Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The Next Mile - Short Term Mission Debriefing

You long time readers know that I collect as much material as I can about debriefing. Bible studies, images, charts, messages, activities, etc. Looks like a bunch of mission organizations got together and put some serious investment into this thing called The Next Mile - a collection of practical tools for post-mission trip development.

I'm thinking about possibly trying to borrow one copy of their "curriculum", although I have a big dislike for that word. "Curriculum" can make lazy leaders if you let it. And with students, they *totally* know when you are using something you found, without investing and studying and owning it yourself. (But that's probably fodder for another post. )

Included in the curriculum is:
- a Goer guide, which includes "a Spiritual Journal with daily Bible readings and space to journal, record thoughts from Scripture, and write prayer requests. This helpful tool begins 14 days before departure and continues for 7 days after the conclusion of a Short-Term trip."
- a Resource CD, which contains all kinds of forms, powerpoint, etc. By the way, this is not sold separately.
- a Roadmap poster, looking at the mission trip big picture
- a Leaders Guide

In my humble estimation, if you are a team leader, a guide that you put together specifically for your team would be *worlds* better than something someone else put together, who has no idea where you are going, what your team is like, what your students' favorite candy bars are... But you already knew that...

The focus on a missional experience as part of the overall discipleship of a person is pretty key and I think its right on. I'm excited to see what looks like a lot of people put some time and energy into some debrief and post trip follow up. And having a devotional guide that continues on after participants go home - thats a GREAT idea. The first image below is of a one-time missions experience, versus the second, a missional experience as part of a lifetime of following Jesus.




HT - Brigada

No comments:

Post a Comment