Mission Trips for Teens: Why They Matter and How to Plan Them
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Mission trips for teens create a powerful opportunity for teenagers to see how God is inviting them into the bigger story of the Gospel. But creating the right kind of mission trip experience isn’t all that easy. It takes a lot of intentional effort to make sure it’s healthy, it’s centered on the work God is doing (not what we wish or would prefer God do), and it’s able to facilitate long-term impact for the good of the community and your teenagers. Since 1994, we’ve been able to create mission trips for teens that check all these boxes. So this post is a chance to share a bit more about how we do just that.
Before you read further, here are some helpful links in case you’re looking for something a little bit different:
- Want to see all of our mission trip options for teens? Check them out HERE >>
- Do you need resources to help you prepare for your next mission trip? Take advantage of our FREE Mission Trip Resource Library HERE >>
Alright, let’s dig in.
Mission Trips for Teens: Why do they matter?
The story of YouthWorks begins with a youth pastor who saw how mission trips had drawn his teenagers to Jesus and to each other. There is something about taking a teenager out of their comfort zone and dropping them into a different environment that can create two key opportunities for growth:
- Teenagers can grow personally. They can begin to see what they are capable of, how they can lead, and where their skills can be used to help others.
- Teenagers can grow spiritually. They can hear about how God is moving in the most unlikely places and join in those movements of God that introduce them to a bigger story of the Gospel.
We believe God is inviting teenagers to play a pivotal role in what God is doing globally and locally. When we can create an environment where they can understand that invitation and respond to it, God begins to do something incredible in their own hearts as they accept that invitation.
All this happens because of 5 key things:
- Mission trips bring teenagers together.
- Mission trips broaden perspectives.
- Mission trips challenge comfort zones.
- Mission trips empower teenagers.
- Mission trips create sacred spaces.
For nearly 30 years, we’ve seen mission trips play a crucial role in the lives of countless teenagers, and we continue to believe every teenager should experience a mission trip.
How do you create healthy mission trips for teens?
“Healthy” can mean a lot of things. For us, it’s all about making sure that our desire to do good doesn’t end up harming our community partners or the faith of the teenagers who serve. Mission trips for teens can be a powerful experience, but without careful attention to the details, you can create a mountain top experience that turns into an avalanche of issues.
(If you haven’t read When Helping Hurts, you should add it to your library. We’d LOVE to chat with you about it!)
With nearly 30 years of experience creating mission trips for teens, we’ve learned a lot of hard lessons along the way. In that time, we began utilizing a structure of “Respectful Service” to help ensure that we’re always getting better at facilitating healthy mission trips.
There are a lot of tangible ways that we embody Respectful Service, but they all lead to 3 main things:
- We listen closely.
- We speak carefully.
- We serve humbly.
Check out this video about our Respectful Service value:
Respectful Service isn’t just something that YouthWorks embodies alone. We ask every teenager and group that serves with us to prioritize it as well. Here’s a FREE guide that will help you unpack how your teenagers can embody Respectful Service on your next mission trip.
How does YouthWorks make mission trip planning easier?
As you can imagine, we’ve learned a lot over our nearly 30 years of creating Christ-centered mission trips for teens. We’d love to chat with you about it in person, but here’s a quick overview of how we help more teenagers experience mission trips:
- We want teenagers to have quality mission trip experiences. We never want a teenager to feel like their mission trip is something they “have” to do. We work to help teenagers “want” to jump into a mission trip and experience all that they can. That leads us to create youth focused curriculum, learning experiences, and fun activities that help teenagers relax, connect, and open up. We want teenagers to love serving as much as we do.
- We cover all the details so that you can focus on connecting with your teenagers during your mission trip. You know how easy it is to get sucked into the logistics of any youth ministry event. When you’re on a mission trip, those logistics can completely monopolize your energy and attention. So, our team works to take that stress off of your shoulders and free you up to focus on connecting with your teens.
- We create affordable mission trips for teens. Being a good steward of your youth ministry budget is one of the most important aspects of your role in your church. That’s why we structure our mission trips for teens with the right kinds of efficiency that keep your costs low without negatively impacting your experience.
- We help you recruit teens to sign up for your mission trip. Take advantage of our FREE Mission Trip Resource Library for help with all areas of your mission trip, especially getting teens to register. We’ll help you communicate about your trip, why they’ll love the community they serve, and what your next steps are for getting them fully onboard.
If I’m not ready for a mission trip, how can I plan a day of service for teens?
Not every group is ready to jump into a full mission trip. Planning a day of service with your teens is a great way to introduce them to service with a lot less effort.
But planning a day of service for teens still takes work. The good news is you don’t have to take it all on alone. We are all about mobilizing teenagers to serve. Sometimes that happens through our week-long mission trips for teens, and other times it’s through equipping church leaders and youth pastors to create their own service experiences.
Take a look at the Day of Service Guidebook (a FREE download in our Mission Trip Resource Library). This will give you a step-by-step process that outlines what you need to think through when planning a day of service for your teens.
In the end, we want your teenagers to experience God in a new way through service.
How do I get started?
We make it easy for you to plan a mission trip for teens.
If you prefer to check out your options on your own, go through our Mission Trips Page to see all the communities we’re serving in this summer. You’ll be able to catch a glimpse at some of the types of service your teens will experience, why we love the community, check availability for any particular week, and even register right there.
See all our Mission Trips for Teens HERE >>
Sometimes it can be good to have someone to process all the details with you. We’re here to help with that too. If one of our Customer Engagement team members is available right now, you can start a conversation with the LIVE CHAT feature in the bottom right of our website. You can also email us directly at info@youthworks.com or give us a call at 800-968-8504.
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