Go Well: Principles for Unifying Mission Teams, Transforming Individuals, and Serving Mission Partners Around the World

Western countries are sending more and more short-term missionaries into the world every year. The exponential rise in participation now shows estimates that indicate well over 4 million westerners cross international borders every year to share the hope and message of Jesus.While this is an encouraging development in one sense, it is dangerous in another. Having been a long-term missionary that received foreign teams, a short-term missionary and team leader, and now a pastor who oversees and sends mission teams abroad, it has become apparent that we must do better. There is a legitimate risk that many of our missionaries realize little personal long-term spiritual benefit and, worse, may even have a negative effect on the people they go to serve.The following pages put forth four key principles that every short-term missionary should carry along on the journey. While there are other important concepts, many of them rely on individual context and/or denominational emphases. The four principles presented here, however, aim to be universal and have been generally approved by a wide range of pastors and missionaries alike from multiple continents and backgrounds.