We come to the end of this series on the Seven Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Missions. I want to acknowledge my debt and appreciation to the organization SOE that originally published these standards. This group promotes the standards as well as organizes many groups who voluntarily adopt them. If you would like to read more about the standards and/or the organization, go to their website: www.stmstandards.org and explore it. Just to clarify, while I have used their standards as the outline, the explanation and illustration of these standards in my blog are purely from me and do not necessarily reflect the intentions or positions of this organization with which neither I nor Let’s Start Talking has no affiliation, but great appreciation.
The last of the Seven Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission is qualified leadership. I’ve left this one to last for two reasons: first, I find that qualified leadership is a basic presupposition for each of the other standards. Will the mission be God-centered if there is no leadership? Will true partnerships between those who go and those who receive be established without leadership? Can there be thoughtful purpose and design, appropriate training, and thorough follow-up with leadership? I don’t think so!
The ubiquitous (sorry, it’s just the right word. Click for a quick definition!) nature of leadership is why everyone writes about leadership. Gifts in such great demand are often neglected, imitated, or abused. Let me explain in our context of short-term missions.
1. Zeal trumps ability in many short-term mission programs. Passion and good intentions are not the same as leadership, but are common substitutes when quality leadership is lacking. Without knowing all the facts, I suspect that the Christian group arrested and held for so long in Haiti for trying to leave the country with a busload of orphans was guilty of only substituting passion and good intentions for quality leadership.
2. Lots of people pretend to be leaders who are not! Again, not all of these people are aware of their lack of leadership gifts, but may truly believe they are leaders. One absolute test of leadership ability is whether and why people follow a particular leader!
I have a missionary friend who certainly believes he is a leader. When he can control a group because of external authority, people do what he says and stay with him. However, when he tries to lead a group of peers or volunteers, they inevitably either passively or actively rebel against his leadership.
The greatest leader Jesus said of a good shepherd-leader, “. . . the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:4) They do not follow a stranger’s (imitator’s) voice. So it is with those who imitate leaders.
3. Abuse in any form is the polar opposite of quality leadership. You can recognize potential abuse when
a. The “leader” starts by reading the rules for the mission trip.
b. The “leader” starts by describing his/her role on the mission trip
c. The “leader” threatens someone with dismissal from the team if they don’t .
d. The “leader” either does not request or disregards input from others.
e. The “leader” is not accountable to someone else.
f. The “leader” has sole control of all of the organizational elements of the mission trip—money, schedule, resources, planning.
g. The “leader” knows things but is unwilling to share the information with the mission group “until they need to know.”
h. The “leader” uses the “because I said so” line!
If you are part of a mission group with this kind of leadership, you should look for another group to join. Leadership issues lie at the heart of many of the worst experiences with missions.
Secondly, I left the leadership standard to the end of this series because I want to segue to a new blog series on leadership—not just for short-term missions, but especially in our churches. Issues and problems with leadership are also ubiquitous!! I really want to suggest a different model that would transform church leadership, if we can bring ourselves to implement it.
Well, watch for a new series on 1A Leadership starting soon.
Mark's Blog 
Great series, Mark! Your explanation and illustration of the standards really brought them to life. And one only needs to go on an LST project to see how you have applied these standards of excellence to your own work. I’m on day 3 of our second LST project, sitting in a food court of a Hungarian shopping mall waiting for my next reader, and I am thankful every hour for the training that LST provides for sharing my faith, and for being culturally sensitive. Your recent post about the World Cup also inspired us to host a pre-World Cup party this coming Sunday (on the day of the Final)!
Thank you, Buzz. I love your World Cup party idea! Blessings on your work there in Hungary.