Mark Twain Endorsing Forms of Missiology?

          There’s been some big-time reevaluation of the general advisability and practicality of the “missions trip” going around Christian thought, most recently in Christianity Today and The Gospel Coalition.  The legitimate worries are that short-term missions trips is that they can turn into a Christian form of tourism, be of poor stewardship of resources, and leave “warped impressions on both sides.” Some argue that the whole idea should be abandoned in favor of local projects.

          I say that we should refine, but not abandon, the missions trip.

          From my perspective, one of the main fruits of short-term missions has been, ironically, expressed in a quote from a well-known author from the other side of the theological spectrum, Mark Twain. 

          “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

          I, regrettably, did not leave the continental United States and truly have a real live cross-cultural experience until I was 24. Such experiences, arguably, do unprecedentedly well to instill the cultural transcendence of the Gospel, the glory and significance of Pentecost, the sheer vastness of God’s working/growing Church, and the humble truth of just how small we are. I don’t think such experiences should be limited to those who have committed to years overseas.

          Personally, I understand completely the arguments against short-term missions but, like I said before, let’s refine it as necessary. Not abandon it.