Western countries are sending more and more short-term missionaries into the world every year. The exponential rise in participation now shows estimates that indicate well over 4 million westerners cross international borders every year to share the hope and message of Jesus.

While this is an encouraging development in one sense, it is dangerous in another. Having been a long-term missionary that received foreign teams, a short-term missionary and team leader, and now a pastor who oversees and sends mission teams abroad, it has become apparent that we must do better. There is a legitimate risk that many of our missionaries realize little personal long-term spiritual benefit and, worse, may even have a negative effect on the people they go to serve.

The following pages put forth four key principles that every short-term missionary should carry along on the journey. While there are other important concepts, many of them rely on individual context and/or denominational emphases. The four principles presented here, however, aim to be universal and have been generally approved by a wide range of pastors and missionaries alike from multiple continents and backgrounds.