Study guide
By Robert C. Blezard
Mission trips: Build an experience M
ission trips offer great opportunities for Christians to expand their worldview,
experience different cultures and learn how other people live. But it takes planning, thought and prayer to turn a mere trip into a transforma- tional experience.
Exercise 1: Past trips
Has your congregation taken mission trips? Who went? What happened? When did they go? How long? Why did it occur? What was the “mis- sion”? Were the goals met? Has the “mission” continued? How, or why not? What have participants learned? What has your congregation learned?
Exercise 2: Your trip’s mission? When NASA plans a space mission, officials set clear goals. Every aspect is designed in painstaking detail with a single purpose: to achieve the mission.
Play the role of a planner for a hypothetical congregational mission trip (or actual trip, if possible): Why are you going? What is the mission? What are the goals for participants, the people visited, the work to be done, and the relationship now and into the future? How does the trip’s mission relate to God’s mission for God’s people and the world?
Blezard is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Arendtsville, Pa. He has a master of divinity degree from Boston University and did subsequent study at the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) and the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia.
Exercise 3: Engagement Along with Europeans, North Amer- icans comprise some of the most privileged people who have ever lived at any time in human history. Even
the poor in the U.S. live with more wealth and advantage than most of the other people on the planet. Do you and the people of your congre- gation live with an awareness of your wealth and privilege? How, or why not? Do you tend to associate mostly with people who share your values and economic and social sta- tus? Can a mission trip to a develop- ing country open your eyes? What lessons can be learned from people who live on much less than we do? How can a relationship between people of very different economic cultures be mutually beneficial?
Exercise 4: Poverty tourism Consider this scenario: Affluent folks from the U.S. travel by jet to a poor neighborhood in another hemisphere, hang out for a few days, pass out gifts and money, take lots of photos, then fly home. They don’t keep in contact with the families they’ve met, but they love to share their experiences and photos with their friends. The trip was really a vacation, with poverty the main attraction. What’s wrong with this story?
Are critics justified in deriding some short-term mission trips as “voy- euristic” and simply “poverty tour- ism”? Why is poverty tourism bad? How could a careful trip planner avoid these traps?
Exercise 5: Accompaniment ELCA Global Mission uses the term “accompaniment” to describe its approach with the cultures it engages. It describes accompani- ment as “walking together in soli- darity that practices interdependence
and mutuality. In this walk, gifts, resources and experiences are shared with mutual advice and admoni- tion to deepen and expand our work within God’s mission.” What specific ways can you prac-
tice interdependence and mutuality with another group? How does the accompaniment philosophy counter- act the trap of “poverty tourism”?
Exercise 6: Missions nearby Think of mission trips your church has taken or that you have heard about. Who are the people visited? Why have they been singled out for visiting? How are they alike? Are there commonalities in their living and working lives? How do their lives differ from those of the mission trip participants?
Now think of communities nearby and about a day’s drive away from your church. Are there any whose residents have some of the same characteristics as those visited on mission trips? What would a mis- sion trip to a nearby community look like? What would be the advantages of such a mission trip over one that requires extensive travel?
Exercise 7: Transformation Share with one another a time when you learned or experienced something that transformed your life. What’s the difference between learning something and having an aha! moment? What should be the purpose of knowledge and aware- ness, if not personal transformation? How does God grow us through knowledge and experience? Do mis- sion trips help transform people into better disciples of Christ?
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