Every student ministry wants students who live on mission. Far fewer know how to build the strategy that gets them there.
If you're building a student missions strategy from scratch, or trying to fix one that's stalled out, the questions are usually the same. Where do we even start if we've never done a mission journey? How do we pay for it without giving our students sticker shock? And maybe hardest of all, how do we get a trip that goes well to actually change what students do every week when they're back home?
Those are real, practical problems. But the starting point isn't logistics.
Start With the Why, Not the Logistics
If I want to follow Jesus, that implies I am going where Jesus is going. Scripture consistently shows Jesus moving toward people and places, spreading the gospel from town to town. A student who never learns to go with him is missing a piece of what it means to follow him at all. That's part of why Brentwood Baptist has long carried the phrase living sent, a phrase that still shapes how our student ministry thinks about groups, leadership, and missions together.
A Post-COVID Reset
That "why" has to be taught, not assumed, especially now. The years after 2020 reset much of student ministry culture, broadly and specifically in missions. Trips that once produced a steady stream of students headed into missional work slowed down. Students' sense of the world, quite literally, shrank. Rebuilding that global vision, the belief that God has a heart for every nation and that one day people from every tribe, nation, and tongue will gather to worship him (Revelation 7:9), has been slow, intentional work.
Redefining "Sharing the Gospel" for a New Generation
There's a second shift happening alongside that one. Gen Z and Gen Alpha students often picture "sharing the gospel" as something they've seen on Instagram or TikTok: someone standing on a street corner debating a stranger. That's apologetics, and it has its place, but it's not the same as the relational, patient work of walking with someone toward Jesus. Leaders now have to define what they mean by evangelism before students can live it out, because the students in front of them are working from a different picture than the one leaders grew up with.
The Practical Pieces: Partners, Budget, Parents, and Debriefs
From there, it gets practical: how to choose a mission partner and build that relationship over years instead of chasing a new location every summer, how to budget and fundraise without students dropping out over cost, how to bring parents in as genuine partners rather than a hurdle to clear, and how to debrief a trip well enough that it shapes a student's everyday life instead of fading by fall.
None of this happens quickly or cleanly. Take the middle school mission trip where a student set off six cans of Coke in a shower at three in the morning, the same week our team was celebrating how spiritually rich the trip had been. Both things were true. Building a lasting missions strategy takes years, real budget conversations, and plenty of moments that don't make it into the highlight reel.
Playing the Long Game
It's also worth the wait. Brentwood Baptist recently commissioned two former student ministry interns, both shaped by mission journeys they took as students, who are now headed overseas to serve long-term. Those are ten-year stories, not quick wins. But they're the fruit of doing the hard, unglamorous work of building missions from the ground up.
Keep Learning With Us
Want to go deeper on budgeting, partnerships, debriefs, and parent involvement? Join us at the Elevate Church Conference on September 21 and 22, where we're unpacking student missions strategy alongside eight other role-specific breakout tracks. See all of the sessions and register at elevatechurchconference.com.