Like the anthropology of tourism, research on short-term missions has had to overcome a bias against what is often assumed to be a trivial phenomenon. As scholars in a variety of fields have encountered this growing, global phenomenon, they have begun to develop a vibrant and multifaceted research-based literature exploring its cultural, historic, economic, and political aspects. This introduction to a special issue of Missiology on short-term missions presents a brief overview of the development of this emerging literature, as well as synopses of the six articles advancing our understanding of short-term missions.
AdeneyM (1996) McMissions: short-termers have their place, but not at the expense of career missionaries. Christianity Today (Nov. 11): 14.
2.
AdkinsJ (2009) Beyond development and “projects”: the globalization of solidarity. In HefferanTAdkinsJOcchipintiL (eds) Bridging the gaps: faith-based organizations, neoliberalism, and development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 103–18.
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BeyerleinKAdlerGTrinitapoliJ (2011) The effect of religious short-term mission trips on youth civic engagement. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion50(4): 780–95.
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BirthK (2006) What is your mission here? A Trinidadian perspective on visits from the “Church of Disneyworld.”Missiology34(4): 497–508.
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BrownCM (2008) Friendship is forever: congregation-to-congregation relationships. In PriestR (ed.) Effective engagement in short-term missions: doing it right!Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, pp. 203–31.
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HowellB (2009) Mission to nowhere: putting short-term mission in context. International Bulletin of Missionary Research34(4): 206–11.
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HowellB (2012) Short-term mission: an ethnography of Christian travel narrative and experience. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.
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HowellB (with DorrR) (2007) Evangelical pilgrimage: the discourse of short-term missions. Journal of Communication and Religion30: 236–65.
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MontgomeryL (1993) Short-term medical missions: enhancing or eroding health?Missiology21(3): 333–41.
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OcchipintiL (2009) Religious idealism: serving others in the name of faith. Practical Matters2: 1–30.
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OffuttS (2011) The role of short-term mission teams in the new centers of global Christianity. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion50(4): 796–811.
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ParkK-S (2008) Researching short-term missions and paternalism. In PriestR (ed.) Effective engagement in short-term missions: doing it right!Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, pp. 499–522.
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PriestKB (2008) Women as resource brokers: STM trips, social and organizational ties, and mutual resource benefits. In PriestR (ed.) Effective engagement in short-term missions: doing it right!Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, pp. 251–69.
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PriestRJ (2007) Peruvian churches acquire “linking social capital” through STM partnerships. Special Issue on Short-term Missions in Latin America—Journal of Latin American Theology: Christian Reflections from the Latino South2: 175–89.
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PriestRJ (2010) Short-term missions as a new paradigm. In KaluOVethanayagamonyPKee-Fook ChiaE (eds) Mission after Christendom: emergent themes in contemporary mission. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, pp. 84–99.
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PriestRJ (2013) Short-term missions and the reconfiguring of North American global missions involvement. In EskridgeL (ed.) Saving the world? the changing terrain of American Protestant missions. Birmingham, AL: University of Alabama Press.
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PriestRJDischingerTRasmusenSBrownCM (2006) Researching the short-term mission movement. Missiology34(4): 431–50.
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PriestRJPriestJP (2008) “They see everything, and understand nothing”: short-term missions and service learning. Missiology36(1): 53–73.
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PriestRJWilsonDJohnsonA (2010) U.S. megachurches and new patterns of global mission. International Bulletin of Missionary Research34(2): 97–104.
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RichardsonR (2008) The impact of urban short-term projects on the social connections of evangelical college students. In PriestR (ed.) Effective engagement in short-term missions: doing it right!Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, pp. 525–50.
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TrinitapoliJVaiseyS (2009) The transformative role of religious experience: the case of short-term missions. Social Forces88(1): 121–46.
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Ver BeekK (2006) The impact of short-term missions: a case study of house construction in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch. Missiology34(4): 477–95.
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Ver BeekK (2008) Lessons from the sapling: review of quantitative research on short-term missions. In PriestR (ed.) Effective engagement in short-term missions: doing it right!Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, pp. 469–96.
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WangCT (2008) Urban church resources for short-term mission. In PriestR (ed.) Effective engagement in short-term missions: doing it right!Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, pp. 233–49.
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WinterR (1996) The greatest danger: the re-amateurization of mission. Missions Frontier Bulletin5 (March–April).
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WuthnowR (2009) Boundless faith: the global outreach of American churches. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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WuthnowROffuttS (2008) Transnational religious connections. Sociology of Religion69: 209–32.
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ZehnerE (2006) Short-term missions: toward a more field-oriented model. Missiology34(4): 509–21.
