Go Deeper
The Upstream Collective provides cohorts on a wide range topics important to missions leaders. Checkout the following opportunities:
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Local Ministry to the City
What’s Included?
✔️ Three months of facilitated learning with a cohort of peer leaders
✔️ Three monthly live group calls (via Zoom) to discuss, learn, and troubleshoot together
✔️ One-on-one coaching calls to personalize what you’re learning to your church’s unique context
✔️ Free access to Upstream resources related to each Sending Church Element
✔️ 10% discount for Upstream members
Led by Upstream leaders and experienced practitioners including Dave Childers, Bradley Bell, Larry McCrary, Nathan Sloan, and Gary Eberly.
What Past Participants Are Saying
“No matter where you are in the process of becoming a sending church, this cohort will give you helpful insights and resources to implement a strategy to accomplish your church’s mission to send laborers to the nations.”
—Steve Elworth, The Chapel | Baton Rouge, LA
Assessment & Development
Deciding who should and who shouldn’t go overseas, as well as developing missionaries is a great opportunity and responsibility, But it can be a daunting task. This cohort will help define qualities for overseas Sent-Ones and provide assessment & development tools for future Sent-Ones.
Local Outreach to the City
The Local Outreach Cohort is a three-month online training designed for local church outreach leaders who are actively engaging their communities through mercy ministry, international outreach, and/or refugee and immigrant engagement. You will discuss how to set up and sustain local partnerships and discover ways to increase involvement in your church.
Madrid Field Experience
Come to a world class European city to sharpen your skills in developing a comprehensive engagement strategy as a church for a particular place or people. We'll immerse ourselves in a city and culture. We'll learn much from each other and from believers in the city who are intentionally trying to engage the people with the gospel, and also discuss how to discover potential partnerships and help you develop a strategy for your church to engage a city of your choice anywhere in the world. Each day we'll study important biblical passages that will help you put together a sending church hermeneutic and discuss invaluable leadership principles for leading your church in missions.
Missionary Care
One of the most important aspects of a missions leader’s role is Missionary Care. The work of the sending church does not end at the Commissioning ceremony of a Sent One. It really is just the beginning. This specialized cohort will focus doing both proactive and reactive missionary care so that those who are Sent Ones stay connected to their local church and are shepherded well overseas.
Matt Clark, Missionary Care Leader at the Summit Church in Raleigh Durham, will be the facilitator for this cohort. This session will be held online and will include three half-day conference calls for training and group collaboration. Each individual will receive 3 individual monthly coaching calls with the facilitator during the cohort.
Short-term Missions
Short-term trips can be an incredible piece of the long-term vision of an overseas partnership when done rightly. When poorly executed they can be harmful for the field, the goer, the nationals and the church. This cohort will focus on principles for sending great short-term trips. We will learn from guest missionaries and guest mission leaders in the local church.
This cohort will be led by Larry McCrary, Co-founder and Executive Director for the Upstream Collective. Participants will meet 3 times for two hours each session. Members will also have 3 one-hour individual coaching calls with Larry over the course of a few months.
