In 2007 I went on my very first mission trip to Esteli, Nicaragua. We spent ten days in Nicaragua knocking doors, conducting Bible studies, and helping with a gospel meeting. Many people were baptized into Christ and several more were restored back to Christ. When I came home from that trip I remember how excited I was. It felt so good to have gone on that trip and to be a part of helping bring others to Christ. For several weeks I could not stop talking about where we had gone and what we had done, but soon the memories and excitement started to fade. Before I knew it, I was back to living the same kind of life I was living before the mission trip, and I really did not think about missions or evangelism very much at all.
For most people when they think about missions or evangelism they think about either a long term missionary or short term mission trips. The long term missionary lives in a certain country for a specific amount of time teaching and preaching. This allows this missionary to get very well acquanited with the community and the culture and usually is very productive. Periodically this missionary will come and deliver a report about all that has been accomplished. Everybody feels so good about the growth of the Church in that area, and many will express their thankfulness for missionaries that will devote their lives to teaching God’s Word.
When people are not thinking about a long term missionary, when discussing evangelism and missions, they are usually talking about short term mission trips. These trips usually last about two weeks and can be very beneficial for the congregation and city where the campaign takes place. Usually speaking, just like with a long term missionary, people are baptized, souls are saved, and many are restored. Short term mission campaigns give a great boost to the local congregations and also have the ability to really boost the evangelistic efforts of the people that go on trips like that in the days, weeks, and months that follow.
When thinking about missions and evangelism it is good that we remember those missionaries that go into domestic and foregin mission areas. We should give missionaries our full support and be willing to help in any way that we can. We should also get excited about the short term mission trips. Trips like this are amazing and so much good can come from them. But let us be careful when we think about missions and evangelism. Missions and evangelism are not just to be done by a select few people. All have all been sent on a mission (Matthew 28:19-20). Just like Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) we are to go into the world teaching and preaching the gospel everywhere we go. Some will go to foreign lands or remote parts of our country, some will go on short term mission trips, and others will go to their local communities. No matter where we go it is all our responsibility and our mission to teach and preach the good news of Jesus (2 Timothy 4:1-5).
Derek Broome