Short-term – Crosslinks

Crosslinks has over 100 partners all over the world. Their aim is to take God’s world to God’s world, by involvement in ‘word based’ ministry, such church work, Christian schools and theological education. The Crosslinks Short Term Programme operates by sending volunteers to carry out short term placements with one of our long-term mission partners. The aims of the programme are threefold:

Service: the aim that each volunteer can carry out useful work to benefit the long-term ministry or to serve the overseas church
Discipleship: the aim that each volunteer is discipled by other Christians, such as the long-term mission partners, team leaders or other local Christians. If available, they may be offered the opportunity to carry out theological study
Evangelism: the aim that each volunteer is given the opportunity to share the gospel and their faith with non-believers

Our aim is to encourage long term mission partners and the global church and strengthen partnership between the UK and global churches through the sending of volunteers. In the Long term, we would love to help to raise up and encourage a cohort of missionaries and mission minded individuals, to serve God’s church for his glory.

Short-term articles

'I lift up my eyes to the hills' – reflections on short-term mission

'I discovered that different doesn’t necessarily mean bad. My new friends were full of love and wanted to make me feel welcome, and I ended up falling in love with the spontaneity of life in Chile.' Read short-term mission partner Harry Clarke's reflections on his time in Santiago, Chile.

Short-term articles

Short-term mission: bad reputation or great potential?

Short-term mission has had a bad reputation – and for good reason. Historically, a lack of cultural understanding has led to insensitivity and offence. Imbalance of resources has led to unhelpful power dynamics and paternalism. In a tragic twist of irony, local communities have been ‘helped’ and subsequently suffered a loss of dignity, ownership and autonomy. All of these are …

Short-term articles

Church partnership in action on the ground

Could you take your church’s partnership with your mission partners one step further? Could your church send a small team out to serve short-term alongside your mission partners for a particular purpose? A short-term mission trip doesn’t need to be very long. Perhaps the mission partners are running an evangelistic events week or leading on a …

Short-term articles

Short-term mission: is it worth it?

Andrew and Bethanie Walker lead the Anglican Church of Mendoza in Argentina, where Leah Moore has been serving on her language year abroad. How does short term mission help the world-wide church? Does it help at all?! Having been on both sides of short-term mission, as a short-termer and as host of short-termers, the answer is …

Short-term articles

Short-term mission: why and why not

There are compelling reasons not to do short-term mission! Climate change Those impacted the most by climate change (poorer countries without the resources to deal with natural disasters) are often the recipients of well-meaning short-term missionaries (STMs). If a person taking a long-haul flight uses more CO2 in that one flight than the average person in …