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Missions Articles

Impacting Your Community

by Jeff Thompson on 06/30/2010

Two entirely different situations. Two entirely different people.

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Top 3 Myths to Avoid as Short-Term Missionary in Latin America

by Arturo Paulino on 05/19/2010

One of the little surprises I've encountered while living in Dublin, GA is that there's a strong connection between local churches and missions in Latin America. Each year there are medical missions, students and construction groups that travel to Mexico, Dominican Republic, other Latin American countries, and most recently Haiti, with the purpose of lending a helping hand.

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Are We Training Up Our Teen’s to be Priests and Levites?

by Brian Ford on 04/26/2010

I’m sure by the time you read this post you’ve already seen the video footage of the homeless man that helped a woman that was being mugged. He was stabbed and then left for dead on the sidewalk. For an hour he laid there with no help. People just passed by him, stared and one person even took a picture of the dying, bleeding man with his cell phone. When I saw this it disgusted me. But it also stirred something else in my heart and mind. Are we training our teens to be the Samaritan or to be like the priest and Levite?

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Engage Your Identity

by Patrick Snow on 04/12/2010

Have you ever noticed the oddness of a single piece of a jigsaw puzzle? It has no basic shape, pieces are cut out around it, and there are weird balloon-like protrusions jutting out from its sides. Imagine stumbling upon one of these pieces by itself and not knowing that it’s a piece to a puzzle. You would immediately discard it believing it to be a worthless item. But it’s not worthless, not to the person who made it. To the one who created the puzzle piece, it’s beautiful.

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Small Church Big Mission Trips

by Scott Loar on 02/09/2010

When God's people commit to work...he shows up!

Being an older youth minister (over 50) has given me many years to be involed in and lead mission trips. I have served mainly in smaller churches during my ministry and there is one thing I am convienved of, and that is the power of God in evidence on mission trips. When God's people commit to work...he shows up!

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Making the Most of Your Mission Trip

by Neal Benson on 12/11/2009

Teach your leaders to lead, help them lead, and let the team know that they’re going to lead.

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Youth Mission Trips – Knowing the Why, Not Just Where?

by Brian Ford on 11/19/2009

If we’re not careful it can become all about meeting physical needs, but at the core of every mission trip we are called to bring the gospel wherever we go.

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Missions...In School?

by Nathan Carter on 08/28/2009

I had been approaching missions all wrong with these youth...

4 Comments

Short Term Mission Trips Work

by Toby Rowe on 05/18/2009

There are always some articles floating around that question the value of a short term mission trip. I don't get it. Unless you've decided to have your youth group donate ice to Eskimos, and assuming there's solid spiritual and logistical planning, short term mission trips work. How do I know this? Because I've seen it.

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Three Mistakes Youth Workers Make with Mission Trips

by Doug Franklin on 05/15/2009

It seems odd to me that when our teenagers are most ready to make applications and life-changing commitments that we're out of town.

1 Comment

More Proof of Youth Mission Trip Effectiveness

by Doc Newcomb on 09/13/2007

I got to spend time with youth workers last weekend at Group's National Youth Ministry Conference in Indianapolis. Youth workers tend to be more fun, more goofy, less full of themselves, and more authentic than most people I get to hang with. And, of course, it's always a joy to be with people who love teenagers as much as I do.

3 Comments

Boys and Youth Mission Trips

by Doc Newcomb on 09/14/2007

In my youth ministry experience, I seemed to have more girls involved than boys. That wasn't always the case, but more often than not there were more girls who came to our youth ministry activities than boys. Including the mission trips. In fact, of the thousands of youth who participate in Group Workcamps Foundation each summer, there are more girls than boys.

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Final Prep for the Youth Mission Trip

by Doc Newcomb on 09/14/2007

To help your youth and adults prepare for the trip, to get the most out of it and to provide the best possible service when you get there, here are a few tips of what to cover with your group before you go. And the pastor in me has even managed to make each category start with the letter "S"!

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A Theology of Youth Mission Trips

by Doc Newcomb on 09/14/2007

For me the answer is simple. It works. Teenagers serve others, and, in the process, those young people grow closer to God. I've never seen anything like mission trips for helping young people figure out what being a Christian is all about. What could be wrong with that?

1 Comment

Great Adults Make Great Youth Ministry

by Doc Newcomb on 09/17/2007

I don’t know how I thought I’d drive everyone to our events, or be everywhere at once, or find the time in my already crammed schedule. But then it happened--I needed adults for the mission trip. I couldn’t drive all the vans and do all the chaperone details, so I put out the word to the congregation: HELP!!

2 Comments

Mission Trips and Too-Busy Kids

by Doc Newcomb on 10/31/2007

But you and I both know how formative mission trips can be for the faith lives of our kids. We know the power of putting them in a position to serve because of their love for God and neighbor, and how they grow by leaps and bounds in their relationship with Jesus on mission trips.

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Mission Trip Prep

by Grant Byrd on 02/12/2008

After years in youth ministry, the one event that impacts our students the most are mission trips. But here’s another secret—the trip itself is the icing but the preparation is the cake! Don’t miss out on the cake because it makes the event so much more powerful!

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Making Your Good Trip Great

by Doug Franklin on 03/18/2008

The trip is all planned and everything is ready to go...You are going to have a good trip. Many good youth workers make it this far, but few do the little extraordinary things to make a trip great. Let me give you three ideas that can turn your good trip into a great one.

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Raising 'Timothies' to Reach the World

by Mary J. Davis on 06/09/2008

Just as one church from Iowa has raised up many 'timothies' for God's work, any church can raise up God’s workers, with a little effort and a lot of encouragement.

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10 Keys to Leading a Great Mission Trip

by Doug Franklin on 07/03/2008

For the past few months, I have been making presentations to adult volunteers who will be going on summer mission trips with LeaderTreks.

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Beyond Good

by Doug Franklin on 04/22/2008

I have just returned from one of our mission sites where I had the chance to watch a good team have a positive mission's experience. The students loved the kids at VBS and were willing to do anything asked of them. Everything about the trip looked good. The youth pastor was happy, his adult staff felt purposeful. On the surface the trip looked great.

5 Comments

Missions...In School?

by Nathan Carter on 08/28/2009

I had been approaching missions all wrong with these youth...

4 Comments

More Proof of Youth Mission Trip Effectiveness

by Doc Newcomb on 09/13/2007

I got to spend time with youth workers last weekend at Group's National Youth Ministry Conference in Indianapolis. Youth workers tend to be more fun, more goofy, less full of themselves, and more authentic than most people I get to hang with. And, of course, it's always a joy to be with people who love teenagers as much as I do.

3 Comments

Great Adults Make Great Youth Ministry

by Doc Newcomb on 09/17/2007

I don’t know how I thought I’d drive everyone to our events, or be everywhere at once, or find the time in my already crammed schedule. But then it happened--I needed adults for the mission trip. I couldn’t drive all the vans and do all the chaperone details, so I put out the word to the congregation: HELP!!

2 Comments

Why can't we just do that here?

by Tim Kurth on 10/31/2007

Maybe you get the work done but you miss the real impact of going on a mission trip. When you go away from home you cut the connection. Being three hundred miles away eliminates all the excuses. You get work done but you get so much more including a stronger bond among your young people and the adults who go with them.

2 Comments

The Dirty Little Secret About Mission Trips

by Bo Cassell on 11/14/2007

Ask yourself how each activity can be a building block to creating a missions lifestyle in your young people. Real life is about mission, and mission is the best way to express our real-life worship.

2 Comments

Using a Youth Missions Provider

by Doc Newcomb on 09/13/2007

She leads three mission trips each summer. One with the junior high, one with the senior high, and one with young adults. She knows first-hand how powerful mission trips are in shaping faith in people. She knows how valuable it is to take people away for a week of service.

1 Comment

Boys and Youth Mission Trips

by Doc Newcomb on 09/14/2007

I love ministry with both girls and boys, and I try to serve them equally. And while I won’t spend a lot of time highlighting those differences here, I’d like to offer some of the differences and show how mission trips impact our young people.

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Tips on Missions All Around Us

by Doc Newcomb on 09/14/2007

In the van ride to our hotel the first day, we talked with our driver. He was a nice man, and he asked about the big totes we were carrying. We told him we were there for a big youth convention, and he knew right away what we were talking about.

1 Comment

A Theology of Youth Mission Trips

by Doc Newcomb on 09/14/2007

For me the answer is simple. It works. Teenagers serve others, and, in the process, those young people grow closer to God. I've never seen anything like mission trips for helping young people figure out what being a Christian is all about. What could be wrong with that?

1 Comment