Short-Term Mission as Partnership Visit: Short-term mission as an example of God’s calling to mission of the whole people of God, in a cross-cultural partnership setting.

This thesis, through field research in the UK and Africa, contributes to the understanding of mission as integral to Christian discipleship, demonstrating how God’s call to mission can be lived out through short-term mission in partnership. The lived faith of those involved in teams and partner churches in the UK and of local volunteers in Africa, drawn together by the African NGO Hands at Work in Africa, is examined through interviews in the UK and Africa. This practitioner research offers a unique theological insight into cross-cultural short-term mission within the context of long-term partnerships. Criticisms of short-term mission found in a literature search, focus on a failure to understand local situations abroad and motives of self-interest and are found to be unfounded within this long-term partnership context. Through the encouragement that local volunteers in Africa identify in the short-term mission visits, local agency is further promoted, and the lens of financial cost-effectiveness is challenged within the mission context. New elements of short-term mission in partnership are found in wider participation in mission for the ordinary Christian, mutuality of relationship with hosts, reciprocity in ministry between hosts and teams and the reception of mission from the margins.