When the church at Antioch was worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2 ESV)—and the church sent them off on a mission with a return ticket.
Barnabas and Saul came back and reported all that God had done (Acts 14:27). Jesus did the same with the 72, sending them out and welcoming them home again (Luke 10). Yet Paul could also remind the Ephesian elders that he lived among them for three years and did not cease, night or day, to admonish them with tears (Acts 20:31). Scripture knows both short sendings and long ones. The question is not which is holier. The question is which is yours.
The short answer: short-term missions with ABWE lasts about two months to one year and exists to meet a specific field need or test your calling, while long-term missions is career service of more than four years, aimed at planting churches that outlast the missionary. Neither is a lesser version of the other. They do different work in God’s one mission.
When Short-Term Is the Right Call
Choose short-term missions when you sense a pull toward the nations but need to see the work up close, or when you carry a practical skill—nursing, teaching, construction—that a field team needs now. Like the 72, you will be sent to complete real work, and you will come back with a report of what God did on the field, and often of what he began in you. Short-term missionaries serve alongside an established church-planting team, and many career missionaries trace their calling to exactly this kind of trip. Students can start smaller with a one-to-six-month internship, and individuals or teams can serve one week to two months through Launch Point.
When Long-Term Is the Right Call
Choose long-term missions when your calling has been tested and affirmed by your local church and you are ready to give yourself to evangelism, discipleship, and church planting until a healthy local church can carry the work forward. Learning the language of a people group takes years, not weeks. Trust is built over a thousand cups of tea. Paul’s three tearful years in Ephesus produced elders who could shepherd the flock after he was gone—and that is the aim of career missions: not missionaries who stay forever, but a church that stands when they leave. The more than 7,000 unreached people groups in the world will not be reached by visits alone.
The Options in Between
Not everyone fits neatly in one of those two boxes, and ABWE’s tracks reflect that. The mid-term track is a one-to-four-year apprenticeship for those seriously weighing career missions, and the associate track is for self-funded workers—tentmakers, business owners, retirees—serving a year or more alongside a team.
How to Decide: Start With Your Church
Notice who did the sending in Acts 13: not an agency, and not a lone believer with a passport and a burden. The gathered church, in worship, set apart the workers the Spirit had called. Your calling will be discerned the same way: through Scripture, prayer, and the counsel of the congregation that knows you best. So start with your pastor. Then talk with an ABWE mobilization coach, who can map your season of life, your skills, and your church’s affirmation onto a real opportunity. You can browse current openings or start the conversation at abwe.org/go.
However long you go for, go sent. And may the Lord of the harvest, who still sends out laborers into his harvest (Matthew 9:38), make your path plain.
