How to Run Effective Local Multi-day Mission Trips- Transcript
Jim Latimer 00:00
Jim, welcome to Coaching for Interims. We are about empowerment for transitional ministry, best practices and quick help wisdom from the field. I am your host, Reverend Jim Latimer, and today I’m pleased to invite Reverend Joe Motz to our podcast project. Joe is a millennial UCC, United Church of Christ, minister with depth experience as a settled pastor and now serving, bringing some of that wisdom to a transitional role for a church here in Pennsylvania. Joe is one of the most thoughtful, faithful and effective pastors I know. And to this list of adjectives, I should also add innovative. And when I heard about the creative and fun way he designs and leads multi-day local, creatively funded, work mission trips, right that many of us have done, I knew he was on to something that others would benefit from hearing about. So, thank you, Joe, for taking time from your busy ministry schedule to join us, to join our wisdom from the field project. Where shall we start?
Joe Motz 01:02
Hey, Jim, it’s great to be on with you today and be able to share some of this experience I’ve had within local ministry and serving the local community. So where to start? It’s actually before we even began the local mission trips. So, the church I was serving for several years they were doing these away mission trips. And while they were doing the away mission trips, there was always that little under the current grumbling that was going on, asking the question, you know, why aren’t we doing local mission trips here?
Jim Latimer 01:35
Don’t people have needs here?!
Joe Motz 01:38
Exactly!
Joe Motz 01:40
I had a leader that was passionate, that was committed to leading, and so we kept on doing the away mission trips. But the year, when she left, a job took her out of the region, out of our church because of that, I decided that it was time to find out if the congregation really meant something by its grumbling.
Joe Motz 01:59
And intentionally, I didn’t do anything big. It was all about how do you just do a little test to see if there’s something more. And for me, what it was, there’s a local park that was 100 yards away from the church. It was in disrepair, needed some TLC, largely painting and some mulch work done with it. I talked to my local government to see if they were interested in a team working on it. They said, Yes, we’ll provide the paint. And so, for my congregation, I said, Hey, the Wednesday nights of October, for two hours each Wednesday night, if you’re interested in doing something good in our community, come out to the local park, and we will make an improvement. And I was stunned that the congregation – a whole range of different people, teens, adults, older members – came out over those several days in October and worked on this project. I said, Maybe we have something here. Maybe there really is something to that grumbling, and so the next part was to take the test a little bit farther.
Joe Motz 03:13
And so, what I did is I called a meeting for exploring the idea of doing a local mission trip in the community. I did it in early January, after Christmas, so it wasn’t competing with our people’s schedules and our things. And the important part of it was I didn’t invite anybody to that meeting. I wanted to find out how much of the desire to do this was really part of the congregation. And the congregation I was serving, had around an average attendance of 60 – 65, people or so, and 10 people showed up to that first meeting.
Jim Latimer 03:52
Joe, let me pause you for a moment. What I think of I heard you say is that you didn’t want people coming because they thought they were doing you a favor, because you invited them, right? You wanted them come because they had something, a need that they wanted and were interested in.
Joe Motz 04:05
Yeah, exactly. And that’s what I was trying to assess. What was the need, the heartfelt desire, of the members in order to live out their faith. And so, 10 people showed up and went, We definitely have something here. And we sat around, we looked around the table at each other and ask the question, Who knows how to do this? And the resounding response was none of us. But the follow up question is, Who desires to do this, all of us?
Jim Latimer 04:36
Nice.
Joe Motz 04:37
And we began this process for the next four months of trying to figure out how to run a local based, multi-day mission trip. And there’s a couple of things that we set out. One, this was about learning, so it meant that everybody in the room had permission to fail, because none of us knew how to do it right. The second thing was, we made a promise to each other that just because we were doing it this year did not mean we need to do it the next year. So, it gave permission that it didn’t have to become something more than just one attempt, and we would learn and see and decide later if it was something worthwhile to do. And it was a lot of work. It was a lot of learning. And surprisingly, one of the hardest aspects of running the trip the first year was finding people and organizations to serve.
Jim Latimer 05:40
Oh, wow!
Joe Motz 05:41
Because we had no network. We had no connections, and to go around the neighborhood and say, Hey, would you like to invite a bunch of strangers into your house who have never done a local mission trip to work on your house for you? Would you like to sign up?
Jim Latimer 05:56
I love it!
Joe Motz 05:59
We didn’t have the credibility. And so, what we ended up doing, we leaned into the local government again to see what else of community projects could be done. And we networked with some members in our neighborhood to see if they knew of other people next door that could use the help. Very few homeowners we helped that first year, a bunch of community projects that we did. And it also taught us that the second hardest part of running a local trip, is doing the project estimation, how much of supplies, how much money, how much time, what skill set of volunteers?
Joe Motz 06:44
If you would have asked me the first time around, what’s going to be the hardest part, I probably would have told you, raising the money for it. The money part actually came pretty easily. Partially because we decided to work on community projects, and so our borough, our township, they gave us a lot of the products that we needed. We told a couple of businesses about what we were doing, and they said, I like it. Can I help fund that for you? And we intentionally kept it small, so that it wasn’t going to cost a whole lot of money. And so, the support that we got from the local government and a couple of local businesses, paid for everything of our trip. As the saying goes, Money follows mission. And we were able to tell a story about a mission within our local community.
Jim Latimer 07:32
Joe, let me just pause you for a minute there, because I’m just all smiles here. I’m loving how you’re hitting so many important parts of ministry here, and most obviously here, the community around your church is getting pretty clear about, Oh, this church! Oh, this is how they’re relevant to us. This is how they affect our lives. Churches decline because the people around you don’t know you and don’t think you’re relevant to their lives, and you’re demonstrating in this how you are. It’s a wonderful. I love it!
Joe Motz 08:12
That actually points to the second year, because we still had the problem of trying to find people that were in need. And what we ended up doing is we created these little flyers that we started handing out door to door, and the one person answered the door and said, I don’t want anything. And we were able to say, Oh, we’re not asking you for anything other than, Do you know someone that needs help? And the individual was stunned that the church was trying to figure out who needed help in the community, because church wanted to help people in the community. It was a reverse of the story, the narrative, that they were telling themselves about church. And so just the very fact of trying to find people to help, it began to change people’s perceptions of what church is, and I think that impacted our members, as well as to who they really are in the community, too.
Jim Latimer 09:07
And the narrative being – the kind of false narrative – that you’re changing is that people think the church wants something from me. They want to get something from me. They want my money, they want my time, they want this or that. And that’s what you flipped, right?
Joe Motz 09:19
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Joe Motz 09:22
And so, one of the key visions for this mission trip is, yes, we wanted to do good works within the community, we wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. But one of the aspects that was really core was we wanted the spiritual benefit that generally comes from away mission trips. So, for away mission trips, you get out of the rhythm of your life. You get away from the regular things that you’re doing. You have time with people. You get the opportunity to reflect, and it opens up space for God to get a hold of you. And what we want to be able to do with this local mission. Trip was allowed that same space for God to get a hold of people. So, our volunteers to be transformed by this experience because of encounters that they were having with God. And so, one of the things I told the leadership group is that if we did good work, but the people were not transformed, our volunteers were not transformed, we were not successful. It had to be more than just doing good works. It had to be about people’s lives. Our volunteers being changed through the experience.
Jim Latimer 10:38
Yeah, and you’re probably going to hit this next but I’ll just say it, because I’m thinking, Well, transformation is a word we pastors love to throw around, but how do you know that’s happened?
Joe Motz 10:49
Yeah, so one of the things that we were looking for is, what are the people celebrating? Are they celebrating that they did some good stuff? Are they celebrating that something is shifted in their life because of this experience? We’re looking for the stories that they were talking about, were the stories of relationship. We are looking at the ways in which people are talking about need in the community. Did they have some theological language to go along with it? Meaning, do they have an understanding of how what they were doing really connected to who Jesus is and what it means to live out discipleship in our life.
Joe Motz 11:30
And those were the stories that we’re looking for, and we intentionally did things in order to create fertile ground for that. So, all that’s about, how do we set up the day? So, there are a couple things that we intentionally did. One, we wanted our volunteers to feel as though they were being blessed and love was being poured into them, which is kind of the exact opposite what you think about mission trips. Mission trips are all about the volunteers pouring out their blessing. That happened, but we also need to make sure that love and blessing was being poured into the volunteers. So 7:30 in the morning, volunteers gathered. We had breakfast, hot breakfast made from scratch, ready to go for all of our volunteers. As breakfast would come to a close, we intentionally had a time of devotion that was meant to really center the spirit and the mind about, what is this work about? Who am I really trying to encounter? And who am I trying to be in this day? When the volunteers were out on the job sites, we did creative ways of having them randomly select who was going to say the prayer at the lunch time, because most people just want the pastor to pray, right?
Jim Latimer 12:47
That’s right!
Joe Motz 12:47
But we wanted to be able to teach them you have the ability to pray, to spiritually, care for one another, and to make it open to every single person on that team. And then in the evening, when they would come back, we had some respite time for them. And then dinner again, hot, made from scratch. So, two of my favorite meals were the ones where we had the creme brulee, which was fantastic, and lasagna bolognese. So, we had an individual that wasn’t going down the mission field. He loved to cook. He could teach other people how to cook, and he gave that passion out. And then afterwards we would gather together, and we did small team building exercises, things that were connected to the theme, all grounded in Scripture and inviting people to reflect on who they were, who they were encountering, what the challenges that they experienced? And we would end each day, everyone gathered around in prayer, holding hands and opportunity for prayer to be lifted up for whatever was needed, so that the life, the heart, the spirit, was cared for, of individuals. They would go home, get some good rest, and then come the next day and be fed even more.
Jim Latimer 14:14
Wow, Joe. This is rich. And I love how you how you said that the work itself is a fine thing, but it’s not about the work itself. It’s about the work as a tool to transform people, right? You know, people aren’t transformed, again, big word, just by the work. I love how you get at that. It’s in the debrief, right? It’s in the listening. I think you said you had a listening team, so you’re listening to people. What are they talking about? What’s lighting them up? Where is the Spirit moving? And it’s subjective, right? They’ve got to share that with you. You can’t tell them what it ought to be. You gotta set it up. Leadership has got to set it up so you can see that and know what’s happening, how God’s Spirit is moving.
Joe Motz 14:59
So yeah, the listening team, as we advanced in the years with this, we got individuals who their entire role was to go out and meet with the homeowners and just listen to their stories. They were to go out and be with our teens on site and listen to what was going on. A lot of times, those were great, uplifting stories. There were some times where it was clear that there was more spiritual reflection that was needed. The way in which we were talking about the homeowners was denigrating. The way in which we were talking about how people were living, it was putting people down. We brought that into an evening reflection and tied it specifically to Scripture to help people connect how we normally are as human beings, with who God is inviting us to be in relationship with others, and allow the scripture and our faith to do that work of transformation; not needing to call people out and say, Oh, you messed this up. But take the immediate experience, bring it into a place where people can reflect and have their own Aha moments, and allow the growth to happen over the days.
Jim Latimer 16:13
Sweet. Wow, wow.
Joe Motz 16:20
And so, the big learnings from the experience are, one, the number one reasons people do not do local base mission trips is that it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of prep time, and you really do need a committed team. But if you have that committed team, and people that really want to see this come through, you, then have the resources that you really need. Look to the local government. Begin to talk to your local businesses about what you want to do and how you want to lift up your community and bring people together. Because it not only transforms the volunteers, it has the power to transform your entire community, which is something that we saw happen where the divides that were present in our community, between the churches, divides that were separated by geographical boundaries, it all changed. And part of that was by making it local.
Joe Motz 17:19
And Jim, you said the very beginning, What is “local” in a local mission trip? For us, strategically, it was a 15-minute drive radius around the church. It’s because it kept us focused on where we were at, and also, we were bound to forget something to take to the work site or we needed more supplies, and the longest we wanted people to be waiting around for supplies was about 45 minutes. And so, it helped keep our team active, but it also really gave a heart and a focus to our community about what the church was trying to do.
Jim Latimer 17:56
Nice. Wow. That’s brilliant, Joe. And I appreciate at the end, I appreciate what you just here that it takes a lot of work. Loke you, I’ve gone on a lot of offsite mission trips, you go to some other states, somewhere far away, and typically we’ll hire somebody there to do all that for us, all the logistics, etc. And when it’s local, you got to do it yourself. But the benefit is that when it’s local, you’re connecting with people that are right around the church in its community and connecting, and all kinds of good things spin off of that, that you can’t even predict,
Jim Latimer 18:41
And so many people can be part of it – just come in for this or that. I imagine your work teams, didn’t you tell me that at the meals and stuff like that, it’s not just the church people that come right, it’s people in the community. They say, Hey, what’s going on? Can I join you? And they come in, and you got a whole group of people sharing a meal, all kinds.
Joe Motz 19:00
Yeah, at the very end, like our celebration was about bringing in our homeowners, bringing in our business owners that were sponsoring us, inviting families and friends to come in and see what this was about, and hear the story of transformation – both in the physical transformation that was happening within our community, but also on the personal transformation that was happening within our volunteers. And that is what let us know we needed to do it again, because we saw people being transformed, and people wanted to continue on that journey of faith and life and devotion, and they wanted their community to be better because of it.
Jim Latimer 19:44
Well, Joe, that reminds me why you’re such a good pastor, because you help people see what they really want that they don’t yet know they want it, and you provide a way for them to get it. But you don’t gild the lily and say it’s going to be easy. It’s not. But you walk with them in such a way that they’re much more likely to Say, Yes, I’m going to be vulnerable in this way, or I’m going to invest myself in X way, because I want that for myself, and what I see God doing, and all kinds of good stuff.
Jim Latimer 20:16
Joe, this has been fabulous. Is there anything else you want to add before we wrap up here? This has been really valuable. A lot of folks are going to benefit from this.
Joe Motz 20:26
I just encourage you to take that little test, to see where your congregation is at. And after that, figure out what your next steps are.
Jim Latimer 20:35
Yeah. Great.
Jim Latimer 20:37
Sweet. Thank you so much, Joe. It’s been great to be with you again, and wow, there’s probably another few podcasts in there about what you’re up to these days. So, let’s keep the conversation going.
Joe Motz 20:49
I’d love to Jim. Thanks so much.
Jim Latimer 20:51
Bye.