from effective long-term work, and this can actually hinder the overall work of the gospel. So it’s often not a pretty picture. At the risk of being excruciatingly blunt: a thoughtful evaluation of short-term mission trips will reveal that many are ineffective, distracting, wasteful, and in some cases flat-out counterproductive to the cause of Christ among the nations. With all that said, should we just scrap all short-term trips from our churches? No. But many churches