Picture the typical youth mission trip. More than likely you will visualize a group of 14-year-old, white, suburban youth giving piggyback rides and teaching songs to Hispanic children, serving meals to the homeless, hearing lectures from missionaries and ending the week before getting back on the bus or plane by reflecting on all they learned.

So what's missing in this picture? Where are the students of color and the youth of these under-served communities? Often they are only in the picture if they are being served, not acting in service or leadership roles.

Most of us know mission trips are a crucial component of almost every youth ministry. Being able to show young people they are able to serve as Jesus' hands and leading in productive ministry allows them to grow immensely in their faith and leadership capacity. Although urban youth may not be the first faces to appear when you visualize young people serving, these experiences are just as, if not more, valuable to kids from the city.

The fact is that the largest growing mission field -- urban centers -- are in desperate need of strong leadership, but few of those leaders actually come from the city or from immigrant and ethnic communities and churches. Given the right experiences and mentoring, urban students can become the forefront leaders in restoring and transforming the communities from which they come.

One primary and proven venue for increasing leadership opportunities for all youth, including those from under-served communities, is short-term mission trips. These service-learning projects offer all youth the opportunity to practice leadership skills and reflect on the experience to learn more about themselves. Skills essential to leading, such as brainstorming, decision-making, goal setting, teamwork, responsibility, implementing strategies and evaluating results can be taught and practiced as teens plan and carry out significant service projects.

Train on the Go

Many urban youth group successfully have utilized mission experiences to develop their student leaders. A group of Latino youth from Los Angeles raised the funds to go to Brooklyn, New York. There they had their first experience outside their own community and served a largely Asian neighborhood by running a Vacation Bible School. This Latino group learned, many for the first time, what it means to serve and lead rather than be served and led. The wonderful outcome was that the group returned to the Pico-Union neighborhood they called home and began serving at their own local S.A.Y. Yes! Center with at-risk youth.

Another group, from a mainly Cantonese church, left their own city and served at a sports camp in Miami. They coached children from Haiti, West Africa and Cuba. This allowed them to gain the confidence to go back to their own community and cross the avenue that separated Chinatown and Little Tijuana to partner in beginning a junior-high, after-school program aimed at serving students from both cultures.