McDonough, Daniel P. The Role of Short-Term Missions in the Great Commission: A Study of the Effects of STEM Ministries' Short-Term Mission Program on the Participants. Calvin Theological Seminary: Grand Rapids, MI, 1996. (Dissertation)

Summary:

Survey of 432 participants in STEM Ministries two-week mission trips found that participants doubled giving and increased prayer for missions. Builds off of Peterson and Peterson's 1991 STEM Ministries survey.

Methodology:

Printed survey mailed to 900 people. 635 had participated in one two-week STEM

mission, 265 had participated in more than one two-week STEM mission. (This second group consisted of all people who had ever gone on two or more STEM two-week trips; the total number of people who had gone one or more STEM two-week trips was around 2035). It was determined that a 50% response rate or better would guarantee a 95% confidence interval of + or - 5%.

Limitations:

Over 121 out of the 900 addresses supplied were incorrect and thus returned, several of the proposed respondents had died, and one refused to answer because he/she was offended. A limited but unknown number of the survey recipients had not participated in a STEM trip. Most importantly, the study does not show whether changes since the STEM trip(s) were directly caused by those trips or by other events in respondents' lives.

Highlights:

Table 2 contains the responses which showed a median monthly giving before

their trip of $1-$10, compared to the median of their present giving of $11-$25.

Probably the most encouraging change which can be noted in Table 2 is the shift

away from the giving at the $0 level. The number of people in that range dropped by

105 individuals, a 60.3% reduction."--p. 49.

".it can be concluded that there was on the average a doubling in the giving of those

who had participated from before their trip to the present. [.] An important

qualification, however, is that several of the respondents commented that their change

in giving (both positive and negative) reflects more a change in life stage than a

change in mission perspective." [i.e. retiring, moving from college to full-time work]

--p. 52

"The median reported for the amount of mission-focused prayer each week

before the STEM trip was 1-5 minutes whereas at present, the median has shifted