Anyone who has ever gone on a mission trip knows that the experience gives participants a unique opportunity to see and experience God differently than they do at home. While most people who take short-term mission trips describe them as life-changing, the truth is that after they return home, not a lot changes in how they live day-to-day, and the memories start to fade. However, Life-Changing Mission: Devotions for Your Short-Term Trip, a resource released earlier this year from Serge, helps short-term mission teams get the most out of their trip, record their experience, and live on mission once they get back home.
Written by men and women who serve as missionaries and edited by Patric Knaak, Deputy Director of Mission at Serge, Life-Changing Mission offers ten impactful devotions from Acts for short-term mission teams that will help them prepare spiritually for their trip, stay connected to Jesus while they serve, and continue to expand God’s kingdom when they return home. All of the devotions focus on how the Holy Spirit works to motivate, sustain, and equip us. The expansion of God’s kingdom is recorded in Acts, but it continues today, and we are meant to be part of it. The same Good News about Jesus that we are bringing to the nations, is the same Good News that we ourselves need—even as believers—in order to love others.
In this interview, we talk to Patric Knaak more about missions and the new devotional.
Q: Can you share how Life-Changing Mission was designed to be used?
Life-Changing Mission is designed to be a “one stop shop” that helps those going on short term mission trips get the most out of their experience. The heart of the book is the ten daily devotionals that participants use while on the trip, but Life-Changing Mission also contains exercises to do before you and leave and travelogue features to capture the unique experiences you have on your trip. Life-Changing Mission concludes with three rounds of debriefing exercises done after the trip that will help readers capture what they learned on the trip and live on mission back home.
Q: What makes Life-Changing Mission a unique resource for those preparing for a mission trip? What special features are included?
Life-Changing Mission includes a section for leaders as you get ready to lead your team as well as a number of exercises for your team to complete. The leader’s section has nuts and bolts best practices to put into place before and during the trip. The main participant’s section has an Inventory of Needs and Hopes, directed journaling and prayer activities as well as a place to record important information about your teammates and your supporters. Everyone spends a good deal of time packing for their trip. Life Changing-Mission helps you spend some of that time getting ready spiritually as well.
Q: Please walk us through the components of each daily devotional.
Each of the ten daily devotionals is taken from a key passage in the Book of Acts. Every day you’ll have a chance to record the date, location and work you’re doing as well as how you saw God answer prayers. At the center of each devotional is a short article written by a Serge missionary reflecting on the lessons from Acts and some application exercises with space to record your thoughts. We’ve designed everything to be completed in just 30 minutes each day and even included the scripture texts right in the devotionals. All you need each day is your book, a pen, and a little time to sit and listen to Jesus.
Q: Would you tell us more about why each devotional is so fittingly centered on a passage from Acts?
As I say in the introduction, while the events of the Book of Acts have ended, its story has not. Acts tells us what it looked like in the early days of the New Testament church, so we highlight events and principles that still apply to us as we seek to live out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) to see God’s kingdom expand. In that sense we are part of our Father’s “family business.”
Just like in Acts, God still uses weak and broken people to bring the message of his good news to those who do not yet know him. As we go on missions trip, our Father continues to delight in:
- Transforming scared people like Peter to become bold witnesses for him (compare Luke 22:54–62 with Acts 2:14–41)
- Working in our suffering to bring about his glory, just as he did when Stephen was stoned (Acts 7)
- Drawing the most unlikely of people to himself through the most unlikely means, as he did with the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8) and Paul (Acts 9)
- Breaking down barriers like those between Peter and Cornelius that humanly speaking seem impenetrable (Acts 10).
Q: What are some of the lessons that readers will learn about the Holy Spirit and the Spirit being active in our lives?
The Book of Acts focuses on the work and role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God the Father establishes the plan for our salvation and the renewal of our broken world. God the Son carries out that plan through his coming, living, dying, and rising again. But it is God the Holy Spirit who makes that plan effective in our lives as he regenerates and indwells us, then empowers us to live on mission. Each of the devotionals highlight the power and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Because the Holy Spirit is the change agent in our lives, he is always at work to bring about the Father’s purposes. Sometimes he does that in obvious, even miraculous ways like when he equipped Peter to powerfully preach in Acts 2. Just as often he works quietly and transformatively by creating unity and empowering self-sacrifice among believers as seen in Acts 4 when new converts were sharing their resources to live out Kingdom realities. The Holy Spirit is always at work to equip, sustain, and draw us back to our need for grace, even as he helps us preach the gospel, love those who are very different from us, and prepare those who don’t yet know Christ to receive him. It’s a beautiful thing once we begin to focus our spiritual eyes on him.
Q: No matter the location of the trip, there are a lot of plans and preparations to be made prior to going on a mission trip. What spiritual preparations should a team go through together before taking a mission trip?
Prayer, prayer, prayer and prayer! I’m joking, of course, but only a little bit. The problem with most of our prayers is that they are typically focused on asking God to do things, instead of asking God to change us, so that he can work through us. Life-Changing Mission offers several reflection exercises to help you focus your prayers and bring your heart before the throne of grace. The more we need to rely on God, the more reliable we’ll find him to be. Getting in touch with our fear and doubts before the trip will help push us back to Christ, who is where our true security lies. The more we can learn to depend on God before the trip, the easier it will be to depend on him during the trip.
Q: Tell us about the first mission trip you ever went on. What did you expect would happen both during and after? Did it match your expectations in any way?
The first trip I went on was between my freshman and sophomore years of high school. I spent two weeks ub intensive training, then six weeks in southern Spain doing evangelism and outreach with a team of fifteen other teens and four adult leaders. It was glorious!
Part of that glory, however, was coming to realize that much of what I thought would happen during that summer didn’t materialize. I was sure that once I was on the trip I’d become some sort of “super-Christian”—that I’d be able to easily overcome temptation, I’d be kind and patient with my teammates, and all of the doubts I had back home would disappear as I stepped out in faith to serve Jesus. Much to my surprise none of those things happened.
Serge missionaries often say that going into missions is like pouring Miracle-Gro on all your sins. And they’re right! When we are taken out of our normal environment where we know how to make life work, it often reveals deeper layers of sin and unbelief in our lives. I think that is just want Jesus wanted. It’s not that I sinned more during the trip, rather I became aware of just how much I needed God in every tiny area of my life and of how often I minimized those needs or tried to meet them myself through my own strength. During that summer, I started to learn a lesson I’m still learning today: God’s love for me is far deeper that I could ever imagine, and he stands ready and able to meet my every need, if I will only come to him.
Q: Are there any specific things that a person should be praying for before, during, and after going on a mission trip?
The biggest thing I’d encourage people to pray is for God will reveal himself to you in tangible ways through Scripture so that you can see when he provides for you and your team. Most of the time we can be pretty self-sufficient, independent folks, but on a mission trip that all goes out the window. The comfort and control I use to manage my daily life gets upended. My sense of competence is challenged. Even my ability to be pleasant is strained—I’m looking at you snorers and early morning people. In short, I need Jesus a lot more than I think I do.
That’s true back home too, but I’m often not very aware of it. Learning to see my needs, shortcomings, and inadequacies as ways that God can use to draw me back to himself, in dependence and trust, is an essential part of what we should learn on a mission trip. Before you go, a prayer may sound something like, “Jesus, I’m excited, but I’m scared too. Help me bring my worries to you, knowing that you will be with me every step of the way.”
After the trip it may sound more like, “Jesus, I remember when you did __________. I saw your power clearly displayed through that. And I heard your voice so clearly when I read my bible and prayed. Help me see that you are just as present here at home as you were on the trip. Help me run to you through each and every day instead of relying on my own gifts and abilities to control my world.”
Q: At the end of each day, why is it important to journal about your experience and record the ways you saw God at work?
If you’re like me, it’s so easy to miss what God is doing, even when he’s at work in our lives in obvious ways. I can pray for something for weeks and months but barely notice that God has taken the time to carefully answer my prayers. I’m already on to the next thing or just assume that “things worked out in the end.” The reality is “My Father who loves me, has worked out things for my benefit and his glory.” If I’m not paying attention, I’ll miss this most of the time.
Mission trips can make these tendencies even worse. On the one hand, God often does answer our prayers in dramatic ways while on mission trips—people coming to faith, projects being completed, travel details coming together, and protection from spiritual warfare. On the other hand, we’re often so busy and so much happens over the course of a week or two, that unless we record and reflect on these answers to prayer, we’ll miss much of what God has done. Spending a few moments each day to capture answers to prayer and reflect on how these answers demonstrate God’s love and care for us is one of the best investments you can make on your trip.
Q: Most people who take short-term mission trips would describe them as life-changing, but once they get back, not a lot changes in how they live day-to-day. How does Life-Changing Mission help readers keep up the work of God’s kingdom after they return home?
I think this is actually the secret sauce to Life-Changing Mission and our previous mission trip devotional, On Mission. Each contains a series of three robust debriefing exercises to help you capture the ways you saw God work on your trip and begin to connect those experiences with your daily life. Part of the importance of mission trips—perhaps even the biggest benefit—extends beyond the limits of the trip. It’s to help us see how God has uniquely called and equipped us to bring the gospel to the nations. Making the connection between how we see and experience God on the trip with the normal rhythms of our daily life is one of the prime benefits of using Life-Changing Mission. When you consider how much time, energy, and money an average mission trip costs, we want to help you reap the benefits of that experience for the rest of your life.
Q: What are the most common fears and hesitations people have about going on a mission trip? If someone reading this interview has never been on a mission trip before, and has been hesitant to go on one, what encouragement would you offer them to get out of their comfort zone and go?
For most folks, including long-term missionaries, there is a lot of anxiety over what feels like a loss of control and stepping into the unknown. Leaving the familiar world of our home culture to enter someone else’s culture always involves sacrifice and sometimes risk.
The truth is that no matter where we go, or what is happening, God is always with us, and he is always in control. He orders our steps and numbers our days, even as he walks alongside of us to protect, encourage, empower, and love us. When Jesus invited Peter to get out of the boat and walk to him on the water (Matthew 14:22ff), Peter had to choose between the safety of the boat or the risk of getting out and walking to Jesus. We all tend to think that the boat (our home culture, normal routine, and knowing how to make life work) is the safest place, but it isn’t. The safest place is with Jesus, no matter where he is. He doesn’t send us on mission and wait back at home to see how things will turn out. He goes with us so that we can both see our need for him more clearly and so that through our weakness others can be introduced to their Savior.
Q: The ten authors who contributed chapters to the book are all missionaries with Serge. Please tell us more about the work of Serge.
Serge is an international missions organization that sees God weaving together the frayed edges of our tattered world with His goodness, creating something beautiful. We are a mission sending agency that has helped individuals and churches engage in global mission since 1983. Yet even as our missionaries first stepped out to fulfill this calling, they faced their own failings. Their clay feet, lack of faith, and broken relationships alienated the very people they came to reach.
We quickly came to realize that becoming a missionary didn’t exempt you from the trials and failings of being a sinful, broken person. So early in our history, through the work of our founder Dr. Jack Miller and others, we developed a singular focus on the need for the gospel in our own lives, even as we reached out to take the message of God’s grace to others. As we seek to make the gospel known to others, we want this same grace to continually renew our lives.
Today, with over 300 missionaries, our work consists of sending and caring for missionaries, mentoring and equipping ministry leaders around the world, and developing resources for on-going spiritual renewal. Visit us at serge.org to learn more.
Life-Changing Mission
Life Changing Mission offers ten impactful devotions from Acts for short-term mission teams that will help them prepare spiritually for their trip, stay connected to Jesus while they serve, and continue to expand God’s kingdom when they return home. Includes a pre-trip exercise, ten guided devotions, and space for journaling about the unique memories, people, and experiences encountered along the way.
