Whenever I tell my story of how I got into ministry, I always include Let's Start Talking as part of this story. My dad left a very profitable career in industry when I was 14 years old to go to Oklahoma Christian University and help start the electrical engineering program there. It was a sacrifice, but one which my parents willingly made. They wanted to serve God in this way, and it allowed us to go in the summers on Let's Start Talking mission trips.
Let's Start Talking was started by some good friends of our family, Mark and Sherrlee Woodward. While there was no "language" for this at the time, Let's Start Talking was and is a very "missional" approach to outreach. In Let's Start Talking, short term mission teams go overseas to work with local churches. The church advertises "free English lessons" to the community, and these short term mission teams help people who respond from the community with their English by going through the gospel of Luke in 24 lessons.
How is this missional? I advocate a missional outreach strategy that is based upon Jesus' life and mission and some of his own statements of mission: seeking the lost (Lk. 19:10), serving the community (Mk. 10:45), sharing the good news (Lk. 4:43). Here is how LST fits into this strategy:
There is another great missional approach to LST that I have realized. LST has always emphasized the importance of "parties" to invite the reader to go to. Missional practitioners have realized the importance of these social groups in reaching out to people. (see Launching Missional Communities.) A small group may be intimidating for people. Many people are not ready to go to a worship service. But a fun party where one can come or go as they please, meet people, and make connections--people hunger for this, and it opens them up to Christian friendships. And because they have been served by these strange people that are there for no other purpose than to show them love and help them in their lives, this opens them up to the gospel message and to the larger life of the church.
LST mission trips create what Alan Hirsch and others call a communitas experience--a profound sense of community that is caused by people getting out of their comfort zone (and into a "liminal state") and having out of the ordinary experiences together. Hirsch puts forth in his book The Forgotten Ways that these communitas experiences of people going out on mission together is one of the essential keys in creating disciples--not only the people that are reached, put the "missionaries" themselves. That is, people are transformed into the likeness of Christ and grow in discipleship by going out on mission together, where they must depend upon God and one another (ala the "Limited Commission" in Luke 10). And through this mission, true community is formed--a much stronger form of community than could be formed merely by people sitting around and drinking coffee (although I love coffee). Anyone who has been on a short term mission trip knows that there is a bond formed with the group that transcends any ordinary church experience.
Studies are confirming these missional theories, showing that both teens and adults that go on short-term mission trips stay much more faithful to God and the church (see Transformission for recent research) They become more devoted followers of Jesus. (Watch the video above of one of the High Pointe teens who was transformed through his LST experience). So if we want to save the world--and our own children and ourselves--we will uphold mission in the church.
Let's Start Talking (LST) is a fabulous example of how mission creates disciples. I would encourage everyone to go on a LST mission trip if they can. The challenge is to make mission a normal, consistent expression in the daily and weekly life rhythm of the church, but together and as we live our indidivual, daily lives. If we can see our places of work, our neighborhoods, etc. as a mission field, will not be pray more, study more, and grow in our daily awareness of God? If we go out together in our small groups and adopt and serve in daycare centers, schools, neighborhoods, etc., will we not grow closer as a group and impact more people for Christ? We will surely encounter non-Christians in these locales, whom we will need to pray for and serve. And we will go back to Scripture, look at the life of Christ, and see how to be Jesus to those around us.
Yes, LST and other experiences like this (church camp, studying the Bible at the local jail with inmates, etc.) had a profound impact on me becoming a minister and becoming hopefully a "missional leader." So to Mark and Sherrylee, my parents, my camp directors and counselors, Chuck Monan who took me to the local jail, and so many others--thanks for taking me out on mission. Because of this, not only was I changed, but many others have been led to Christ and are leading others to Christ.
Have you gone on a short-term mission trip? How did it change you? How can we make mission more a part of our daily lives?
Comment
if you give a man a fish , he will eat for day
if you teach a man to fish , he will eat for a time
if you teah a child to fish , he may feed the world .
Alan reminded me about his new book, Faith of Leap, which is all about communitas and liminality.
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