You’ve heard the critique: Why go on a mission trip when you can do the same thing at home? They take too much time and money. Mission trips hurt more than they help. Sure, they might have been a normal youth group activity in the past, but not anymore.

Is that true? Are mission trips a thing of the past without relevance to youth ministry today? We would argue that they’re more relevant and more needed than ever before.

Right now the thing on most church leaders’ minds is how to keep young people connected and engaged in their faith. And we’re not talking about simply showing up at church once or twice a week – we mean students who are deeply rooted in the love of God and committed to orienting their lives around the way of Jesus. It’s not an easy goal to undertake, but it is the meaningful work that we as pastors, church leaders, and parents have been called to.

We know that seeing those results in the lives of our students won’t happen by accident. Our students need a chance to take what they learn at church and put it into practice. They need to experience the joy you feel when God uses you to bless someone else.

That’s where mission trips come in.

The Great Opportunity study states it this way:

We are learning from the data that a youth-group model as the primary means of forming young people in a culture that is increasingly at odds with the Gospel is not enough. What does work is actively serving together on missions (domestic and foreign), active training in what following Jesus means, and serving alongside other adults in the church.
The real opportunity for youth formation is much greater than 16 million followers of Jesus in our churches. It is the impact that these young leaders can have on our society and the world…

At YouthWorks, we believe that mission trips can be a powerful tool to help pastors and spiritual leaders cultivate a lifestyle of service in the hearts of young people.

If youth pastors and spiritual leaders walk alongside students as they get out of their comfort zone and serve the practical needs of others, it can have a profound impact on how they experience and live out their faith. Mission trips have the power to form teenagers and young adults in a variety of ways.

Our team refers to these as the “4 P’s”:

Broaden Perspectives

In our hyper polarized, social media focused, cultural bubbles it’s difficult to really see people that look, think, and act differently, than us. And yet, Scripture is clear that each and every person is created in the image of God (Gen 1:27) and worthy of dignity and respect. In fact, Jesus defines “neighbor” as those who may be differen than you in several ways (Luke 10:25-27; Matt. 5:44-48). Mission trips provide young people with opportunities to listen, learn, and serve those who they may not typically encounter in their daily life, in their social feeds, or even in their church. Ultimately, we hope that these types of experiences help this generation of Christ-followers see people, not issues.

Ignite Passions

Christian kids, teenagers, and young adults don’t have a “JV” version of the Holy Spirit. They’ve been given gifts, skills, burdens, and opportunities in the Kingdom of God. But many times, we don’t give them enough opportunity to discover and practice the gifts they’ve been given. During mission trips, young people discover gifts that they didn’t know they had. They begin to feel compassion or burdens for people that they didn’t feel before. They come to love a type of community or a cause that they hadn’t experienced much of before. They also begin flexing leadership skills that can continue to be developed as future leaders of the Church.

Expose Possibilities

According to The Open Generation report from Barna, less than half Christian teenagers in the US are confident that they can make a positive impact in the lives of others. If we’ve been called by God to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31), if Jesus gave us a model for what it looks like to love and serve others (John 13:15), if every follower of Jesus has been given the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:10-11), 100% of Christian teenagers should know that it’s possible for them to make a diIerence! Mission trips are a way to begin showing young people that they can be an agent of change. It is absolutely possible for them to be part of the solution to the wrongs that they see in the world.

Inspire Pursuits

Barna also reported in the same study that less than half of Christian teenagers are committed to doing something about the injustices that they see. There is a gap in Gen Z between those who say that they believe it’s important to serve and protect the well-being of others and those that say that they will commit to do something about it. We’re not okay with that. This is one of the reasons why YouthWorks creates trips. Removing yourself from the rhythm and spaces of everyday life provides an opportunity to evaluate your life from a distance. The experience of returning home with new perspectives can create a new starting line. It forces questions like “What do I do now?” and “What’s next for me?”

After more than 30 years of facilitating mission trips for over 3/4 of a million young people, one of our greatest joys is hearing from former participants later in life. Many are now youth pastors, missionaries, teachers, social workers, and non-profit leaders who were deeply impacted by their mission trip experiences. Of course, a mission trip wasn’t the only thing that formed them. But it was a vital part of their journey that led them to orient their life around serving the needs of others in the name of Jesus.

Living on Mission

Teenagers and young adults are growing up in a culture that can be shallow and encourage them to live a life that’s focused on their own needs, wants, and desires. We know that this doesn’t lead them to the life God desires for them. In fact, it’s often leading them to staggering rates of depression and anxiety. The life and life to the full that Jesus promises is available to our students, but it requires a counter-cultural way of moving through the world. The Bible tells us it’s more blessed to give than to receive, that we should not only look to our own interests but to the interests of others, that we’re supposed to serve
wholeheartedly like we’re serving the Lord. That’s a very different message that the one young people are hearing from their friends or social media. A mission trip is an invitation for our students to experience the counter-cultural way of Jesus. To see that what the Bible says is really true. To experience the joy of serving others.

Have you ever considered that Jesus sent his disciples on a short-term mission trip (Luke 10)? He sent them to proclaim and demonstrate the good news of His Kingdom in a particular place for a short period of time. In the process, He was forming his disciples to be the people He called them to be and training them for their future jobs post His ascension.

It’s one thing to tell our students that they should live their lives on mission or that Jesus himself demonstrated a posture of serving that we’re meant to follow. It’s another thing entirely to give them practical, hands-on ways to put that into practice. When that practice happens alongside trusted pastors and spiritual leaders, that impact is even greater.

There is a type of learning that can be received from a pew or a classroom. There is another type of learning that can only be received through participation. Discipleship best happens in the context of a community that is on mission with Jesus. Mission trips are not only relevant, but we believe they’re one of the most powerful tools for discipleship that we have access to as leaders tasked with seeing the next generation live out a deep and authentic life of faith in Jesus.

Of course, there’s a way to do mission trips that’s most likely to lead to these outcomes
that we’re after. We believe that there are some “only if’s” that have to be acknowledged as
we plan what kind of missions we’ll be involved in. Join us again next month as we talk
about what respectful and intentional mission trips look like.