Great Commission

• Loren empowered youth to serve globally on short-term, unsalaried missions, revolutionizing missionary paradigms, which led to the moniker "The De-Regulator of Missions."
• Loren's calling came at age 13, driven by Mark 16:15, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
• In 1981, Loren outlined fundamental Gospel rights, emphasizing access to the Gospel, the Bible, Christian fellowship, education, and basic necessities.
• Loren empowered youth to serve globally on short-term, unsalaried missions, revolutionizing missionary paradigms, which led to the moniker "The De-Regulator of Missions."

• Their T-shirts sport biblical verses or phrases like “Here I am, send me” or “Called to serve,” and the teens may gather for prayer before boarding.
• According to some estimates, as many as 2 million youth and adults per year participated in Christian mission trips before the pandemic, including overseas trips and trips to poor communities at home.
• While it is difficult to confirm these numbers, mission trips are now especially commonplace within evangelical churches, with larger and more affluent churches offering multiple trips throughout the year.

‘White man’s burden’

• Protestant missionaries spread throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific, seeking to win souls for Christ.
• But they left lasting impacts through the many institutions they established around the world, including schools, universities and hospitals.

Missions 2.0

• Historically, mission work was a lifelong calling and profession, one that often meant never coming home.
• Career missionaries continue to have a role in missions today, sometimes financially supported by denominational organizations like the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Missions Board or by donations from individual churches.
• Another distinctive feature of short-term missions is their approach to faith.

Sacred and secular

• The language used to describe and promote trips is remarkably similar to secular overseas volunteering or “voluntourism,” as well as gap-year programs before college.
• Another similarity is that both Christian and secular programs usually involve some kind of service project: building a house, digging a well or leading recreational activities for children.

‘Walk with the poor’

• Not all evangelicals see the value of mission trips.
• Warning against a “white savior” attitude, they suggest that the purpose of short-term missions is to “walk with the poor” and build lasting relationships that will lead people to Christ.

Beyond the bubble

• Trip organizers want to open American Christians’ eyes to realities of the world outside of their bubbles.
• Yet their messages tends to imply the effects of poverty can be overcome through personal faith in Christ.
• Trip leaders felt that such information would bore participants and detract from the spiritual aims of the trip.

• Thousands will attend in-person, but a free online option is now available for virtual attendance, as well.
• "For those who cannot attend Amsterdam 2023 in-person, all the general sessions will be available to watch live online via the event's website for free.
• Empowered21 has also recently launched a 21-day prayer initiative, encouraging individuals to pray leading up to and through the conference.
• "Join us in Amsterdam as we intercede, collaborate and mobilize to reach the world with the message of Jesus."

• ARC (Association of Related Churches) is excited to announce that it held a successful 2023 ARC Conference, held at two locations in Alabama for the first time, from April 25-26.
• BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- ARC (Association of Related Churches) is happy to announce that it held a successful 2023 ARC Conference.
• From April 25-26, ARC church leaders held the annual conference at two campuses of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama.
• The conference was attended by thousands of ARC church planters, church leaders, and pastors, all of whom gathered together so they could become better equipped to help their local church community thrive.