Global dialogue with Steve Mayer

I had the opportunity to talk briefly over the phone with Steve Mayer, Global Outreach Associate at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids. Steve shared with me some of his thoughts on the current state of global missions as well as some great insight on short term missions trips. Sorry this is so long. I usually give up on long blogs myself. But be patient and read through. Here are a few highlights:

• For churches with international missions teams in their infancy, it is important to be very specific as far as what region or people group you are reaching out to. Being focused and specific allows for the community of believers to gain a greater sense of what the mission of the church is. "Too many mission options" can become nauseating and lack focus. The phrase tossed around in our conversation was "directed visions vs. a menu".
• In regards to building relationships with national churches, NGO's are somewhat preferred. Churches underestimate how large of a commitment going "one on one" with a church overseas can be. Time consuming and costly are but a few reasons NGO's may be recommended over church to church relations.
• Perhaps the order in which we reach out to others in an international church missions context could be retooled. It seems as though the regular routine is of relationships not being a means to an end. That relationship is the beginning followed by giving, sharing, loving. What if we changed it around and had giving, sharing, and loving, FOLLOWED by relationship being the end?
• We all tend to become wrapped in the "nobility of concern". A warm fuzzy feeling consumes us as we log onto www.one.org and sign the petition to President Bush asking him to do more to alleviate poverty. But when it comes down to helping out 1 or 2 people in our hometown who are downtrodden or have AIDS, it becomes extremely difficult. How do we translate concern globally to locally?
• And finally, the language used when referring to short term (S.T.) missions trips can be helpful in describing what we really are doing. What is great about S.T. is that the return ticket signals the end of your commitment compared to being involved in your community. When involved in community, it's always there in front of you. Instead of calling it "short term missions" or "service opportunity", we can call it simply a "learning experience".
• We need to listen more when traveling overseas as to what the resurrected Jesus is saying to us about our Western Church through learning from the churches in Rwanda or Southeast Asia, etc.

Thanks Steve for your time.