For many people who end up being missionaries, short-term mission trips serve as a sort of rehearsal for their long-term missionary careers. They get some initial experience of what it’s like to live on the mission field, and that helps them transition into full time missions work.

In Luke 9:1-6, we find Jesus sending out his disciples on a short-term mission trip. This initial experience helped the disciples prepare for their future work as preachers and church planters. This short-term experience was something of a dress rehearsal for what they’d be doing for the rest of their lives.

Some might see this passage as a kind of a pattern or example of how we should do missions today. I would suggest that most of what we find here pertained directly to the twelve disciples at that place and time. But there are also some parallels that we can apply generally, and we’ll talk a little about them.

This part of Luke, chapter 9:1-17 contains three main parts: 1) the disciples go out on a short-term missions trip and return; 2) Herod questions the identity of Jesus; 3) the feeding of the 5000.

We’ll look at the disciples’ short-term mission trip today and see what we can learn about evangelism and missions work.