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There are 4 must-dos in preparing for a short-term trip:
1. Leadership selection
2. Leadership training
3. Participant selection
4. Participant training
Leadership selection
The leader must have similar ministry experience, have demonstrated gifts for managing team dynamics, and be able to analyze situations and ask probing questions. It is helpful if he/she has been on a short-term trip in the last 2 years.
Leadership training
Many excellent books and training seminars are available to prepare leaders. A first-time leader should prepare using some or all of these items and should be mentored by an experienced leader (mission pastor or lay leader). An experienced leader should review material and analyze what went well on former trips and what he/she would like to improve.
Many great aids exist for helping your teams, such as:
Impact Your World (International Mission Board, Southern Baptist)
Serving with Eyes Wide Open by David Livermore
Participant selection
The best teams are not created at random. Putting an ad in the bulletin and accepting everyone who voices an interest sets the team up for dissatisfaction.
An application should be completed by everyone desiring to be part of the team. Then, a committee -- which does not include the trip leader -- should interview each candidate, check their references, and choose a team best suited for the trip’s goals.
Participant training
Trip preparation should ideally begin 6 months before the trip, but 6 weeks would be a minimum.
The leader should develop a curriculum appropriate to the trip’s focus and the team’s needs. Attendance at these training meetings should be mandatory. The trip leader should facilitate meetings, but could bring in teachers appropriate to the topics the team needs to learn.
Again, many great aids exist for helping your teams, such as:
Short-term Missions Workbook by Tim Dearborn
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