Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2013 | Page 30

“We have spent many hours seeking to shift the focus of [STMs] from ‘getting the work done’ to ‘seeing what God is doing in this place and joining him in it.’” –Rodney Duttweiler ’87, career missionary Bruce Wilson ’86 (center photo), missions pastor at College Church in Wheaton, leads many on short-term missions trips, including the group (above) that traveled to Italy with World Impact last summer. (right photo) Rodney Duttweiler ’87 (right) and school principal Mr. Diang welcome Gary Lavanchy ’98, one of the founders of the Wheaton Football Ministry Partnership, to the school they would be renovating in Senegal. these trips,” he says. So Bruce reversed the process and had career missionaries submit requests for American teams instead. “It sounds simple,” he says, “but it’s a critical paradigm shift.” “Local missionaries are not just the conduit through which you reach the target audience,” he says. “The number-one purpose of a short-term team should be to serve the local ministry and propel that ministry forward.” Bruce had great interest in reading Dr. Howell’s book when it was released in October. Why? Because the high school group that served as Dr. Howell’s case study—called Central Wheaton Church in the book—was his. “I always welcome evaluation,” says Bruce. “We can always improve. And [Dr. Howell] underlines a lot of important principles that we agree with and want to do better.” Darren Carlson, president of Training Leaders International, sends pastors and seminary students on STMs to train indigenous pastors. He found Dr. Howell’s emphasis on cultural learning to be very helpful. “I’ve been against going to museums, because it sounds like you’re going on a vacation,” he says. “Dr. Howell’s point—that part of going is to learn about the culture—made me realize maybe I’m a little too self-righteous about these things.” Carlson recently returned from an STM to Greece. “We went to all the places t