Missions Net - A missions resource for youth pastors

Trial Membership Thank You

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Thank you for applying for a trial membership. Someone will contact you shortly with the email address you provided.

Ministries and Partners By Area

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

MissionsNet offers a growing network of partners all across America that includes ministry venues in the following locations:

Matamoros, Mexico
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Atlanta, Georgia
Port Huron, Michigan
Brooklyn, New York
Denver, Colorado
Houston, Texas
Las Vegas, Nevada
San Francisco, California Washington, D.C.

Help us grow our list! To add your church to our list of locations, contact us.

How to Set Up Ministries on the Mission Field

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

How to Plan a Mission Trip

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"The Importance of Preparation for a Mission Trip"

When you prepare your students to go out on the mission field, you are following the same biblical pattern established by Jesus prior to sending His disciples out into the world. There's nothing revolutionary about this.

Why are we amazed when it has such a profound impact on our students' lives? If we're not asleep at the wheel, we'll realize that all of youth ministry is missions preparation. Many of us have about three years to invest in our students - just the time that Jesus invested in His disciples.

When they graduate, will they be ready to turn their world upside-down for Christ? Is this our model, or do we find ourselves co-opted by culture, struggling just to stay even with society's influence on our teenagers' lives?

If you feel like you're playing catch-up ball in a game whose rules you didn't make, then maybe now is the time to take the bull by the horns. Plan to minister with your group, and then plan to prepare them for that ministry. If you do that, then expect to see fruit of community, discipleship, and faith.

Questions to ask when planning a mission trip

Many short-term missions agencies incorporate a preparation process into their own program. Before choosing a short-term mission, be sure to assess the caliber of the preparation process that they sponsor. Ask the following questions:

Are there materials for those who stay behind (who help send the team) as well as for those who
go?
Will you receive instruction in the specific ministry skills that you'll need on the project?
Has a leader's guide been designed for you to use in preparing your group?
Do group members themselves receive materials?
Does the preparation involve substantial hands on experience?

How to Create a Mission Trip Schedule

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

How to Lead a Mission Trip

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

How to Resolve Problems on a Mission Trip

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

How to Find Host Partners for a Mission Trip

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Helping you find and identify the right ministry partners and hosts for you mission trip is what MissionsNet does best!

All you have to do is sign up for a free trial membership of MissionsNet by filling out our contact form with your own church and ministry information, and we will get back to you about hosting and/or sending a mission team.

Click here to contact us or get started with your free trial membership

How to Find Ministries for a Mission Trip

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Helping you find and identify the right ministries for your group mission trip is what MissionNet is all about. We want to provide you with the best forms of outreach that will complement your group's needs and skills.

Sign up for our free trial free trial membership, and we will be in touch with you, regarding what kind of ministries are available.

Click here to contact us or get started with a free trial membership

Sample Youth Mission Trips

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

Sample Mission Trip Schedules

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

Sample Ministry Charts

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

Sample Ministry Explanations

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

What to Bring on Your Mission Trip

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

Mission Trip Checklists

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

How to Build Ministry Partnerships for Mission Trips

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"How You Can Build Quality Ministry Relationships While Planning Your Own Mission Trips"

There are five things Christians should do to build healthy ministry partnerships:

1. A common purpose: building the kingdom

For biblical partnership to occur, it must be centered not simply around meeting one another's needs, but the building the kingdom of God. We desire to share hope with those who have none, we desire to bless those who do not feel blessed, we desire to obey Jesus' commandment that we love one another. If we enter into a partnership with less than pure motives, the partnership will contain the seeds of its own destruction.

2. A common spirit: Giving to meet needs

Consider the Philippian church. Paul writes the Philippians (1:5), "I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel." Paul, as a missionary, was a partner with the national church. The church at Philippi was the first church he founded in Europe. Once established, this church went on to financially support Paul's missionary work. In the process, they established a model of partnership that is being re-discovered in our day.

After planting the church in Philippi, Paul continued to represent those new believers, acting as their partner in spreading the gospel to new territories, a result he may not have contemplated when he first began to work there. At a minimum, they needed to receive Paul's investment with gratitude. For the partnership to grow and flourish, they needed to reciprocate by finding a way to meet Paul's needs as he had met theirs. The end result of them working together is that they greatly enriched one another. Though Paul came to the relationship intending to serve, he received in return.

Similarly, national churches are blessed with human and financial resources that they would not have had otherwise through mission projects. And U.S. participants may be challenged by the zeal and commitment of local believers. Perhaps they may acquire a vision for how they might be called to missions. They may learn to give and minister rather than seeking to soak up good teaching in a pew back home.

The kingdom of God advances as each side gives the other a gift they lacked. If ever a partnership, initiated through right motives, dwindles to a point where giving no longer occurs on both sides, then it will have lost its vitality.

3. A mutual commitment to balance

Sometimes the giving in a relationship can become unbalanced. One side clearly finds itself benefiting more than the other. When this happens the partnership is dying. Whereas each party may have begun on an equal footing, once one side stops giving and starts taking the other's service for granted, the precarious balance which brings life to a partnership has been upset.

4. A limited time frame

Too often, partnerships continue without goals or a sense of direction. Convenience and the warmth of past memories cause them to endure. But familiarity breeds contempt and lack of direction produces a lack of fruit.

Partners can limit the unanticipated downside of a relationship taken too far by assuring that they are always working toward a mutually-held goal or project. Such goals should be tied to a pre-determined time frame.

Once they have completed a project, they can re-assess their relationship. Partnerships, while based on giving, should always feel like a win-win situation. Limited time frames assure that this occurs.

5. A commitment to communicate

U.S. churches may fancy themselves as partners with overseas churches, but unless the above factors are present, they are more than likely simply fostering a paternalistic relationship.

Asking two key questions can help avoid paternalism and ensure good communication:

Will both parties commit to equality of effort?
Does either party have any unspoken expectations?

These two questions should be asked periodically throughout the relationship.

Why Partners Need a Third Party

Few cross-cultural partnerships develop spontaneously without outside assistance. Some screening is needed on both sides to determine if the conditions for true partnership can be met. As the partnership develops, the third party (often a missionary or missions organization), can help assure that it does not veer off in an unhealthy direction.

A third party can do the following four things to promote partnership:

1. Brings the two parties together

Blind dates are rarely a good idea. They are usually for those too lazy to do their homework, or too desperate to go through the time-consuming normal stages of relationship development. But how are church leaders who live and work in one hemisphere supposed to develop a relationship with their counterparts in another hemisphere?

Too often, church leaders assume that "people are the same all over the world." With their cultural blinders on, they barge into a country and strike up a flawed partnership.

The best case scenario is that someone who understands the needs of both sides helps them get together. Frequently, the best person for this job is a missionary. The missionary at least understands his own culture well enough and presumably has studied the culture in which he is ministering.

Even better, he may have a clearer understanding of the dynamics of partnership. He can bring the two parties together in a way that fosters partnership over time.

2. Facilitates understanding

One of the most frequent areas of cross-cultural partnership is the construction of a church building for a young congregation. American church groups love to provide this kind of assistance to third world churches since it is tangible, has a short time frame, and it enables them to meet an obvious need.

Yet, as in pastor Rodriguez's case, the potential for abuse is great. To understand one another, meaning and context must be shared. American churches should understand the economics of a given project, asking their partners to provide as many of the resources as possible before helping out.

The principle of stewardship should be borne in mind; American groups should stick to smaller buildings that allow small congregations to prove their faithfulness.

National pastors, for their part, should understand the visiting American church's need to make an impact. They should understand that American women work alongside men. They should understand that, given the short time frame of most visiting teams, having resources available to facilitate their ministry is essential.

Just as American church groups should be prepared for cultural differences, a missionary can also help prepare his national church partners for the occasionally insensitive ways of the visiting team.

3. Facilitates communication

Logistically, it may be difficult to communicate overseas. First, there is the problem of language barrier. Then there is the problem of access to phone lines. Finally, there is the problem of accountability for consistent communication, particularly in third world societies.

Often, the only way for communication between cross-cultural partners to occur on the mission field is for the missionary to ride to the national pastor's house, ask a series of questions, and then ride to the corner store to place a long distance call on the only phone in town. Without the kind of extraordinary effort that is often required, true partnership may never be developed.

4. Monitors the relationship for health

A partnership between two churches that starts off healthy may over time change in character. Dependence doesn't occur right away. It develops as one party gradually becomes accustomed to relying on another party for resources.

A third party can monitor partnerships for signs of dependency. As one who doesn't have a direct interest, this person can help steer the relationship towards health.

The Role of Missionaries

The roles of many missionaries, like the missions movement itself, are in a process of redefinition. While many roles can be performed more effectively by nationals, one of the key roles which missionaries can fulfill is that of fostering true biblical partnerships.

Missionaries can facilitate an in-depth understanding of the felt needs of the visiting and the national church and how they can help one another meet them without sinking into a dependency relationship. Missionaries are well-placed to really listen to U.S. churches talk about their ministry in order to understand how to better assist them. At the same time, they can come alongside national churches and do the same thing.

The analogy of the role of a translator is close but imperfect. There is much that both the national church and the U.S. church cannot understand about one another because of culture, language, and experience.

But it is not enough to merely translate words back and forth. Missionaries must become so expert in this business of facilitating partnership that they begin to act in the capacity of expert counselor. If, acting in this capacity, they are able to point out the potential pitfalls of such an arrangement and to suggest alternatives that better meet felt needs, they've facilitated true biblical partnership.

Also, see: Ministries and Partners by Area

Growth and Discipleship on the Mission Field

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"How to Take Your Mission Trip Team Deep"

If you're caught in the typical youth pastor rut of feeding your students with a wonderful menu of stimulating but shallow activities, you might as well quit your job now, because you're wasting your time. Your students need meat to take on all this world is going to throw at them. If you don't believe me, just track the ones you're feeding milk to now, in five years most of them will be by the wayside.

You can give them meat by making them part of a team that is headed like a guided missile toward a common objective. Such a team will love each other in a radical way - shunning the cliquish conventions of their friends at school. As such, it will give them the security they need to go boldly for Jesus where none of their friends have ever gone before.

Discipleship

If you really believe that Jesus' model of discipleship should be your own, then you may realize that you are pretty far off track. Jesus' curriculum had two components that a good missions preparation process will help you to emulate:

He modeled ministry for his disciples.
He gave them a chance to do ministry themselves.

He modeled his teaching in his own ministry. Everything Jesus told his disciples to do, he actually would first do Himself. Then he gave them real life homework that required that they put his principles into practice.

Good missions preparation is practical in the same way. It involves learning about the poor overseas by seeking out the poor in your own community. It takes you, the leader, out of the role of a passive purveyor of pallid principles and places you in the role of one who says, "Do what I do."

Just meeting on Wednesday or Sunday nights for Bible study is not the kind of discipleship that Jesus modeled. In fact if that's how you operate, you may be doing more harm than good.

To really turn your youth off to Christianity, give just enough of the truth to make them feel (once they've gone on to college) that it's a lie. Give them the plug, but don't tell them where the power source is.

Authentic discipleship requires that the principles you impart be fully digested in a real world context. This dynamic is at the very heart of mission trip preparation. It takes you out of the classroom and places you in the marketplace.

Faith

The value of a thing is directly proportional to its cost. Give a sixteen year old a BMW outright and he'll wreck it. Send him on a mission trip without required preparation, and he'll wreck that as well. The sharing is so deep in those teams on this trip I'm currently on, not only because community has been built, but also because the cost has been felt.

Group members have invested a lot of themselves in getting ready for this project. As a consequence, their expectations were high. They arrived ready to do whatever is necessary to see God work in their lives. That is faith folks.

God inevitably responds to faith in ways that astonish us and make us say to ourselves, "Now that's why I got into youth ministry!" But faith takes time to build and it involves cost. A thorough missions preparation process spells out the cost in advance and produces faith as an organic result.

For the sake of argument, let's suppose that this article has moved you from passivity or ignorance to a state of active interest. If so, you may be asking, "What does good missions preparation look like?" If you want to see a missions project that will produce community, discipleship, and faith, then look for a missions preparation process that has the following five components:

A DISCIPLESHIP TRACK - Insist on daily quiet times lasting at least half an hour. They should include Bible study, prayer, and journaling. Form accountability groups to reinforce this. If group members slack off, then consider excusing them from the team.
A MINISTRY TRACK - Develop opportunities to minister at least once a month in your community. Whether it's evangelism or service, make sure your students have the opportunity to put principles into action.
MISSIONS OVERVIEW - Make group members missions-literate by requiring that they study books that give them an overview of the missions enterprise.
MINISTRY SKILL DEVELOPMENT - Don't take green students to the field. If they'll be working on construction or a VBS, give them a chance to do it prior to their departure.
SUPPORT RAISING - Successful missions projects inevitably have a strong prayer base back home. Beyond that, there is the practical matter of obtaining funds.

Testimonies of Growth in the Mission Field

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"Reports From the Front Lines"

First Story: Alan

Alan Voelkel is now a middle school teacher in Tuscon, Arizona. When he talks about meeting a man named Humberto on his mission trip to Puerto Inirida in the jungles of Colombia you'd think that you were hearing about a scene out of the movie Romancing the Stone.

Humberto's "Rancho" was on the opposite side of town from the river. It lay nestled in the jungle, separated from the rest of Inirida by a 100 yard swath of land neck-high with pricker bushes.

Humberto and his friend Juan greeted us warmly. Both were in their twenties. Both were deeply tanned, barefoot, and dressed only in shorts. I peered into the front room of the house and was surprised to find a dentist office. The dental chair in the middle was unpadded and all wood. A cracker can spitoon flanked the chair. Leather belts, massive pulley hinges, and systems of gears and levers hooked the drill arm onto a bicycle in the corner. Apparently drilling teeth was a two man operation.

Humberto stepped into the room behind me. "Who is the dentist here?" I asked. He laughed. "Me!" He opened a drawer and pulled out some false teeth he was making. "Mostly I work on Indians."

"How can Indians afford a set of false teeth like that?" I queried. Humberto laughed again. "I don't charge very much, usually just a loaf of bread and some fish."

We sat down to eat lunch around a pile of fruits and vegetables heaped on a platterboard. At my prompting, Humberto began to tell his story.

"My name is Humberto Ramirez Castillo Sellano. I am the fourth son among eighteen brothers and sisters. I grew up in Zipaduira near Bogata, and left home at 17 to attend a university near Bogata. I wanted to be a dentist and help people."

He went on to describe how an old Indian witch doctor had taught him how to "see" in the spiritual world. "When I look at people, I see their spirits which are light. Evil men are darkness while good men gently glow. Some men are bright blue flashes of radiation. For example, believers are bright blue. That's how I recognized you.

A couple of months ago, Juan and I were on a canoe trip up one of the rivers. We camped by the river one night. I perceived a glowing blue light in the bushes. I poked my hands through the leaves and picked up a book that radiated intense spiritual power. I realized that I had found a source of truth. Here, let me show you the book."

He passed me a thick black book. It was a Bible.

"We've started reading through it from the beginning, keeping all the laws. We don't eat pork, we don't go to the prostitutes, and last week, Juan and I circumcised ourselves so we could be a part of the covenant too!"

At this point, Juan spoke up. "The only thing that bothers me, personally, is that I get tired of sacrificing chickens. We have to sacrifice chickens because we don't have sheep or cows, although I'm sure God understands. But worst of all, the priest in town refuses to do it! He won't even allow us to go into the tabernacle to pray! I hope that God doesn't blame us for it, because we have nowhere else to go."

"Haven't you read the New Testament yet?" I gasped incredulously. Humberto smiled sheepishly. "No, we haven't got that far yet. We're still in Deuteronomy...but we'll get there." He brightened up a bit. "We do know the new prayer, the Lord's prayer, though. A drunk soldier taught it to Juan, and we are faithful to pray it three times a day. Sometimes I wish that I lived in the days of Abraham and could just talk to God. That would be so good. I would tell Him everything that I thought, and He would answer me!" He sighed. " I can hardly wait till I go to God's rest and can speak to my Father. To think that the maker of the whole universe will listen to me! It makes me so excited." He sat back misty eyed, staring at the ceiling with a sad smile.

I practically gagged, what a privilege to give him his heart's desire! I had never felt more eager to share the good news with a man before. For the next four hours I showed him how Jesus was the fulfillment of the old covenant, the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Because of his death, I showed Humberto that he had access to the Father today. By accepting Jesus, he could speak directly to the God whom he worshipped. What a joy it was to skip to the end of the story and see that there was a happy ending.

My experience with Humberto showed me that God's Word is more powerful than I'd ever realized. It showed me the mystery of God's spiritual universe.

Second Story: Gullermina

Another front-line report comes from a Christian woman named Guillermina who lives in a slum outside Matamoros, Mexico.

My neighbor brought her new-born baby over to my house last Christmas. The baby was wheezing and looked like it was going to die. "I don't have any money to take him to the doctor," she told me frantically. "What do I do?" We had a little money set aside for Christmas. I knew we had to get the child to a hospital immediately, so we got a ride there, praying as we went.

At the hospital, the doctors did everything they could. They performed all kinds of tests, but the baby only got worse. Finally the baby stopped breathing and the doctor proclaimed, "This baby has no signs of life."

Though the doctors had given up, my husband Hugo lifted the baby up and began praying for him. Suddenly, to their astonishment, the baby came back to life. Everyone was ecstatic. The doctors proclaimed it a miracle. Seeing the power of God, the mother and many others became Christians on the spot."

Third Story: Joel

Joel is a lanky man with a big smile. He had left his family in Haiti to try and make some money as a teacher in the States. In Creole-accented English, he described the primitive conditions in which his family still lived back in Haiti.

Life is very difficult there. When my oldest son, Joel Jr. was just two, we had to get by on very little.

One day God gave my wife a terrifying dream. "Joel," she said, "I saw our little boy, Joel Jr., dead. Twenty days from now I saw him in this dream getting sick and dying. But then I saw that he was healed through our prayers. What will we do, Joel? Do you think this dream might happen?"

I didn't know what to think with this dream of hers. Of course I hoped that nothing would happen. But after twenty days had passed, our boy did in fact get sick. His breathing became more and more labored.

My wife and I didn't know what to do. Not possessing a car, we decided to hop a bus to the hospital. Suddenly, his breathing stopped. When we boarded the bus with his lifeless body and began praying, the other riders made fun of us. "You should have taken him to the voodoo doctor," they said. "Your prayers are useless!"

Just then, little Joel sneezed and began breathing again! Nobody could believe it. They were awestruck. But it was just as the Lord had shown my wife in her vision."

Perhaps we've embraced the notion that things are on a downward spiral in the world. The truth is, they've never been more exciting. God's army is advancing and conquering. The reports from the front lines are exhilarating. There's no more exciting place to be. Why not join in?

Missions Discipleship Literature

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Many youth leaders know that their group needs a short-term mission experience, but they opt for a U.S.-based workcamp because it offers the lowest risk way to fill their summer calendar. In the current cautious environment, workcamps aren't likely to get parents worried. There are so many of them, they can be fitted around busy schedules, and they require so little of group members that almost everyone in the group can participate.

I'd like to suggest that perhaps the time has come to reconsider our commitment to construction-based projects. By offering projects that appeal to the lowest common denominator, participants are never really challenged in areas where they desperately need a challenge.

For example, how many students have never been given the opportunity to rely on God? Give them the opportunity to depend upon Him to minister healing to someone who is lame and they may experience a great leap forward in their faith. Or how many students go through their lives thinking that life owes them a certain set of material possessions? By contrasting this assumption with the poverty of others can they see that they are off base.

So, next time you begin planning your group's summer, don't just assume that a workcamp is what God has in store. He may be asking you to stretch your team's understanding of His power and their weakness. Or He may be asking you to go beyond your comfort zone for no discernable reason whatsoever other than it's good for you.

Good literature and curriculum can aid this missions discipleship endeavor.

You may want to write your own curriculum or do some research and find some templates for what would fit your group.

To get started, visit MissionsResources.com, a website to equip leaders in ministry with practical tools for Christian missions.

Explanation of Listening Prayer

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!

Encouraging Devotional Links

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More to come soon!