Can Short-Term Mission Really Create Long-Term Career Missionaries?: Results of STEM's Second Major Scientific Study on the Long-Term Effect of Short-Term Mission

For skeptics or critical thinkers needing valid scientific data to help substantiate the potential value of short-term mission trips, this cleanly typeset, spiral bound 51-page report presents the findings of a study conducted in 1996 by Calvin Theological Seminary student researcher Dan McDonough -- summarized graphed, illustrated, and copy edited by Roger Peterson (13 easy-read tables, 4 graphs, 2 illustrations).   This study validated an earlier 1991 study with respect to observing substantial positive changes in mission-related prayer, giving, education, and return to the mission field -- all correlated to the short-term mission program conducted by STEM Ministries.   The new knowledge produced by this study identified two specific correlations in STEM's short-term mission program that were significantly more likely to put short-term mission participants on a path to longer-term missionary service.    This study provides helpful, evaluative data for churches, agencies, missiologists, scholars, and others concerned about ways to increase the likelihood of creating long-term career missionaries.