Serve and Disciple

Every mission trip has two essential parts that must be kept in balance. We must serve our partners and those we are going to serve well, and we must disciple our team members well. If those two things are out of balance, then the trip is less than it could be. Mission teams that focus on discipleship of their people but not on serving the mission partner and local community will create teams that can do more harm than good. They can also tend to be self-centered and self-serving, seeing the mission opportunity as more of a tourist bucket-list item--rather than as a way to serve others. Teams that focus solely on cultural preparation, but neglect harvesting the spiritual lessons the Holy Spirit will present, waste valuable teaching moments. Nearly everything we learn while on a missions trip can be applied to our daily walk with Jesus. When we leave those lessons behind once we return home, missions be can become a shallow experience.

So how can you balance these two items well? We have some suggestions below.

Discipling well

Serving well

The resource section below includes bonus materials to help with your trip.

Why and how?

If debrief is not done post trip, there is a chance that the lessons learned will not “stick” with the participants, and the whole experience will become simply “something amazing I did once.” However, short-term trips can be so much more than that!

The Debrief

Legal Documents

We have included some samples of documents that you can modify for your church.  (This is not legal advice, just samples of what we use at TMS Global.)

Release of Liability

Emergency Information

Release and Indemnification

Additional Resources

Discovery Bible Study Explanation (video coming soon!)

DBS Guide

Source: dbsguide.org

Bonus Materials:

Reflection Resources