Back Stage at the Grand Ole Opry---A Look Into the Workings of Mission Discovery

Bringing a team on a Mission Discovery project is loaded with benefits. But the one that may go unnoticed. Every day there are 11 of us full-time staff here at Mission Discovery along with our 9 partner field workers, working to make your week the best possible experience for your team. From ordering building supplies to knowing where the nearest emergency facilities are. From having a backup plan in the event of rain to having extra water on hand with a team accidentally spills the 10 gallons on their site at 8 am that morning. No detail goes without deep consideration.

When I was a youth leader at Hendersonville Chapel in Hendersonville, TN and the years I was on Youth for Christ staff here in Nashville, TN, I did the planning for most of the mission trips planned. The two most memorable projects were in Belize, Central America and in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. In Belize, I assisted YFC director Bill McDowell with construction and outreach projects through an arm of YFC called Project Serve. We built a classroom at a Salvation Army church and lead a youth outreach at the civic auditorium there in Belize. I'll never forget the long lists of details for preparing for that project, then implementing it on the ground in Belize City. I think that Bill and I always felt like were were playing catch-up. Hopefully none of the participants noticed, but it had to be evident that we were in over our heads on the construction project and yet felt prepared when over one thousand showed up for the youth event at the civic center.

In contrast, Honduras afforded me the opportunity to take Bill's role as a leader of the project near San Pedro Sula in a community known as Higito. The team of adults was much different than the team of high school students I'd been with in Belize City, Belize. The adults were actually more childlike (kind word for childish) in there performance often seeking some kind of impossible creature comfort during the work day. Questions like, "Can you pick me up a Diet Dr. Pepper when you go into town?" "I forgot my Sholes Ice Pack...will you be passing a pharmacy to pick me up another?" Needless you say this community had never heard of the word "Diet" most of the community lived on $1 a day. I don't think Higito, Honduras was on the Dr. Pepper marketing team planning board!

Still here at Mission Discovery we find that each project brings unique challenges and rewards. Challenges that range from a simple supply need to team personality issues. But just like those projects I led as a youth pastor years ago, each day something falls apart on a short term experience. The good thing about Mission Discovery leading a project is that the youth leader no longer has to concern himself/herself with what's falling apart, we have it under control. The youth leader is free instead to focus on the team's experience, ministry and know that there is a plan to make "this day" successful.

I was recently back stage at the Grand Ole Opry at the invitation of Nora Lee Allen, a backup singer for the Opry. The beauty of the Grand Ole Opry is that it is actually a live radio show. In other words there is an audience, but it was never meant for television. So what you get is a stage with no curtain. The audience can see back stage. While the performer, Vince Gill, was on stage there were all kinds of things going on back stage. Everyones function back stage was making it possible for Vince to sing his hear out and prepare for the next act, Diamond Rio.

We believe strongly that your team is the next "act" to perform so to speak on the mission field. Our responsibility as Mission Discovery staff is to work "back stage" to open the door of opportunity for you and your group to communicate God's love through simple and complex acts of service and to prepare you to effectively hear the hearts of some of the neediest people in the world. I believe in your ability to be used by God to impact the world and see it change before your eyes as children and adults trust Christ. I also believe in the abilities of the poor to reach into your heart and draw you closer to Him.

This October I will be "back stage" in Montego Bay, Jamaica with a team of 40 adults from all over the U.S. and England. They will serve the poorest of the poor on the not-so-beaten-paths of Montego Bay sharing God's love wherever they go. Would you join me? How could you say no?

Top 10 Reasons to Take you Team on a Short Term Mission Trip

Pictured here atop a Mission Discovery Mexico house (top right of picture) is Bob Carol, an elder at Heritage Christian Church

"Maury, I'm having a meeting with the Elders of my church and I'm talking to them about why we want to go to Mexico this year with Mission Discovery for our short term mission trip. Got any help for me?" It really only happens a hand full if times during a year but enough to cause me to write out what I'd love to spend time telling a group of church leaders about the value of short term mission trips for teenagers and adults alike.

My experience may be unique, but most of my meetings with church leadership about youth short term missions as a young church staff finally led to the price of the mission trip I wanted to do internationally and then to a comment like, "Maury, can't you accomplish the same thing locally for less money?" That question positively shaped my thinking in a list I call "Top 10 Reasons to Take Your Team on a Short Term Mission Trip".

Honestly the question irritated me but also challenged whether I had really thought deeply enough about the "Why" of leading my youth on a short term mission project.

If you are a youth leader, establish a ministry plan that includes within its structure a plan to experience God! A a component of that plan is a short term mission experience that has levels of service. Some group leaders have a plan to offer a local, regional, and international project within the time frame of a students involvment in youth group. When the leadership of your church and parents know that an international project to the "Congo" for example, is a part of an ongoing educational/growth experience they are more likely to be on-board. Same is true for those who work with adults. This top 10 list gathered over these last 22 years might be of help:

10. Short term mission project support the overall mission of the church by involving the congregation/youth as "world Christians".
9. Teams who return from short term mission trips report that that seem to have received more than they gave. Some have even reported to us at Mission Discovery that they felt that the price they paid was much to low for the experience they received. Wow!
8. They return with a new understanding of the journey of the poor.
7. Most short term mission trips take people out of their zone of comfort. This added pressure brings great opportunities for change in one's relationship with God and can provide a "new" persective on life back home.
6. Participants learn by experience just how unique God's work is in other lands and tend to return home talking about their experiences with God.
6. Mission Discovery short term mission projects focus on areas of the world where we have been invited to serve alongside long term ministries. These ministries have invited teams because they know their value and consider them vital to their ongoing work of spreading God's love.
5. Short term mission trips involve more than just the participant. They involve the whole family even though the rest of them may not go on the journey! Each friend or family member participates either in pray or financial partnership in the project. Whole churches have attached themselves to participants in short term mission projects and benefit from the results.
4. Pre trip training for mission trips not only provide a participant with skills for the project, but for life as well. Mission Discovery teams learn to tell the story of what God is doing in a 5 minute presentation. That training is beneficial for a lifetime not just for the short term mission trip.
3. We place value on higher education and are willing to invest our time and dollars in that education. Consider the average price of a short term mission experience being about $500 U.S. The return on that investment is lifelong.
2. Teams learn the difference between the God of their culture and the God of this world.
1. Because the scripture encourages us to go to witness the works of God in Jerusalem, Judia, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

Remember, when your you are able to explain clearly how your mission trip fits in the larger picture of the churches plan for mobilizing people to serve God, it becomes not a matter of will the project happen but when! Once church leadership sees you are only fulfilling "their" vision they can only say "yes!"

Watching Gustav and Hannah

Today I am in Salisbury, NC having just spent the weekend at St. John's Lutheran Church. It was great to be with the team who served in Guatemala with Mission Discovery recently. Thanks out to Paul, Tyler, David and Julie for the great meals and accommodations.

Received a call yesterday from my friend Chris in Tennessee asking what Mission Discovery teams would be doing in light of Hurricane Gustav. We are, like you, watching the reports from the coast and in contact with your resources who live in the area, but currently no plans have been laid as yet for a response. We do anticipate that we can respond and will keep you in touch through this blog and our news area of the Mission Discovery website.

FYI for those of you who know John and Sally Sullivan from Gulfport, Mississippi. I spoke with Sally yesterday and they have evacuated to northern Mississippi.