Review
I believe any church can and should build a youth missions strategy.
It starts with a commitment to train students in how to share the gospel with
their
friends, neighbors, and relatives. It must include a plan for them to share
the gospel with people in surrounding areas. We must also teach them to look
for opportunities to reach out to their nearest cross-cultural neighbors.
Finally, we must do whatever we can to instill a burden in students for international

missionary outreach.

The practical first step is to create a positive atmosphere
for missions and outreach. Your students need to see that international,
cross-cultural outreach
is a priority. That process begins by creating an environment where international,
cross-cultural outreach is honored and promoted in the youth ministry and
in the entire church. Several incredible benefits exist from taking teenagers
on cross-cultural missions trips: (1) it provides an excellent opportunity
to expose students to missions; (2) students will gain experience in practical
ministry and outreach skills; (3) a missions trip can excite and invigorate
the whole church for cross-cultural missions; (4) the guest youth group can
be an invaluable workforce of trained and prepared servants who can help
the
host church with specific ministry tasks; and (5) taking a missions trip
is a great way for your church to show that worldwide missions is important.

Potential roadblocks to successful and profitable youth missions trips do
exist, though. Those roadblocks include

- A lack of modeling of missions from adults or church leaders

- A lack of significant financial commitment from the church and key individuals
- Dealing with immature and carnal students (and adults, for that matter)
- The selection of a team of qualified students to go on the missions trip
- Securing adequate and effective training and preparation for the team
- A major commitment of time and energy from students, parents, youth workers,
and the church leadership

Part 5 - Planning YOUR Trip

Youth workers, if you are planning to take students on a missions trip next
summer, I have one major piece of advice for you: start planning early! Missions
trips are more than just another summer youth activity. A youth missions trip
should be the most well-planned event that you do all year long. In fact, if
you are thinking about taking a missions trip next summer, I highly recommend
that you begin planning right now.

Here are some things that you and your church should think through as soon
as possible.

-Determine the needs and abilities of your group.

It is important for you to have a firm grasp of what your youth group needs
and what the individual members of your group can do or cannot do. Youth missions
trips require a higher level of commitment, skill, and maturity than what would
be expected in normal ministry participation. Missions trips require hard work
from everyone involved. Only spiritually mature and faithful (in other words,
dependable) students should go. Do you have those kinds of students in your
group? Specific skills may vary, but faithfulness and spiritual maturity are
a must.

If you do not have kids in your group with those two qualities, I recommend
that you not take a missions trip. Instead, motivate your students to begin
serving in your own church. Let them prove their dependability and faithfulness
at home first.

Take a look at the Biblical principle in Luke 16:10: "He that is faithful
in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the
least is unjust also in much." It is not wise to take anyone on a missions
trip who has not demonstrated real faithfulness and maturity in church ministry
beforehand. The apostle Paul emphasized this principle in 1 Timothy 3, when
he stated that church deacons should be selected only after they have proven
qualities of servant-leadership in other areas of ministry.

Your planning must begin with an honest assessment of your youth group. Are
your students ready to go on a missions trip, or should they become active
participants in specific areas of ministry in your church at home first?

-Find a potential site for your trip.

After you have made a full evaluation of the needs and qualifications of your
group, it is time to find the ideal place to take your students on a missions
trip. Some major issues need to be considered as you think through where to
take your kids. First, it is important to remember that missions trips can
be very expensive. Therefore, it is wise to start your planning process by
talking with the pastor, deacons, church missions committee, or other church
leaders about the budget and financing for such a trip. Transportation and
other travel expenses (housing and meals, for instance) will probably be your
biggest budget items–which means, of course, that the farther away you go,
the more likely the trip will cost more.

Going overseas on your group’s first missions trip is probably too
big of a commitment for a church with no prior missions experiences in the
States.
It is usually best for your first youth missions endeavor to be a local
trip. That type of trip will give practical administrative experience to
the students
and youth workers alike.

My own approach to selecting sites for youth missions trips was to try to
give students various geographic experiences during their years in the
youth ministry. For instance, I tried to give our students four different
cultural
experiences during their years as senior highers. I wanted my kids to get
one large-city experience, one small-town experience, one cross-cultural
experience
(like to a Native American reservation), and one international experience.
My goal was to make each year’s trip different.

These things being considered, it is important to make sure that there is
a natural fit between your group and the missionaries with whom the group will
minister. Make contact with the host missionaries as far ahead as possible.
They need to plan for your arrival, and your group will need to plan for its
specific areas of ministry. It is natural for your youth group to consider
working with a missionary family supported by your church; the missionaries
know something about you, and your kids will know something about them before
they get there.

Make sure that you check with the host missionaries to find out if they
need help and what they might need help doing. You want the trip to be a
fit and
a profitable experience for both the missionaries and the students. Be
sensitive to what the missionaries tell you. They may not be able to handle
the logistics
of your group, or they may already have other plans in mind. If your first
choice of destination doesn’t work, open doors of opportunity for
successful and profitable summer youth missions trips are available elsewhere.

What if you do not know where to go on your trip? The logical first step
is to contact the home and foreign missionaries from your church or who
your church supports to find out if they need help during the summer.
After you
have that information, you will better be able to determine if what they
need done is what your group can do. You could also get ideas from the
home offices of various mission agencies and organizations. Of course,
you’ll
want to check for doctrinal and philosophical compatibility with your
church.

If you strike out in securing a site for your missions trip, send me a note
at mwalker@garbc.org. I might be able to make some contacts with missionaries
or churches for you. (If you are looking for an inner-city evangelistic outreach,
you might want to consider “New Hope,” sponsored by Vision For
Youth, Inc. Contact Tim Ahlgrim at tim@visionforyouth.com for more information.)

-Set the date for your trip.

Set the date for your trip as far ahead as possible so your people and the
host missionaries can fit it into their schedules. It will be imperative for
your teenagers and their parents to plan accordingly to avoid conflicts with
work, school, vacation, and camp schedules.

-Select or recruit the team members.

Churches use a variety of methods to select or recruit the students who will
go on missions trips. Some use written applications; others conduct personal
interviews between the students and the church leadership. Some churches recruit
team members by approaching qualified teenagers and asking them to consider
such an experience.

It is critically important to take only qualified students on summer missions
trips. Remember that the first missionaries, Barnabas and Paul, were sent out
only after they had demonstrated faithfulness and leadership in their home
church.

Again, it is important to start the selection process as far ahead as practical.
After the team members are selected, you then have the opportunity to work
on team building and team unity.

I have been asked many times what the ideal number is for profitable youth
missions trips. My answer to that is always, "It depends on the resources
available to the church." Youth workers should consider the financial
ramifications and the number of adults available to go. It is always better
to take a small team of qualified and faithful students than to take a large
group of students who are unqualified and unprepared.

One word of caution: be careful of setting the requirements so high that only
the elite could qualify. You want to take students who are spiritual leaders,
but you do not want to disqualify godly kids because the requirements are too
high. I have talked to some churches that set their qualifications for youth
missions trips so high that most of the adults in the church would not qualify
to go along.

It is also important to think through health issues. You want team members
who are relatively healthy. Health is an important issue today, when so many
teenagers take prescription medicines for physical or even emotional struggles.
This issue is even more important if you are considering an overseas trip.
(In any case, I believe it is wise for youth workers to have some training
and experience in basic health and first aid.)

-Train the team members in what you want them to do.

Another valid reason for planning your missions trip well in advance is
that it gives you time to train the students in the specific things you want
them
to do on the trip. It is imperative that you train them particularly in how
to share the gospel. You want them to have confidence in sharing their faith
in Christ. The key, of course, is to make sure that your team knows the Scriptures.
Their confidence must be in the Word of God, not in their individual abilities
or talents. You will need to determine which method your teenagers will use
to share the gospel. Some groups use the wordless book or “power bracelets,” featuring
various colors as springboards to Biblical truth.

Other skills will vary from trip to trip and from youth group to youth group.
Some groups put on sports clinics, others do puppet shows or dramas and skits,
and others perform musically.

Youth workers, please listen. If you are thinking about taking a missions
trip next summer, start planning now!