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How We Do Missions at The Crossings
For decades, short-term international mission trips from Western churches have followed a familiar pattern: mobilize a group for a week or two, travel to a new place, serve through building projects, evangelistic events, or Vacation Bible Schools, and then return home, often leaving the follow-up to locals or future teams.
This approach, which gained traction in the 1960s and 70s with organizations like Youth With a Mission and Campus Crusade for Christ, opened the door for thousands of everyday believers to taste cross-cultural ministry and fueled compassion for the nations.
Yet over the past several decades, significant critiques of the Western short-term mission model have emerged, many coming from both global Christians and missiological leaders. Common objections include a lack of long-term impact, dependency on foreign teams, models that center the visiting Americans rather than empower local leaders, and even the risk of unintentionally undermining local churches and cultures.
There are concerns about us “playing savior,” teams swooping in with projects that don’t fit local needs, and churches unintentionally promoting a one-and-done mentality rather than ongoing relationship and growth.
At The Crossings, we are called to do missions differently. We recognize the rich legacy and good intentions of short-term efforts, and we also acknowledge the need for a more biblical, humble, and sustainable approach. Here’s how our new model will break from many Western habits, and, we pray, offer something truly lasting for God’s glory:
1. Committing to a “Hard Place” for the Long Haul
Rather than picking a new destination every year, we will seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and discern as a congregation a single “hard place”, somewhere in the world where gospel witness is either minimal, challenged, or resisted.
Once God reveals that place, we will “adopt” it for the life of our church. This means returning over and over, investing not just in quick service projects, but in real and durable relationships with local churches, community leaders, and even the local government. Like Paul’s repeated visits to his church plants (Acts 15:36, Acts 18:23), we desire to “do life” alongside these communities, learning, sharing, and partnering for years, not weeks.
2. Radical Integrity in Closed or Restricted Countries
For many decades, some short-term teams have entered “closed” countries (places where it is illegal to openly share the Christian faith) by pretending to be there for business or tourism, while covertly evangelizing. We will not.
We believe gospel ministry must rest on truth. If entry requires us to lie, we forfeit our witness. Instead, if God calls us into such contexts, we will seek legitimate, transparent “front door” ways of coming, offering valuable skills, business training, or humanitarian expertise that meet real needs. If we are asked about our faith, we will be honest but wise, letting God open doors (Matthew 10:16; 2 Corinthians 8:21).
3. Leveraging the Gifts of Our People
No more “let’s-go-paint-a-wall” trips. Our congregation is rich with professionals, business leaders, healthcare workers, teachers, tradespeople. We will thoughtfully ask how our God-given expertise could bless our adopted community. If we are heavy in medical professionals, we might lead health education or hygiene clinics. If business acumen is our gift, we might provide entrepreneurship training or help local ventures thrive. The goal: meet needs as defined by locals using skills from our body, not programs from a Western church catalog (1 Peter 4:10).
4. Supporting, Not Centering Ourselves
Perhaps the most important shift is our posture: our teams will come as supporters, not saviors. We will not assume we know better or insist on our way of “doing church.” We recognize that the local body often understands its cultural, social, and spiritual context far better than we ever could.
Their leaders set the agenda; we play the background role. We are not the heroes, Jesus is, and the local church is His hands and feet in their place (Philippians 2:3-4). By taking this supporting role, we can celebrate the dignity, agency, and potential of our brothers and sisters across the globe.
What’s Next? Learning and Prayerful Discernment
In that spirit, I will soon be traveling to Ban Phung, Vietnam, to learn from those already laboring in hard places. My hope is to bring back lessons, insights, and relationships that can help us form our own church’s approach to missions in the years ahead. This is not a reconnaissance trip to “scope out” a project, but a pilgrimage to listen, study, and pray.
As a church, we must begin now to pray and seek God’s direction together. Where is our “hard place”? What could long-term partnership look like for us? Are we willing to invest for decades, not just a week? Let’s prepare our hearts to go, not just across an ocean, but across cultures, in truth, humility, faithfulness, and love.
May we become a church marked not by headlines, but by hope: lifting up and learning alongside our global family until the day when all nations rejoice at Jesus’ feet.
Pastor Justin |
