Rethink

I would love some input from a few of you. In about ten days, I will be presenting a main session at YWAM Canada's Go Conference, called RETHINK. Here is the summary followed by some questions, "Rethink is an interactive discussion of how we weave short-term experiences with long-term living Kingdom living. Participants of the short-term experience might be in the hothouse of learning and yet they are stepping into someone else's reality. With the sincerity of having “a teachable heart”, we can go and learn from another and there are great possibilities. If we believe we have something to share but equally have something to learn, we might see the kingdom. The hope of a discussion, called Rethink, participants will enter into the realm of the short-term experience with great respect for the work that's gone before and the work that will continue. If we rethink and apply good questions to how we establish ministry that changes us and contributes to long-term missional change would we be doing a better job?

I am in no way suggesting that we stop doing short-term missions. What I am suggesting is that we do what were doing with right-thinking, clear thinking, and within the context of the whole.

1. What needs have the locals identified?
2. How does what we’re doing it into the larger picture question
3. Does the cost justify the activity?
4. Will the project be sustainable after we leave?
5. Are we following the code of best practice for short term missions?
6. Are working alongside of locals?
7. Where is the money coming from for these projects?
8. Are the local missionaries living like the local people?
9. Does the arrival of our team standout?
10. Would it appear that there help comes from above or from over the ocean?
11. It is our work creating interdependence or dependence?
12. Are we clear on what we're gaining or receiving and what we're there to give or to share?