Over the last few weeks I have been doing a little research into the training we utilize as a church for team members who are leaving on mission trips. We are sending people all over the world on short term mission trips. In fact, we have a team in South Asia today and a team that has just returned from Mexico.
Some of the preliminary results of the surveys that were sent out reveal that over 65% of the people who go on a short term mission trips will go on another trip. This statistic is very interesting to me. Stats can be read in many different ways, but I think in our setting it reveals that the chances are high that if a person goes on a short term mission trip they will begin a lifetime of missions endeavors.
We also discovered that even though we offer training to our team members before they leave for the mission experience, they are returning wanting more training (over 80% desired more). Some of the areas that have been suggested are FBCSmyrna’s philosophy of missions, a biblical basis for missions, flexibility in a missions settings, more development of their personal testimony, and a few other categories.
Our team is beginning to formulate a few ideas about what we are learning. One thought we are working through is experience precedes education. If a person can experience a mission opportunity they will want to learn more about missions. We also are beginning to see people who have never been involved with serving in the church are more likely to begin serving after they return from a mission trip. These are just a couple of observations that have surfaced through the survey. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out, stay tuned for more info later.
