Next Step Ministries wants to create the best mission experience possible for you. Here are a few things you might like…

Real Causes, Real People, Real Impact:
We at Next Step Ministries approach mission trips with a slightly different mindset. In an attempt to make a larger impact, we have moved away from focusing on geographical locations and instead have identified a number of important causes that urgently need our attention.

When we send students to a location, they aren’t only helping to rebuild communities, but they are also working to alleviate real social injustices. In that way, the efforts of our students resonate beyond their individual work projects and affect an entire community’s way of life. This change doesn’t occur from simply painting a house; it comes from building a home. Our causes focus on meaningful construction projects. Whether it is adding a bathroom onto a resident’s house, constructing a multi-building camp, or, in one special case, building an entire community, real work is being done on our trips.

Next Step Ministries also believes it is important for students to connect a face with the work they are doing. We find ways for your students to interact with the residents they are helping. This way, your students have the opportunity to truly understand the impact they are making on the lives of very real people.

Inviting, Christ-Centered, Life-Changing Worship:
When attending a Next Step Ministries Mission Trip, students immediately come into a positive and loving environment. Too often students tell us that they feel uncomfortable with the negative, competitive and cliquish attitudes present in their daily lives. The world can be a hostile place, so it is our goal to create an environment where students feel comfortable and welcome to participate in our worship experience. Your students will find themselves really connecting to God and each other in ways you’ve probably prayed about for some time now.

Worship through Next Step Ministries is anything but dull! Through creative dramas, awesome music, hilarious mixers, and a powerful Christ-centered message, the Next Step worship team will interact on a very personal level with your students. Our message is Christ; our aim is for your students to know him intimately and be able to take the next step in their faith by sharing God’s love in action and word when they get back home.

We Get You Ready:
Next Step Ministries knows what it’s like to plan a mission trip, and therefore we are able to provide you with the things we know will help you get ready for your trip!

Training DVD: Once you have selected and registered for your mission trip, we will send you an instructional DVD created by our professional construction staff that walks you through the skills necessary to competently and safely complete the work projects at your location. This way your leaders and students can feel comfortable and prepared to get to work on day one.

Fundraisers: Our Next Step Ministries’ staff has had great success fundraising for mission trips in the past. We’ll share a binder of our fundraising ideas with you that will be sure to help you raise some support for your group. You will have detailed explanations of each fundraiser, implementation plans and effort-to-success ratios at your fingertips.

Not Just One Week:
While we have personally seen the amazing change that can occur in students during a one-week mission trip, we know that living that faith back home amid pressures from friends and family can be a struggle. We call it Mission Trip Effect: returning home from a mission trip on the ultimate spiritual high, only to have it crash down months later. In an effort to curb Mission Trip Effect, we have developed a number of ways for students to stay connected and continue to grow in their faith long after the mission trip ends.

This is carried out through MyStep, an interactive, online curriculum for your students, designed to foster continual spiritual growth and develop accountability. A main component of MyStep is year-round, video devotionals that help take that Mission Trip Effect and turn it into a real commitment to Jesus Christ. In addition, MyStep allows your students to post pictures from their trips, share memories and hold each other accountable to the new commitments they have made.