A covenant relationship requires prior communication and serious planning on both sides. This question implies something far more than helping to construct a building, dig a well, or provide medical care. Key leaders of mission volunteers, along with the leaders in several of the receiving churches, point to several relational concerns. Sensitivity to racial and cultural differences is critically important. There is a wide gap in many situations between the relative affluence of many mission volunteers and the poverty of the people with whom they work.
Sensitive volunteers are increasingly aware of the dangers of paternalism in their relationships.
They should not hesitate to insist that members of the local community share as fully as possible in the work involved. Volunteers must always remember that people are more important than projects. Host Responsibilities Churches that request and receive mission volunteers also have key relational responsibilities. They must be faithful in claiming and understanding their partnership with their visitors. Local churches must be sure that they recruit enough volunteers from their own communities to work side by side with the visiting missioners to make the mission mutual.