What Defines a Mission Trip?
Some people are about to get offended by this post, so if you would like to talk, I'd be happy to.
Now, let's get to it.
What defines a mission trip? What makes a mission trip different from a trip by a charitable organization? Last week I was in a one week class for "Introduction to Missiology" and that started a conversation between me and my classmates. Having an answer in mind, I came home and asked Enoch the same question. His first reply was "it's the difference in people's heart." But is that it? Is it just a matter of my heart, how I go on the trip, if I go with a heart of missions, it becomes a mission trip? No, but before I even ask those question, he added: "the presentation of the gospel."
Yes. That's it; that's the answer.
Yes. That's it; that's the answer.
If there is no presentation of the gospel, whatever you are doing on the trip, whether its teaching English, visiting shelters, even singing Christian songs, is just "teaching", "visiting", and "singing". These are not necessarily bad things, but these are not a mission trip. The purpose of a mission trip is so that the gospel can reach the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). But I think the confusion here is the understanding of the word gospel.
"Missions" and "gospel" are vocabulary that thrown around in the church that Christians forget the meaning and use it loosely. Many people know that the gospel means "good news", and they also know that it means the good news of Jesus Christ. But what we forget is that the good news of Jesus Christ is not just mentioning Him or doing things that are related to Him. The good news of Jesus Christ encompasses His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). By proclaiming His birth, life, death, and resurrection, the gospel will call one to repent.
Now having defined "gospel" and the purpose of a mission trip is to spread the gospel, we have to ask ourselves, "Does this 'mission trip' proclaim Christ's good news and does this good news call people to repent?" Our misunderstanding of the meaning of mission trips will only cause ourselves to fall. We may think we are doing it for the Kingdom, but you are doing no more than a secular organization is doing. You may be a doing it for a good cause, but it has no eternal value. Please, before you call it a mission trip, please consider how you are furthering the kingdom.
"Missions" and "gospel" are vocabulary that thrown around in the church that Christians forget the meaning and use it loosely. Many people know that the gospel means "good news", and they also know that it means the good news of Jesus Christ. But what we forget is that the good news of Jesus Christ is not just mentioning Him or doing things that are related to Him. The good news of Jesus Christ encompasses His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). By proclaiming His birth, life, death, and resurrection, the gospel will call one to repent.
Now having defined "gospel" and the purpose of a mission trip is to spread the gospel, we have to ask ourselves, "Does this 'mission trip' proclaim Christ's good news and does this good news call people to repent?" Our misunderstanding of the meaning of mission trips will only cause ourselves to fall. We may think we are doing it for the Kingdom, but you are doing no more than a secular organization is doing. You may be a doing it for a good cause, but it has no eternal value. Please, before you call it a mission trip, please consider how you are furthering the kingdom.
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