We believe that communities can be impacted when we listen, learn, and serve humbly through meaningful long-term partnerships. We don’t come into a community claiming to know the answers. Instead, we come ready to learn from our community partners, build relationships, and see where God is already at work in that community. Learn more about our model of respectful service.
We believe that mission trips can be a useful tool to help parents and spiritual leaders cultivate a lifestyle of service in the hearts of young people.
If parents, youth pastors, mentors, and other spiritual leaders walk alongside students as they get out of their comfort zone and serve the practical needs of others it can have a profound impact on how they experience and live out their faith. Mission trips have the power to form teenagers and young adults in many ways. Our team refers to these as the “4 P’s”:
In our hyper polarized, social media focused, cultural bubbles it’s difficult to really see people that look, think, and act differently, then yourself. And yet, Scripture is clear that each and every person is created in the image of God (Gen 1:27) and worthy of dignity and respect. In fact, Jesus defines “neighbor” as those who may be different than you in several ways (Luke 10:25-27; Matt. 5:44-48). Mission trips provide young people with opportunities to listen, learn, and serve those who they may not typically encounter in their daily life, in their social feeds, or even in their church. Ultimately, we hope that these types of experiences help this generation of Christ-followers see people, not issues.
Christian kids, teenagers, and young adults don’t have a “JV” version of the Holy Spirit. They’ve been given gifts, skills, burdens, and opportunities in the Kingdom of God. But many times, we don’t give them enough opportunity to discover and practice the gifts they’ve been given. During mission trips, young people discover gifts that they didn’t know they had. They begin to feel compassion or burdens for people that they didn’t feel before. They come to love a type of community or a cause that they hadn’t experienced much of before. They also begin flexing leadership skills that can continue to be developed as future leaders of the Church.
According to The Open Generation report from Barna, less than half Christian teenagers in the US are confident that they can make a positive impact in the lives of others. If we’ve been called by God to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31), if Jesus gave us a model for what it looks like to love and serve others (John 13:15), if every follower of Jesus has been given the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:10-11), 100% of Christian teenagers should know that it’s possible for them to make a difference! Mission trips are a way to begin showing young people that they can be an agent of change. It is absolutely possible for them to be part of the solution to the wrongs that they see in the world.
Barna reported in that same study that less than half of Christian teenagers are committed to doing something about the injustices that they see. There is a gap in Gen Zers who say that they believe it’s important to serve and protect the well-being of others and those that say that they will commit to do something about it. We’re not OK with that. This is one of the reasons why YouthWorks creates trips. Removing yourself from the rhythm and spaces of everyday life provides an opportunity to evaluate your life from a distance. The experience of returning home with new perspectives can create a new starting line. It forces questions like “What do I do now?” and “What’s next for me?”.