I was supposed to be on a mission trip last week.
With the exception of the two summers I was on maternity leave, this is the first time since 2003 that I haven’t spent my summers leading mission trips.
Mission trips are – for so many junior...
My four-year-old daughter, Hope, LOVES taking pictures. I mean LOVES it. Spend a moment scrolling through our phones and you’ll typically see three types of photos:
1. Those obviously taken by my husband and I, typically featuring our family or...
Effective mission trips require preparation. Preparation is needed to prepare your team for all that awaits it and to enable it to behave effectively as a team.
Given this, when is the best time to hold your mission trip meetings?
If you’re in a...
A mission trip adult leader recently mentioned that my predecessor believed that every student (and their friends) should participate in a mission trip. As a result, for years, my church has filled a coach bus with 40-50 students and headed out...
Because mission trips are, by their very nature, short-term, it can be tempting to use them as an opportunity to try out new leaders.
Please don’t.
While mission trips are indeed short-term, their short-term nature makes them incredibly...
I've just returned from one mission trip and now my focus turns to the next one. This week is littered with several meetings related to our upcoming mission trip, one of which is our adult leader's meeting.
At this meeting, we'll cover logistics...
What the book's about: Unlocking Mission & Eschatology in Youth Ministry is part of the series, "A theological journey through youth ministry", which tackles pressing theological issues as they relate specifically to youth...
One finding that's stuck with me from Sticky Faith is, "More than any program or event, what made kids more likely to feel like a significant part of their local church was when adults made the effort to get to know them."
One of the best ways my...
Ever feel as if your students are bored during your mission trip meetings? If so, perhaps that's because you're the one doing all the teaching, even though students learn by doing. For this reason, require students on your mission trip team to...
Millennials love social justice.
Give today's high school students an opportunity to serve, and most will take it. They'll readily fork over their money in support of companies, such as Toms, that benefit others. They'll also wield a hammer, make...
Successful mission trips require preparation. Proper preparation builds and unifies teams, roots them in Scripture, equips them for cross-cultural ministry, and focuses them on Christ. Regardless of what type or duration of mission trip your team...
Whenever I mention my youth ministry's rummage sale to people, they usually ask in disbelief, "You're really doing that again?"
To be sure, rummage sales are a ton of work; but as a youth worker, I love how they encourage people to purge in a...
In every youth ministry I've served, I've had students who come from families that struggle financially and, therefore, cannot afford expensive events such as summer mission trips. Although we spend a year fundraising for mission trips and...
On a recent mission trip, I interacted with adult leaders from across the country.
One was permanently attached to her phone. She called her office every 10 minutes to see if a crisis had developed she alone could solve—from 800 miles away....
At my first youth ministry job interview, I was asked, "How do you plan on fundraising the thousands of dollars required for our summer mission trip?" As a 21 year old, I'm sure I looked like a deer caught in the headlights as I fumbled to answer...
A few years ago, I met Steve, a high school kid and professed atheist. He and I spent a week together on a mission trip, visiting old people and leading a Vacation Bible School for kids. Without meaning to, in the midst of serving, Steve...
"What kind of irresponsible parent would send his or her child to Africa on a mission trip?"
This was the question that echoed in my head this past fall as I lead my ministry's informational meeting about our summer mission trip, a meeting during...
This time of year, my work mailbox gets clogged with one thing: advertisements from mission trip organizations, all promising a "life-changing experience" for my kids. With so many organizations out there, how can you sift through all the...