I'm solo this week, reflecting on the many short term mission teams we hosted in the first five years of our church plant. While we had fun with all of them, I share how I needlessly let myself be overburdened by them and how I'd better utlize such teams now.

At minute [3:12] I mention the trip I took to Honduras. That was with an organization called Hungry for Life.

At minute [9:32] I talk about taking teams to tour Temple Square.

At minute [25:21] I reference Steve Sjogren's book Community of Kindness.* His other book I couldn't think of in the moment is Conspiracy of Kindness.*

At minute [27:47] I talk about the volunteer rate of Provo. This is an article from 2010 highlighting Utah as the state with the highest volunteer rate and Provo as the mid-size city with the highest volunteer rate. This is a more recent one from 2023.

At minute [34:09] I share a couple books we had mission teams read before visiting, Understanding Your Mormon Neighbor* by Ross Anderson and Mormonism Explained* by Andrew Jackson.

At minute [35:25] I talk about wishing I had better equipped teams with simple Gospel tools. I've made short videos explaining such tools here.

And at minute [46:07] I recommend two more books, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness* by Timothy Keller and Essentialism* by Greg McKeown.

Send your church planting experiences, stories, anecdotes, and questions to [email protected]. Connect with me further here.

*This is an affiliate link with proceeds going to support our ministry here in Utah.