Purpose / History

Purpose

AESTM functions to bring God’s glory to the nations by promoting increasingly effective short-term mission through conferences, publications, the Internet, development of training and analysis tools, and other programs designed to help improve the knowledge, skills, networking, and ministry opportunities of short-term mission leaders within churches, agencies, schools, other Christian sending entities (this includes other related entities and individuals, such as other leaders and organizations which provide support services to the Christian short-term mission industry).

History

The beginnings of AESTM can be traced back to 1981 when a small group of leaders involved in various STMs met together for the first time. Within three years this annual gathering matured into a regularly-planned Conference named the “Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders” (FSTML). In the mid- to late-1980s FSTML facilitated the publishing of Stepping Out — the first major book on short-term mission. A decade later the FSTML Conference began a process of redefining itself and looking ahead to where God might be leading. The Steering Committee began to prayerfully identify FSTML’s core values and “target” audience, and began to create operational policies. In 1999 colleagues in Canada challenged FSTML to consider facilitating the development of a nationwide “code of best practice” for short-term mission in the U.S.; and in January 2001 the SOE — U.S. Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission — was conceptually birthed. Because the annual FSTML Conference had grown so much, and because of the birth of the SOE, FSTML incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in February 2002.

“FSTML, Inc.” continued to grow. During the fall of 2003, the NSTMC — National Short-Term Mission Conference — expressed an interest in partnering much closer with FSTML and the SOE. So in January 2004, the NSTMC became an official division of “FSTML, Inc.”

To provide clarity of corporate division names and of their program distinctives, the FSTML, Inc. Board of Directors voted to create a different corporate parent name in January 2004, changing from “FSTML, Inc.” to “AESTM, Inc.” The name “FSTML” now remained for sole usage of the original annual FSTML Conference, no longer sharing that same name with what had now become its nonprofit parent holding corporation.