Short-term mission : an ethnography of Christian travel narrative and experience / Brian M. Howell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Howell, Brian M.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Short-term missions.

Physical Description:

256 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Downers Grove, Ill. : IVP Academic, [2012]

Summary:

Short-Term Mission Trips Have Exploded in Popularity.

With easy access to relatively affordable air travel, millions of American Christians have journeyed internationally for the purposes of ministry, service and evangelism. Short-term trips are both praised for involving many in global mission but also critiqued for their limitations.

Despite the diversity of destinations, certain universal commonalities emerge in how mission trip participants describe their experiences: "My eyes were opened to the world's needs." "They ministered to us more than we ministered to them." "It changed my life."

Anthropologist Brian Howell explores the narrative shape of short-term mission (STM). Drawing on the anthropology of tourism and pilgrimage, he shows how STM combines these elements with Christian purposes of mission to create its own distinct narrative. He provides a careful historical survey of STM and then offers an in-depth ethnographic study of a particular mission trip to the Dominican Republic. He discerns how participants remember and interpret their experiences, unpacking the implications for how North American churches understand mission, grapple with poverty and relate to the larger global church.

This groundbreaking book is important reading for all who celebrate or lament what happens when Christians travel overseas. Book jacket.

Contents:

"It changed my life": short-term mission and Christian narratives of travel

"Are you for them or against them?": defining short-term mission

That's no missionary!": redefining mission and the missionary establishment

"Youth try the impossible!": youth movements and short-term mission

"It will change your life": short-term mission and Central Wheaton Church

"Remember, these are real missions": embodying a missionary narrative at Central Wheaton Church

"Pour out your soul": living the narrative of short-term mission

"Of course you always grow close to God on a mission trip": (re)narrating short-term mission

"Just bring greetings": creating a new narrative for short-term mission

"And what does the Lord require of you?": suggestions and an encouraging postscript.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

0830839739

9780830839735

OCLC:

778417028

Publisher Number:

99950708017