Short-Term Missions

Welcome, MMI readers! Thanks to Todd Rhoades of MMI, I read a good Washington Post article about the changing face of short-term missions. You can read Todd's post and the followup comments here, as well as link to the WP article.

What I'd like to hear is what your churches are doing in the way of missions...specifically short-term missions (STM). Hear are some things I'd love to know; feel free to go beyond these questions, though:

• How does STM fit into your broader mission strategy? (Does it? Do you have a broader strategy?)
• Do you have an ongoing relationship/partnership with a western/US-based mission agency through which you implement your STM strategy? Who/what? What is the focus?
• Do you have ongoing relationships/partnerships with non-western agencies or churches?
• Do you have a particular focus area? If so, how did you identify that?
• What is the nature of your involvement? (e.g., relief, development, evangelism, medical, etc.)
• How do you select and prepare short-term missionaries/teams? What do you do "post-field" with your team, the people you visited, the senders/supporters, etc.?
• How do you seek to get your whole church engaged, versus merely the "mission zealots" (my term!)?

Finally, what is the one thing you wish you did better?