This book represents the single most ambitious effort to date to understand and improve upon patterns of ministry in short term missions (STM). In six sections, the authors explore topics such as the links between STM and older patterns of long-term missions; engagement with people of other cultures; international partnerships; specialized ministries such as medical missions; legal and financial liabilities and, finally, the impact of STM on participants.The goal of Effective Engagement in Short-term Missions is to improve the ways in which STM is carried out and to develop the understandings needed on the part of all who engage in the ministry. In short, this book attempts to provide a knowledge base for those who provide leadership within the STM movement. Among the authors are anthropologists, sociologists, missiologists, and representatives of various other fields, such as education, law, business, and medicine. Six authors are women. Two are Chinese, one Korean, and one Peruvian.The authors in this book consistently adopt an approach which is positive and constructive. While there are criticisms in the book, these criticisms are not directed against STM per se, but against particular ways of doing STM. Youth pastors, mission pastors, lay leaders, college and seminary students, and missiologists will all find information that is helpful and relevant to their concerns.

Robert J. Priest (PhD) is an anthropologist, a missiologist, and an evangelical Christian. He was born and grew up in Bolivia, where his parents served as linguist-missionaries among the Sirionó hunter-gatherers. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and has taught Anthropology and Intercultural Studies at Taylor University, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Columbia Biblical Seminary & School of Mission. He has written and edited numerous books and articles on missiology and anthropology.