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#28: “Bringing It Home” (Bridging the mission experience into everyday life)
52 Plays15 days ago
A week of serving can change a student's life, but what happens when they come home?
The mission trip is over. The excitement begins to fade. School starts back. Daily routines return. Without intentional follow-up, one of the most spiritually significant weeks in a student's life can quickly become just another great memory.
In this episode of NextGen Matters, Rich Brown shares a practical framework to help ministry leaders bridge the gap between the mission field and everyday life. Instead of simply celebrating what happened during the trip, you'll learn how to intentionally multiply its impact long after the bus pulls back into the church parking lot.
Using a simple Five-Pillar Bridge Framework, Rich walks through practical ideas that help students move from doing missions to living on mission every day.
The Five Pillars of Effective Mission Trip Follow-Up
- The Home – Equip parents and establish healthy rhythms that continue discipleship.
- The Local Church – Invite the congregation to celebrate, pray, and participate in the mission.
- The Student Ministry – Process the experience together and create opportunities for continued service.
- The Individual Student – Invest personally through follow-up, encouragement, and intentional discipleship.
- The Host Site – Strengthen long-term partnerships through gratitude, prayer, and ongoing connection.
Key Takeaways
- The most important part of a mission trip may be what happens after it ends.
- Spiritual momentum requires intentional follow-up.
- Students should return home with a mission, not simply memories.
- Mission trips should strengthen families, not just student ministries.
- Healthy debriefing will guard students from pride and redirects their identity back to Christ.
- The goal isn't simply to create memorable experiences—it is to cultivate lifelong disciples.
Scripture Mentioned
Matthew 17 (The Mount of Transfiguration); Luke 10:17–20; Hebrews 3; Hebrews 10; Luke 17:11–19 (The Ten Lepers)
Resources Mentioned
Next Gen Matters: https://www.nextgenmatters.com/Email for Rich Brown (NGM): rich@nextgenmatters.com Subscribe for NGM Thursday Tools email Watch this episode on YouTube
Recommended
Transcript
Transitioning from Mission Trip to Daily Life
00:00:01
NextGen Matters
Think if you were a 16-year-old who just returned home from an exhausting yet exhilarating mission experience. You spend a week serving.
00:00:12
NextGen Matters
You were sharing your faith, sharing your testimony, building relationships with your own team and those that you were serving. And you were witnessing God at work. You came home, you were inspired, you were energized, and hopefully even changed.
00:00:27
NextGen Matters
But now, You're back to life as it normally is. School is just around the corner. Routines have already returned. And the question now becomes for that 16 year old, what happens next?
Importance of Mission Trip Follow-up
00:00:42
NextGen Matters
Well, today we are diving into one of the most overlooked parts of a summer missions trip, and that is the follow-up. We are looking at how students can move from a mission trip experience to becoming missionally minded in their lifestyle.
00:00:59
NextGen Matters
Going from doing missions to being on mission. Bridging the mission experience back into everyday life.
Five-Pillar Framework for Mission Integration
00:01:08
NextGen Matters
Well, hey friend, this is Rich Brown and welcome to the Next Gen Matters podcast, a show for ministry leaders seeking to move beyond overwhelm and move into leading with clarity, confidence, and consistency.
00:01:19
NextGen Matters
I realize right now that many of you, as we're recording this in the month of July, 2026, many of you have already possibly done your mission trips or you're just beginning to do your mission trips as school is literally around the corner.
00:01:33
NextGen Matters
Whether you're listening to this now in the summer or later on, I want you to be thinking how you could take these principles and put them into play. If it's not even for this trip, for a coming trip.
00:01:45
NextGen Matters
So let's get started. To best facilitate excellent follow through and bridge building, we're gonna be creating a five pillar framework that our bridge is based on.
00:01:58
NextGen Matters
Because today we are talking about bringing it home, bridging the mission experience into everyday life.
Creative Engagement Post-Trip
00:02:07
NextGen Matters
These five pillars are as follows.
00:02:10
NextGen Matters
The home, the local church, the student ministry, the student, and the host site. So as we walk through these five pillars of this bridge, I want you to think, well, you can adapt or just adopt, or even come up with more creative ideas on your own.
Family Engagement Strategies
00:02:32
NextGen Matters
We're gonna walk through these rather quickly. But I want you to be thinking right now, before we get into the five pillars, I have my cup of coffee. Oh yeah, it's Pike's Market, by the way.
00:02:43
NextGen Matters
And you got yours? Because just pretend for a moment, you and I are seated at a coffee shop, at a table, and I got some questions.
00:02:53
NextGen Matters
love Pike's Market. Here's my first question, my friend. Why does the return home often feel so difficult? Now, as a leader, i don't know about you, but going to be honest. I was ready to get home. I'm a home dude. I'm a home boy. All right. If my wife wasn't with me, I'm missing my wife and my kids. But in my ministry days, they were all with me.
00:03:16
NextGen Matters
But I'm saying, yeah, sometimes as adults, we're ready to get home. But for that student, sometimes that return trip is very difficult. And that's what I would ask you right now. Why does the return home often feel so difficult?
00:03:31
NextGen Matters
Another question for you. You know, is there a difference between a mission trip experience and everyday life? I think we all know the answer to that.
00:03:43
NextGen Matters
Absolutely. I mean, I'm already thinking of Jesus with three of his apostles, the inner circle, Peter, James, and John, and the Mount of Transfiguration.
00:03:55
NextGen Matters
And when they came down, they went from the mountaintop experience to everyday life. They got hit up right away with complaining parents. Yeah, read it in the book of Matthew. Literally, a complaining dad.
00:04:08
NextGen Matters
And that's a lot of times what happens to our students. They go from this incredible time of serving and being with their friends and growing as a team, and they go back to maybe an ideally and Lord willing, great homes.
00:04:21
NextGen Matters
but Some go back to very toxic homes. And life hits them really hard and fast right in their face. Now the question, is there a typical emotional and spiritual letdown that students typically experience?
00:04:38
NextGen Matters
Again, i would say, yeah, there probably is. So we're gonna build a bridge. We're gonna take this bridge from the mission experience into everyday life. Here's the first one, their home. What can we as ministry leaders do to help our students engage with their families upon their return back home?
Building Home Rhythms for Growth
00:05:00
NextGen Matters
Well, I have a few thoughts and here they are There's three of them. First of all, it's help parents guide the conversation. Ideally, they're going back into a believing home, but I also know statistically many of our students don't.
00:05:15
NextGen Matters
In either case, let's reach out building the bridge to the parents. The heavy lifting is done to a trip before the trip, not after. So what I'm going to say now really needs to be set in motion before the trip.
00:05:30
NextGen Matters
building that bridge to the parents, especially in relationship to this trip. But let's help guide the parents in their conversations when that student returns home.
00:05:41
NextGen Matters
So here's what I'm thinking, a few thoughts, some bullet points, if you will. What about providing a reflection guide, talking about your trip and what God had done, and then you send that off to the parents.
00:05:52
NextGen Matters
Within that first week, ideally, you could already have it pre-packaged before you leave the trip and then have it sent to them during the week. So when y'all get home,
00:06:04
NextGen Matters
They've got it in their inbox. Provide reflection guide. Another is an idea of sending an email. Let's call it a what God started email. Again, letting these parents know the really amazing things that God did through your team, but tailor it even to what God did in their own student, their own child.
00:06:27
NextGen Matters
Now, what I'm going to suggest you do is it's it doesn't take a budget. It's free. It's just called a relationship. Personally, come on, yo. Personally, touch base with each parent. I realize some of you may be in mega churches. You take 200 students on a trip.
00:06:45
NextGen Matters
But that's not most of us. I took 25 high schoolers back in my days out in Seattle. Okay, i have I have enough leverage and enough relationship with parents of 25 students that I could connect with them, including the parents of the unsaved the student who's in an unsaved home.
00:07:03
NextGen Matters
Yes, personally touch base with each parent. text them. You can also simply eye to eye conversation, hand on their shoulder, thanking them for letting their child go and giving one or two major props about how proud you are of their child and how proud they should be of their own child. their own child That goes, and that takes no budget, but that goes a million miles.
00:07:31
NextGen Matters
So yeah, in the home, helping parents guide the conversation. See, this equips parents with questions. You also create the idea of there of encouragement and practical ways how they can help their student transition from that emotional mountaintop, just like the three apostles had, into everyday life and having a heart of faithfulness.
Parental Support and Conversations
00:07:53
NextGen Matters
Second is creating meaningful family moments. Creating meaningful family moments. Even during the trip, have that student write home during the trip. give you the They give you the letter. You've got the envelope. They've already put their address on it.
00:08:12
NextGen Matters
You just put the stamp on it. And literally, if you're in a situation, unless you're in the mountains of Peru, okay, but if you're in a situation where you could mail that out, I'd say mail that out. If you're getting home, for example, on a Saturday, mail it out on a Wednesday. Okay.
00:08:26
NextGen Matters
So that that parent is getting that typically on a Friday, maybe the day they get home on a Saturday. Ideally, the parents are getting that letter before their son or daughter comes home.
00:08:37
NextGen Matters
Encourage and coach your student to be writing letters of gratitude and also personal growth, thanking their parents for letting them come and having them share with their parents the good things God's been doing in their life and through their life.
00:08:52
NextGen Matters
Another bullet point, if you will, is encouraging the student to have their families be praying to God for him to continue the work that God had started doing in the people that they served.
00:09:07
NextGen Matters
In other words, when they get home and they're then sharing these things that God has done in that mission site, asking their family members, their siblings, their parents to join them in praying over those people, those names. If they had iPhones with them, the pictures on their phones or the pictures you gave them.
00:09:26
NextGen Matters
where they the family could actually see the people that their child was serving and say, mom and dad, we need to pray for so-and-so. Have their families join in prayer.
00:09:38
NextGen Matters
right Also, I would encourage you to have their student your students take, a let's say, a show and tell night. Share one story or one even like an object or create like an object lesson from the trip and actually have...
00:09:53
NextGen Matters
the student be sharing with their family one major, let me say God's story of his faithfulness of what he did in and through them. You see, these moments will help the students feel seen, supported, and spiritually anchored where it matters most, and that's their home.
00:10:11
NextGen Matters
Now, before I go to the next one on local church, there's a third point here under home, and that is building a home rhythm for growth. Building a home rhythm for growth. Here's what i mean. Giving so the students tools that keeps their heart aligned after the trip, for example.
00:10:27
NextGen Matters
Having them serve at home, give them like a challenge. Before you leave your debrief time, before you leave, say, hey, what is one thing you can do to be intentional? when you get home to serve your family better. Not, oh, I'm gonna help mom around the house.
00:10:42
NextGen Matters
No, have them be very specific, nail it down, very tactical and practical. Have them nail it down. What are they going to do during that first week to be serving their family? They're serving these people overseas or in a different state or a different part of your own state, but helping them learn to serve at home.
00:11:04
NextGen Matters
Also then to the parents, equipping parents with a, you ready? A weekly conversation question. Yeah, create create a weekly conversation
Celebrating Missions in the Local Church
00:11:13
NextGen Matters
question. Like for example, one intentional question each week for the next four weeks, right? That helps families talk about missions,
00:11:23
NextGen Matters
global, local, regional, that talks about being gospel focused and also serving others. So if you can give parents these weekly conversational questions,
00:11:35
NextGen Matters
you really set the parents up to do this very, very well as far as connecting the the child, the student back into their family and helping their family feel like they were truly partners with you on this trip. That's the home. The second major pillar is the local church. Some of this we probably already do. I'm not sure if we do the home thing well, to be honest, but i think a lot of times we lean into this one well, and that is the local church. Here, got a few thoughts. First of all, celebrating the story publicly, right? You get them up in front of the church and they get to share.
00:12:09
NextGen Matters
If your lead lets you do that, it's amazing. I was blessed my last couple of churches I served in that they actually said, here, take the service, let's go. And we knew that in advance and we had the students ready to share the good things God had done through them.
00:12:23
NextGen Matters
So sharing testimonies, creating a highlight video, maybe out in the lobby, maybe you can't do the service, but but ask if you can at least get the lobby, you know, they have a photo display, having students back there, Maybe your lead pastor, or executive team, whoever does those like announcements, et cetera, can say, hey, our team's in the back. Even have refreshments, if you will. Meet our team, you know, do something to connect the stories the students had with the body of Jesus in your local church. This helps your congregation both see and feel the impact of the mission trip.
00:12:58
NextGen Matters
Also prayer. So invite the church into prayer. Yes, prayer cards before you go, before and during the trip, highly intentional points of prayer, prayer requests for the trip.
00:13:12
NextGen Matters
But I'm also going to suggest another prayer request option, and that's post-trip. We're talking about after the trip, so here we are. Then have your team, you ready, prepare cards for a continued prayer request.
00:13:25
NextGen Matters
for your church to be praying for what was done for God to continue to do for the next 30 days. So have a 30-day prayer challenge to the church, okay? This is how you can continue begging God to do his work in these people's lives.
00:13:43
NextGen Matters
your Your students, in many cases, were just seed dropping. They were plowing up the soil and putting down the seed, and God's got to give the increase. And when they left, that work is not done. Come on.
00:13:55
NextGen Matters
That work could just really be started. Praying for those missionaries you partnered with. Praying for that local church that you were serving alongside. Praying for those people that you served. Getting the church, your church, to pray over it for the next 30 days.
00:14:09
NextGen Matters
And then also, the third point under local church is strengthen. I love this one, and I did this a ton out in Seattle. Strengthen intergenerational connection.
00:14:19
NextGen Matters
Bridge your students to your church leadership and vice versa. So for example, encourage various students to connect with adult. If you have Sunday school classes or maybe it's life groups, community groups, et cetera, do what you can to send various students, obviously with permission from the the teachers of that class, but ask it in advance if we could have students come into these adult settings and have them in a very low-key relational way sharing what God did.
00:14:52
NextGen Matters
That's amazing. You could have 25 to 30-some adults hearing from a 16-year-old what God had done in her or his life, and even having questions going back and forth. That would be so powerful to be connecting the silos of our church and stop having just pure silos and have synergy.
00:15:15
NextGen Matters
Another thought on intergenerational connection. Invite your pastors and your church leadership, deacon board, elder board, to join your students in a team time of debriefing with the students themselves. Wouldn't they be so wild? Yeah, sometimes your lead pastor hears it from you, I hope.
00:15:34
NextGen Matters
But to get that individual, the other pastors, elder team or deacon team, whoever, getting the adults who kind of really kind of steer the ship to your church, to get them to join with the students and have the students share with them, that is an incredible time of bridge building intergenerational connections from your students to your church.
00:15:55
NextGen Matters
And then the last bullet point under number three of strength and intergenerational connections is this. Have the team create gratitude, moments, appreciation notes, gift cards, et cetera, for the adults who, you ready, went on the trip.
00:16:15
NextGen Matters
Maybe they didn't go, but they worked toward the trip. Maybe there was fundraisers a lot of people did behind the scenes to help the students along. People maybe donated,
00:16:26
NextGen Matters
Don't be the nine lepers that were healed, that felt entitled. You know, the gospel says that they were Jewish, and the one who was a Samaritan, he's the one that came back and said, thank you, Jesus.
00:16:39
NextGen Matters
So let's not be the like those nine entitled, like they felt like they were owed because they were apparently, because they were of the same, let's say, air quotes, faith of Jesus. They were Jewish. But that Samaritan, he felt so, so grateful. Let's have the heart of that Samaritan, of that story when Jesus healed the 10 lepers. Let's make sure we dial back, we circle back, and we connect with those who helped make this possible for our students.
00:17:03
NextGen Matters
Help them to see that. What you're doing here in this second part of being church connected is you're reinforcing that the mission trip is a church-wide investment, not just a student ministry investment.
Fostering a Mission-Minded Student Ministry
00:17:18
NextGen Matters
And all God's people said, come on, right? Now, we have the family, we have the church. What about the team, the student ministry team? Let's walk through this one.
00:17:29
NextGen Matters
Process the trip together. Yes, I'm a big fan and I did it many, many years where the last night we had our debrief time. And I would take time to read in Luke's gospel chapter 10, verses 17 through 20. I'm going to do it right now.
00:17:45
NextGen Matters
Now, if you're driving, you're good. Don't close your eyes. I got you. Okay. But here's verses 17 through 20. That Jesus spoke when the 72 came back from there, air quotes, you ready? Mission trip.
00:17:58
NextGen Matters
The 72 returned with joy and they said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. Jesus replies, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
00:18:10
NextGen Matters
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions to overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. Verse 20 have underlined my Bible. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
00:18:27
NextGen Matters
Then I would stop. We're all sitting in a circle later that evening. I'd read that passage and I'd what was that all about? Why did Jesus drop that on them?
00:18:37
NextGen Matters
Let's walk through this and it'd be quiet.
00:18:41
NextGen Matters
it was quiet for a long time. then finally some thoughts are being shared and I'm listening and I won't take that long because this is a podcast so I'll keep moving.
00:18:53
NextGen Matters
But what I shared with them was basically this. What Jesus is correcting in that teaching of Satan falling from the sky is this. The 72 came back thrilled. Of course they did. I mean, they're saying, you know, demons jumping out of windows kind of thing. And Jesus affirms that their experience, yes, was true. God did use you.
00:19:12
NextGen Matters
in supernatural ways, but he immediately warned them not to anchor their joy, you ready, in spiritual victories, because that can lead to pride.
00:19:25
NextGen Matters
And why did Satan fall? The original sin, pride. That's the very sin that toppled Satan from being basically the worship leader of heaven into becoming the fallen angel Lucifer, the devil.
00:19:42
NextGen Matters
So that's what Jesus is correcting. He said, watch your pride, y'all. Then what he's teaching is this. Ministry success is temporary. but salvation is eternal because Christ says, your names are written in the book of life in heaven.
00:19:58
NextGen Matters
It's cool, he uses that Greek perfect tense. It means a complete action with ongoing results. My identity in Christ is secure. i rejoice not just because God did cool God things, but I rejoice because I am a sinner saved by grace and my identity is now in Jesus.
00:20:18
NextGen Matters
My joy must be rooted in grace, not performance. Let me say that one again. Your joy must be rooted in grace and not performance. So Jesus commands them to rejoice in what God has done for them, not what they did for God. I'll let that sit.
00:20:38
NextGen Matters
So why this matters for you and I as spiritual leaders today as we disciple these students Leaning into this with them hearing this, power can puff you up.
00:20:50
NextGen Matters
That was my last podcast, last episode, episode 27. Power can puff you up. Can you, Ziah, got cocky, got humble. You can't tell me, priest, what I can do and can't do. I'm going to do it anyway. Walk into that temple. I'm going to drop that holy fire.
00:21:06
NextGen Matters
They said, no, you're not. Boom, he gets leprosy. Power can puff up, but grace humbles you. Another thought is visible fruit comes and goes. You know this, you're in ministry.
00:21:18
NextGen Matters
Sometimes we have winning streaks and sometimes it seems like losing streaks. Visible fruit comes and goes, but eternal life, thank you Jesus, does not fade.
00:21:30
NextGen Matters
And identity precedes activity. Another thought there. couple more quick bullet points under this why it matters for us as spiritual leaders. Joy rooted in salvation will always I'm sorry, joy rooted in results joy rooted in results the results will always be fragile, but joy rooted in salvation is unshakable. I need to clean that up. I'll say it again. Joy rooted in results will always be fragile, but joy rooted in salvation is unshakable.
00:22:02
NextGen Matters
So heres here's what Jesus is saying. All right, guys. Yeah. You had the power of God. You have the power of God. God did use you. He'll still use you.
00:22:13
NextGen Matters
But don't put your identity in that. You are a son of the most high God. Rejoice that your name is in the book of life. Stay humble, my friend. Stay humble. Now, I want you to think about this.
00:22:27
NextGen Matters
As you've already hosted that debrief night at the last week at camp, not camp, I'm sorry, the admission trip. Now, what do we do when we get back with our team? How about this? Meet one week later and have them share from their growth journals.
00:22:43
NextGen Matters
Now, didn't say that earlier in this episode, but let's just say during the week, you have them taking notes, if you will, every night. They had some time of reflection. Build that into your schedule.
00:22:54
NextGen Matters
Have an evening time where you give them 15 minutes, a block of 15 minutes to go off by themselves and journal the things that God has done and even create sometimes some prayer requests in that journal.
00:23:05
NextGen Matters
One week after the trip, you meet again and have them share in their journals. They now have had time to, let's say, think through and process the overwhelming of everything just took place.
00:23:18
NextGen Matters
It's like when you go to a conference and you're overwhelmed and someone says, what'd you learn? You go, everything. I got fire hosed and give me a few days, I'll get back with you. That's exactly what I'm talking about. So a week later, have them bring their journals, have them walk through with you.
00:23:33
NextGen Matters
Have themselves, I would do this at camp as well, but have themselves write a letter of reflection, give it to you, and you mail it out to them a month later.
00:23:45
NextGen Matters
how them sell Have them write themselves a letter of reflection. Now, not the same day they write their parents. That's like middle of the experience. But this would be at the end of the week, the end of the week.
00:23:55
NextGen Matters
Have them write themselves a letter of of reflection, and then you mail it out to them one month from now, one month from when you return home. You see, those moments are helping students grow.
00:24:09
NextGen Matters
they're They're celebrating their wins. they're they're They're reconnecting relationally with one another. We're not trying to live in the past. We're moving forward, but we're rejoicing in the past as we move forward.
00:24:22
NextGen Matters
Second big thing I want to point out with the student ministry is just not the team, but help the team understand that we are one student ministry.
00:24:34
NextGen Matters
We all know there are some students that don't go on our trips. I had half of my high school students go, half didn't. The half that didn't go, it wasn't all because they were anti-spiritual. lot of them, it was like family obligations. They had trips that week. They had they were going on vacay. They had something going on and they just couldn't go and they wanted to go.
00:24:55
NextGen Matters
i'm not gonna relationally punish them because they couldn't be on the trip. What I'm getting is I don't want to set it up like the haves and have nots. Some students just weren't spiritually there yet.
00:25:07
NextGen Matters
And I respected that. And actually i preferred that. So yeah, everyone isn't going to go on your ministry team, pardon me, on your on your in your student ministry on the mission trip.
00:25:17
NextGen Matters
But I want the students on the mission trip to realize, don't become divided. Don't become proud. Don't think we are better than. Do everything in your power to help them understand when we get home, here's the deal. We're gonna reach out to the rest of our youth ministry back home.
00:25:35
NextGen Matters
And yeah, we're gonna have our enthusiasm and we're gonna about the trip. But make sure they're communicating humility and have some kind of elitist attitude to the rest of the group. We are one body. Because what happens, yeah, you you create this like little mini culture. You got the inside jokes and that's fine. But you catch what I'm saying, right?
00:25:57
NextGen Matters
If you're on the outside, that's like, that's not going to help. That's not going to help. So we got to do everything we can to make sure everyone is feeling like we are one body.
Guiding Individual Spiritual Growth
00:26:06
NextGen Matters
Now, here's another way you can help with this.
00:26:09
NextGen Matters
It's as follows. Think missional and not ministry trip. So think missional and not ministry trip. I want to encourage you to have your students be thinking, let's take and translate what we did on the trip into everyday life.
00:26:27
NextGen Matters
So few thoughts on how that can be done. Create a student-led service project within one to two months of your return. create a student-led service project. I'm a fan of, and I do this, our students, we created a student leadership team and they ran the mission.
00:26:46
NextGen Matters
My wife and I went, we basically were hands-off coaches because my hands-on was three months of training, but the hands came off. I let them, I'm still guiding the ship, y'all, okay? But I let them process and work and everything they put together in planning, they then executed.
00:27:05
NextGen Matters
You've already got leadership now within these students. Have them now develop a service project, which is also incorporating the students who didn't go on the trip.
00:27:18
NextGen Matters
Make sense? So I wanna have the student ministry team that went, the student mission team that went, we're already thinking through what major project could we do at home that also incorporates those that didn't go.
00:27:31
NextGen Matters
And then put those students in various leadership roles. on that service project. Keep reminding them real ministry is right here at home and it's right here in our church.
00:27:42
NextGen Matters
It's right here on your campus. It is here. i used to tell them during the week of our mission experience, That real success of our trip is not going to be seen this week.
00:27:55
NextGen Matters
Real success is going to be seen two months from now when you're back in school. Did everything you had, that that bravado, that courage, that strength, translate into your high school campus?
00:28:09
NextGen Matters
That's what I wanted to see. Another th thought here on the student ministry team is is, the student ministry I mean, is keeping global awareness visible. So making the mission trip part of your ministry culture. For example, create a prayer wall or create a map.
00:28:26
NextGen Matters
Highlight global needs and answer prayer regularly. Keeping your students connected to the people and the places where they served. I'm going to tap into more of that in the last of the five.
00:28:37
NextGen Matters
Here's number four, the individual student. Number three was the student ministry team. This is now the individual student who went. Number one, invest personally in each student.
00:28:50
NextGen Matters
Write personal notes to every one of your students who went. write Write, not text. There's something powerful about the pen to paper because it takes time.
00:29:04
NextGen Matters
Write a personal note to each one of your students. And I say that first week, make sure it's sent out to them. Mail it to them. Maybe it's a postcard. I like postcards because then parents can see it.
00:29:17
NextGen Matters
Not to make it braadocious but then the parents can become aware of what's going on thinking, thank you for reaching out to my kid. Because normally a student's not going say, hey mom, hey dad, you know, Pastor Ridge, you know, no, they wouldn't say that.
00:29:31
NextGen Matters
So maybe it's a postcard. Whatever, just reach out to them. A personal note. Also, I'm a big fan of this and I did it. Have one-on-ones with those key students. If it's a leadership team or it's everybody, do a one-on-one. I did one-on-ones before the trip and I had them set down personal goals and then you do a debrief.
00:29:54
NextGen Matters
And I did this because we had camp two weeks later. So at camp, I had that time with our missions team because they were there at camp. So during camp, While we had one-on-ones that every camper was doing with other students, I focused in on our mission team to follow up on missions.
00:30:12
NextGen Matters
Then ask your students, hey, what's next? What's God doing in your heart now? What do you see God doing next? What you're doing is you're affirming what God did in them, and you're helping them discern their next step in serving, their next step in leading and mentoring, even future ministry themselves.
00:30:31
NextGen Matters
So first one, again, invest personally each student. Second one, for each individual student, guide their spiritual growth. So for example, couple of thoughts here. Create a personal growth plan.
00:30:43
NextGen Matters
Create a 30-day, let's say, spiritual habit growth plan. 30 day growth plan. You could also do this, have a mission mindset check-in. You know, for example, asking them, maybe you could text them on this or, you know, one-on-one with them later and say, hey, how are things going? Because they set goals. I want i want to become more active and share my faith in school. Well, then keep following up with that.
00:31:05
NextGen Matters
Mission mindset, mission mindset, mission mindset. I want to check in. So what we're doing, we're turning the mission trip momentum into long-term discipleship.
Strengthening Relationships with Host Sites
00:31:14
NextGen Matters
That was number two, guide their spiritual growth. Number three, strengthen peer encouragement.
00:31:19
NextGen Matters
So help students build each other up. It's powerful to you lean in and to encourage. But I love what Hebrews says in so many other scriptures of the one and others. Hebrews speaks so much in chapter three and chapter 10, both on how do we we should be edifying, exhorting,
00:31:36
NextGen Matters
exhorting one another every day. So get peer encouragement challenges. Encourage your students to be challenging each other, to be encouraging each other. Because we had a setup where they actually had, I call them D teams, discipleship teams. We had D teams where they had these you know accountability and teams and these discipleship teams within the big team. You could just keep that same system going.
00:32:02
NextGen Matters
Another way you can help them build up be built up is celebrate, encourage them to celebrate what they're seeing God do in each other's lives. Again, this is a way they can now help one another.
00:32:15
NextGen Matters
When you see something, say something in the good way. getting them to realize just like we gave each other props during the week, keep giving each other props from now on.
00:32:26
NextGen Matters
That reinforces community, belonging, and shared spiritual growth. Hey, during the trip, we actually had, I called it a Barnabas board, Barnabas, Son of Encouragement, right? So we had this like massive sheet of paper, you know that big butcher paper.
00:32:39
NextGen Matters
with permission from our host site. We would put that that sticky sticky substance, we put it on the big, like the the wall, right? So they could write on it with a marker, again, being cool that it's not going through on the wall, but we'd have that big butcher paper and we called it the Barnabas Board.
00:32:55
NextGen Matters
Students anonymously would go up throughout the week and they would make sure they're given props. They're saying a shout out. They're writing down something they saw in a student that was really cool.
00:33:05
NextGen Matters
I stepped back and I watched. So did my adult leaders. And if somebody seemed to get a little heavy, like someone's getting all the love, but these three students aren't getting any love, we kind of make sure we even the score a little bit. But what was cool is I didn't have to always do that. I realized the students walked by that Barnabas board, all of a sudden they were adjusting the scoreboard. In other words, you saw everyone getting the love.
00:33:28
NextGen Matters
That was done during the week. Well, make that a mindset. You may be on do that in your youth room.
00:33:36
NextGen Matters
Number five, the host site. The host site. So first of all, express gratitude to them, meaningfully gratitude. So strengthen that partnership by honoring the people who hosted your team.
00:33:51
NextGen Matters
You have to realize, I've talked to the missionaries. It is a strain on them if they're hosting you. It is a strain on them. I mean, would you like to have 20 students come into your church that you don't even know who they are?
00:34:05
NextGen Matters
right? And then you got to like figure out things for them to do and all that. It's a big ask. So what I'm saying is strengthen partnership by honoring those people that that you they were the host site. For example, record a thank you video.
00:34:20
NextGen Matters
Have the students genuinely and honestly share gratitude and the impact that that host site meant to them. Also, keeping those connections, reconnect with that ministry or that mission partner, sending encouragement, updates, prayer, et cetera.
00:34:37
NextGen Matters
Guys, I'm telling you we did this back in my day. We had a church three hours away, Hispanic pastor, Pastor Admir from Minagua, Nicaragua. And his heart that God put on his, his his vision, what God put on his heart was to leave Central America and go to Eastern Washington to work with migrant workers. And that's what he did. He started a local Hispanic church. Eight different nations were in that little church of 50 people, mostly Central American nations and even Peru.
00:35:04
NextGen Matters
It was amazing. And plus, by the way, y'all, they fed us one night, real, genuine. Hispanic food, from all the different flavors, from all the different nations. Our students were like jacked. They were like, I remember Parker, whenever I got this going, Rich, this is amazing. Yeah, this ain't Taco Bell, y'all. It was incredible.
00:35:23
NextGen Matters
I told our team on the way going into this, Pastor Rabner, he's going to put his pastor hat on. Think of it like this. Right now, he's our lead pastor. We are here to serve him.
00:35:34
NextGen Matters
We are part of Vida Nueva Iglesia Church. I said, we are part of their team. We're not walking in as the the Americans, even though they live in the States. You know what I'm saying? We're not walking in as those basically Anglo-Americans to help them out.
00:35:48
NextGen Matters
We came in with a servant's heart. i i That's why I took those three months of training to get that in the mindset. And Abner would share his heart and his broken English with tears in his eyes. And I'm looking at my students going, and they're like bawling.
00:36:03
NextGen Matters
They felt him right then. They felt his heart. And that continued on. He had teenagers. His own kids were teenagers. We actually invited them to come over to spend time with us for like some of our weekend experiences. That was so cool.
00:36:18
NextGen Matters
we kept the connections going. And guess what? We kept going back year after year. And we kept expanding the vision, what he wanted us to do. So express gratitude. Stay connected through prayer.
00:36:30
NextGen Matters
already alluded to it, but ask that host site for some ongoing prayer needs and then pray over it. Also invite your students to pray for even next year's team because so many, we had students the first couple of years that didn't go. They're like, okay, I'm going next year. I can't miss next year. I got to go next year.
00:36:48
NextGen Matters
actually had adults in our church. Hey, Rich, can we come? Is there something we can do? anyway That's awesome, right? I said, yeah, let's go. Let's think of something y'all can do as well. Building ownership, empathy, and a year-round mission mindset. So stay connected through prayer.
00:37:04
NextGen Matters
And then third, clarify ongoing partnership. Again, I've already been alluding to this, right? But explore a long-term partnership plan. Yeah, we would sit down with Pastor Abner and his wife, Nellie, Janet and I would, that last night and say, hey, we've had a great time with y'all. If you would like us to come back next year, this is no pressure on you. You just think through it, pray through it. They're like,
00:37:28
NextGen Matters
Ms. Stanley looked at us. She she had tears in her eyes. She goes, you mean you'd want to come back here? I'm like, yeah. They were like, thank you. Hugs. Let's go. Okay.
00:37:39
NextGen Matters
We began to develop this great partnership. Now that changed because this guy here, God then took me from the West Coast to Lynchburg, Virginia. So those four years were then up for us.
00:37:51
NextGen Matters
But that church is still going on. So what I'm getting at is this is helping mission trips become relationally based, not just events. And the last part under your host site, the connections there, is keeping the story alive.
00:38:06
NextGen Matters
Making sure your students remember that the people and the place where they served matters so much to God. and they matter to us.
00:38:17
NextGen Matters
Share updates from the host site during your youth group times. Highlight answers to prayers that they are seeing God do on their site, and then you share it with them. Keeping that global awareness woven into your ministry culture.
Implementing the Five Pillars
00:38:30
NextGen Matters
All right call to action. Here we are. I don't really have a big call to action. because i already gave you a whole bunch to think about. Take those five pillars of that bridge, and you don't need 50 ideas.
00:38:44
NextGen Matters
You just need like the right ideas. So take those five pillars to build a bridge from the mission site back into everyday life. Go from doing missions to being on mission.
00:38:58
NextGen Matters
So when you follow up intentionally at home in the local church, through your student ministry, with the student, and toward the host site, you're just not celebrating what God did.
00:39:09
NextGen Matters
You're multiplying what God did. Let's bring this to a close. I get fired up on this stuff, y'all. Okay. Thank you so much for joining me on today's Next Gen Matter podcast.
00:39:21
NextGen Matters
Remember, if today's ministered to you, email me, richandnextgenmatters.com. I would love to hear from you. Also, leave a comment in this podcast. Send it to a friend.
00:39:32
NextGen Matters
And if you've not yet subscribed to our YouTube channel, to Apple, or to Spotify, please do so. And be so kind. Be so kind to write a review. And if you're not getting the Thursday Tool email, please do so. Today's went out earlier today talking about missions. It's not the same thing in this in this episode. I had other content for today's email and next week's email. I have other content that weren't weren't on this podcast. There's so much to talk about when we're talking about building a bridge, right?
00:40:02
NextGen Matters
So anyway, the link below to get the email is is in your show notes. Remember, my friend, Your leadership matters because your ministry matters because the gospel matters. Take care. God bless and have a fantastic week.