion questions about the Collection as a whole. Other than reformatting hyperlinks and a typographical correction here or there, the posts are not edited from their original format. This Collection is just under 40 pages.

In the coming weeks, additional collections will be posted on commentaries on the UMC's official mission document, Grace Upon Grace; UMC assets; the global nature of the UMC; and other topics. If there are specific topics that you would find helpful in your teaching or church work, please note them in the comments below, and I (David) will try to prioritize these as I put together future Collections.

Recommended Readings: UMVIM Virtual Mission Trips

For those interested in learning more about virtual mission experiences after reading Karen DiStefano's piece describing them, here are a few more resources to help you do so:

The UMVIM website has a page describing virtual mission with links to specific virtual mission opportunities, including upcoming and on-going opportunities.

The UMVIM Facebook page has posts and pictures from recent virtual mission experiences, including those to Honduras, Tanzania, and Mexico.

Karen Distefano: Virtual Missions

Today's post is by Karen Distefano. Distefano is South Central Jurisdiction UMVIM and Disaster Response Director.

The Virtual Mission program, implemented in April, emerged from the very real need to maintain the connection between United Methodist mission sites around the world and Volunteers In Mission teams during times of quarantine and shelter in place.

The Virtual Mission is based on the traditional VIM team model, with a team leader working closely with the mission site host to understand the ministry and to help the site achieve its goals. Our first Virtual Mission was with the program “Give Ye Them To Eat” (GYTTE) in Puebla, Mexico, run by Global Ministries missionaries Nan McCurdy and Miguel Mairena. Working with Nan, we set the objectives of the mission: to introduce the team to the work GYTTE did and to encourage VIM teams to return to Puebla once the pandemic was over.

Our team consisted of 25 people from across the US, most of whom had never heard of GYTTE before. Like a traditional VIM team, we assigned people to different team “tasks”: construction, meals, devotionals, cultural research, safety, photography, social media, and fundraising. Their task would be very different than if we were on the ground, but still allowed for team members to be able to contribute to the mission. For example, the Meals Group would research the types of food eaten in the area and share recipes that we could make at home. The Construction Group looked at the types of housing that are typical of the area and how much a house might cost. The Photography Group searched for photos and videos of either the geographical area or from the mission site itself (many of the pictures came from GYTTE’s website and Facebook page) and then compiled a team video at the end.

The majority of the virtual mission content, though, was intentionally set by the GYTTE staff. Nan and Miguel, along with two staff members, shared pictures of their ministries and explained what they were doing in the community to empower and improve the lives of area residents. Another crucial piece of the mission was our discussions on videos and readings recommended by GYTTE. The Zoom platform allowed for our team to go into Breakout Rooms to discuss the information we had read or watched. Each Breakout Room was hosted by a GYTTE staff to allow for meaningful dialogue through questions and answers. By the end of the 3-day mission, team members unanimously agreed that they had had a true missional experience, in spite of the fact that we never left home. We forged a relational connection with our hosts and the GYTTE staff that will most likely lead to future teams visiting the Puebla mission.

One of the other intentional parts to the Virtual Mission is what we call the “Local Involvement” component. Team members were challenged to each come up with one idea of how they could continue the ministry(ies) of GYTTE in their own local community. For example, GYTTE has programs in the areas of agriculture and livestock development, water and sanitation, affordable housing, and community health. Suggestions for local mission work in our own communities could be partnering with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, setting up a food pantry, volunteering at a local free clinic, working with migrants, or teaching ESL.

The Virtual Mission can be a powerful evangelism and discipleship tool because it allows more people to explore God’s call on their lives and to see how their gifts and talents are valuable. The virtual model can incorporate people from a broad spectrum of age and life experiences into the body of Christ and allow them the opportunity to explore the gifts and talents God has given them.

The Virtual Mission will look differently for each mission context. It may even be a different experience for each team that goes to the same site. But what remains constant for each Virtual Mission experience is the refocusing on mission itself. Once the excitement of travel is taken out of the picture, team members are forced to see mission for what it truly is. The focus of the mission no longer is about the airline tickets, team t-shirts, and souvenir shopping. It is about the ministry that God has called us to and learning how we can be a part of it.

Recommended Reading: UMVIM-NCJ Virtual Mission Trips

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the short-term travel model of mission engagement, along with so many other things in life. Nevertheless, that has not stopped local and regional UMVIM Coordinators from continuing to forge mission connections. With travel off the table, though, those connections look different. One model for continuing those connections is the "virtual mission trip."

UMVIM-NCJ has this resource page on virtual missions. The model they are promoting involves hour-long virtual conversations among mission partners for five days that aim to help participants "learn, explore, connect, and partner."

The UMVIM-NCJ resource page has four potential host partners for virtual missions (two domestic and two international), a list of suggested roles for church participants, and a sample schedule.

There is a fundraising component to support the on-going work of partner organizations (which are still doing ministry, often with increased demand and fewer resources). Yet the virtual mission trip goes beyond just a fundraiser to facilitate more extensive learning and interaction among partners.

While the idea of a virtual mission trip may seem strange to many, this is an interesting model for two reasons: First, as a response to the current pandemic that still facilitates global mission, it is an interesting short-term alternative. And second, given the critiques of some short-term mission practices as forms of helping that can hurt, it will be interesting to see if this virtual model, which is focused more on relationship-building, will be an attractive long-term model as well.

UMVIM: We Are Still in Mission!

Today’s post is by Rev. Dr. Tammy Kuntz. Rev. Dr. Kuntz is Coordinator of United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM), North Central Jurisdiction. It is a response to David W. Scott's post, "COVID-19, Travel, Zoom, and the Future of United Methodist Mission."

Yes, World, We are still in mission!

While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us into stay-at-home and self-quarantine, we know that United Methodists continue to serve their neighbors. Masks and gloves have replaced hammers and saws as people shift their skills to provide food and necessary daily-living supplies to their communities. Those with sewing machines are moving beyond school bags and Days for Girls kits to making masks. Volunteers in Mission (VIM) work with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to respond quickly to the needs of their neighbors following tornadoes in alternative ways as directed by each annual conference. We are still in mission. It just looks different.

Yes, the number of short-term teams has dropped off. Project sites have suspended operations, international borders are closed, and airlines have cancelled flights. However, there are still stories to tell. Previous mission engagements are shared through web sites and social media connections with team members. We are still telling the story. It just looks different.

Some project site directors are offering a virtual mission journey. We can still share in the good work happening at Give Ye Them to Eat and Bahamas Methodist Habitat. More of these missions will be available in the coming weeks. We are still serving. It just looks different.

Teams, districts, and conferences partnering with mission sites in the US and around the world are connecting and gaining an understanding of the concerns for the future. The cancellation of teams means a reduction of income as well as an inability to meet the needs of the community. This is evidenced in the Michigan-Haiti Partnership previously referenced. We are still partnering. It just looks different.

Yes, our international partners may realize that they have been relying too heavily on US short-term mission teams. People are coming together for their own communities, meeting the need of neighbors, and offering skills they may not have realized they had. After all, when we share in God’s mission, we know that we are there to meet the needs of the community, not serve our own expectations of what need to be done. (I John 3:16-18) remembering that the most important task is the one we have just been given. We are still serving God in the world. It just looks different.

There is no doubt that the mission field will look different when the world emerges from this pandemic. We will still be in mission. It will just look different.

Rev. Dr. Tammy Kuntz, Volunteers in Mission North Central Jurisdiction
Rev. Tom Lank, Volunteers in Mission Northeastern Jurisdiction
Karen Distefano, Volunteers in Mission South Central Jurisdiction
Ronda Cordill, Volunteers in Mission Western Jurisdiction
Rev. Matt Lacey, Volunteers in Mission Southeastern Jurisdiction
Gray Gambrell, Volunteers in Mission Southeastern Jurisdiction

COVID-19, Travel, Zoom, and the Future of United Methodist Mission

Today's post is by UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott, Director of Mission Theology at the General Board of Global Ministries. The opinions and analysis expressed here are Dr. Scott's own and do not reflect in any way the official position of Global Ministries.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted many things around the world, among them the practice of mission. This blog has examined some of the impacts of the pandemic on United Methodist mission around the world. Lisa Beth White has reflected on “Short-Term Mission in a Time of Coronavirus,” including what happens when you are “Not Going on the Mission Trip.”

In addition, I have noticed in the past month has been a significant drop-off in the number of pieces posted by the US annual conferences about their work with mission partners around the globe. The boards and agencies and UMNS have continued to share stories about global United Methodism, even going out of their way to inform United Methodists about responses around the world, but annual conferences and local churches have not as much. Our own readership at UM & Global has also been markedly lower in the past month.

It seems safe to conclude that amidst the pandemic, US United Methodists are not paying nearly as much attention to global mission.

That is to some extent perfectly understandable. Churches have been overwhelmed trying to transition to online worship, figuring out how to celebrate Easter without in-person services, and in some cases providing expanded local mission services in greatly changed circumstances. Certainly, these pressing concerns have left US churches with less capacity to focus on many things, and international mission is just one of those things.

I think this drop-off in interest in international mission is, however, also a sign of just how dominant short-term mission trips have become as a form of mission engagement for American United Methodists. In the present context, no mission trips are happening, and upcoming mission trips have been canceled. That leaves annual conferences and local churches with a lot less to share about their engagement in international mission, especially since those trips may or may not be part of on-going relationships involving significant other aspects beyond trips.

The dominance of short-term trips in the US ties into differences I have noticed between US responses to the pandemic on the one hand and Swiss and Norwegian United Methodist responses on the other. While short-term trips are part of Swiss and Norwegian engagement with international mission, they are a smaller part of on-going relationships with specific partners that also involve regular communication, prayer, and funding. Despite COVID-19 cases and church closures in Switzerland and Norway, those branches of the UMC have continued to be engaged with their international partners, sharing information and launching special fundraising campaigns to support them. There has been some of that in the US (the Michigan-Haiti partnership is one example), but much less.

Given that the pandemic has been so disruptive to perhaps the major form of US United Methodists’ engagement with global mission, there are questions about what the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on US United Methodists’ relationships with international partners. The pandemic will certainly disrupt mission travel for the next couple of months at least, but as commentators have noticed about many aspects of life, things may not just go back to pre-pandemic normal afterward.

For instance, if US United Methodists are left with heightened concerns about travel in general and the risks of various diseases or of being stranded, short-term mission trips may be perceived as riskier and thus become less popular. Or, if local church finances are significantly impacted by the lack of in-person giving and the economic fallout of the pandemic, congregations may decide that they cannot afford to take international trips as they did in the past.

Alternatively, increased comfort with videoconferencing services such as Zoom for meetings within the United States may lead US United Methodists to become more willing to use video conferencing to talk to mission partners around the world even when not traveling to see them. Although internet availability and speeds vary around the world, it is still possible to conduct video calls with partners in most major urban areas, even in developing countries. More communication outside of trips could strengthen rather than hurt international mission partnerships.

Another possibility is that if US United Methodists become more inward-focused because of a felt need to focus on their own survival during the pandemic, that inward focus will persist after the pandemic is over. There was a rising tide of nationalism in the US (and many other countries) before the pandemic. That desire to separate from international connections and focus instead on the domestic may be exacerbated by the psychological impacts of the pandemic, which would be bad for the future of international mission partnerships.

A more optimistic prospect is that the pandemic could help to de-colonize mission partnerships between US United Methodists and their partners around the world. If partners discover that they can survive without short-term mission teams from the US, or even that they are able to flourish in some ways without such teams, they may be reluctant to return to the status quo after the pandemic. On the other side, if US United Methodists become chastened about their ability to save the world because of the severe impacts of the virus in their own country, they may bring a humbler attitude to mission partnerships in the future.

Finally, it is possible that things pretty much go back to normal after the pandemic. Once the virus is under control and travel is possible again, people take up the same patterns of mission practices as they previously did. Perhaps the resumption of mission trips will even give people a sense of normalcy restored.

It is impossible to know at this point what the long-term consequences, if any, of COVID-19 and the interruption of the short-term mission trip model of missions will be for US United Methodists. And it may be too much to contemplate these consequences on top of scrambling to respond to the many disruptions and large amount of sickness, death, and economic pain that are a part of our current experience. Yet, when we have the capacity, we should look for what is emerging from this situation. The answer may be surprising.

Lisa Beth White: Short-term Mission in a Time of Coronavirus

Today's post is by Rev. Lisa Beth White, founder of Sister of Hope Ministries, an organization that exists to equip and support short-term mission teams, churches and non-profit organizations with training, resources and evaluation tools with the aim of enabling the faithful practice of Christian mission. This piece is reposted with permission from the author's personal site.

John Wesley established three general rules for the earliest Methodist societies. The modern phrasing of his rules is: Do no harm, do all the good you can, and stay in love with God. The societies were small groups of people who sought spiritual renewal through gathering in small groups to pray, study scripture together, and to go out into their daily lives to intentionally help others. These groups were in addition to usual Sunday worship, and many United Methodists today still gather in small groups to pray, to study, and to be in mission together. But now we are told that to protect the most vulnerable among us we are to NOT meet in groups, we are not to gather together for worship, and we most certainly should not travel. We should practice social distancing. A hard thing to do for faithful people who desire to show love for God and neighbor by being present with one another. How do we do no harm and still do all the good we had planned to do?

One of the underlying assumptions about short-term mission work is that we have the freedom to travel and be with people in their time of need. This is why Early Response Teams have trailers packed with equipment and tools to go at a moment’s notice to an area affected by an earthquake or tornado. This is why teams of volunteers keep their passports up to date and stay in communication with their denominational partners in other countries. Yet in this moment in which a virus has spread across the globe, we are told that we must not travel, we must restrict our freedom so that others will be safe. We must practice social distancing to reduce the curve of infection spread so that hospitals and doctors’ offices can cope with the numbers of those who fall critically ill, and hopefully to keep those who are most at risk safe.

In the last week, there are many United Methodists who are coming to terms with the news that our next General Conference, in which we were to take up legislation that might result in our denomination splitting, is to be postponed. Many of my United Methodist friends have shared their initial reactions on social media. But there are other stories that aren’t making headlines or being shared widely on social media - particularly, conversations being held in churches about whether or how to proceed with their planned short-term mission trips. Is it safe for our team and our hosts if we go? How can we help if we don’t go? How can we show the love of God and neighbor if we don’t go?

Now is a good time for people to reflect on the deeper meaning of mission.  We can still gather via phone calls or video conferencing. We can still pray together and study together. This is a good time to pause for a deep dive into scripture and mission theology, to equip ourselves for when we return to showing God’s love through our sweat and labor. This is a moment of holy opportunity.

Recently I visited Haw Creek Commons in Asheville, North Carolina. They have a small labyrinth painted on the floor of the coworking space. The nearby elementary school had just let out and a few children came into the room on their way to piano lessons, others to take a break from the playground outside. They were drawn to the labyrinth, and all of them ran around the path. Run to the center, laugh, turn around and run back out again. They were enthusiastic and joyful!

Short-term mission work can draw us in like those joyful children on the labyrinth. Our enthusiasm and joy in the work of helping our neighbors are shown in how quickly we respond to needs and how eagerly we set aside our usual routine for hammers and nails, saws and paintbrushes. Our time is used up in planning meetings, traveling, dividing up into work teams, working hard to finish tasks for our new friends, and then traveling home to wash laundry and get back to our regular routines. Like school children running the labyrinth, we rush in and out, not resting in the center.

This is a moment in which we can stop and rest in the center, to prayerfully consider how it is that Christ is calling us to be the church in mission. It can be a time to reflect together on your mission engagment - with members of your church, with your mission partners, and with outside facilitators like Sister of Hope Ministries. Be prayerful and patient, friends. God is with us, now and always, dispersed or together, and we are the sheep of God’s pasture.

Recommended Reading: Matt Lacey on "Should We Stop Taking Mission Trips?"

Throughout this fall, UM & Global has hosted a series of posts looking at short-term mission generally and UMVIM trips as a specific form of short-term mission.

Related to that topic, Rev. Matt Lacey, the executive director for UMVIM Southeastern Jurisdiction, has posted a piece on his organization's page, "Should We Stop Taking Mission Trips?" Despite the provocative title, Rev. Lacey's real concern in the piece is how we understand our travels in mission. His ultimate conclusion is "it is time to stop making mission 'trips' and start seeing them as a part of a journey God has for our lives." Rev. Lacey's comments are constructive and add especially to the conversation on this blog about the relationship between United Methodists' participation in UMVIM and their lives of faith.

Lisa Beth White: UMVIM and Theological Reflection, Part 2

Today's post is by Rev. Lisa Beth White. Rev. White is founder of Sister of Hope Ministries and a United Methodist clergyperson serving in Western North Carolina. This post is part of an on-going UM & Global series on UMVIM and short-term mission.
 
What is it about short-term mission trips that so many people go on them over and over again? Are they fulfilling their own individual desires for a spiritual pilgrimage, or is there more to it? Robert Haynes suggests that there has been a shift within UMVIM trips away from mission and toward pilgrimage experience, but I argue that the phenomenon of short-term mission in the UMC is a practice of the faith for lay people that reveals their theological work.

Short Term Mission as Christian Practice
By “practice of the faith” I mean what people do in living out their faith. Craig Dykstra and Dorothy Bass state that “Christian practices are things people do together over time to address fundamental human needs in response to and in light of God’s active presence for the life of the world.”[1]

Short-term mission is one way that United Methodist lay people seek to address human needs together in response to God’s presence in their own lives and in the lives of others in the world. The decision to participate in the practice of short-term mission is their way of responding to God’s gracious activity in their own lives and one way in which they can embody God’s grace and love for others. In my research with UMVIM participants, the foundation for their decision to go and serve in mission was their conviction that they needed to find a way to show God’s grace to others, whether this work was in their own community or in a community several hours away.

Four Components of Practices
Theologians Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass describe four key components of Christian practices that are helpful in understanding the short-term mission movement. First, practices resist the separation of thinking from acting. This component helps us to understand one reason why it is difficult for lay people to articulate their theological foundations for short-term mission. Short-term mission is often described as love in action. Unless people are asked to discuss their experience in short-term mission and allowed time to engage their own questions, they tend to not separate out the action of being in mission from their thinking about mission.

A second component of Christian practices is that they are social and belong to groups of people across generations. Short-term mission in in the UMC is a group activity. When asked how they first became involved in the practice of short-term mission, people in my research most often say that they had a conversation with a family member or friend. Several people reported that they talked with their teenaged or college student children who invited them to join the next mission trip. Others reported including their grandchildren on mission trips.

A third component of Christian practices is that they are rooted in the past but continually adapting to changing circumstances. This is particularly evident in the case of the practice of short-term mission. The rise of the practice of UMVIM coincides with the rise of increased access to affordable air travel and new ways of communication. Lay people have the ability to be in contact with Christians in other places in the world in ways that were not possible a few decades ago, and they can with ease step outside the traditional guidance of mission boards and agencies. The practice of being in mission has adapted to changed circumstances, but in the case of the UMC the means of providing mission education has not yet adapted to new realities.

A final component of Christian practices is that they “articulate wisdom that is in the keeping of practitioners who do not think of themselves as theologians.” This point became abundantly clear in my research interviews, when nearly every person interviewed dismissed the idea that they had anything to contribute to a theology of mission. The overriding view was that theology was something done at seminaries by trained professionals, and yet according to the United Methodist statement on “Our Theological Task”, the work of theological reflection “requires the participation of all who are in our Church, lay and ordained, because the mission of the Church is to be carried out by everyone who is called to discipleship.”[2]

Practice and Theological Reflection
UMVIM is an important way to discover the wisdom and mission theology of lay people in the UMC. Rather than a pilgrimage experience in which a person seeks a religious experience outside of the home, those practicing short-term mission are seeking to live out their faith and to reflect theologically on God’s work both at home and around the world. Our Theological Task states that United Methodists are to “incorporate the promises and demands of the gospel into their daily lives”, and it is through the experience of a short-term mission trip that challenges and deepens discipleship that practitioners are made more aware of the demands of the gospel in their daily lives wherever they may go.[3]

Dr. Haynes is correct when he states that “theologies shape motivations and motivations shape actions,” and this is essential to understanding short-term mission as a practice of faith and a venue for theological reflection. Theologies inform the things we do as Christians, and the things we do as we live out our faith also inform our theologies. Beliefs shape practice, and practice provides space for deeper understanding of beliefs. Beliefs about how God reaches out in mission to the world shape how and why lay people practice short-term mission, and the experience of short-term mission further shapes how people understand God at work in the world and in their hearts. This is not a one-way path but a cycle of mutual influence.

Equipping Practitioners
What has been needed for many years is a sustained focus on mission education for all age groups in the United Methodist church. Although Global Ministries and UMW have published many fine statements and texts on theology of mission, these are not reaching the majority of practitioners of short-term mission in the denomination. It is time for curriculum and teaching methods to adapt so that UMVIM practitioners can access materials and tools for reflection on their experience in mission.

Once we understand the theological foundations of lay practitioners of mission as a source of wisdom within the church, it becomes clear that their experience and theological contributions are important for the church. UMVIM practitioners are people of compassion who seek to show the love of God for a hurting world. At a time when headlines about the United Methodist Church are about deep divisions, UMVIM practitioners quietly go about the work of mission, helping their neighbors near and far.

If they were equipped to speak with confidence about their experiences and their understanding of God at work in the world, they would be a broad witness for the church. Their conversations with friends at home would inspire others to look for the needs in their communities, to find ways to bridge the gaps, and to talk about God’s grace with each other. Here are people who are already witnessing to the love and grace of Christ. Equipping and encouraging this group could provide opportunities for renewal and revitalization.

The church must be in mission. Lay people are finding ways to be in mission because of their faith. It is time to adapt and equip them to continue to be the church, participating in God’s mission in, to, and for the world.

---

[1] (Dykstra and Bass 2002, 18)

[2] (Church 2016, 81)

[3] (Church 2016, 82)

Lisa Beth White: UMVIM and Theological Reflection, Part 1

Today's post is by Rev. Lisa Beth White. Rev. White is founder of Sister of Hope Ministries and a United Methodist clergyperson serving in Western North Carolina. This post is part of an on-going UM & Global series on UMVIM and short-term mission.

The recent series on short-term mission in the United Methodist Church (UMVIM) brought to light a long-neglected educational opportunity in the denomination. Four of our jurisdictional UMVIM coordinators shared from their experiences in short-term mission, and Robert Haynes provided his critique of short-term mission, in particular, the lack of theological discourse on the practice of mission.

Tammy Kuntz wrote in the first post for this series on short-term mission in the UMC that the first organizing efforts for short-term mission began in 1972, flowing from the growing movement of lay volunteers in the Southeast Jurisdiction. That year the General Conference of the UMC adopted a new statement to be included in our Book of Discipline in the section on our doctrines.

That statement was titled Our Theological Task, and it described a connection between our Wesleyan understanding of grace and our action in the world. Our Theological Task stated that our General Rules remind us that inward assurance of God’s grace “is bound to show itself outwardly in good works. By joining heart and hand, United Methodists have stressed that personal salvation leads always to involvement in Christian mission in the world.” Most importantly for the practice of short-term mission, Our Theological Task asserted that “personal religion, evangelical witness, and Christian social action are reciprocal and mutually reinforcing.”[1]

Locating Weaknesses
United Methodist short-term mission has, from the very beginning, been a practice in which lay people have let their personal salvation lead them into involvement in Christian mission. UMVIM is one way in which United Methodists join their hearts and hands, putting their faith into action for others. There are weaknesses within the practice of short-term mission in the UMC, but these weaknesses lie in the failures of the clergy and denomination to provide resources and encouragement for the reciprocal relationship between personal religion, evangelical witness and Christian social action.

After the initial organization of volunteer mission efforts in 1972, eight years passed until General Conference affirmed “the concept of volunteers in mission as an authentic form of personal missionary involvement” and eight more years until annual conferences were encouraged to have UMVIM coordinators on staff. It took another eight years for the program to officially become part of the work of the GBGM, and yet another four years before financial support for jurisdictional staff was provided.

Is it any wonder that when we ask lay people to talk about their short-term mission experience, they struggle to put their experience into words? Is it any wonder that many United Methodist churches do not utilize denominational connections when the denomination was so slow to recognize and support their work?

The hesitation of lay volunteers in mission to cite scripture or explicitly state their theological motivations does not mean that there is no theological foundation, as Dr. Haynes suggests. United Methodists who participate in short-term mission experiences are instead, living out Our Theological Task. Their work is a practice of their Christian faith, grounded in their theological convictions. The act of being in mission and the experience of personal faith are reciprocal; they inform and reinforce each other. This mutual reinforcement is the space where the United Methodists Church can improve both its mission education efforts and the practice of short-term mission.

Needed Resources
Lay people have taken Our Theological Task seriously. Moved by the suffering of people in their neighborhoods and in other countries, they have put their faith into tangible action. Our Theological Task argues for a robust faith that is active. It is “contextual and incarnational.” Faith is meant to be lived out in the world, in our neighborhoods and with others. The experience of a short-term mission trip can help people to participate in God’s mission in, to and for the world. According to Our Theological Task, our “theological reflection is energized by our incarnational involvement in the daily life of the Church and the world, as we participate in God’s liberating and saving action.”[2]

Short-term mission is a practice of lay persons that offers an opportunity to energize their theological reflection – however, even as Volunteers in Mission seek to live out their theological task, the church has not equipped them to trust in their own ability to be theological thinkers. This is a failure of resources, not a failure of theological foundations. The United Methodist Church has the potential to build on the practice of short-term mission by acknowledging the deep faith of the practitioners and equipping them with the tools for theological reflection.

My research interviews with VIM team members revealed a reluctance to claim their knowledge of scripture, and yet interviewees often quoted three or four scriptures in a single sentence to describe why they go on mission trips. They go to love their neighbors wherever they may be found in this globalized world. They go to share the love of Christ. They go to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. They go because they see someone in need and know they cannot walk by on the other side, ignoring a person who is suffering. There was no lack of scripture informing their participation in short-term mission; there was, rather, a lack of assurance of their own ability to name those scripture references.

Further, the post written by Tom Lank reveals that lay persons who participate in VIM do reflect theologically on the practice of short-term mission in the UMC. He states that through four decades of practice “UMVIM has tried to learn from its own mistakes”, which is the work of critical theological reflection on the practice of short-term mission. The first core value he articulates indicates the theological nature of this learning: that mission belongs to God, not to the church. Team leaders are given training that emphasizes another core value, the need of practitioners to “do the hard work with [their] team before, during, and after [their] mission experience to critically examine [their] own biases, stereotypes, and prejudices”.

Both of these core values require that short-term mission practitioners develop a deep sense of humility. The practice of mission provides a space in which people can examine themselves and grow in their discipleship in a way that moves them beyond themselves.

Mission Education Opportunity
The opportunity is there for the United Methodist Church to equip UMVIM participants with curricula and tools to use as they reflect on their experience in mission. It is our own internal conflict over human sexuality that has hobbled mission education. These conflicts have contributed to the rejection of documents written by our experienced missionaries and GBGM staff persons, which has further hobbled mission education efforts.

Another complicating factor was the resistance to “amateurs” in the practice of mission, which implicitly dismissed the ability of lay people to think theologically about mission. Yet, because United Methodists still go out on short-term mission trips, the opportunity still exists for the UMC to provide needed theology of mission curriculum for lay persons.

In my next post, I will discuss why short-term mission in the UMC should be viewed as a practice of faithful lay people who are capable of critical theological reflection on mission, and why this is important for mission education and for the future of the church.

---

[1] (Church, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 1972, 74)

[2] (Church, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2016, 82)

Maclane Heward: The Foundations of UMVIM: Michael Watson, the Red Scare and the Social Gospel

Today's post is by Maclane Heward. Mr. Heward is a doctoral candidate in the History of Christianity and Religions of North America at Claremont Graduate University. It is part of an on-going UM & Global series on UMVIM and short-term mission.

Michael Watson stands prominently among the many individuals who brought about the formation and growth of the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) program. Surprisingly just a few years before Watson took his family on his first short-term mission experience, he himself considered leaving behind his childhood faith in search of something “more to [his] liking.” The purpose of this brief post will be to illuminate one particular experience that became formative for Michael Watson as he became perhaps the most significant figure in the establishment of UMVIM.

Watson, having been raised by a mother who had a heart for mission, began his medical practice after his discharge from the US Marine Corps and his completion of medical school in the small South Carolina town of Bamberg in the late 1950s.

Watson became fast friends with a like-minded young minister by the name of George Strait. Strait and Watson shared more than just their status as young enterprising Methodist bachelors, they were significantly missionary-minded and felt that the opportunities for Methodists to be involved with missions beyond simply financing them would allow the laity “more meaningful participation in the life of the church.”[1]

A “strange thing happened” in 1960 when Watson was elected the South Carolina Annual Conference’s Minimum Salary Commission which placed him on the Conference’s Board of Missions. With Strait already participating on the board as the District Mission Secretary, the two individuals now had a voice in sharing their ideas regarding lay involvement in missionary pursuits. Among other activities, they “decided to enlighten the General Board of Missions with [their] inspiration” to send the laity into mission service for short periods of time. The letter sent seemed to fall by the wayside as it was never responded to.

During the same period of time, the late 1950s and early 1960s, The National Council of Churches (NCC), had come under increased scrutiny due to its supposed involvement in Communism. As the church was a member of the NCC, suspicions arouse regarding its involvement in communism. One study conducted in 1954 found that the “Methodist church, a member of the National Council of Churches, was the least likely among Protestant groups to support Joseph McCarthy and his subcommittee.”[2] Thus, in the minds of some, it was the most likely to house communist infiltration.

It was at this time that Watson became so disconcerted with the possibility that the church was somehow involved with communism that he began looking for a new church home among other denominations. His fellow congregants in Bamberg shared his anxiety and appointed Watson the chairman of a special committee to research and report on the infiltration of the NCC by communists.

So while Watson was investigating the NCC, he was also looking into other denominations. Dissatisfied with each denomination he investigated, Watson began researching the beginnings of Methodism. He learned that Methodism began during the Industrial Revolution in England, a “time when man’s inhumanity to man was at its zenith.”

While originally concerned that if Methodism was not communistic, it certainly leaned socialistic, the process of learning about the church’s beginnings caused Watson to be “no longer… suspicious of [Methodism’s] Social Gospel, but … Proud of it and realized that this had been [his] position all the time!” Looking again at the critics of the NCC, Watson with his new paradigm was able to see the conflict over the NCC as a conflict between liberal and conservative theological ideologies, a conflict that he had not previously known existed. He came to see the accusations of communist infiltration as the attempts of the “Righteous Right.”[3] His report to the Board of Stewards in Bamberg concluded “there was just a difference of opinion and perspective that had been carried beyond the bounds of truthfulness by some of the critics.”

His research and the increase outside criticism of the NCC led to the SEJ Conference leadership appointing him to give a report on the NCC at the UMC Conference. Watson’s report informed the conference on the NCC and concluded that “the NCC was in reality cooperative Protestant Christianity in America” and was part of a worldwide movement of “Christian cooperation.”[4]

Two significant outcomes took place as a result of Watson’s investigation into communism in the NCC.

First, Watson himself became aware of his deep connection and commitment to the Methodist church. As part of that commitment to Methodism, Watson learned that involvement in social issues and in humanitarian efforts was at the core of how Methodism began; the Social Gospel was not just a thing the church did—for Watson it was the core of what the church did.

Second, because of previous time constraints, Watson left immediately after his conference report was received by standing ovation. In his absence he was voted in as the official delegate to the NCC from the Methodist Church.

This appointment greatly expanded Watson’s interactions with decision makers in the Methodist church and other mainline denominations across America. During each of his interactions with executives from the Methodist church he would steer the conversation toward his “favorite subject—using volunteers in [the Methodist] mission program.”[5]

Though nothing came directly of these conversations—seemingly because of the aversion of Methodist executives to the use of volunteers in a work done by professionals—his associations led him to an appointment as a member of the Methodist Committee on Relief (MCOR, which would later become UMCOR after the merging of the Methodist church and the Evangelical United Brethren church in 1968).

Watson’s involvement in UMCOR played directly into lay participation in short-term mission (STM) experiences. Having learned of Watson’s commitment to using volunteers, James Thomas, a UMCOR staff member, called Watson just months after his appointment to UMCOR and informed him of a volunteer opportunity. Thomas, an official representative of the church, was essentially inviting Watson on the first UMVIM trip. Watson’s reaction: “After 14 years, we at last had a mission challenge. I could hardly wait to tell George [Strait].”[6]

---

[1] Michael Watson. “A Journey of Faith,” September 1, 2009, 2. See also Thomas L. Curtis. From the Grassroots: A History of United Methodist Volunteers In Mission. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000, 34.

[2] Thomas Aiello, “Constructing ‘Godless Communism’: Religion, Politics, and Popular Culture, 1954– 1960,” Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 4, no. 1 (Spring 2005): http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/spring_2005/aiello.htm. See also Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, The Politics of Unreason: Right Wing Extremism in America, 1790–1970 (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), 230.

[3] Watson, “A Journey of Faith,” 4.

[4] Watson, “A Journey of Faith,” 4.

[5] Watson details the dominos that fell in consequence of his presentation on communism in the NCC. “The acceptance of membership on the NCC General Board led to a series of events that included 12 years as a member of UMCOR, eight years as a member of the Board of Missions/Board of Global Ministries, membership in five Jurisdictional Conferences and three General Conferences and three years as a member of the Board of Directors of Church World Service. I also served as the U.S. delegate to the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas meeting in Nassau, The Bahamas, and to the British Methodist Conference meeting in Nottingham, England. I was elected to membership in the World Council of Churches meeting in Upsula, Sweden, and the World Methodist Council meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, but was unable to attend those meetings.” Watson, “A Journey of Faith,” 5.

[6] Watson, “A Journey of Faith,” 6.

Recommended Viewing: Mission Volunteer Videos

Today's post is part of an on-going UM & Global series on UMVIM and short-term mission.

Global Ministries' Mission Volunteers program has put out a series of ten videos related to various aspects of the program. Mission Volunteers is a program for what might be called "intermediate-term mission," with individuals or couples serving for between two months and two years. Thus, it's longer than the typical 1-2 week short-term mission trip but usually shorter than the placement for a long-term missionary. Like short-term missions, Global Ministries facilitates placements, but Mission Volunteers serve at their own initiative and expense, not as commissioned and supported Global Ministries missionaries.

The 2-3 minute videos cover theological, spiritual, and cultural considerations related to serving, as well as technical aspects of the program, such as the application process. Here is a complete list:

Expanding Cultural Awareness

Application Process

Theology of Mission

Spiritual and Emotional Health

Training

Social Media

Accident and Health Insurance

Health, Safety and Travel

Financial Support and Budgeting

Culture Shock and Reentry

Robert Haynes: Toward a Wesleyan Biblical Theology for Short Term Mission

Today’s post is by Rev. Dr. Robert Ellis Haynes, Director of Education & Leadership at World Methodist Evangelism. It is adapted from excerpts from his book Consuming Mission: Towards a Theology of Short-Term Mission and Pilgrimage (Wipf and Stock, 2018). It is part of an on-going UM & Global series on UMVIM and short-term mission.

As I have pointed out previously, there is a lack of direct engagement with scriptural teaching on mission used by United Methodist STM teams. When this occurs, that vacuum is filled by cultural influences. In a cultural that highly prizes touristic experiences, we should not be surprised that STM has been shaped, then, to resemble the American tourist culture in which it was founded.

There has been, largely, a void of theological work in STM. Training in STM is largely absent in seminary and theological education. As a result, that void has been filled with many well-meaning, faithful Christians who have acted without proper theological direction from their leadership.

Rather than simply treat some of the symptoms of STM, it is necessary to treat the root cause of the problem. Theologies shape motivations, and motivations shape actions. If we want to change the actions on a STM, a sound Wesleyan theology of mission must be taught at every level. Only then can lasting change occur.

Such a work begins with a careful examination of the Scripture’s teaching on mission. It must move beyond a simple proof-texting of the “Great Commission” in Matthew (though the command to make disciples is important) as an excuse to leave the country. Rather, the whole narrative of Scripture, that points to Jesus’ example and command for self-abasing, cruciform love and service must be embodied.

Two accounts of Jesus’ teaching on mission, and the disciple’s role in mission, provide a starting place for this missional discussion. The first is in Luke 4:16-30. This passage is the central teaching on mission in Luke’s Gospel. This declaration of the centrality of Jesus' ministry to the poor, the setting aside of vengeance, and the mission to the Gentiles is primary.

In this announcement of Good News to the poor, he has in mind not just the financially disadvantaged, but also those deemed as pariahs by many in First-Century society, namely women, tax-collectors, and Samaritans. In a radical departure from the religious and societal barriers of the time, Jesus includes positive treatment for these otherwise shunned groups. Such is the declaration of Jesus' mission. For Luke, the category of "poor" is not limited to financial position, but it is a social category that can be used to describe the disadvantaged, spiritual blind, oppressed and captives as illustrated in the discourse in the synagogue in Nazareth.

A second passage helpful for our discussion is found in the fourth Gospel. John's Gospel illustrates not only what the disciples are to do when demonstrating Jesus' teaching, but also how to do so. John records Jesus' post-resurrection appearance to the disciples and his announcement to them about this new reality of life: "Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'" (John 20:21) To understand the church’s role in mission, it is important to realize the “as” of Jesus’ message as a command to emulate his example as the disciples are sent forth.

Missiologists often see three key points in this commissioning: 1) Jesus showed them the scars from his crucifixion wounds. As such, missioners, like all other Christian disciples, should not draw back from human suffering. Such suffering could not be as profound as the suffering Jesus endured.

2) It is significant that the disciples are sent "as" Jesus was sent by the Father. They are to go in the same way God sent Jesus. The disciples are now sent by Jesus. That means that his followers are to do the things he did, teach the way he taught, and to the people he sought.

3) Jesus breathed on the disciples as they received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who will empower them to teach, to suffer, and to serve as he has just commanded. From fulfilling the Old Testament admonishments in Micah to love mercy, do justly, and love God to the commission of Jesus to "go" and serve "as" the Father sent him, Christians must respond to the needs of others. This must be done not only in transnational contexts, but in local contexts as well.

Wesleyan theology embraces the all-encompassing focus of the Gospel of Matthew: that believers have a responsibility to share in the work of Christ in bringing a message of hope in this world, not just waiting for the next. The assertion that Luke's evangelism to the rich and poor alike should be a part of the missionary message is another area of intersection. John’s proclamation of the work of the kingdom and Paul’s notion of the urgency of the timeliness of mission are both important premises for a Wesleyan mission theology.  Such biblical motivations are foundational to Wesleyan mission. Leaders of STM should actively, consistently, and robustly engage a biblical theology of mission to shape all of their practices. Only then will the current practice of a personal and communal pilgrimage, framed as a STM trip, be replaced with a lifestyle of mission that reflects Scripture’s teaching.

I am not suggesting that people stop traveling, stop serving, or stop learning. Quite the opposite.  However, STM is failing to realize its potential due to a lack of robust theological reflection by its leaders and participants. When the practice moves away from pilgrimage towards a more biblical practice of mission, it can begin to embrace such possibilities. Mission, including STM, properly understood and practiced, takes place when every self-abasing desire of the individual Christian, every program of the church, and the orientation of her leaders is consumed by the Mission of God.