50 Activities to Move from Mission Trips to Missional Living

Plus the Deep Justice Journeys Student Journal

by Kara Powell and Brad Griffin from the Fuller Youth Institute

In my experience leading mission trips with students, every trip is different and yet every trip requires similar training. Deep Justice Journeys is adaptable, holistic, and experiential for students. Plus it’s easy for leaders to use!
April Diaz, Next Gen Pastor
NewSong Church, Irvine CA

Make your youth ministry mission trips and service projects more than just drive-by-feel-good outings. Instead, allow them to be opportunities for students and adults together to go deep into God’s heart for justice as people and communities are transformed. This curriculum is designed with options you can use with your team in preparation for the BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER portions of your missions and service opportunities.

The lessons in Deep Justice Journeys will help you prepare students for what to expect during their mission trips and service projects and allow students to reflect upon their experiences. And since no two mission trips are the same, and each youth group will have its own challenges, this book includes 50 learning activities that you can choose from to customize your group’s lessons. In this book you will find:

ideas to help get parents and the church engaged in your youth ministry’s short-term mission work.
discussion exercises you can use to get students thinking about poverty, cross-cultural relationships, teamwork, and spiritual gifts.
creative activities for debriefing to help your group wrestle with questions about students’ experiences.
ideas for how your youth group can ensure the ongoing growth and service of your students once you return home to the “real world.”

Written by leading youth ministry and missions experts and tested by youth ministries across the country, the practical tools included in this book will revitalize your service projects. Students will engage in learning exercises that help them learn new insights about themselves, their relationship with God, their teammates, and the world we’re called to love and serve. This ongoing process will help your students apply what they’ve learned in the mission field to their own lives and will ensure justice work that changes students to change the world around them.

Contributors include Todd Bratulich, Rana Choi Park, April Diaz, Terry Linhart, Dave Livermore, and Kurt Rietema.

Help your students personally prepare for and process through their mission trip with the companion Deep Justice Journeys Student Journal, also available May 1, 2009.

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As a neighborhood ministry that hosts hundreds of short-term missions participants each year, one of the biggest things we struggle with is putting solid materials in the hands of leaders bring groups to work with us. A well equipped youth leader makes all the difference.
The materials in Deep Justice Journeys, especially its practical Before/During/After model, are perfect for helping both new and experienced youth leaders bring their students prepared for a good week. Put to use, these materials help students, their leaders and the “ministries on the ground” benefit from the fruit produced in the lives of short-term mission participants.
Joel Hamernick, Executive Director
Sunshine Gospel Ministries, Chicago IL

Research: Improving Short-Term Missions Effectiveness

Today we are seeing more and more students anxious to make a difference in the world, and getting students involved in mission work is easier than it has been in previous years. But for justice work to make a real impact, leaders and students need to spend more time before, during, and after their service preparing for and processing their experiences.

One of FYI’s initiatives over the past several years has been developing a collaborative Short-Term Missions (STM) curriculum for youth ministries of all types. This curriculum process began with a November 2006 think tank of STM leaders and youth pastors from around the country to discuss “best practices and processes” related to effective youth STM work, co-led by Dr. Dave Livermore of the Global Learning Center at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and Dr. Terry Linhart from Bethel College, Indiana.

Out of that gathering, our core research team was motivated to pursue grant funding for the further development of a curriculum youth ministries could adapt to their own STM contexts and needs. We have been collaborating with a research and writing team including representatives from several mission organizations as well as frontlines youth workers to develop that curriculum. After beta testing the curriculum with youth ministries from across the country during spring and summer 2008, the final product is here!

One of the core assumptions in this project is that true STM effectiveness and life transformation (both for the “goers” and those who receive them in their communities) will emerge from an ongoing focus on creating missional lifestyles. This means that our STM preparations must include strategies for before, during, and after our actual trips—they must be woven into the fabric of our youth ministry ethos.

Below are articles and resources related to the STM effectiveness research we have conducted so far. In addition, Kurt Ver Beek of Calvin College has put together an incredible online database of STM research if you are interested in reading more in-depth, and you may want to check out the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Missions site too.

Deep Justice Stories

As a catalyst for inspiring more and deeper ministries of compassion and care flowing out of youth ministry, we’ve launched the Deep Justice Stories page as an interactive platform for sharing what God has been doing in your ministry. Please visit the Stories page and share your own story through words, photos, or videos!