David Forward helps prepare leaders and members of the team for their experience as volunteers for the cause of Christ.

Everything you need to know to plan a successful short-term missions trip from an authoritative source. Packed with comprehensive, down-to-earth, practical information.

Going on a short-term missions trip can be a life-transforming experience, but it can also involve weeks of physical and spiritual challenges. In this revised and expanded ten-week course, you will find a concise summary of crosscultural principles, help in facing spiritual warfare, tips on avoiding a tourist mentality, spiritual preparation through individual or group Bible study, and discussion and reflection questions.

Brian Howell provides an anthropology of short-term mission (STM) among American Christians. Providing a history of STM along with an ethnographic case study of a trip to the Dominican Republic, Howell argues that the movement is sustained by a uniquely Christian travel narrative that borrows from the anthropology of tourism and pilgrimage.

Equipped for Adventure is a guide for churches wanting to establish a short-term missions ministry. This book is unique in that it goes beyond simply equipping the individual for short-term missions by helping the church develop a short-term missions ministry. After briefly discussing philosophies and considerations for developing a missional ministry, the author provides detailed steps for planning, participating, and following up on mission trips. Since there are more details to international travel, the author primarily focuses on international missions trips.

Can I drink the water? But I don't speak the language. You want me to sleep where? They eat what? How am I going to raise that much money? Is it really God's will for me to go? I don't know how to share the gospel. Are you ready? More than one million people will go into all the world on short-term missions trips this year. Are you ready to be one of them? Anne-Geri' and Greg have been in the field and led teams there-and back. They will help you prep and pack for the trip, put their arms around you while you're gone, and offer perspective as you reenter "normal" life. How to Get Ready for Short-Term Missions will help you: Pack your suitcase and prepare your heart Build genuine relationships with the locals Understand cultural differences Deal with physical fatigue Combat stretched emotions There's even a chapter for clammy-handed parents! With humor and experience, Anne-Geri' and Greg ask questions you can't hide from and help you focus on your true mission.

"Mission" has become, for many North American Christians, an ambiguous and often uncomfortable term. To many it brings to mind a past in which western culture was identified with the gospel in missionary practice and programs. Distressed with this history and uncertain about how to overcome it, many prefer to ignore the New Testament mandate that the church must be in mission if it is to be the church. Others swing the other way, declaring that everything the church does is mission, depriving the idea of mission of its power to define those specific actions of God which proclaim the gospel and build God's kingdom. "The church exists by missions, just as fire exists by burning." With these words of Emil Brunner, the author reminds us that to be the church is to be in mission. After describing the various "captivities of mission" which plague North American Christianity, the author argues for a robust and engaged practice of mission, beginning in congregations and extending to the broader community.