Policy for Short-Term Missionaries
Structure and support for different types of trips (overview chart)
Appendix 1 - Structure and support for different types of trips chart (detailed description)
Casas-Endorsed Trips (not IMB)
Casas overflows with great joy and deep passion to send out those who have been part of the heart of our church family, who meet the church's qualifications, who are approved by the Global Outreach Team, and whose ministry lives out Casas’ definition of global outreach: going outside our normal sphere of influence (culture, language, or nation) to share the message of Jesus, mentor new followers of Jesus, start new churches, and partner with existing churches to reach their communities, in Tucson and around the world.
Short-term workers are those individuals who are sent out by Casas for a term of service from 1 week to 4 months.
A. Structure and Support for Different Types of Short-Term Trips
|
Casas-Led Trip |
Casas-Endorsed Trip |
Non-Casas Trip |
|
|
Trip Structure |
|||
| Goers | 1-2 Bible Fellowships who make this their BF project | Casas BF members | open |
| Goer-Leaders | experienced, trained Casas trip leaders | agency trip leaders | open |
| Field Facilitators | Casas-supported missionaries | agencies of Casas supported missionaries* | open |
|
Trip Support |
|||
| Goers raising support within Casas | OK | OK | OK |
| Casas funding for goers | Yes | Yes | No |
| Application processing | Casas | Casas and Agency | Agency |
| Responsibility for extra funding for trip leaders | Casas | Agency or Goer | Agency or Goer |
| Donation processing | Casas | Agency (Casas on IMB trips) | Agency |
| Promotion | Casas | Agency | Agency |
| Street Fair | Standalone display | Part of Casas missionary's display only if appropriate | No |
| Responsibility to provide field insurance | Casas | Agency or Goer | Agency or Goer |
| *International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, Frontiers, Campus Crusade for Christ, Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission, Pioneers, SOAR, EFCA International Mission, Catalina Baptist Association | |||
B. Amount of Financial Support from Casas
Each person going on a short-term trip commits to raising their own financial support. In certain situations Casas is able to provide modest financial assistance. Casas would love to be able to provide more for each church member doing this beautiful work, however the church does not have the resources to do so. Of those who are approved for financial support, Casas has to carefully steward the limited funds available for short-term missionaries. It may commission some (without financial support) and provide others with financial support. The amount of financial support for each approved short-term missionary will be determined based on several factors such as (1) the percentage of the funds raised and (2) whether the applicant (a) has completed Casas short-term training, (b) is working with a recognized least-reached people group, (c) is assisting in church planting, and (d) is partnering with full-time Casas workers on the field. Non-Casas members/attendees will not be eligible to receive funds from Casas Global Outreach.
A. Spouses
Casas believes in marriage and spouses experiencing ministry together. If a husband and wife go on a short-term trip together to serve with a Casas-funded missionary or a people group that is less than 2% evangelical, they will raise funds for the total cost of two trip members at full price. If all the funds come in, their trip costs are covered. If at least 70% of the couple's needed funds come in, Casas will make up what is lacking for the second spouse, up to half of the second spouse's cost. Casas Global Outreach will pay the difference into the team fund. Because Casas Global Outreach is already helping with Trip Leaders, this policy would not apply to their spouses.
B. Children
Casas believes in families experiencing ministry together. Therefore if a parent and minor dependent child or children go on a short-term trip together to serve with a Casas-funded missionary or a people group that is less than 2% evangelical, they will raise funds for the total cost of two trip members at full price. If all the funds come in, their trip costs are covered. If at least 70% of the pair's needed funds come in, Casas will make up what is lacking for the minor child, up to one third of the child's cost. Casas Global Outreach will pay the difference into the team fund. Because Casas Global Outreach is already helping with Trip Leaders and Envoys, this policy would not apply to their children. If two spouses and multiple children travel together, the first spouse will pay full price, Casas will pay up to half of the second spouse's cost (as described above) and up to one third of each child's cost (as described above).
Because one of Casas' highest priorities is the well-being of the workers it commissions, blesses, and supports, and because Casas focuses on sending short-term workers to assist its long-term workers, approved agencies are limited to the organizations of Casas-supported full-time global workers:
1. Each agency must demonstrate that it faithfully carries out the four main functions of a sending agency:
a. Finances - Provides financial accountability and transparency by membership in either the Ev@nge1ica1 Council for Financial Accountability, Interden0minational Foreign Missi0n Association, or Ev@nge1ica1 Fell0wship of Missi0n Agencies.
b. Supervision - Providing its workers true supervision and physical and logistical support.
c. Past0ral Care - Providing its workers true past0ral care.
d. Training - Requiring its workers to have adequate initial education and providing its workers ongoing training.
2. The agency must fit with Casas:
a. The agency must fit Casas’ definition of global outreach: Casas sending our people outside our normal sphere of influence (culture, language, or nation) to share the message of the Son, mentor new followers of the Son, start new chvrches, and partner with existing chvrches to reach their communities, in Tucson and around the world.
b. The agency must demonstrate doctrinal agreement with Casas.
Casas' goal in this Travel Policy is that short-term workers be safe, be funded, be accountable on the trip and in-country, be accountable in their ministry plans, and be faithful in their responsibilities to spouses and dependent children. To that end, the following policies guide us:
1. Casas would like to offer its members (who notify the Global Teams Director of their international ministry plans and go through the application process) training and other types of support.
2. If Casas financial support is accepted, short-term workers will follow Casas policies and will go out under the auspices of Casas with the church's blessing, support, and commissioning.
3. Casas short-term workers, including Trip Leaders, will not travel alone.
4. Casas short-term workers will travel (to their ministry site and within the country) with their Trip Leader. The only exception is if ALL of the following are met:
a. they are traveling with a spouse or child (for accountability) but with no other team members AND
b. each person (adult and child) is an experienced traveler AND
c. the long-term missionary has taken full responsibility for them during their ministry time, including and especially their travel within the country AND
d. the Global Teams Director develops a ministry plan with the short-term worker and the long-term missionary or agency
No short-term workers will travel without their Trip Leader other than this four-condition exception listed above
5. In addition, on Casas-endorsed trips, short-term workers will also follow the travel policy of the agency organizing the trip.
6. If the short-term worker takes personal travel time before or after the short-term trip, the worker is not under Casas' blessing, support, commissioning, or insurance during that time. However, Casas strongly urges the short-term worker to travel with another person appropriate for safety and accountability purposes.
7. It is the recommendation of Casas that spouses serve together if possible.
8. Married short-term workers traveling without spouses or single parents traveling without dependent children will not be away from home for more than one month on Casas short-term ministry.
F. Minors on Global or Local trips
1. Jesus viewed children as precious and infinitely valuable and He warned his followers to never cause any of "these little ones" to stray. Because of His heart for our most vulnerable, Casas has policies in place to protect minors. "Minor" in this policy refers to anyone from birth to eighteen years old or a special education adult. These are some of the policies relevant to trips led by Casas Global Outreach. This policy does not apply to trips led by Casas Student Ministries (CSM) or Casas Children's Ministries, such as to CSM trips to Imuris or Sells.
2. Whenever any leader hears about a minor possibly going on or wanting to go on a Casas Global Outreach-led global or local trip, tell the Global Outreach Pastor immediately and get GO Pastor's approval before saying yes or no to the minor or their family.
3. The parent or legal guardian must accompany the minor and must participate in all of the training along with the minor. The family should choose a trip that is multi-generational, not a trip designed for one age group. I.e., it would not be appropriate for the minor to go on a trip designed for middle aged couples or senior adults.
4. When a parent or legal guardian accompanies a minor on a trip, for the entire duration of the trip the parent is responsible for the minor's supervision, and not the trip leader, the church, any other trip member, any missionary personnel, any national personnel, or anyone else. If the parent allows the minor to go somewhere or do something not under their direct supervision, the minor is still considered under the parent's supervision and the parent is still responsible for the minor.
5. Both of the child's parents need to sign a Consent to Travel form authorizing the child to travel to the designated countries. If one parent is accompanying the child, the traveling parent needs to sign a form acknowledging that they alone are entirely responsible for the child on the trip. The non-traveling parent needs to sign authorizing and acknowledging that the traveling parent alone is entirely responsible for the child during the entirety of the trip. If one parent has sole custody, only that parent need sign if they submit copies of the divorce paperwork stating they have sole custody.
G. Non-Casas Attendees on Casas Short-Term Trips
Non-Casas members/attendees may only go on Casas-led trips in exceptional situations depending on space and the need for specific skills they provide. They are not eligible to receive funds from Casas Global Outreach. But they shall meet qualifications and commitments that apply to Casas members/attendees going on short-term mission trips which are:
1. Shall complete all required training.
2. Shall submit to the leadership of the team.
3. Shall abide by all policies that apply to Casas members/attendees going on short-term mission trips, including Travel Policy.
4. Shall fill out a Casas volunteer application and a short-term application for non-Casas attendees.
5. Shall enlist at least 10 prayer supporters as well as emotional, logistical, communications, re-entry supporters.
6. Shall receive a home church reference from a pastor.
7. Shall receive a home church reference from a Bible class, home group, choir, or other small group of which the applicant is a part.
8. Shall arrange a time of sharing experiences with prayer and financial supporters within four weeks of returning from the field.
9. Shall raise adequate funds for the trip.
H. Trip Leaders (for Casas-led trips)
1. Responsibilities of a Trip Leader
To Global Outreach Staff and Long-Term Global Workers - Aligns the trip with the church and communicates with the church
Defines the goals of the trip with the Global Outreach Pastor
Along with the Global Outreach Pastor, chooses selected team member(s) to mentor
Meets on a regular basis with the Global Outreach Pastor and the Global Teams Director to report on, plan, and problem-solve recruiting, team finances, team training, and the upcoming trip
Completes online team leader training and attends team leader training scheduled by Global Outreach
Prepares arrangements ahead of time with long-term global worker
To Team - Pre-Trip - Oversees and leads the team members to successfully prepare for the trip
Actively recruits the team
Ensures that team members carry out the steps in the sending process (participate in all Global Outreach-sponsored training, fill out applications and references, submit funds for plane ticket purchase by the set deadline date, etc.) and reports this to Global Teams Director
Leads or arranges for specific training and team-training for the specific trip and ensures that team members participate
Ensures that travel arrangements for the team are made
Manages or delegates management of team finances, ensuring that the required accounting procedures are followed for the trip
Manages or delegates management of team tasks such as devotions, photography, videography, etc.
Ensures that team members follow the Casas guidelines for fundraising
Schedules the date, time, and room for the team to do a report to supporters and leads the report preparation process
Ensures that team members are commissioned by their adult class
To Team - On Trip - Leads the group to accomplish the goals of the trip in a safe, effective, godly, spiritually healthy, culturally-sensitive way
Shepherds the group (leads or delegates leading devotions, encouraging people)
Steps in and takes charge when a problem requires it; lovingly but directly confronts team members who are creating problems
Provides godly and culturally-sensitive perspective on unforeseen situations that arise
Includes certain team members (who have been selected with the Global Outreach Pastor) in how the team is being led to help prepare them to become team leaders
Makes sure that the tasks that the team went to accomplish get accomplished
Debriefs with team to help them get a spiritual perspective on their experience and to surface stories to share with the rest of Casas
Prepares the team for the shock of re-entry
Let team members know that the church will send them a brief evaluation of the trip to fill out so Casas can learn from their experience
Post-Trip - Ties up loose ends with team members, GO staff, and finances, and global workers in a spiritually healthy, responsible way
Reports on trip to GO Pastor and staff including stories, highlights, challenges, suggested changes for future years, team members, and relationship with global workers
Ensures that all finances are accounted for
Debriefs with selected team members concerns to be addressed before future trips are taken
Organizes the team to do a report to supporters
2. Qualifications of a Trip Leader
A spiritually faithful believer in Jesus
Active in Casas Global Outreach
Emotionally and socially mature enough to successfully lead a group
Organized enough to successfully handle the details of trip finances and trip planning
Committed to the Casas Global Outreach purpose for short-term work: involving Casas people in helping long-term Casas-funded missionaries advance their strategy
3. Steps to Becoming a Trip Leader
Global Outreach personnel begin to pray for a new Trip Leader.
Global Outreach personnel contact or are contacted by a potential Trip Leader who possesses the above qualities.
The potential Trip Leader participates in Trip Leader Training.
The potential Trip Leader goes on a trip lead by an experienced leader.
The potential Trip Leader recruits, trains and co-leads a trip with a Global Outreach staff member.
The Trip Leader recruits, trains and leads a trip without a Global Outreach staff member.
Being a Trip Leader is an annually renewable role. It expires, is reviewed, and may be renewed each fall by mutual consent of the Trip Leader and the Global Outreach staff.
A. Trip Approval plan must be developed with the GO Pastor, the Global Worker, and the Trip Leader.
B. Choosing an airfare - Proposed airfare should be the cheapest route that has a reasonable schedule. Report to GO Pastor the proposed airfare vs. the cheapest airfare and the proposed itinerary (airport stops) vs. the cheapest itinerary.
C. Overnights outside work location (if any, i.e., debrief/cultural experience, rest day)
1. Must not exceed 10% of total trip cost.
2. Must be the cheapest route that has a reasonable travel schedule.
3. Overnights for cultural experiences must be in cultures closely related to the destination culture.
D. The cost per person will be decided and published before any fundraising begins and will not be changed later.
A. Debriefing your team and preparing them for re-entry are two of the most important responsibilities of a trip leader.
(1) Debriefing helps the team member grow from their short-term experience
This is a sacred time which allows your team to reflect upon their experience communally while it is still vividly in front of them.
When people share out loud they are encouraged, your team is encouraged, and you can measure the depth of their experience.
Some people process their thoughts aloud, so sharing gives them a chance to understand what they have just experienced.
(2) Debriefing helps you and the church measure the effectiveness of the trip in at least two ways:
How have people grown spiritually?
How effectively did the team aid the strategy of our missionary partners?
(3) Debriefing identifies stories of what God did that need to be shared with the church
This time also allows you to listen to stories that could be shared at Casas – stories which God could use to tug on people’s hearts for next year. Most people go on a trip either because they are invited to go, were encouraged by a friend or family member, or because they were moved by a story; a story told by a real Casas person, sharing their real experience. We all go because we have been moved by God’s story.
One of your duties as a team leader is to find these stories and help people share them. Schedule a day or two in country at the end of the trip to sit down with your team and share stories.
B. How to debrief your team
(1) Ask the team members some questions to draw out the stories. These questions may include:
(a) What was the most eye opening part of the trip for you?
(b) When did you sense God stretching you the most?
(c) How have you come to understand missionary work in a new light as a result of this trip?
(d) Would you be willing to come and live here for a year or two? Why or why not?
(e) Are there people in your Bible Fellowship class that you think should be part of a trip like this? Do they have skills that could aid the missionary’s strategy? Would the trip be a good spiritual growth experience for them?
(2) Jot down the best, most moving stories. When you get back home share those stories with the Global Outreach Pastor in an appointment with him.
6. Preparing your team for re-entry - Prepare them to transform the shock of re-entry into an opportunity for ministry
Tell your team that it is common to feel an emotional letdown after a trip because they’ve been preparing for it for a so long, it is so intense, it ends so suddenly, and people back home don't seem to understand.
Tell your team that a common reaction for team members is to feel frustrated with people back home - they may seem shallow and ungodly.
Teach your team how to transform that frustration into something positive:
- Look at the people back home like you looked at the people on the field - they are needy; we need to cross into their culture to let them be touched by God
- The touch of God the people at home need to feel is God's heart of love for the least-reached around the world
- God doesn’t touch them through our frustration, but he does when we enter into their world - a "less-global" world - like we enter another culture
- In their culture, people at home are often concerned with growing spiritually. Therefore teach your trip members that they can share how this trip:
o was a spiritual milestone for them
o put them in a situation of being dependent on God - they cried out to Him in an unfamiliar situation and he met them
o gave them the opportunity to share the message with people who had never heard it before
Prepare your team members to integrate this trip into their ministry lives. They have just been goers, now they can choose between five roles (the Global Outreach team can help them with any of these):
- Intercessors - they can pray for workers, followers, and seekers on the field
- Welcomers - they can reach out to the "world at our door" - refugees, international students, and immigrants, possibly from the region or country they went to
- Senders - they can give financial, emotional and logistical support for global workers
- Goers - they can go on lightning trips to Mexico, plan for future overseas short-term trips, or consider long-term service
- Mobilizers - they can help the people of Casas catch God's heart for the world by sharing the story of their trip experience, helping with the Street Fair, or volunteering in other ways with the Global Outreach ministry
7. Giving a Report on your Global Trip
Why give a report:
Short-term workers reporting on their global trips to their churches is an ancient Christian practice.
“They sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” (Acts 14:26, 27)
Friends and family have prayed for you and some may have given financially. They deserve to hear how God answered their prayers and what God did with their investment.
How to plan the report:
If it is a group presentation, choose someone to facilitate the presentation, like an emcee. The emcee is responsible to plan it and assign who talks when and about what. He or she puts the pictures in order and make sure they are shown at the right time, etc. The emcee is a lot like the director of a film - you have a great story, now you need to tell the story well.
a. Make sure your team has thoroughly debriefed (http://www.gocasas.com/training-tripleader.doc#Debriefing).
b. Many things happened in the 200 hours you were on your trip, but you only have a few minutes to communicate them. Don’t be distracted by communicating things unrelated to the purpose of your trip – awkward cultural moments, travel annoyances, etc. Your mind tends to drift to these things. Instead, ask yourself – what do I want those who prayed for me and invested in me to think of when they think of my trip? Hint: it probably has something to do with God. People want to know: “Did my prayers and my gifts help you achieve the purpose God set before you?”
c. Key questions to get you thinking:
(a) What was the most eye opening part of the trip for you?
(b) When did you sense God stretching you the most?
(c) How have you come to understand missionary work in a new light as a result of this trip?
(d) Would you be willing to come and live here for a year or two? Why or why not?
(e) Are there people in your Bible Fellowship class that you think should be part of a trip like this? Do they have skills that could aid the missionary’s strategy? Would the trip be a good spiritual growth experience for them?
d. Stories – Use the above questions to lead you to four or five of the best, most moving stories. Write them down.
How to structure the report:
a. Before you start - Pray before you go into the room. Then be excited about what God did on your trip, and what He will do during your report!
b. Introduction
(1) Give some very short specific bullet points - where, when, what, why - purpose of team, members of team, location of ministry, who you served with. (For example:
“Six people from our Bible Fellowship went in mid-July to have English conversations with college students in Central Asia. Michael, Jennifer, Jeanette, Chris, Patricia, and I went. We worked with full-time missionaries from Kampus Krusade who are part of the team of our Casas missionary Doug Burklebuckle.”)
(2) Give comparisons (For example, “The city we went to was about the size of Tucson, about the size of Los Angeles, etc.”).
(3) If your people group was least-reached, say so and give its name and what percent are evangelical believers (see www.joshuaproject.net).
(4) Explain how your Bible Fellowship took a role in your trip through commissioning, providing prayer, emotional, logistical, communication, and re-entry support.
(5) Describe how Casas Global Outreach Funding helped you go on your trip. i.e.: insurance paid by Casas Global Outreach, materials and supplies that were paid by GO or long–term workers who are partially paid by GO funds.
c. Heart- Most of the time should be spent on the relational incidents and what-you-saw-God-do incidents
(1) Stories - Pick five stories, and help the team format them into stories (intro the characters, conflict, resolution of conflict, and tie up loose ends) add details in character development and creation of conflict you want people to feel the emotions you felt and imagine the scene that you saw.
(2) Pictures - Only show those pictures that relate to the stories no more, no less and do not comment on the pictures sense the story explains them. The pictures add to the story not the other way around. Eliminate what you don’t need such as city shots or unnecessary shots of yourself or the people you especially liked that have nothing to do with the story you are telling. Avoid the phrase, “and in this next picture…” A general rule of thumb is to have about one picture per minute; 30 pictures total.
(3) Each member - Have 2-4 team members share for 60 seconds each (with a timer) on the most meaningful part of the trip for them. This is the bullet point for them, the take away lesson. What it did in them, how this moment has and will change their life. For example, "At that moment I realized we are probably the only Christ followers out of all of these people.”
(4) Vision - Emcee shares why it is so important for Americans to join God in this country. This is the part where you share your passion and allow God to use your words and heart to touch the hearts of those who hear you. This is often when people feel God calling them to join Him.
(5) Next Steps - Share the nitty gritty details of how people can be involved now. For example people can pray, they can give they can go on the next trip.
Talking about money - see http://www.gocasas.com/policy-fund.htm
Special situations:
a. For a less traditional (sitting in a circle) presentation, ask two or three people to each ask a specific question to get things started and then let the others jump in.
b. If you're feeling like doing something really different, you could make your presentation into a game show quiz with people holding up signs or raising their hands or holding up a red card or a blue card, boys vs. girls, etc., give prizes for winners, or make people do activities like on Survivor like solving a giant jigsaw puzzle to go on to the next section, etc.
c. If you were invited to give your report as part of the Principles of Global Outreach Series, make the presentation a maximum of 30 minutes. Presentations should also allow time for questions from the class; this is the standard teaching mode for the Outreach lessons. Under no circumstances go over!
APPENDIX 1
Structure and Support for Different Types of Short-term Trips (Details)
(1) Casas-Led Trip
If a Casas-Funded Missionary (IMB or Casas missionary):
a. Requests the trip and believes the trip will help them reach their strategic goals and
b. Joins the GO Pastor, a Bible Fellowship, and an approved Trip Leader in agreeing on a Trip Approval plan and
If the Trip Leader:
a. Meets the qualifications and has gone through the steps to becoming a Trip Leader and
b. Recruits at least three other Casas members from the Bible Fellowship, including one who hasn't gone on a Casas Global Trip before (four total), and
c. Is committed to Casas Global Outreach short-term policies, including fulfilling Trip Leader Responsibilities and Travel Policy
d. Is willing to organize a display at the next Street Fair to thank the church and celebrate what God did on the trip.
a. Submits Casas application and references and
b. Is approved by the Global Outreach Team [this would typically happen within 48 hours of receiving the application and references]
c. Is committed to
being an active member of a Casas Bible Fellowship. (This is important to the church because then not just the trip member, but an entire community of Casas people can benefit from the trip. They can hear the vision of the trip, give toward the trip, commission the trip members before the trip, pray for trip members on the trip, and hear the report of how God answered prayer after the trip.)
following Casas Global Outreach short-term policies, including Travel Policy
participating in all required training sponsored by Casas or the team
submitting to the leadership of the team (Hebrews 13:17).
enlisting at least 10 prayer supporters as well as emotional, logistical, communications, re-entry supporters
arranging a time of sharing experiences with prayer and financial supporters within four weeks of returning from the field
raising adequate funds for the trip
Then Casas Global Outreach:
a. Requests that Casas Finance Office process donations for the trip and
b. Processes and approves trip applications and
c. Provides short-term training and
d. Pays for Trip Leader (plane ticket, ground transportation, lodging, food) and
e. Actively promotes the trip in the congregation and
f. Provides field insurance for the team and
g. Contributes toward trip members who need help (if most of their funds are in as of the deadline date for final funds submission)
h. Invites the Trip Leader to organize a display at the next Street Fair to thank the church and celebrate what God did on the trip.
(2)