Mission Trips for the Wealthy?

I've got some more stories and pictures from our recent trip to the Gulf Coast coming this weekend, but in the meantime, I thought that I'd point to this article:

                     

Ritzy missions trips aim for wealthy


    HAMILTON, Bermuda — This year, instead of helping a missions team build a church sanctuary in Honduras, Bill Taylor of Open Bible Church in Wichita is evangelizing at beach resorts in Bermuda.
    "Now this is missions work," says Taylor while striking up spiritual conversation with wealthy resort guests.
    As more church-goers tire of spending vacation time in the Third World, churches are taking a break from poverty and targeting the luxury class with the gospel.
    "Our worldview had gotten too narrow," says one pastor. "Rich people need Jesus, too."
    Grace Family Church of Littleton, Colo., recently started a ministry called Higher Calling and sent a missions team to tony boutiques in Milan’s fashion district. The group reached out to watchmakers, jewelry store workers and super-wealthy patrons.
    "People who were never interested in missions trips are jumping at the chance to go," says the pastor.
    Team member Joyce Andrews says the salespeople "will tolerate a lot of evangelizing if you are committed to buying a diamond necklace or a watch." Andrews says she felt vastly more effective evangelizing luxury jewelry shop employees than on her last three trips to Central America.
    "I feel useless in poor places," she says. "But I found I fit very well in wealthier environments. Striking up spiritual conversations at the perfume counter is right up my alley."
    Pastor Brent Keefauver says his congregation in Miami was suffering from "poverty fatigue" because of the malnutrition and generally dismal motif most missions trips offer.
    "We were gaining a global perspective, but losing the joy of the Lord," he says. "We had to switch gears fast."
   

So he started the Yahweh Yacht Club Ministry to reach a neglected global constituency — yacht owners. The church rented a 40-foot sloop for missions trips. The waiting list to go is now five years long.
    "It has totally re-energized our missions program," Keefauver says.
    This year twelve team members took the yacht to exclusive ports and held deck parties for other yacht owners.
    "As an unreached people group, the rich have to be handled differently," says the group leader. "But they’re just as needy as anyone else. They’re intrigued that evangelical Christians are suddenly appearing in their world."
    On the beaches of Bermuda, the team from Open Bible Church says wealthy vacationers are open to spiritual conversations, especially after they’ve had several drinks. One team member breathlessly recounts evangelizing the vice president of "some big tech company" at the pool bar.
    "Nothing against the poor people we evangelized last year, but this time we’re influencing influencers," she says.
    At a super-luxury resort, Taylor roams the pool deck wearing a big t-shirt that declares, "Jesus Made Me Rich." When people comment on it, he replies that Jesus made him rich in heavenly blessings, then quickly goes into his testimony.
    "Last year I was hefting cinder blocks, trying to relate to orphans and sleeping in a church with no roof," says Taylor. "But now I’ve found my calling." •

ME:  This is an article from Larknews, which is a Christian satire site. I thought it was pretty funny. But, it speaks to a larger issue. I've led a lot of mission trips all over the world. But, I find that people are often interested in going to exotic places and doing things overseas that they would not do in their hometown. Is it because we fall more in love with the experience and the adventure than they do with actually serving the Lord and serving people? I think that that is likely the case, but it is somehting that we need to help make people aware of. Global missions is an exciting and rewarding enterprise. But, if you are not willing to do the work at home for no expense, then you probably do not need to spend $2,500 to do it overseas.

That's just my take. But, to truly live a missional lifestyle we need to de-glamourize missions and make it more normal. It needs to be more like work where we roll up our sleeves and get the job done. This needs to happen globally, and locally as well. How do you help build this mentality into people? I'll have some ideas for you about some things that we are doing in a future post. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Tim Sweatman]

I think there is some truth to your hypothesis that people often serve on mission trips because of the sense of adventure and excitement. But I wonder if there are also other factors at play. I would guess that some people are more willing to serve among strangers than among people who know them. This could be because they don't want to gain a reputation as a Jesus freak, or it could just as likely be that they don't want to be accused of hypocrisy by those who really know them. And I think that some people who serve on mission trips have a desire to serve in their own community, but other things (family, work, church, etc.) take up their time and effort. However, if they can get away from these things then they have the time to serve. To be honest, none of the reasons that people have for not serving at home excuse their lack of service.

Regarding the question of how we change this so that people are just as willing and eager to serve at home as they are away from home, I don't have any great ideas. But somewhere at the core we need to instill in believers the idea that serving is not another activity that they schedule, but it is what we do wherever we are. Perhaps one way of doing this would be for us as church leaders to deemphasize (but not eliminate) planned and/or scheduled service/outreach events to free people to minister to those in their natural spheres of influence.

[Alan Cross]

Good thoughts, Tim. I think that you are right. I'll elaborate on this more later.

[Kevin]

I think just the opposite of what you describe can happen. Here's what I mean: I think people can come back from a mission trip and bring the excitement back home. Some of our summer missionaries are more bold in sharing their faith once they go back to the States. This is because we are very aggressive in our evangelism here and they get more comfortable with sharing.

I also think there is something that happens when you go to a place with the sole intention of sharing the gospel. It gives you a sense of purpose and urgency that you may not feel while doing your usual routine.

[Alan Cross]

Kevin,

I absolutely agree! I am a big proponent of everyone going on mission trips. It is a great time for training and growth. Plus, you are right. People often come back on fire. My point was just that it seems like it is sometimes easier to recruit teams to go someplace exotic than to go down the street. I think that Tim has some great thoughts on why that is and it is not all a bad thing. I just want to see us be holistic.

[Jeff Moody]

Alan,

When is Gateway going to do one of these mission trips? I would like to sign up for the Christian Mission to Paradise where we go to Hawaii for vacation... I mean missions and hand out tracks while sunning on the beach, surfing, shopping, etc.

Hey, since this would be a "mission trip" that means I can raise support and not pay for my vacation...er mission trip.

Let me know and I can help you plan.

JM