Mission Trip Devotions for Teams: 12 Short Devotions

22 Oct Mission Trip Devotions for Teams: 12 Short Devotions

Most mission trip devotions get written the night before, by a tired leader, on a phone. That’s understandable. But the few minutes your team spends in Scripture each morning will shape how they see everything else that day: the people, the work, the setbacks, each other.

These twelve mission trip devotions are for teams. Three are for the weeks before you leave, seven are for the days you’re serving, and two are for after you come home. Each one has a passage, a short reflection, a question to talk through together and something to pray. They take about ten minutes. Use them as written or as a starting point for your own.

All twelve follow one thread. God’s mission didn’t start with your trip. It started when he promised Abraham that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3), and it ends with “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” worshiping before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9). Your team is stepping into the middle of that story for a few days. These devotions are meant to help them see it.

Before you go

Use these at your last three team meetings, or on the three days before you leave.

1. Sent by the church (Acts 13:1-3)

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” (Acts 13:2-3)

The first missionary journey in Acts didn’t start with Paul and Barnabas deciding to go. It started with a church worshiping, fasting and listening. The Holy Spirit called them, and the church sent them. Your team isn’t a group of volunteers who happened to sign up for the same trip. You are being sent by a church, on behalf of a church.

Talk about it: Who is sending you? Name the people who are praying and giving so you can go.

Pray: Thank God for the church that is sending you, and ask him to make your team faithful to the work he has called you to.

2. The mind of Christ (Philippians 2:3-8)

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3-4)

Paul goes on to describe Jesus, who “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). That’s the posture for a mission team. You are guests. Your hosts know their city, their language and their people far better than you do. Humility on a trip looks like listening before suggesting, following the local plan, and doing the unglamorous job without needing anyone to notice.

Talk about it: Where are you most likely to want your own way on this trip?

Pray: Ask God to give each person on your team the mind of Christ toward your hosts and toward each other.

3. Ask the Lord of the harvest (Luke 10:1-9)

“He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'” (Luke 10:2)

When Jesus sent out the seventy-two, the first thing he told them to do was pray. Before he gave them a single instruction about where to go or what to say, he told them to ask the Father for more workers. The harvest belongs to God. We pray because the work is his, and because there will always be more harvest than one short trip can reach.

Talk about it: Jesus also told them to eat what was set before them (Luke 10:8). What will be hardest for you to receive from your hosts?

Pray: Pray Luke 10:2 together. Ask God to raise up workers from the very place you are going.

During the trip

One for each day of a week-long trip. If your trip is longer, repeat the ones your team needs most.

4. Start with the Father (Mark 1:35)

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

The night before, the whole town had gathered at the door, and Jesus had healed many people (Mark 1:32-34). The next morning, before the crowds came back, he went off to pray. If Jesus needed time alone with the Father in the middle of ministry, so do we. A packed schedule makes it easy to skip. Don’t.

Talk about it: When and where will you find a few quiet minutes with God each day on this trip?

Pray: Give God this day before it starts.

5. As the Father has sent me (John 20:21)

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.'” (John 20:21)

Jesus said this to frightened disciples behind locked doors. His sending came with his peace and, in the next verse, with his Spirit. The way the Father sent the Son is the pattern for how Jesus sends us: to live among people, to serve, to tell the truth, to love at a cost. You are not here as a tourist or as a hero. You are here because Jesus sent you.

Talk about it: What does it change to think of today as being sent by Jesus?

Pray: Ask for his peace and his Spirit for the day ahead.

6. Jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7)

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

By the middle of a trip, people are tired. Someone is sick, someone said the wrong thing, the plan fell apart. Paul says that’s how God designed it. The treasure is the gospel, and he put it in ordinary, breakable people so that everyone could see the power comes from him. Your weakness on this trip is not a problem for God.

Talk about it: Where have you felt weak or out of your depth so far?

Pray: Ask God to show his power through your weakness today.

7. When plans change (Acts 16:6-10)

“During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:9-10)

Paul had plans for Asia and Bithynia, and the Spirit closed both doors (Acts 16:6-7). Then God opened one Paul hadn’t planned on. Every mission team lives some version of this: the schedule changes, the event is cancelled, the bus doesn’t come. Closed doors are not wasted days. Sometimes they are how God gets you to the person he intended.

Talk about it: What has already gone differently than planned? Where might God be in that?

Pray: Ask for open hands with your plans, and open eyes for the doors God opens.

8. Open doors and gracious words (Colossians 4:2-6)

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message.” (Colossians 4:2-3)

Paul asked for prayer for open doors while he was in chains. Then he told the Colossians how to talk with people outside the church: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). Today you will have conversations, many through a translator. Pray for doors, and then walk through them with grace. If you’d like help starting those conversations, see our gospel conversation starters.

Talk about it: Who have you met that you want to pray for by name?

Pray: Pray for those people, and for an open door to share Christ today.

9. Beautiful feet (Romans 10:13-15)

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15)

Paul’s chain of questions runs backward from faith to the person who was sent. Someone has to go. And Paul ends it by quoting Isaiah: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Dusty, tired feet on a mission trip are beautiful to God when they carry the gospel. Remember too that the people you serve alongside are sent ones. Your host church will keep preaching long after you leave.

Talk about it: Who sent the good news to you? Who brought it to the people you are serving this week?

Pray: Thank God for those who brought you the gospel, and pray for the local believers who will keep carrying it here.

10. Every nation (Revelation 7:9-10)

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9)

This is where the story is going. Every nation, tribe, people and language before the throne. Some of the people you have worshiped with this week will be in that crowd. So will people from groups that still have no church at all. If you want to understand who those groups are, start with the five types of unreached peoples.

Talk about it: What have you seen this week of the church outside your own culture?

Pray: Pray for one people group that has not yet heard the gospel.

After you come home

Use these at your team debrief and a few weeks later.

11. Report what God did (Acts 14:26-28)

“On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” (Acts 14:27)

When Paul and Barnabas came back to Antioch, the church that had sent them heard the whole story. Notice who gets the credit: “all that God had done through them.” A good debrief does the same. Tell the stories honestly, the hard ones too, and point every one back to God.

Talk about it: What is one thing God did on this trip that you want your church to hear?

Pray: Thank God for what he did, by name and in detail.

12. Go home and tell (Luke 8:38-39)

“‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you.’ So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39)

The man Jesus freed from demons wanted to get in the boat and go with him. Jesus sent him home instead. For most of your team, the mission field after this trip is the place they already live: their family, their school, their job, their neighbors. And the question is no longer whether they’ll go somewhere. It’s what their part in God’s mission will be from here.

Talk about it: What is one step you will take in the next month?

Pray: Ask God to show each person their role in his mission at home and among the nations.

How to use these devotions with your team

• Read the passage out loud, the whole thing, not only the quoted verse.
• Let different people lead. Assign one devotion to each team member before the trip so no one is writing a devotion at midnight.
• Keep the question. The conversation is often where the devotion actually happens.
• Pray specifically, for people you’ve met by name, for your hosts and for each other.

Bible verses for mission trips

If your team wants verses to memorize or put on a card, these are good ones to start with: Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Isaiah 6:8, Genesis 12:1-3, John 20:21, Romans 10:14-15 and Revelation 7:9. For more, with a short explanation of each, see 7 mission trip Bible verses for churches and teams and 7 Bible verses about mission and outreach.

Want to go deeper before you leave?

Devotions are one part of preparing a team. If you have more time before the trip, our mission trip Bible study gives you ten passages with discussion questions for your team meetings, and the mission trip planning checklist covers everything from passports to the debrief.

For teams with eight weeks, the Storyline Study walks through God’s mission from Genesis to Revelation, one lesson a week with a short video, and helps each person find their role: to go, send, pray, mobilize or welcome. It’s the same story these devotions follow, told from the beginning. Your team can try Week 1 free.

Mission trip devotions FAQ

How long should a mission trip devotion be?

About ten minutes in the morning works for most teams: read the passage, talk through one question, and pray. Save longer discussion for the evening check-in.

Who should lead devotions on a mission trip?

Rotate. When each team member leads one devotion, everyone prepares, and the leader isn’t carrying the whole spiritual load.

What Bible passages are good for a mission trip?

Passages about God’s mission and about how his people serve: Genesis 12:1-3, Acts 13, Philippians 2, Luke 10, Romans 10, Revelation 7, and the twelve listed above.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.