Why You Need a Sending Pipeline
Do your church’s programs have an end in mind? A sending pipeline provides a framework for evaluating your programs.
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UPSTREAM BLOG
The Upstream Collective Blog is published two times a week and contains content from missions leaders, pastors, missiologists, and the Upstream team on a wide variety of topics pertaining to being a Sending Church. Leave us some comments or questions!
Ashlyn Portero
- Jul 24
- 5 min
How to Inform the Church on the Impact of Their Giving
We as church leaders want to see our people practice radical generosity. We want our churches to be intentional and wise in directing...
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Mike Ironside
- Jul 20
- 4 min
Four Church Giving Practices for Supporting Global Missions
The budget is one of the best ways to reflect the values of a church. Giving to global missions usually falls in one of four categories.
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Jared Burwell
- Jul 17
- 5 min
How to Address the Impact of Inflation on Giving
I still wince when I go to the grocery store to buy fruit or meat, remembering what those prices per pound used to be back when I...
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Mike Ironside
- Jul 13
- 4 min
When and How to Stop Financially Supporting Missions Partners
No missions leader enjoys the part of their job where they let go of partnerships financially. Inevitably, if you want to be a strategic sen
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Jared Burwell
- Jul 10
- 5 min
Staying Connected While Far Away
I have the privilege of knowing and working with people around the world. Many of these people are expats serving in humanitarian,...
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Ryan Martin
- Jul 3
- 5 min
How to Think About Funding One-Time Requests
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul testifies of the Macedonians that “according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own...
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Matthew Bennett
- Feb 16
- 4 min
Three Reasons to Make Disciples in Local Languages
Here are three reasons that we must be committed to language learning and disciple-making in the language of the heart.
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Ryan Martin
- Jan 12
- 6 min
Short-Term Fueling Long-Term Missions
Short-term missions provides the context through which the church can prepare and propel future missionaries for a lifetime of service
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Nathan Shaver
- Sep 12, 2022
- 4 min
A Sending Church, Someday
I stood with my hands opened before me, eager to receive the word of benediction: “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his...
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Dave & Lorene Wilson
- Aug 18, 2022
- 6 min
Creative Ways to Cultivate Awareness, Pt. II
In part one of this series, we highlighted the unhealthy and often counterproductive use of emotions and reason in cultivating awareness...
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Dave & Lorene Wilson
- Aug 15, 2022
- 6 min
Creative Ways to Cultivate Awareness, Pt. I
After serving in the church as a missions pastor for more than twenty years, I am often amused when I reflect on the variety of failures...
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Bradley Bell
- Jul 28, 2022
- 3 min
Leveraging Your Missions Funds Most Effectively in a Small Church
For eighteen years I spent the first hour of my day listening to country music. My mom’s alarm clock was set (loudly) to the local...
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Larry McCrary
- Jul 25, 2022
- 5 min
How Much Should the Sending Church Give to Their Sent Ones?
The question of what percentage of funds a sending church should give their Sent Ones can be tricky to answer, and there is certainly no...
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Shirley Ralston
- Jul 21, 2022
- 5 min
Marketplace Ministry from Experience, Pt. III
Self-Funding Missions Before and After Retirement Click here for part one of this article series and here for part two. Wise Advice When...
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Shirley Ralston
- Jul 18, 2022
- 6 min
Marketplace Ministry from Experience, Pt. II
Make the Most of Your Foreign Assignment Click here for part one of this article series. Engage in Marketplace Ministry If God has led...
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Shirley Ralston
- Jul 14, 2022
- 4 min
Marketplace Ministry from Experience, Pt. I
Expatriates: Our Accidental Pathway to Missions Life in the Oil Patch A poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs...
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Ryan Martin
- Jun 28, 2022
- 6 min
Upcoming Upstream Book: Holding the Rope
This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book Holding the Rope: How the Local Church Can Care for Its Sent Ones by Ryan Martin, set to be...
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Larry McCrary
- Mar 1, 2022
- 4 min
Organizing Your Missions Leadership Team
Many churches have a mission team or committee that is too narrowly focused in its responsibilities and primarily tasked with overseeing...
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Joshua Bowman
- Jan 13, 2022
- 4 min
How to Develop a Cross-Cultural Partnership
In a previous blog post, I defined cross-cultural missional partnership as a kingdom-oriented relationship of culturally diverse groups...
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