God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

We thought it might be helpful to collect all the posts from this week's short-term missions blog series in one place:

• Rethinking Short-Term Missions
• The Effect of Short-Term Missions on Poverty
• We Need Them at Least as Much as They Need Us
• Teaching as a Short-Term Missions Strategy
• The Importance of Doing Missions as Servants

We received a lot of good feedback from readers including this:

I've seen some disturbing trends form…. Volunteers are now dictating to the field what they will and won't be doing on their trip instead of being instructed by the field as to what is needed. We missionaries have allowed this…usually under pressure from sending or supporting agencies for an increase in volunteer activity.  

The short-term mission trip has become sort of a spiritual merit badge that churches collect…I've actually had leaders, on several occasions, tell me my projects weren't exciting or flashy enough. On the flip side, the teams that come willing to do whatever and are ready to share their faith blow my socks off in the way they glorify Christ during the span of 5 or 6 days.

I pray that we can put the short-term mission trip back into the proper perspective because they can be such wonderful tools for advancing the Kingdom. I hope a lot of leaders will…be challenged and energized to make their short-term mission trip everything it can be for Christ and the sake of the gospel.