Questions Students Need to be Asked on Mission Trips
We’re on a mission trip this week. This is the prime recruiting ground to move students toward a next step. To get those conversations started, I’ll ask students these questions:
1. Who is your small group leader? Many times the answer is, “I’m not in a small group.” By the end of the trip, my goal is to introduce them to students from their school who are in a small group the student can attend.
2. Which weekend service do you attend? If the answer is, “I don’t attend one,” I take the same action as #1 above, but it doesn’t matter as much if the students go to their school.
If the students says he’d go, but doesn’t have a ride, I immediately connect him with somebody near his who will give him a ride. At the end of the trip I remind them to connect about carpooling to church. This is also a great relationship-building strategy.
3. Are you a Christian? This question is pretty direct, but asked in the right way, isn’t intimidating. There are usually a couple of non-Christians who come on these trips. I love when I meet them and make sure they get the best exposure to Christ possible. It’s so great when they come on a trip without knowing Christ and go home transformed by Him… especially when their stereotypes are shattered in the process.
The bottom line is, while I have a captive audience, I want to have as many conversations I can. In those conversations, I want to make relationships, have fun and use those connections as a springboard to set students up with a plan to take a specific next step as soon as they get home. Doing this greatly raises the chance the trip will be way more than a fuzzy good memory a year down the road.
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[...] liked Dennis’ post this morning about good questions to ask students on a mission trip. We’re on a great trip right now, and would love it if these ministry-building questions were [...]