They just want to serve.  So they signed up for Vietnam, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Japan, China and even Africa.  Some went with a Christian group, some with secular organization.  Some had an agenda and medicine equipment.  Some had no clue what they will do and just arming themselves with just a passport and a few phone numbers.

That was the state of short-term mission at Midway in summer 2005.  Out of no where, young people making announcements: “I am going.”  Some asked for church support, some didn’t care.  But it is clear that many of our young people wanted to do something, anything.

At that time our church didn’t really have anything for them.  Sure, we have Mission Sunday once a year.  We would even pass a collection for any kids who want to be on a short-term mission.  But all of those activities were just happening on an ad hoc basis and not really a repeatable process where we can build on and improve over the year.

And so in 2006 we set out to make something more permanent to 1) guide the mission energy from our young people; and 2) involve our congregations in mission activities at the local church level and not just at the District or Denominational level.

The first thing we did was to write a Mission Philosophy.  A Mission Philosophy would set the basis to answer questions like: “Does Mission need to be oversea?  Would it need to convey the Gospel message?  What about a day trip to Mexico to build houses?  How different is it from Evangelism?  What are the advantages/disadvantages of sending our people with some other organization?  Would it be better to re-visit the same mission field or moving on from field to field over the year?”

Through a series of six Inductive Bible Studies through the New Testaments, a few of us got together during Sunday School time and discussed the questions like What is Mission and what is “making disciples” according to Jesus (Mt.24:14, Mt. 28:19-20, Lk.24:45-49, Acts 1:3-9)?  Who are involved in Mission, what is the selection, training, and sending process (Mark 3:13-19, Lk 6:12-16; Acts 9:1-19, 26:14-18; Acts 13:1-5)?  What is the biblical basis for Short-Term Mission (Mk.6:6-13, Matt.9:35-11:1, Lk.9:1-6; Lk.10:1-24)? 

At the end of this process, we also examine the existing procedure at the church and write up a Mission Policy to describe our “Vision, Beliefs, Values, Policy and Procedure for Mission” and a Mission Application form.  The documents were submitted and approved by the Church Leadership and a Short-Term Mission account was established.

Why would we need to go through all the stuff describing above?  Without a proper understanding of Mission, it is so easy to fall into various "Mission Booby Traps" and end up doing more harm than good, both to the goers as well as the receivers.

The next step was piloting a short-term mission program.  In summer 2006 we started a partnership with Philadelphia churches for assisting them with VBS and weekend outreaches.  We also participated with TeachOversea.org – a Christian organization which offers English classes in Vietnam.  That year we sent 2 people to Vietnam, 9 to Philly and support 1 to Africa.  This year 2007 we have 1 to Vietnam, 7 to Philly (4 of them were repeaters) as well as support 1 to San Jose.  (This is not counting continual efforts to send people to local and national conferences on Mission like Ignite and Urbana).

So far the result has been good.  Many people came back with fresh perspective.  A few even decided to embrace long-term missionary as life-goal.  However, we are still a long way off from creating a repeatable process to produce effective disciple-makers with a missional life-style.

But as you can see from the chart above, short-term mission projects are only the starting stages of the Christian growth process.  Remote Mission must be balanced out with Local Evangelism.  A fully matured Christian would have a missional life-style who would be effective well at any missional objectives, around the clock, in their own zipcode and sphere of influence.

We are not naïve to think that we are fulfilling the Great Commission with our Midway Mission programs away; or even with the highly effective Sport Ministry efforts locally here.  This is because we know that Jesus called us to “make disciples of all nations”, not just “hand out tracts” or “feed the homeless” or even “making converts”.

The call is much greater, encompassing various aspects of bringing the gospel to the whole person, strengthening them and building them up until they can also “make disciples of all nations”.

May God find each of us faithful on the path to a missional life-style.

We are still a long way from effectively "making disciples of all nations", but atleast, this is a good starting point.  However, keeping developing it over time would be more challenging than just starting it.