In this sermon, Paul Washer discusses the healthy and unhealthy aspects of short-term mission trips. He emphasizes the need for biblical methodology and stewardship when it comes to missionary activity, and suggests criteria for sending young people on a mission trip. Washer argues that missionary activity should focus on preaching the Gospel and advancing the kingdom of heaven, rather than being self-centered or frivolous.

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. So, a question that I seem to be getting regularly is, what do you think about short-term mission trips? Usually it has to do with a group of youth going to build something or do something, you know, on the mission field somewhere.

And it's not an easy answer. I don't think it's a one-sentence answer because there are a number of iterations of this whole matter of short-term mission trips. So I'd like to just talk about some of the things that are healthy and not healthy in this whole movement. Okay, well, first of all, let's recognize something. I'm just going to get it out in the open.

There's more, probably more missionary activity in the world today than ever before. And much of it is, is eternally has very little value. And how can I say that? Because it contradicts the Scriptures. Or it's not based upon the commandments and precepts of the Scriptures.

So we need to realize that where there's a lot of smoke doesn't mean there's really fire. And where there's a lot of activity doesn't necessarily mean that the will of God is being done. Again, we must go back to the fact that we only have one standard, and that is the Scriptures, and we are constantly warned in the Scriptures not to do what is right in our own eyes, that we need to ask ourselves, what is the biblical methodology? And we know that there are general principles there. We know that we're going to have to use wisdom given by the Holy Spirit to see how those apply.

But we've come to the point where we can literally, I mean, are we not like the book of Judges? Is it not true that with regard to missions, everyone does what is right in their own eyes? And no one questions whether or not it's even biblical anymore, you see. So we need to first realize our context is a people who are not really lashed down to the Scriptures. So when you get that kind of situation, you're always going to have dangers.

Now, we talk about mission trips. Are all of them unbiblical? Not all of them are unbiblical. No. There are some useful things that can be done, very useful things short term.

But much activity is unbiblical, unwarranted. It's kind of a reflection of our own self-centeredness. Let me give you an example. Well, say someone says, we want to send all our young people on a mission trip. Okay, whatever money you have as a church or as a family, that money is given by God, and you are to be a steward.

Now, are you going to tell me you're going to invest $2500 to send one young person who's never even really read the Bible, and send one young person, along with maybe 40 others, to the mission field. And you're going to take that money to send them there for a week, hoping that they get fired up, or zealous, or saved, or something, when actually that same amount of money could support an indigenous missionary for an entire year to preach the Gospel 24 hours a day. Now, it's not that we shouldn't have mission trips, but these are concerns. You are going to be judged for the way you use the money that God gave you. And we are literally, I remember one time coming out of Peru and I saw 40 young people with all the same Christian t-shirts on and they were maybe playing some kind of game in the airport and just making themselves obnoxious.

And they had been in Peru I guess for a couple weeks. I estimated that it cost at least two thousand dollars to bring everyone down. That's eighty thousand dollars right there. Okay? And as I listened to them, they couldn't speak Spanish.

What did they do? They really didn't do anything. But that church and those families spent $80, 000. That could have put so many missionaries in the field it's unbelievable. So when we talk about these kind of mission trips, you have to realize that just because you have that money doesn't give you the right just to spend it.

You need to ask yourself, what is going to advance the kingdom of heaven? Now, another thing, we never see anywhere in the Scriptures where lost people, or Christians who are considered carnal, or young Christians who are cold in their heart are sent to the mission field to be made alive. The people that are sent to the mission field, you know, you see in Acts 13, the Spirit separates them, the church is in agreement, and sends them out to do ministry. So we've really got to question these things. Now, if we don't do, you know, at HeartCry, we don't really participate in that, we just don't have time.

But if in our church, you know, some young people wanted to go on, let's say, a mission trip, they would be young people who we would say to ourselves, are they genuinely converted? Is there a sense of calling? Not that they're called to be a missionary, but do they have an understanding of the Great Commission? And do they show some seriousness about it? And then, I would honestly put down some training.

I'd go, okay, in our church you say you want to go in the summer. Right now, it's early fall. You want to go next summer. Okay, we're going to put some training. We'd love to train you.

You're going to read through the entire Bible. And we'll do some studies in that. We may get you a systematic theology to read through, we're going to give you some books on missions, we're going to talk to you about prayer, and we'll see if you want to take a mission trip. We're going to prepare you, you see. And so I think with sincere young people who genuinely reflect Christ in their church are proving themselves faithful to go into a foreign land.

And so that is a possibility. Now, fathers and mothers who are very serious about raising their family and they're investing in their children and they want to take those children on a mission trip, I think that's fine. What I don't think is appropriate is what's basically being done. Christian vacations, sending people who are not even serious at home, and then sending them to the mission field. The question is should they be exported or should they be quarantined, you see.

One thing that would be very helpful for a lot of people if they would just go talk to the indigenous churches and indigenous pastors who will say to themselves, we are so tired of receiving all these groups that do nothing and having to entertain them and run around with them. And I know that the things that I'm saying will infuriate a lot of people. But I'm sorry. You do not have a biblical precedent for it. And so we need to be very, very careful.

I'm aware of missionaries as they spend all their time coordinating the activities of people coming over from the United States. That's pretty much all they do. Right. That's it. In hopes that what?

So that one of them gets fired up and becomes another coordinator to entertain more? Yeah. Right. We're supposed to be sending out preachers of the gospel, people to do that, people who are equipped and ready to do that. And I know the pragmatic argument, well my daughter went and she came back and she was fired up for the Lord.

I know that's the pragmatic argument, but you don't send someone. Missionaries are sent. You don't send someone that needs to get there to be fired up. You send someone who qualifies. And it might be a young person who doesn't have the qualifications necessarily of an elder, But the elders themselves can see God's got their hand on this young person.

They're genuinely concerned and have a genuine piety. I would love to see young people go to the field like that. Yeah, some of the big principles. Those who are called, those who are prepared, and those who are going to go do biblical kinds of activities. That's the formula.

And in those biblical activities, let me say this. You and I both know that there are some young people who would have very little to give on the mission field at this moment, but you can see piety in their lives, you can see God's hand on their life, and by them going to the mission field for maybe three months, it would be just one more stepping stone to get them where they ought to be. Again, that would be wonderful. But this just frivolous type of sending and spending millions of dollars. Yes.

Mission trips are not intended to fire up your young people.