Mission trips, or Christian tourism?
Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:55 pm
I found this article online that offers a perspective that many people had never thought about before regarding mission trips.
"My family has a term for short term missions: Christian tourism. The point is that the vast majority of short term missions trips are not for the people you’re purportedly going to help. They’re for you. You gain far more from them than they do from you, and with far less potential for harm. The problem is that most short term missionaries don’t realize that, and most short term mission trips are not structured and run from that perspective. The result is more condescension than compassion, and often more self-satisfaction for having done such great humanitarian work than humility and gratitude for the much greater (and more intangible) gifts we receive from those we thought we were helping. That’s not to say that our kids don’t come back with their eyes a little more open, their perspectives a bit changed, their worldview a tad broader—but the effect is often fleeting, the lessons learned soon forgotten."
"Call it what it is. Be honest and up front about what you’re going to do. Unless you’re going to provide disaster relief after a major natural disaster or medical aid to displaced refugees*, the reason you’re going is not to help them (whoever “they” are). You’re going so that you can learn from them. So talk that way, act that way. Teach youth to have the correct expectations, and tell them to be honest with their sponsors about the purpose of their trip. Teach them also to be honest about their purpose with the people they will come into contact with abroad. They should communicate to their hosts that they are there to learn from them, to gain a new perspective on the world and to be encouraged and strengthened in their faith—not to help them."
'When Short Term Missions is Actually Christian Tourism".
http://www.jbwtucker.com/when-short-ter ... n-tourism/
"My family has a term for short term missions: Christian tourism. The point is that the vast majority of short term missions trips are not for the people you’re purportedly going to help. They’re for you. You gain far more from them than they do from you, and with far less potential for harm. The problem is that most short term missionaries don’t realize that, and most short term mission trips are not structured and run from that perspective. The result is more condescension than compassion, and often more self-satisfaction for having done such great humanitarian work than humility and gratitude for the much greater (and more intangible) gifts we receive from those we thought we were helping. That’s not to say that our kids don’t come back with their eyes a little more open, their perspectives a bit changed, their worldview a tad broader—but the effect is often fleeting, the lessons learned soon forgotten."
"Call it what it is. Be honest and up front about what you’re going to do. Unless you’re going to provide disaster relief after a major natural disaster or medical aid to displaced refugees*, the reason you’re going is not to help them (whoever “they” are). You’re going so that you can learn from them. So talk that way, act that way. Teach youth to have the correct expectations, and tell them to be honest with their sponsors about the purpose of their trip. Teach them also to be honest about their purpose with the people they will come into contact with abroad. They should communicate to their hosts that they are there to learn from them, to gain a new perspective on the world and to be encouraged and strengthened in their faith—not to help them."
'When Short Term Missions is Actually Christian Tourism".
http://www.jbwtucker.com/when-short-ter ... n-tourism/