Send a Mission Team

Mission teams change people. It changes those who go and the ones they serve. There is something about getting your hands dirty that gets people involved in missions. When people from your church start going out on missions, it will start to change the heart of your church. We have found that when people in our city find out that people have given of their time and energy to serve them, it moves them.

We need mission teams. There is no way we can reach this entire city without the help of dozens and dozens of mission teams. Your church, youth group or small group can come to Vancouver Canada and help The Connection minister to our city in various different ways. On the right you’ll see pictures of some of our previous teams serving the city. Below is a list of things these teams have done or helped with:

Servant Evangelism
Be it something small like handing out cold water at the skate park or something big like painting a house, be it working at block parties or preparing meals for the firehouses, teams have helped us serve our community and given Jesus a good reputation.

Camps and clubs for kids
Our goal is to have clubs and camps for kids all over Metro Vancouver. This will never happen without many teams willing to help us serve in this way. In the past, teams have helped us put on camps like arts, basketball, cooking for kids, cheerleading, water fun, and many more. (See Summer Camps)

Prayer walking
Some teams have just come here to pray. This is a great way to combine a vacation with a ministry. Pray for a few days and sight see for a few. It’s a great combo.

Whatever needs to be done
There are some jobs that just need to be done, like handing out 10,000 fliers door to door or helping paint and clean our meeting location. These are servant jobs that teams can help us with and hence make us much more efficient.

What are we looking for in a team?

Team must be willing to be independent
Please don’t expect us to be driving around with you or hanging out all week. That’s just not practical. Remember, our regular tasks remain the same whether we have a team here or not. We’ll visit with you when you first arrive and provide a time of orientation. We'll work alongside you whenever possible. Then we’d like to see you before you leave. Ideally someone will pray with you in the mornings as well, but that might not always be possible.

Teams must be patient even before they come.
Communication is sometimes slow from our end. Please remember: We don’t have a secretary or office assistant. We sometimes get behind on administrative work. Just because we don’t get back to you right away does not mean we don’t care. We’re busy being involved in ministry. Call again. Take the initiative. Be patient. The wait will be worth it.

Teams must be flexible.
Sometimes plans change last minute. One team was all prepared to work in a basketball camp but the night before it started we had to reassign several members to a new task. They demanded to remain with basketball. This made it very difficult for us. You must not only be flexible, you must be fluid – ready to reverse direction at a moments notice. Change is simply the nature of church planting. Consider this an adventure. You won’t be disappointed.

Teams must have a great sense of humor.
When you get held up for 3 hours at the border you must be willing to laugh about it or you’ll go crazy.

Teams must be here to serve.
Nothing is worse than a team that comes here with an agenda to do things a certain way or give their team members certain “experiences.”

Teams must be willing to work incredibly hard.
We’ve had teams walk around town for 10 hours a day for 20 days in a row to hand out 10,000 fliers. That’s hard. Others have had to work in camps all day and then do servant work in the evening. You will be exhausted. But it will all be worth it if you have a great attitude.

You must be willing to “rough it” for the Lord.
Thirty young people working around a schedule to use one shower is not a lot of fun but is often a reality. If you are used to a soft life and can’t be without your Posterpedic, this might not be the place for you.

(Of course, if you are a team of seniors and have special needs, we want to make sure you are comfortable. You’ve paid your dues! We still want you here.)

Will every mission teams be accepted?

We can’t take every team that wants to come here. One of the main reasons is that organization for a team takes a lot of time away from our regular ministries. We don’t have anyone helping us in the office. We hope that this will change soon. Getting our “Club 100” chart filled will allow us to hire a part time assistant. Until that happens, we’ll need to say “No” to some who want to come here. Because of that we make use of a certain set of criteria for selecting teams:

Returning teams
We give preference to churches that have previously sent a team. This way we know what we are getting. We like to build trust with leaders and churches. This makes the entire process faster and more efficient and removes many of the unknowns.

Teams that can help with our events
We give preference to teams that have gifts that we can use and are able to help us with an event we already have scheduled. This is just a matter of convenience and, again, organizational time on our side.

Teams that want to partner with us
We give preference to those churches that indicate a clear desire for a long term relationship with us. There are several reasons for this. We like to develop long term relationships with churches so that there can be prayer support and we can offer a ministry to the church as well. We have found that when churches or the people in churches make a financial commitment they put their heart into it. And we want people who will be involved and are driven to get results, not people who want to fly in and out.

Do you have what it takes to give what you have?

We can use mission teams of any size and any make up and at any time throughout the year. When we start planting churches all over Metro Vancouver we’ll need dozens of teams a year. But for now we’ll need to be more focused. There are some specific things we can use teams for. We’ll try to put together a list dates and events for which we could really use a team. Click here for an updated list.

If you think your group has the characters we’re looking for and the gifts to fill one of these needs let us know. Also, if your team has some unique abilities or talents that might not fit into a special “slot”, please take a few lines and describe yourself to us: tell us who you are and what you can do. We’ll try to find a way to fit you in. Some of our best teams are the ones who have come to us with projects or ideas that we would never have thought of.

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