Restarting Missions Trips Post Pandemic

Today’s conversation is with Dr. Jay Madden, the Executive Pastor at Peachtree Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Rush Creek doesn’t really have a missions program. One of the most common ways for churches to engage in missions is through short-term missions trips. But the pandemic slammed the door shut on most of these trips for several years. Dr. Madden is passionate about seeing Peachtree and other churches re engage in these efforts, and she shares his advice on how to do that effectively.

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First, we all love the lessons we learned during the pandemic about how to utilize communications advances to improve our relationships with our missions partners. But nothing is better than being present with those partners for a few days. Dr. Madden reminds us that short term ministry trips are critical for healthy missions relationships.

Second, don’t just restart missions trips by going back to the way your church did them before the pandemic. See this as an opportunity to evaluate what you want your short term missions program to be and how it can benefit both your church and your missions partners.

And finally, always seek to add real value to your missions partners when you plan to bring a team to serve alongside them. Dr. Madden reminds us that the first rule of the Hippocratic Oath should also be the first rule of missions partnership: do no harm.

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WHAT IS THE MISSIONS PASTOR PODCAST?

Welcome to The Missions Pastor Podcast, presented by OneChild. OneChild is a global community of Child Champions that serves children in poverty so they can discover hope and reach their God-given potential. We believe that the local church has the message of Hope that the world desperately needs to hear. And in every episode, we highlight churches, pastors, and ministries who are working to bring that HOPE to hard places.