MODULE 1 - Section 3
Purpose, Priorities and Perspectives Activity
30 Minutes to complete section and related assignments
In this section, you will learn:
How to develop a fluid foundation for short-term missions.
To focus on healthy principles, not perfection.
How to define your purpose, priorities and perspectives.
Introduction
After digesting the first two sections, hopefully you are feeling more confident as you begin to see how short-term team opportunities can have an attractive cover while also bringing engaging content. It is exciting to know it's not only possible, but that you are already on your way to engaging short-term efforts in such a way that compliments and supports long-term transformation.
On the flip side, however, you may also be wondering how you and your community are going to build such a foundation. This interactive portion of Module 1 is here to guide you in building out your community’s foundational approach to short-term team opportunities.
Foundation-Building Tips:
Before you jump in, we recognize this process may feel daunting. For others, you may be excited and ready to go. Wherever you find yourself, here are three important things to keep in mind that will offer some perspective as you move forward:
1 - This process is fluid.
While you develop the different elements of your foundational approach, keep in mind you can refine those elements over time you and your community increase your experience with short-term team opportunities.
Even those communities who have/eventually establish a solid foundational approach to STT opportunities should review that foundation once or twice a year. We learn new ideas, develop our perspectives and increasingly appreciate certain values over time. Additionally, the work of our community is constantly changing as well. This means that our approach to STT opportunities does also as we shape and reshape them to best support long-term transformation.
In short, know that this is a healthy process and every community starts somewhere, just as it also changes and matures as it moves forward. Today is a great day to start (or continue) that process!
2 - Instead of 'right or wrong,' try 'healthy or unhealthy.'
We want to aim for a foundational approach that is built upon healthy partnership and poverty-alleviation principles and practices. And yet, within that realm there is an incredibly wide range of ways to capture the heart and focus of healthy short-term team opportunities. Try not to give energy to determine if your approach is right or wrong. In some ways, there is no perfect answer to that question. Instead, focus on what you know is healthy and unhealthy in community development practices and start there. Remember, since the process is fluid you can always modify as you go.
3 - It's ok to borrow when you build.
Sticking with our house analogy earlier in Module 1, chances are if you were to build a house for the first time you’d likely feel ill-equipped to do so if you didn’t have some basic tools and skills. Just as you may need to borrow a more precise tool or tap into someone’s expertise, so too can be the case here.
We want to invite you to take the tools we have shared - both our organization’s and STT. Dept.’s foundational approaches - and encourage you to use them to help you. If needed, it is perfectly fine to take the parts that resonate with your community, and then fill in those areas that need to be more nuanced for your own specific context.
These statements are about your community's approach to short-term team opportunities, specifically.
Admittedly, it is helpful if your community has already developed an overall, big-picture focus/foundational approach because it will provide some building blocks to start with. However, if your community has not created that foundation already, don’t let that hold you back. Now is still a great time to move forward (though we would encourage your community to engage in a similar process for the overall ministry approach as well.).
As You Begin:
You engage the creation process, please note that most sections throughout the creation phase will have a similar structure that will include the following elements:
Remember - you will be reminded of a phrase(s) from earlier in the training on the topic.
Statement - a statement will provide STT Dept.’s response to the topic, if helpful.
Guiding Questions - a few questions will be provided to help you get specific on your response. If multiple questions are listed, no need to answer them all. Rather, use the one or two that guide you the most in your thinking/creation.
Creation Process - here you will create your response.
Once you have created each of your foundational statements, you will submit them using the form below. If you would like a copy of your own response for safekeeping, be sure to activate the toggle that says, "Send me a copy of my response."
Your Purpose
Purpose is the reason why you are engaging short-term teams and the healthy outcomes you desire to see for all involved as a result. Here is an example of our purpose statement
STT Dept.: To create healthy short-term team opportunities that introduce goers and communities and invite those relationships to grow.
Guiding Questions:
As you think about STT opportunities, what drives you? What gets your blood flowing?
What is the core motivator for engaging STT opportunities when you think of the healthy ways they could engage and interact with your community?
What is it that, when you think about it, would fuel your community’s energy to engage STTs over and over again?
Secondly, if those motivations were to come to fruition, what would you want to see happen through STT opportunities within your community? What would be the results (i.e. spiritual, relational, transformational, etc.) coming from the interchange between short-term teams/goers/goer-groups and the community?
Creating Your Statement
Use the form below as a working space to create your statement. When you submit it you have the option to send a copy of your statement to yourself, as well as, edit your statement if you wish to do so after.
Your Perspectives
Perspectives are the way in which we go about the work we do. Perspectives are the unique way your community will go about engaging STT opportunities.
Perspectives Statement
STTs Dept: Jesus, Integrated, Relationships, Long-Term, Curiosity, Encouragement
Guiding Questions
What differentiates you from the way you will go about short-term teams?
What are the unique perspectives and approaches you want a short-term team to observe when they see you coming alongside your community?
What are the unique ways and perspectives you/the team embrace as you go about the way you relate to each other as a team, relating to the community and the way you go about your work?
Creating Your Perspectives
Use the form below as a working space to create your statement. Once you are done, go ahead and submit it. You have the option to send a copy of your statement to yourself, as well as, edit your statement if you wish to do so after.
Tip: Keep your Perspectives to around 3-6 in number. Too few and you really haven’t defined what your community is about when it comes to short-term teams. Too many and you might be about too much, which weakens what you are saying you’re about and/or makes it too difficult to actually carry them out.
Your Priorities
Priorities are what we are about. They guide us in staying true to virtues we ascribe to.
STTs Dept.: Transformation, Invitational, Dignity, Emptied, Authentic
Guiding Questions:
What are the Priorities of your community that you work tirelessly to ensure that you are about?
What attributes do you/the team embrace as you go about the way you relate to each other, the community and your work?
What Priorities should a short-term team embrace when coming alongside your community?
Creating Your Statement
Use the form below as a working space to create your values. Once you are done, go ahead and submit it. You have the option to send a copy of your statement to yourself, as well as, edit your statement if you wish to do so after.
Tip: Keep your Priorities to around 3-5 in number. Too few and you really haven’t defined what your community is about when it comes to short-term teams. Too many and you might be about too much, which weakens what you are saying you’re about and/or makes it too difficult to actually carry them out.
