Mission trips take on a variety of forms, with factors including the destination, what the inhabitants need and the capabilities of the traveling group. For many, short-term trips involve going to a Third World country to meet a fundamental necessity. Group members know beforehand what their goal is–they set out to perform and accomplish a physical task and then leave, hoping the place they visited is better off.
Yet what if the destination’s citizens don’t have any basic needs to meet?
Say people are living without abandonment to the Gospel in a location where technology is up-to-speed with–if not exceeding–that of America. The culture is host to intellectuals as well as the common man fluently conversing in more languages (including English) than most people in the United States can speak. No wells need to be dug here, but the weight of the spiritual darkness is almost suffocating.
Like the example at the beginning of this article, vertical missions involves control on the part of those going on the trip. They’ve set up a project with a tangible goal, and aim to achieve it. The traveling group provides a service that is otherwise lacking in its country of destination.
Horizontal missions involves visiting a country and culture that is on a similar educational and technological level as the one from which the travelers come. With no physical needs to meet and with no apparent opportunities to assist habitants in daily life, the group’s foci can be more on prayer and building relationships than performing specific tasks. Trip planning is less about a predetermined daily schedule and more about following the Spirit as He leads. A typical day on this mission trip might be spent prayerwalking a neighborhood or hanging out in a coffee shop, prayerfully seeking to connect with one or two locals.
In such situations Nick Nye, a church planter and pastor of Veritas Community Church in Columbus, Ohio, wonders how to encourage his 2-year-old congregation in its partnership with mission work in England as members of the church prepare to visit the country.
“I’m thinking through how to word the trip to our church because it isn’t a traditional ‘mission trip’ as some people in our church might think of it–painting a house, eating bugs, etc.,” he says. “Even the new Christians in our church have this idea that real missions is digging wells.”
Americans seem to be wired with a “we teach, you listen” mentality. This approach can be effective, and in such scenarios the mission trip participant feels good about doing a positive deed. The challenge comes when believers desire to reach advanced cultures–in post-Christian societies that are anti-Christian and anti-Jesus–that could not care less about what American followers of Christ have to offer.
Citizens of the United States have the ability to travel to remote locations of the world and help the helpless, and should, for the sake of the Gospel. Yet those who exist in cultures just as advanced as theirs should not be forgotten.
A mission trip does not demand those going to be in absolute control and to set up something new or teach a skill. It may require someone walks alongside those in the culture and shares life–and Christ–with them. Certainly, it could be awkward for the intentional disciple-maker or church planter at first, but it also can be life changing for all parties involved.
Henderson Hills in Edmond, Okla., has taken the horizontal missions approach in how they do trips to Barcelona, Spain. Minister of Missions Mike Wall has led trips to the western European city since 2003.
“We just go and get still in a coffee shop … or wherever, and we just wait for God to send us people,” he said.
Through this unique method unlike traditional missions, Mike said his group members have seen God direct people who need to hear from Him into their paths.
“All we do is walk out the door and ask, ‘OK, God, where do we sit?’” Mike said. “Our project is relationships, and that’s good enough.”
Similarly, Branch Life Church of Birmingham, Ala., and one of its sponsors, Hunter Street Baptist Church (HSBC) of Hoover, Ala., have partnered in taking a relationship-focused approach in how they do missions in the London borough of Camden. Spencer Knight, pastor at HSBC, said his congregation’s involvement there greatly depends not on a tangible task, but on prayerwalking, building relationships and relying on God.
“It’s probably one of the hardest mission trips to explain to people; also it’s one of the best … mission trips people can experience, in that you have to solely depend on God,” Knight said. “It’s nothing you can call success on your own. It’s all about God and Him glorifying Himself.”
Johnny Grimes said that while his church plant, Branch Life, is made up of people who are naturally relational, it’s important for their 2-year-old congregation to be involved in both horizontal and vertical missions opportunities.
“It’s not either-or, it’s both-and,” Grimes said. “We need to do them both effectively.”
Written by Natalie Bunch. Natalie is a freelance writer who lives in North Carolina. She served as a missionary writer based out of Prague, Czech Republic, from 2007-2009, and plans to return to full-time international mission work with her husband.
People should also be considering doing this locally. There’s no need to get on a plane in order to be a missionary, and your local city is probably just as dark once you look at it as any other in the world.
Good point. We are called to be missionaries wherever we are, to the people who we live next to and work with as much as individuals living on other continents. I’ve heard pastors say their church members were more passionate about doing missions locally after they learned how to do it in an international setting.