INTRODUCTION
Short-term mission service is a current trend in missions that can neither be ignored nor downplayed in the efforts to fulfil or promote the Great Commission. It is an exposure or firsthand experience of mission situation for a period ranging from few months to 2 to 3 years. The primary motive of short term mission is to expose Christians to the situation on the field and practically involve volunteers in fulfilment of the Great Commission mandate. The rich experience of short term mission service inspires the participants to be more involved in missions, the exciting report mobilizes the sending Church for missions and the presence of short-termers encourages the regular missionaries on the field.
OBJECTIVES
- To fulfil the Great Commission by personal involvement in missions.
- To expose the participants to missions situation and enable them develop love for it.
- To complement the efforts of career or regular missionaries.
- To provide opportunity for prospective short term missionaries to have personal experience of mission field and confirm their call to long-term mission either as regular or tent-making missionaries.
- To provide opportunity for the Church to be involved in practical mission and mobilize the local Church for active participation in missions as short term missionaries shares their experience with the entire Church.
- To awake the passions and interest of the Church to her responsibility of making missions a priority.
- To realize the love of God for all nations and open the eyes of the Church to needs and challenges on the fields.
- To stimulate many Christians to be involved in missions through exciting and sensational report by the participants.
REQUIREMENT FOR PARTICIPATION
Salvation Experience: Prospective short term missionaries must be sure of his/her salvation and be able to share it with others.
Witnessing Experience: He that will be involved in short term missions must know how to witness and share the Gospel with others.
Church Ministry Experience: Any prospective short-term mission volunteer must have Church related ministry experience at home before enlistment for missions.
Compassion for all peoples: Compassion for all people is required for effectiveness on the field. Love for all people and ability to relate with people of other cultures cannot be compromised in this task. Ethnic centeredness is anti Christian and counterproductive to missions.
Skill, Talent or Profession for Ministry: Participant in short term missions will be effective if they have a skill, talent or profession for ministry.
Robust Health: Cross-cultural missions require sound health and any volunteer must ensure that he/she is physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually fit for the assignment.
INVOLVEMENT IN SHORT TERM MISSIONS
Recruitment: Recruitment for short-termers is done in collaboration with Students and youth ministries of the Nigerian Baptist Convention. Various Conferences of Baptist Students Fellowship and youths are principal avenues for recruitment of prospective short term missionaries.
Application: Application can be made by filling the response slip on this form or contact Global Missions Board’s office directly for am enlistment form.
Enlistment: Enlistment entails short listing and selection of candidates that made their intention known through application. Enlistment process includes interview of the participants, screening base on the requirements and investigation into the motive and reason for application. Every candidate adjudged suitable for short term mission will be enlisted for orientation and subsequent redeployment to the field.
Orientation and Training: Orientation program is designed to prepare the prospective short term missionaries for the likely experiences on the field. It creates opportunity for matching the known skills, special abilities or profession of the participants with needs or service opportunity on the fields, thereby determines the suitability of prospects for a particular field. All short listed candidates will be required to pass through missions’ orientation before redeployment to the field. The length of orientation will depend on the duration of the short time mission experience. Courses for orientation program include: Christian Discipline for Spiritual Growth; Introduction to Christian Missions; Witnessing Training course; Discipleship and the Great Commission; Spiritual Warfare in Missions; Cross Cultural Evangelism; Tent-making Missions; Faith Missions; Unreached People Groups and Its Challenges; Introduction to Islam and Muslim Evangelism; Indigenous or International Language study
Supervision and Coordination: The experience will be supervised by Global Missions Board Missionaries on the prospective fields to which the short term missionaries are posted while the GMB will coordinate the entire mission exercise.
HOW SHALL THE PARTICIPANTS BE SPONSORED?
Short term mission experience is self and Church sponsored. Individual who desires to have this experience needs to raise his/her support personally and through the local Church for transportation and feeding on the field. The Global Missions Board will bear the cost of the orientations program while the missionaries on the field will receive and provide accommodation for those posted to his field for the period of time they will be on this assignment. We encourage all interested Christians to solicit prayer, material and financial support from their local churches or Association.
RESPONSE SLIP
(Tick and fill where applicable)
I will like to participate in short term mission from …………… to ………………
I want to support Short Term Volunteer(s) with ₦……………K, Monthly ( ) or One Time ( )
I want to support the orientation program for Short Term Volunteers with ₦………………K
I want to be praying for the success of short term volunteers.
