Too Short-Term?

You had a recent article (March/April issue) on short-term missions. Though some good comes from “short-term missions,” I wonder if it is biblical or effective.

Missions are necessarily long-term; it involves immersion in the culture and preaching the gospel as a congregation is built, which takes time. In Acts 13, the missionaries were top elders of the church at Antioch–Paul and Barnabas. Antioch sent 40% of their known leadership team. They sent seasoned, ordained men, not youths. The young John Mark was supposed to help, but flaked out.

If something is important in ministry, send people that are hard to do without. Where should young people serve, who want to do more? Serve within their own congregations; do outreach in their own area. Short-term ministry can’t follow-up. Locals know the area, can follow up, and local elders can oversee. Even for building projects, hiring locals is often a better way to build goodwill and make contacts, rather than a short-term mission.

Some pastors who had short-term missions at their congregation did so because it seemed to be a good idea at the time, but when the time came, they had no real use for the youths. In the end, it was more of a burden to have them come, and little good came from them. It really seemed like a waste.

Finally, RP Global Missions is running short of money. This is not the best use of missions money, regardless of how much good it seems to do for the youth.

—David Merkel Ellicott City, Md.

For the Birds

Thanks to Pastor Selvaggio for starting a conversation about Twitter (June issue). I wholeheartedly agree with the two arguments he levels against Twitter in his article: that it is an offense and fosters offenses against the English language, and that it encourages narcissism.

At the risk of sounding like an elitist and perhaps ignorant crank, however, I think Pastor Selvaggio’s article would have been better had he not let Twitter off the hook at all, even if it looks like he did so with only the faintest enthusiasm. I’d like to challenge Pastor Selvaggio’s statement that it can be used for good. He writes that it, along with other mediums, “can be used for good, even to spread the good news about Jesus Christ and build fellowship among believers.” These statements are clearly true. Nonetheless, I don’t think they offer any real reason for Christians to use that tripe-generator, even in moderation. The two goods listed in the article as possibly accompanying the use of Twitter are only goods because God can use anything, even our own sin and the evil that plagues us all, to His glory.…

Clearly we all have enough temptations to waste time and ignore those around us. Why embrace yet one more option? Like Pastor Selvaggio, I agree that Twitter is no sign of the apocalypse. Nonetheless, if Christ does return soon, I’d rather not be caught twittering away at nothing when He does. Let’s keep the gospel and the beautiful fellowship it can provide for human beings and not steal twitter from the birds.

—Matt Stewart