15 Attitudes That Kill Short-Term Missions
1. Pride
(And now 14 more ways to say “pride”…)
2. Allowing busyness or disinterest to prevent you from learning anything about the host country or culture before the trip
3. Believing that the American way is the “best way” or the “only way”
4. Being critical of local customs, beliefs, or traditions
5. Being inflexible when (not if) challenges, changes, discomfort, delays, miscommunication, or misinterpretations arise
6. Refusing to listen to or learn from the people in the host church or host country
7. Refusing to step out of your comfort zone
8. Having an English-only mentality
9. Having the attitude of a “savior” instead of that of a servant
10. Focusing on “me” (how tired I am, how uncomfortable I am, how great I am for coming to this poor country) and not on prayer or serving others
11. Spending more time talking to your teammates than people from the host country
12. Spending more time “playing” than praying (that’s praying individually, with the mission team as a whole, or with locals)
13. Eliminating time for the team to share what God is teaching them, replacing it with planning, preparation, free time, or sleep
14. Eliminating personal time with God, replacing it with anything else
15. Losing focus, forgetting the purpose of the mission: serving
What’s the take-away from this list? Watch your attitude. Recognize pride and eliminate it. On your next short-term mission trip, go as a humble servant.
Rheagan said:
Right on! Not that we are in dire need of hearing this but it does help to keep us focused, I look forward to sharing this with the team. HAPPY 4TH!!!
Do you guys celebrate anything similar to our Independence Day in Nicaragua?
Nathan said:
Thanks, Rheagan! I’d love to hear what the team says about this list. Keep me posted!
Unfortunately, we don’t have the day off today for the 4th, but we will celebrate tonight with another “chele” (err, American). And we have Nicaragua’s independence day off, so we can’t complain.
Happy 4th of July!