If I were the Grand Poobah of world missions, mission trips would continue, but I would not pass around sign-up sheets and send as many laypeople as possible; I would carefully and prayerfully approve selected specialists who had skills that could make a difference to the people living overseas. My goal is not to abolish mission trips, but to make them more worthwhile to the Great Commission and the Kingdom of God.

Here I go again, getting myself into trouble about mission trips. Here’s the thing: mission trips strengthen ties between missionaries and the churches that support them; they act as the public relations department of missions. For this reason, missionaries actively encourage mission trips. But when you do cross-cultural ministry, it’s all about building relationships – relationships of mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual understanding. This cannot be done within the duration of the typical mission trip.

The other day I came across a man where I am living while on furlough, a pharmacist, who wants to lead a mission trip to Malawi for the purpose of teaching Malawians how to make charcoal out of corn cobs and stalks. This made me go “Hmmm.” I went to eHow and watched a video demonstration of this process. It involved using a steel oil drum. I questioned the availability of drums among Malawians and plus I read where making charcoal was illegal in Malawi. Then I consulted Mr. David Epperson, founder of E3Worldwide, a ministry closely allied with African Bible College. He has extensive experience with introducing new agricultural techniques to Malawians. Here’s what he said:

Hi Larry,

Oil drums are available in quantity. They are used primarily as garbage cans. 

Making charcoal is illegal using trees or wood. I don’t believe it is a problem using a corn based product. In my opinion there are pros and cons to this. The pro is that some waste that would normally be burned off in the fields would be converted into usable material and cut down the on the use of wood. The con is that the women would still be cooking over a fire thus putting them at risk for lung disease.

I can tell you that if the group has no internal Malawian contact that is willing to continue with training and follow-up then the trip will be a worthless effort. It will be seen as another project that white or western people can do but not something a Malawian can do; hard to believe or explain without someone having firsthand experience, but it is true. Before anyone from the states can come here and teach anything there has to be a lot of groundwork preparation and relationships built. But then again you and I know that the majority of mission teams are really about them feeling good and not about long term results or relationships. Sad but true.

If the team really wants to make a difference then they will have a long term budget to teach and hire an ABC grad for a couple of years to do intensive follow-up. They would also see this as a short term fix and then work to help develop the village or area so the village can implement biodigesters for methane production. Methane is the cleanest source of cooking fuel and can be made from organic waste. Corn waste would then be used for a field cover to address soil issues and massive erosion problems caused by deforestation and other causes.

I read where the churches of America annually send 1.6 million people on overseas mission trips, at a cost of $2.4 billion. Most of the money spent goes to the travel industry, not to people who need help. On the day my wife was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, we had dropped our health insurance because we couldn’t pay the premiums. I think about that when the mission trip bus goes by my house.

We now have U.S. churches that are cutting support to career missionaries in order to have the means to send out more mission trips. It is like replacing the armed forces with high school ROTC. Just think of an African pastor standing in front of his house with his wife and daughter. What do you suppose he thinks when the mission trip bus pulls up and out come Americans with bottled water, hand sanitizer, iPods and digital cameras? From his perspective, the Hare Krishnas have arrived; why should he trust them?

If I were the Grand Poobah of world missions, mission trips would continue, but I would not pass around sign-up sheets and send as many laypeople as possible; I would carefully and prayerfully approve selected specialists who had skills that could make a difference to the people living overseas. My goal is not to abolish mission trips, but to make them more worthwhile to the Great Commission and the Kingdom of God.

In planning your next mission trip, ask yourself:

1. Who is this trip for, us or them?
2. How will we build relationships, before, during, and after the trip?
3. How will we do long-term follow-up and monitor for sustainable change?

Larry Brown is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a member of Central South Presbytery, and serves as Professor of church history, world history, hermeneutics and missions at the African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi.